Firefox Sidebar Plugin: Clearfox
Created on: Sep 24, 2007 12:23 AM by Aaron Johnson - Last Modified: Sep 4, 2008 5:29 PM by tim.neuwerth
A plugin within a plugin. Installs a sidebar in your Firefox (2.0 or greater) install that keeps you up to date with the latest and greatest content in your Clearspace install. You install the plugin in Clearspace and then point your browser to http://example.com/clearspace/cf-about.jspa to install the Firefox part of the plugin.
Technologies
This plugin is composed of two parts: the Firefox XUL / JavaScript code and the Clearspace plugin which is Java.
What's Included
The source code for both the Clearspace plugin and the Firefox sidebar plugin.
Requirements
Requires Firefox 2.0 or greater and Clearspace 1.6 or greater. The auto-update technology in the Firefox plugin will only work with Clearspace 1.7 (currently in beta).
Building and Deploying the Code
You can either install the plugin jar directly into your admin console or given the source code, you can compile the plugin using Ant:
> ant plugin -Dplugin=clearfox
Clearspace 2 Plugin Files
Clearspace 1.X Plugin Files Are Attached Below
Aaron Johnson
says
in response to Dan McCall:
hi dmccall,
The plugin currently only works with Clearspace 1.7, so it won't install in your environment. Just one more week until Clearspace 1.7! 
AJ
cpcsolutions
says:
We are using Clearspace 1.7. When I install the plugin on Firefox 2.0.0.9 (running on Mac OS 10.4.10) it just puts a white bar (about 50px high) at the very bottom of the browser, underneath the status bar that tells you if a page is done loading of the link you are hovering over. There is no buttons on the top tool bar.
Any ideas?
Aaron Johnson
says
in response to cpcsolutions:
hi cpcsolutions,
That's weird, I wrote the plugin while using my Mac. I'm not sure why it would install at the bottom of your browser. Can you send me a screenshot (aaron@jivesoftware.com)?
Cheers,
AJ
Aaron Johnson
says
in response to Aaron Johnson:
FYI: I updated the src and jar available for this plugin: it's now at version 1.2, which has fixes for users who deploy Clearspace on Windows and one additional new feature.
Cheers,
AJ
Eric Eagle
says:
Hi Aaron, I'm not a developer just a tester/user of clearspacex. Is there a Firefox plugin out or planned that will allow me to post to a clearspace blog from the browser without being at the clearspace dashboard, ala scriptfire or something? thanks, eric
Aaron Johnson
says
in response to Eric Eagle:
hi Eric,
You should be able to use any tool that support the MetaWeblog API, there are directions here for a number of tools, including Performancing, which is what ScribeFire used to be called:
http://www.jivesoftware.com/community/message/51991
Cheers,
AJ
Aaron Johnson
says
in response to Dan McCall:
Is there such a thing as a Safari plugin? I'd be interesting in working on one, but I can't seem to find anything on developer.apple.com that talks about ways you can extend Safari.
rrutan
says:
Any chance Clearfox will start to pickup comments/polls activities in addition to documents and discussion threads. Would be nice, to be able to have settings that filter...show me discussions, comments, documents, polls, etc... Neat plugin Aaron! =)
Dan McCall
says:
I've got a new idea for your plugin... check it out here: http://www.jivesoftware.com/community/thread/25896
Heather DelCarpini
says:
Is there an updated link for the page to install the Firefox part of the plugin? When I try to visit: http://example.com/clearspace/cf-about.jspa I get a broken page....
David Rees
says
in response to Heather DelCarpini:
So I better understand the project, why would you want this over using RSS, including the several Firefox RSS plugins?
brennant
says:
Hi there - Clearfox is very useful to some of our users and they're asking if it will be made available for Firefox 3.0?
Nina Nochowitz
says:
I'd also like to know if the plugin will be avaliable for firefox 3.0 soon?
Thanks!
Diaan Mynhardt
says:
Me Three. I'd also like to know when Clearfox will become available for Firefox 3 (3.0.1 in particular at this stage). It has, after all, been out for a very long time.
Although, judging by the lack of response to comments on this page I guess this plugin isn't being maintained any more. Quite a pity.
Neel Sheth
says
in response to Diaan Mynhardt:
I was able to get clearfox running with clearspace 2.5.1 and firefox 3.0.1 with minor hacks. In general it works as is, just had to make a couple changes to get it to recompile and force firefox3 to accept the plugin.
1) Modified LoginAction.java to delete the unused AuthFactory import because it doesn't exist anymore in com.jivesoftware.base and won't compile otherwise.
2) Modified the xpi/install.rdf to set maxVersion=3.0.*, so firefox won't complain that it's incompatible. You can also get around this by forcing your firefox installation NOT to check for compatibility, by adding the extensions.checkCompatibility boolean preference via about:config and setting it to false.
3) Firefox complains about extensions that don't provide an SSL url for 'secure updates', but you can also get around this by telling firefox not to care by adding the extensions.checkUpdateSecurity preference via about:config and setting it to false.
4) Recompiled clearfox using the new 2.5.1 jars and a slightly modified build.xml to point to the right places on my local clearspace build (lib directories, servletapi.jar instead of servlet-api.jar)
The newly built clearspace.jar loaded up fine in 2.5.1, and in my informal tests with both firefox 2.0.0.x and 3.0.x everything seems to be working. I didn't mess around with the meat of the plugin code so I'm unsure of any potential issues with either of the new platforms. Also note that changing these firefox preferences is sort of thwarting the firefox extension security model, so it's not an ideal final solution but at least you can do this temporarily to play around with it. If there's a place for me to upload my updated clearfox.jar, I can provide it for those interested.
nminor@rippleit.com
says
in response to Neel Sheth:
Would you be able to email your jar? nathan dot minor at gmail.com ?
I am using Clearspace 1.6 and the plugin does not show up in my installed plugin list after I have uploaded it...