Paul Roub : blahg

Since I was in there anyway…

IE View actually got a bit worse with the advent of Firefox 3. Previously, we’d hooked into the Bookmarks menu so that — when a bookmarked page was in the “always view in IE” list — clicking on that bookmark would launch IE immediately, with no extra steps.

Firefox 3 uses a completely new bookmarks/history/etc., and that integration no longer worked. You’d click a bookmark, Firefox would start to load the page, IE View would notice, launch IE, and leave behind a “this page was reloaded” placeholder in Firefox. Works, but irritating.

So I’m fixing that. Or, hopefully, have already done so — but I don’t want to release without testing beyond my own machines.

So if you have a moment, especially if you’re seeing this behavior and would like it to go away, please try out the IE View version attached to this bug, and let me know how it goes.

Posted by Paul Roub at 12:22 AM | Permalink

IE View v1.3.8 is out, and in the usual place.

There’s a fix that solves an installation problem for a small set of users, and several updated translations.

But the main change is that I’ve added an “Open in Internet Explorer” to the context (right-click) menu for bookmarks. So right-click a bookmark, either in the Bookmarks menu or in the Bookmark Toolbar, and you have the option of launching that page in IE.

Note that this works in Firefox 3 (and higher) only.

On the one hand, I’m happy to have this feature, and a lot of users are as well. On the other hand, the bug requesting this has been open since November 2003. Not exactly the fastest response ever — although in my defense, doing this under Firefox 2 would have taken the kind of surgery that tends to interfere with other extensions. It’s always been a goal to keep IE View very well-behaved and unobtrusive.

Ah, the joys of spare-time coding.

Posted by Paul Roub at 8:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

IE View v1.3.7 is out. It's not yet approved at addons.mozilla.org, but you can get it at ieview.mozdev.org immediately.

This fixes the gIeviewBundle error when certain other extensions are installed; if you're seeing that error message you'll want to grab this right away.

Posted by Paul Roub at 8:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Thanks to Steve Babineau's help, we've tracked down the error to a conflict with (at least) one other Firefox extension (Server Spy, in his case). Any extension which declares its own "gBrowser" object (overriding the built-in Firefox variable) would cause this problem.

A test build working around this problem is attached to the bug in Bugzilla. If all goes well, this will be released as v1.3.7 within a day.

Posted by Paul Roub at 2:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

An issue has cropped up recently in IE View. A compatibility tweak for Firefox 3 (beta) caused an annoying error message and bad behavior in Firefox 2. I thought I had fixed the bug in question, but it's still popping up in a different way for certain users.

It's that "certain users" part that's the problem. More specifically, I'm not one of them, under various Firefox installation on Vista, XP, etc. — I can't reproduce the problem.

If you look at the bug (Bug 18727: gIeviewBundle error in 1.3.6), you'll see that the problem is a "TypeError: gIeviewBundle has no properties" error dialog when right-clicking a link and asking for it to be opened in IE.

You'll also see that I need someone (preferably more than one person) with this problem to:

1. Try it in a clean Firefox profile to see if the behavior changes
2. Tell me what is in the Firefox Error Console:
   1. When Firefox starts
   2. After the error has occurred
3. Try the new version attached to that bug, and tell me if it works better

And of course, your Firefox version, environment, etc. I'd definitely be curious to know what other add-ons you have installed, as well.

If you're having this problem, I'd love to solve it for you, but I need your help. Comment on the bug] or drop me an email at paul@roub.net.

Update: probably fixed. Look over here...

Posted by Paul Roub at 7:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

IE View v1.3.5 was released today. As always, you can get the latest version at the IE View installation page.

This version is mainly of interest if you're testing Firefox 3. A bug was fixed where the "Always View This Page in IE" menu item would not always be enabled when it should. Also, IE View's name was showing up blank in the Tools/Add-ons list.

You can keep an eye on IE View bug fixes related to FF 3 here.

Posted by Paul Roub at 2:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

IE View v1.3.4 was released yesterday. What's new?

Features

• You can now edit the entries in the always-load-in-IE list - either via the Edit button or by double-clicking.
• Adding both secure (https) and non-secure (http) sites to the always-in-IE list when either one is added. That is, if you're viewing http://example.com/ and you choose "Always View This Page in IE" from the Tools menu, we'll add both the http://example.com/ and https://example.com/ to the list

Bug fixes

• Fixed IE View's behavior when opening multiple pages via the Open All in Tabs command.
• Cleaned up back-button behavior when the "reloaded in IE" placeholder page is used.

New translations

• Frisian
• Spanish (Argentina)

Thanks for the bug reports and testing; and a huge thanks to the BabelZilla volunteers. I didn't even know Frisian existed, and now my extension supports it.

Download at ieview.mozdev.org

Posted by Paul Roub at 1:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

I guess you know your creation has hit critical mass when you get your own "considered harmful" article. From Gervase Markham's "IETab Considered Harmful?":

... its availability also makes the site far less likely to change to support Firefox properly... I'm sure it's very handy for web developers for testing purposes, but is IETab actually working against what the Mozilla community is trying to achieve?

