Requesting a Firefox port

brokoler commented 4 years ago

Hello k-ivan,

I discovered Visual Bookmarks for Chrome and was stunned by the quality of this extension. It's exactly what I was looking for, I searched for such an addon long time.

It would be really great if the extension would be ported to Firefox, which is in many ways a more privacy oriented browser. There is no addon that compares to Visual Bookmarks.

Do you have any plans to port the addon?

k-ivan commented 4 years ago

Hi eggplanting!

Good suggestion, I also thought about it. But there are difficulties. For example, the FileSystem API is used to generate thumbnails. I could be wrong, but at the moment Firefox does not support this API. Therefore, at the moment I do not see the possibility of a full port. And I do not have the ability to have an external cdn server to save thumbnails on it. In this case, the FileSystem API was a great solution (despite the fact that not everyone likes that it requires wide permissions). I would also like to make an extension for Firefox and that would be a great experience. So I hope that it will be possible, but maybe a little later.

notiv-nt commented 3 years ago

@k-ivan what about this article? Can the extension be ported now? You are considering other possibilities? Inline base64 for thumbnails or just hide this feature in firefox? Because the extension is awesome, and i haven't find anything even close to this. Can I help somehow to port?

k-ivan commented 3 years ago

Hello @notiv-nt ). First of all, thanks for your attention to this issue. I myself still have a desire to create something similar for the Firefox, the solution seems to be there, but it takes time.

in more detail:

Firefox abandoned that specification, it was implemented only by Google Chrome.

base64 is not suitable due to the heavy load on the processor during parsing, with a large number of bookmarks in the folder, the page itself will slow down.

But instead of the file system, I can use a indexDB. This could actually be a working solution.

And there is another unpleasant moment related to chrome, from next year the version of the manifest will be changed, and the api. And there all the functionality of the background page will fall off, and I still do not see a way out to somehow alter it. And this topic is also worth studying in the documentation of the Firefox, how it works for them and whether they plan to change it in the near future.

visbook commented 3 years ago

Not a Chrome user but recently stumbled across Visual Bookmarks and have to say it is just excellent, and would be very eager to have a Firefox version to replace the much used and also brilliant and feature-rich but abandoned ViewMarks- https://github.com/wilgaboury/super-speedy-dial/issues/5

I find being able to save webpages as thumbnails by far the easiest way to navigate and remember the content of your favorites and since the demise of ViewMarks rarely save bookmarks in text format.

I think this is the same Michael Koch who coded ViewMarks- https://github.com/d3v-one Maybe, if approached, he might be willing to offer some assistance/ code to speed up the port to Firefox.

Also, are you saying in your last sentence that Visual Bookmarks will not work after chrome change the api next year?

k-ivan commented 3 years ago

There are a few things to check now

how optimal will it be to transfer the storage of images to the database, will the amount of memory consumed at the same time increase due to the many previews on the page
but the most important thing is to prepare the current extension in chrome for it to work in the new version of the manifest. Based on what they did there, I do not see yet the possibility of saving a large number of functionality. That is, I will have to abandon some of the features that are now

Of course, I would like to keep the extension working and extend it for firefox, I will try to come up with something before chrome changes the manifest. But for now, what I see is that some of the functionality will have to be abandoned.

regisnox commented 2 years ago

Hello k-ivan

Is there any way You can port this to Firefox or/and for Opera? Your extension is the best there is for speed dials and after recent changes in Chrome it would be awesome to use it on Firefox and Opera. Is there anything we can do as a comunity to help You with this project?

k-ivan commented 2 years ago

Hello @regisnox !

Glad you like it :) Since the last discussion, I have not yet returned to this issue. But the main problem that was associated with the storage of images has already been resolved in favor of the IndexDB. But unfortunately in Firefox there are still missing API(for example, favicon API). Other API items need to be checked as well. By the way, the extension should work in Opera, I haven’t used it for a long time, but it definitely worked before when installed from the Chrome Store.

Closer to the new year, the main task will be to transfer the extension to manifest V3, after which it will be possible to return to this issue again, but without the missing api it is difficult.

regisnox commented 1 year ago

I was able to run it on my Opera now! But its not working in new tabs/speedial only as start page. So its probably some minor change but I was unable to find it how to stick it to new tab/speedial

k-ivan commented 1 year ago

Yeah, Opera doesn't support the newtab replacement option. Therefore the extension cannot be displayed as a default tab.

k-ivan commented 1 year ago

If suddenly someone else is waiting 😄 After recent major changes, migrating the image store to IndexDB, I think it's time to try porting the extension to Firefox. There are a few other minor issues, but they seem to be fixable.

da3dsoul1 commented 8 months ago

Looking forward to the firefox port if it's at all possible, this is an amazing extension, having it on firefox would be superb!

k-ivan commented 8 months ago

Looking forward to the firefox port if it's at all possible, this is an amazing extension, having it on firefox would be superb!

Yes, it’s possible, all the preparatory work has been done, but so far I don’t have enough time to do the transfer. But I plan to finish what I started 💯

C-O-D commented 8 months ago

Wow, that's really nice to hear!

regisnox commented 6 months ago

Any progress? After recent Chrome changes moving to Firefox have even more sense now. Can we support you somehow for your work?

k-ivan commented 6 months ago

Sorry, currently busy with my full-time job. I haven't forgotten about this issue.

k-ivan commented 5 months ago

[x] default bookmark folders
[x] show back column in bookmarks
[x] focus on search at startup - Firefox currently does not support the pendingUrl tab property (see https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1620774). Temporarily disable this option.
[x] sort by type - folders
[x] requesting permission to access sites (does not work in Firefox by default)
[x] range slider styles
[x] checking compatibility with Blink browsers

notiv-nt commented 2 months ago

@k-ivan is it time to release ?

k-ivan commented 2 months ago

@k-ivan is it time to release ?

Yes, i think i can try. i got distracted again, i will try this weekend.

notiv-nt commented 2 months ago

Works as debugged addon from folder extension

but can't install as zip file

k-ivan commented 2 months ago

I'm not sure if it's possible to deploy an extension from a zip archive in Firefox.

I don't think this should be a problem when hosting an extension.

k-ivan commented 2 months ago

Hello everyone!

The Firefox version is available for installation 🎉🎉🎉. There are limitations, unfortunately Firefox does not have some APIs. But I really hope that it will work and be useful to someone.

At this time I am closing this issue.

k-ivan / visual-bookmarks-chrome

Requesting a Firefox port #36