ThunderBlog

Hooray for no critical bugs! Though 3.2.1.8 did have a bug with LiveJournal (due to it’s silly form handling), I’ve already released a patch on the bug database.

Here’s what’s contained in 3.2.1.9:

1. More FAQ Entries
2. LiveJournal bug fix (POST form encoding)
3. https redirects fixed
4. Control Clicking, which I’ve just finished writing in. It can be changed via the settings window. Control Click will either:

• Load the link normally
• Load the link in a new tab
• Load it in an external browser
• Load it in a popup window

It looks like this:

With the default being load normally.

It’s pretty much too late to add any new features to 3.2.1.8, so I want to list out a few things that I want to add in 3.2.1.9, if 3.2.1.8 doesn’t introduce any critical bugs. Here’s the list of some features I want to add:

1. Allow for Control+Left Click or something. It will be user definable with 4 different actions. The command will only work on webpages and emails. Nothing in the rest of the TB interface will respond to this command (or atleast, shouldn’t). The actions planned are: Load in new tab, Load in popup window, Load in External Browser, or Nothing.
2. Some users want to have a Control+T key combo to open a new tab. This will obviously conflict with the newer Thunderbird builds and with Thunderbird in general. Control+ALT+T might be the new tab combo. For users who want this now, you can always install KeyConfig. You would want to use the ThunderTabBrowser.addTab(); function (though if you don’t pass any args, you get a blank tab [this was changed in 3.2.1.8]).
3. Sooner or later, I would like to redo the settings window. A lot of the code for it is really old, messy and dirty. Some reorganization would be awesome. This also brings the downside of being translated. If an option has been translated once, and then the string is changed in the en-US pack, it messes up everyone’s translation.

Personally, I really don’t think I need to add a ton more to ThunderBrowse, it’s got a lot of features already, and while it doesn’t do a lot of things (plugins [unless you use TB 3], checkboxes, file uploads, onsubmit, printing, yada yada) it still gets the job done.

Though I have noticed support requests are starting to get more frequent, mainly for a “Stop asking on Visit in Browser”. I’ve added something about it to the FAQ now.

Edit: I changed the combo to Ctrl+Alt+T as Ctrl+Shift activates my 3D Desktop window.

So I went to work on 3.2.1.8 yesterday and here’s what we have so far:

1. I’ve made some of the checks I do for javascript into functions so the code run time is quicker.
2. onClick has checks to see if js is on (before the code just launched [the code still doesn't ask if you want to run it], however, this was not a security problem. Thunderbird purges links that contain onclick in emails).
3. To help reduce wasting memory, form launch checks happen earlier in the form handing code. Before, the checks would happen before you submit the form, thus causing a complete run through everytime you pressed a key or clicked something (it would fail a check before it could send).
4. extensions.tbrowse.placeBottom is now an option in the settings window. This pref allowed a user to place the URL bar at the bottom of the window, rather than at the top.
5. There is an option for GUI links (like “Get Extensions”) to open in a popup window (note: if you have mr. tech’s local install enabled, this pref will be ignored).
6. OpenURL has nicer checks.
7. The changelog has been archived even more

Also, onSubmit doesn’t work. I’ll explain why in a future post.

3.2.1.7 is a non-Critical release (much like 3.2.1 was [and 3.2.1.4, 3.2.1.5, and 3.2.1.6]) meaning that you don’t have to install it if you don’t want to. It is an optional install. But if you do, it will fix a few bugs that have been around since 2.8.9 and some bugs in the developer functions (they just improve the functions but nothing else).

• Fixed some bugs with getBrowser() (specifically loadURI, goBack and goForward) and fixed some functions to be more dynamic (our history grabbers)
• Fixed bug with back menu dropdown not clearing properly
• Fixed history bug that might associate history to another tab if the user could click at the speed of light
• Added FAQ entry about links that don’t work on first install
• Updated it-IT locale

This version will be uploaded to AMO soon.

Yes, it’s that time again. A new version will rise. Behold, 3.2.1.6! 3.2.1.6 introduces some new fixes with the context menus. The fixes allows links to be launched correctly instead of launching the current page (less picky loading).

The mailto: bug is fixed, and the View Source entry is disabled when used on a link and now it’s translated.

In 3.2.1.6 Dev builds, getBrowser() has another new function that is very awesome and very helpful. This will be revealed later on.

3.2.1.6 also should fix a bug with Attachment Extractor.