Ack.

No.

It's a tool. It's useful. It lets you view sites in IE's rendering, in a Firefox tab, if and only if you already have IE on your system. It doesn't confer any magical abilities, it just eliminates a step or two.

Full disclosure: IE Tab is based on my IE View extension, in the sense that they took my weekend afternoon hack and added the part that I didn't have the time or inclination to build and support. Which is to say, the hard part.

IE Tab's a slick piece of work, and people love it for a reason. But just as with IE View, we'd all rather the need went away. Please don't blame the tools in the meantime.

Posted by Paul Roub at 12:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I released IE View v1.3.2 a few days ago, and it's now made its way to the Firefox addons site. If auto-update hasn't already grabbed it for you, feel free to download it from the IE View site.

Changes in this version are minor, but if you're running under Mozilla, you'll want to get this -- it fixes an annoying popup message when using View Source. Update or new translations in this version: Turkish, Norsk, Chinese (Simplified), Khmer, German and Basque.

Posted by Paul Roub at 2:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

IE View 1.3.1 has been released -- no major changes; a couple of translation updates were made, and the main reason for the release was to mark it compatible with Firefox 2.0 RC 1, and the upcoming Firefox 2.0 release.

I should probably mention occasionally that IE View is a Firefox extension that lets you view pages and links in IE, with a click or automatically. Now you know.

Posted by Paul Roub at 11:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

IE View 1.2.9 is now available at the IE View home page, and should be out via addons.mozilla.org shortly. It fixes the Firefox 1.0.x error noted earlier.

Posted by Paul Roub at 8:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

IE View 1.2.8 is now available at addons.mozilla.org, and from the IE View homepage. This release is mainly for the sake of some bugfixes and performance improvements; added command-line flexibility; a ton of new translations; and an updated max-version number that allows it to work with Firefox 2.0 Beta 1.

To quote the change log:

• Marked compatible with Firefox 2.0b1
• Added extra-arguments setting (ieview.ieargs)
• Cleaned up the Advanced Options tab
• Skipping link search on about:config
• Avoiding timing issues when closing reload page
• Updated / added translations: Basque, Brazlian Poruguese, Bulgarian, Catalan, Croatian, Danish, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Ialian, Korean, Lithuanian, Polish, Russian, Slovenian, Spanish, Thai, Turkish

Update:

If you're running Firefox 1.0.8 or earlier, do not run IE View 1.2.8. There is an error in one of the language files which will crash those versions of Firefox. v1.2.9 is now available, and fixes the bug. In the meantime, if you do have this problem, see bug 14746 for a fix.

Firefox v1.5 and above are not affected by this problem.

Posted by Paul Roub at 9:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

From Administer IT

To solve this problem, some braniac created IE View, a plug-in for Firefox with which users can tell Firefox to open links in IE and can have Firefox always open certain sites in IE.

"Some braniac". I guess I'll take that.

Posted by Paul Roub at 11:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

IE View 1.2.6 (.1) was released yesterday. Had to do a quick .1 release to make an adjustment so the Mozilla Update server would take the file. Long story, and I promise You Do Not Care. If you download it from the IE View homepage, you may get 1.2.6 or 1.2.6.1; they are effectively the same.

Changes since 1.2.5:

• Updated to work with Firefox 1.5 Beta 2
• Added Turkish, Serbian translations
• Fixed bug with disappearing Toolbar button
• Added "advanced" options tab

What's in the Advanced tab? Why, poorly-documented features to satisfy a tiny but very vocal minority of users, of course:

"Disable Always-View-in-IE"

This does just what it says -- causes all of the always-view-this-page-in-IE stuff to shut down. Primarily useful if you insist on running Tab Browser Extensions, which stomps all over that stuff in ugly ways.

"Close tab/window after reload"

When an Always-View-in-IE page is launched via the command line, or the address bar (that is, anywhere but a clicked link or a bookmark), we launch IE and then leave a "this page has been reloaded in IE" placeholder behind. This option, when enabled, causes that page or tab to close once we've loaded IE.

Posted by Paul Roub at 11:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Forgot to mention, in all the server-crashing-fun, that I released IE View 1.2.5 last week.

You'll definitely want this if you're running Firefox 1.5 beta, or one of the Deer Park alphas.

Beyond the compatibility fixes, there's a toolbar button (optional), and some additional localization.

Posted by Paul Roub at 5:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

IE View 1.2 is out. Up now at the home page, should be on Mozilla Updates later today.

Some nice usability fixes here; wildcard support for the always-view-in-IE list; and a full-fledged options dialog for Mozilla, just like the Firefox users get.

Posted by Paul Roub at 10:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I probably should have mentioned IE View 1.0's release. Oops. It's cool, it's better than before in a variety of ways - notably a cleaner, improved and easier-to-use "always view this page in IE" list.

Meantime, though, the test prereleases in Bugzilla are where the best stuff lives.

All users are encouraged to grab the latest test build attached to bug 10225 -- it corrects a problem where deleting the last entry from the always-view-in-IE list can cause IE View to launch every page in IE.

