Quote:
Originally Posted by nekokami
I went to FF3 last week. I use very few extensions on my "work" machines, because I'm testing cross-browser compatibility and most of my users don't have extensions, so I need to see what they see. (Yes, I know most extensions shouldn't affect the CSS, but sometimes I really need to see what they see-- no extra features.)
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One approach to this issue is custom profiles. When you install FF, the program itself goes in \Program Files\Mozilla Firefox. The profile it uses goes in \Documents and Settings\<username>\Application Data\Mozilla\Profiles\<profile name>
The program files location stores FF itself, but everything else, like your bookmarks and any extensions you use are stored in the profile. When you create a profile, you can choose the name it will have, and you can choose where it is located.
I like to have all of the Mozilla stuff in one place. So under \Program Files\, I have a Mozilla.org directory, and under that, directories for various programs, like Firefox 2, Firefox 3, Thunderbird, and Sunbird. The rest of the Mozilla stuff lives in a custom location. I created a \Mozilla directory, with directories under that to hold install files, extensions, themes, and profiles. When I create a new profile, it gets placed in that tree, as in
\Mozilla\Profiles\Firefox\3.0\Development
which is the profile directory for the Development profile. That version of Firefox is configured for web and extension development chores, with extensions selected for the purpose.
If you start FF as "firefox.exe -p", you start in the Profile Manager, which will let you chose an existing profile, create a new one, or delete one. If you start ff as 'firefox.exe -p "profile name"', FF will start using the specified profile. The shortcut to FF on my desktop has a Target: line of
"D:\Program Files\Mozilla.org\Firefox 3\firefox.exe" -p "Dennis McCunney", which is my standard setup. To use an altternate profile I use the profile manager or create another shortcut specifying the desired profile name in the Target: line.
If you use the custom profile approach, you can keep a plain vanilla version of FF for testing what your students see, while your own version can be decked out as you please. The only limitation at the moment is that you can only use one at a time.
FF3 did break a feature I used. I have Firefox, Flock (based on Firefox code), Netscape, and the Mozilla Suite installed. I wanted to have them all use the same bookmarks file, so changes I made in one browser would be reflected in the others. In FF2, that was simple. FF and other Mozilla products stored bookmarks in a bookmarks.html file. The default location was in the profile directory, and a line in the prefs.js file where Firefox settings are kept pointed to it.
The prefs.js file is maintained by the browser, and really shouldn't be edited by hand. The solution is a user.js file. If a user.js file exists in the profile directory, FF will read it on startup, and anything in it will override what is in prefs.js. So I created a two line user.js file:
Code:
// Specify which bookmarks file to use:
user_pref("browser.bookmarks.file", "D:\\Mozilla\\Bookmarks\\Dennis McCunney\\bookmarks.html");
and placed a copy in each profile directory I created. All of the Mozilla browsers read it, used the bookmark file it pointed to, and I was happy.
FF3 has shifted to an sqlite database as the bookmarks file, and the user.js trick doesn't work. The Mozilla developers have called this a WONTFIX, citing potential problems if more than one browser is accessing the file at the same time. In practice I didn't do that, so it wouldn't be a concern for me, but...
The solution for that one required going outside of Firefox.
Under Unix\Linux, and Windows 2K/XP/Vista using NTFS, the concept of file links are supported. Links let you have multiple directory entries, all pointing at the same physical file. Under older versions of Windows using FAT32, cross-linked file were a problem CHKDSK would fix for you. Under NTFS, they can be a feature.
I imported my existing FF bookmarks.html file to create the sqlite file FF3 uses. I use a freeware Windows link utility to create links to it in new profiles I create, and all FF3 instances use the same file. It's not perfect, as I'll have to export to HTML periodically to generate the master bookmarks file for the older browsers, but it works.
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Dennis