September 01, 2008

Ubiquity command: proxy-set

The 'proxy-set' command makes it easy to toggle the proxy configuration.

Here's a screenshot of proxy-set in action:
Proxy-set-screenshot.jpg

Read on to install.

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August 31, 2008

Ubiquity command: insert-link

The 'insert-link' command let's you find and insert a url from your history.
Finding the url works just like the AwesomeBar. As you type characters, matches from your history get displayed. Then you can select which one you want to insert.

Read on for more details and to install.

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August 30, 2008

Ubiquity command: beautify-js

Spaghetti Code The 'beautify-js' command makes it easy to format javascript code.
This is useful when you develop a Ubiquity command in the Ubiquity editor (chrome://ubiquity/content/editor.html).

Read on to install.

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Ubiquity add-on for Firefox

Enso Mozilla Labs just released a terrific Firefox add-on called Ubiquity.
Ubiquity is a meta add-on, like Greasemonkey, which is meant to be extended by users. It lets you easily extend the browser with new functionality.


Ubiquity is meant to extend the browser, whereas Greasemonkey seems better suited for extending specific sites (such as IGN - Single Page View) or general improvements which do not require deep support by the browser (such as Textarea resize).
For example, extensions which require no user interface or integrate directly into the web page UI are a great fit for Greasemonkey.

Ubiquity allows that too, but really shines by offering a standard interface for commands: a natural language command line.

The advantage of the command line compared to other interfaces (menus, context menus, icons, etc.) is that additional commands do not consume screen real-estate and can still be discoverable (with autocomplete and hints). That scales very well when you want to have many commands.

Aza carried over a lot of lineage from Enso into Ubiquity. But Ubiquity is way more attractive, because of the simplicity of javascript. That will generate a lot more contributions.
But there remains many challenges, especially in terms of interface and security.

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