I would like to create an extension which adds a toolbar button in Thunderbird. When pressing the button, an external application is launched and the text of the current mail message is exported to that application.
Do you know about an extension which already do that? How to write that kind of extension? What should I study to be able to do it?
(I am a newbie to creating Mozilla extensions)
Unfortunately, extension development isn't friendly for beginners.
You may start with this link: https://developer.mozilla.org/en/Extensions/Thunderbird .
I'd recommend you to use Netbeans and foxbeans plugin to create extension's boilerplate project.
Also there is extension which every developer must have: Developer Assistant.
Now about inter-process communications. It's most tricky part. I see the only possible solution here. It is to create XPCOM component and implement all IPC there. It is long and hard story. You should be comfortable with C++ and you should be ready to spent more than a week for all this stuff...
Related
VSCode has a very customizable UI with Activity Bar, Sidebar, Tabs, Status Bar etc (https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/getstarted/userinterface); customizable via extensions and seems to have been developed without any of the common web frameworks (https://github.com/microsoft/vscode/issues/99845).
It is well maintained, works in different OSes and has automatic updates.
Even if we remove the code-editor part, there is a lot of work in that.
This makes me wonder if it is possible to write a totally different app (not a code editor) on top of VSCode. For example a Slack-like messaging app, an Obsidian-like knowledge base app, etc.
Is it possible? Are there apps built on top of this code? Have I missed an important point that makes this idea unviable?
EDIT:
Some have pointed a very valid point. Some of what I mentioned here as VSCode features are really Electron features that VSCode inherits. Having developed an Electron app (5yrs ago) I see many things in VSCode that are not in Electron (but maybe my concept of Electron is wrong).
I want to emphasize that VSCode UI (bars, tabs, etc) + its extensibility seems to be a valid development framework. And I am ignorant of anything in this sense.
EDIT (jan/2023):
I guess we can add StackBlitz as a product that just did that.
I think your question is very valid and I was wondering the same thing, so thanks for asking it.
One thing that VS Code gives you that Electron doesn't is a distribution model - the marketplace and how new versions of your app can be detected and downloaded automatically etc. This is a big deal.
I think the disadvantages are that a very fancy UX may not be possible directly - but you have to "work around" by putting HTML within a Web View perhaps. This is just my guess and I haven't directly tried it.
To answer your question - the only one I am aware of is Thunder Client - so think of Postman - but as a VS Code plugin.
See also https://stackoverflow.com/a/67069697/314780 , which points to Eclipse Theia which uses parts from Visual Studio Code (i.e "Code - OSS") - https://theia-ide.org/ . The site links to a number of IDE-style apps built on top of it.
VS Code is an electron app. You might want to research what electron is – because you mention it: The Slack app is built on that same framework.
So, you've just invented something that already is done, very widely, in practice.
After 2 years of development, our Eclipse RCP desktop application is finally finished. The last step in development is to allow the client to provide feedback on the wording and labels in the application.
There will be about 10 people providing feedback, but the client is willing to consolidate this before sending this to us for implementation.
My first idea is to provide a Google Form which requires them to upload a screenshot and to precisely specify where the text to be changed is located. I am now wondering whether a framework exists to do this automatically (i.e. press 'CTRL+ALT' and you can automatically draw a box around the offending text in the application.
In short: Are there any user feedback tools specifically designed to collect feedback on the wording in a GUI?
Mylyn includes some facilities to do (almost) exactly this. In a standard Eclipse, try Help -> Report Bug or Enhancement...
You use various org.eclipse.mylyn.tasks... extension points to specify things like product, area and bug template.
Let me detail what I'm trying to accomplish: I have an application that besides the specific app code and installer, also bundles a CrossRider browser extension. The problem is that my installer generates one entry in Programs & Features, while the CrossRider extension generates a different one.
Is there a way to show only my installer in the Programs & Features, and hide/have the CrossRider entry to be a part of my main installer?
Thank you,
Mihnea
I'm afraid there isn't an option to hide the Crossrider extension in the Control Panel.
However, if you open a Crossrider support ticket (email support#crossrider.com) the person who deals with such matters (who is away this week) will be happy to discuss any options we can consider implementing to assist you.
I've to create plugin or add-on for my official community site.
Requirement
There should be a button at browser, which should extend a form, which can add the current url as a bookmark with interaction from user with some more inputs, in turn that should be recorded into excel sheet in local drive. I've VBA code to extract data from the community url to excel sheet. Now, I've to create browser control to enable user direct url to fetch the data.
My control should be activated (i.e. toolbar button) based on url, so what should i create, a plugin or add-on ? i want my control not to affect browser performance or user experience.
Based on reply for 2, what tool should i use to create plugin/add-on which should be compatible across browsers ?
I've gone thro' Fire-breath demo, code capability with Visual studio, which was nice, but still missing some knowledge about visual studio, what to package of visual studio install and what language to use, it would be better if it is Visual basic ?
At last, is it possible to place control (i.e. button) inside the webpage to activate my code, if so, which one is capable of doing it, add-on or plugin ? workflow in nutshell to achieve that...
Thanks a lot
First, a few things to understand:
A browser plugin is something that is instantiated in one of two ways:
Injected into the DOM in an object or embed tag
Instantiated by the browser to open a page with a specific mimetype
Browser plugins don't know anything about the browser, the URL bar, the bookmarks, the context menus, browser dialogs, browser chrome, browser events, etc. Browser plugins only know anything about the current page. Browser plugins cannot change browser settings
Browser plugins are DLLs; they can't easily be written in Visual Basic. While it might be possible, I've never seen one, and you'd have to learn a lot about NPAPI plugins before you could do that. You'd also probably have to write one for IE, one for IE, etc.
In other words, what you need is not a plugin. Firebreath is not going to help you much, if at all. Some extensions (also called add-ons) use a npapi plugin to provide functionality that they cannot do on their own. For more information see http://npapi.com/extensions
With that information, I recommend you think about it and create a new, more specific question for what you need to know next. I don't know extensions, I do plugins. Actually, once you break down what you need to do into some smaller questions you'll probably find others who have ask most of them and you can find the answers with simple searches. Your main problem is that you don't yet understand the technologies you need to use. Hopefully this has helped.
I have built an eclipse plugin which basically makes writing Java GUI applications as easy as using a 4GL programming language (Oracle Forms, Visual Basic etc). The plugin generates no GUI code but rather metadata which is parsed at runtime. I am building in a trial licence within the plugin but which will stop the plugin from working when the trial licence has run out. I am unsure of the best way to implement this. MAybe to stop one of the editors opening. I have managed to integrate my licensing software (Protection! from JProductivity), which will get called when the user tries to open on of my editors. But how can I stop an editor from opening?
Any help on this subject would be much appreciated!
Editor and its type alway is contributed by extension. So there is no good way to remove this extension besides early startup your bundle. But I don't think it's a good practice.
So the better way is checking your license in EditorPart.init(IEditorSite, IEditorInput) or createPartControl, throw the exception in init call or not create any widget in createPartControl if the license is invalid or expired.