New Project - Managing 3rd Party Add-insThursday July 8th, 1999Ben Goodger is working on a new project for Mozilla that will aid in the management of third-party UI addins. Ben writes: "Anticipating a large number of third party add-ins after Mozilla is released, I've come up with a way of presenting them so they can be accessed quickly without occupying lots of toolbar buttons or menu items. The idea revolves around a customisable popup menubutton on the toolbar. A full description of the idea (with some screenshots) is available at the webpage I put up" [From Ben's Site]"I'll look and see how most people are presenting their add ons, and if a common method is used, ..." I think we (we being, of course, other people much more skilled in XUL than I ;) ) should try and develop a standard way BEFORE it hits the streets. I'm sure that other people will find all sorts of weird and wonderful ways to produce After-Market add ons, but if a standard, secure and reliable method is put forward from Day one, you will find many more add ons showing up sooner. Also, with a standardized method from the start, it will discourage many part-time hacks from doing mean nasty things to try and add a button. And with fewer mean nasty hacks, joe-average user will be more inclined to try some add-ons (and subsequantly Mozilla) well yes, I'm working on something now (I've had to put my menu hacks on hold until the popup content mechanism is a little more finished), I was saying that from the standpoint that a mechanism such as I want it is probably a little too quirky for the final release (hard to explain). The ability to read all manner of forms would just be added flexibility so that even if someone designed an add-on to their own specification, the VAB (Value Added Button ;) should be able to figure out what it does, and add it to the menu. "The ability to read all manner of forms would just be added flexibility" perhaps the first menu item should be "update VAB widget" (or some such) so that as new methods are developed, and tested for robustness/security, then a new VAB file is placed in a known ftp site where people can pull it down automatically. Also, with some macro enabled/customizable programs (Corel Specifically) you are given several "catigories" of command options ("File", "Edit", "Filters" etc...) And you are given the choice of adding/removing these commands to either menu options, or toolbars, or even custom dialogs. If there were a "Add-Ins" command catigory as well, then people could move the more often used add-ins to more sutable places (i.e. your "Super Print" option might eventually mave it up to the File menu, or on to the toolbar straight out. <i>so that as new methods are developed, and tested for robustness/security</i> The update idea is quite good. I'll watch and see how Mozilla handles security of chrome packages, whatever I do will probably have to be derived from that. As for the menu commands, etc :- yes it would be nice to add generic menu items to the add-ins category, and AFAIK there shouldnt be anything stopping such an eventuality, or the same process in reverse. looks damn good if you ask me, i love the idea.. its really cool and well structured, someone is thiinking along the right path, now if they only dropped all that stupid object oriented crap.... -if you are gonna flame for that, please save the energy it takes to type that, or mozillazine will become yet another slashdot |