Mozilla users wanting the same friendly Options dialog that Firefox users see should check out bug 10222.

You can now use wildcards in your always-in-IE lists: see bug 10191

The page which tells you we've reloaded your request into IE now links to the options dialog in case you didn't want that to happen -- see bug 10220

Most of this will find its way into a 1.1 release in the very near future; in the meantime, feedback would be very much appreciated.

Posted by Paul Roub at 10:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

A new IE View feature is in the works -- a configurable list of sites to always open in IE. This is by far the most-requested feature.

See Bug 9001 for details and a test build implementing this. Feedback within Bugzilla is encourage to the point of pleading... :-)

Posted by Paul Roub at 4:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The current release version of IE View (0.86) contains translations into Russian, Polish, Traditional Chinese, French, Spanish, German and Italian.

Those languages are only available when running Firefox, however -- hadn't updated the old-style installation scripts for Mozilla to take the new locales into account.

There's a test build, with an associated Bugzilla entry, which adds Catalan (ca-AD) as well as Mozilla support. See the details here, and please let me know how it works out for you.

Posted by Paul Roub at 12:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Posted by Paul Roub at 8:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Michael Slattery writes, regarding a hypothetical IE View-like Firefox extension:

It could come preconfigured with all known sites that have problems (like msn.com), but allow a user to add custom entries

Some form of this will almost certainly happen, given sufficient free time on my part... there's a Bugzilla entry about just this. Bottom line is that it's simply a lot more work to trap all sorts of link activations than the simple stuff IE View does now.

But as for the preconfigured list? Unlikely -- actually, about 100% certain that I won't do it. Why not?

1. Who comes up with the list?
2. Based on what criteria? Is an "unsupported browser version" warning message enough, or do we draw the line at non-functional or Firefox-forbidden sites?
3. Aren't we further lessening the likelihood of these sites developing a clue if we more-or-less-automatically route around the problems?
4. What do we do when a site is fixed?
5. At least with the current IE View behavior, the site's stats will show an initial hit from Firefox. Automatically skip to IE, and they'll never know you were there at all.

It's not a bad idea, at all, but the likelihood of getting it right for all -- or even most -- users is vanishingly small, and the downsides are worth considering.

User-supplied filters, an "always view in IE" item in the context menu -- these seem more workable in the long run. That and continued evangelism -- particularly if you're a paying customer of the site that's blocking your preferred browser.

Posted by Paul Roub at 12:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

IE View 0.83 is out -- not much new for Firefox users (apart from better behavior if you mis-enter an explicit path to IE); but the Mozilla installation script is back.

Available now at the project home page, soon from Mozilla Update.

Posted by Paul Roub at 3:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

IE View 0.82 is now available -- this release simply updates its max-compatible-Firefox-version stamp to 1.0+, so we will happily install under Firefox 1.0 PR1.

An upcoming release will include several non-English languages, among other things.

Posted by Paul Roub at 2:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

IE View has been updated -- no functional changes this time, just marked it as working just fine with Firefox 1.0 PR1. Mirrors may not have been updated just yet -- if you receive version 0.81, try again later.

Download IE View v0.82.

Posted by Paul Roub at 3:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Raymond Chen takes "some people" to task for "[going] to enormous lengths to locate the Internet Explorer binary". The linked poster-child? IE View.

Yikes. I read Raymond's blog religiously, so I have mixed feelings about this -- kinda like when Paul Westerberg told me to "shut up" during a Replacements show (I kept yelling for "Tommy Gets His Tonsils Out". "Shut up" was nicer than I deserved. And then they played it.).

There are some reasons I probably couldn't follow Raymond's advice, at least not without devoting as much effort to forcing Firefox to make system calls it would rather not make as I currently devote to finding IE. Still, I feel so ashamed and dirty.

-paul

Posted by Paul Roub at 12:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

IE View, my Mozilla/Firefox extension which allows you to easily view the current page (or any link) in Internet Explorer, has been updated.

v0.7 adds the ability (via a manual user preference, or Firefox's Extensions Options panel) to choose the exact browser you want to launch. So if you want to launch a different IE version, or Opera, or if the extension fails to find IE on its own, you're all set with this version.

Download mirrors should be updated now, but if you are unable to download the XPI, just try again and you should get a different mirror.

Posted by Paul Roub at 7:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Posted by Paul Roub at 12:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Posted by Paul Roub at 9:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Argh. Left a .properties file out of last night's build. Doesn't work all that well without it.

Please grab the latest, version 0.2.

Posted by Paul Roub at 8:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Periodically, I need to view a page in Internet Explorer. Whether it needs some plugin I don't have / want in Mozilla, or whether I need to see how a new page is shaping up under a different browser, I find myself perpetually copying the Mozilla address bar, opening IE, pasting it in.

Tedious.

So I wrote a ridiculously simple Mozilla / Firebird extension (which should also work in recent Netscape versions) that adds "view in IE" items to the link and page context menus (the menus you see when you right-click on the page text, or on a link).

Check it out and let me know what you think.

Windows-only right now, sorry.

Posted by Paul Roub at 11:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)