It has been a long time since I have posted to the blog, I apologise for this but other life events got in the way. I do however read your comments as they come in and people have been asking what is the future of this extension with regard to upcoming Mozilla Firefox 4.
As with every new milestone release of Firefox, Mozilla offer several concurrent beta versions for testing. This allows experienced users to give the new version of Firefox a road test and help iron out some bumps on the road before it hits the prime time. It also allows Extension developers work out any incompatibilities they may have with the new version. This of course applies to us. Although let me point out again, I am NOT an extension developer, maintainer, coder, guru or anything else other than a user just like you. There is no coding magicianary going on to keep Google's Notebook Extension available. I am merely tweaking some rules within the extension so the browser allows it to be installed, if the extension does break, which I foresee it will at some point in the future, I cannot fix this, only Google can, which they won't because they have abandoned their Notebook product.
So with that statement out of the way, here is where we stand. As of Firefox 3.6.12 our Modified Google Notebook Extension is still working and it should continue to work until the final release of Firefox 4.0.
I have updated the extension so it should install on Firefox 4.0 with any problems, whether it will work or not is another matter.
As of Firefox 4.0 Beta 6, our extension is completely broken. So, what can we do about this. We need to report, report, report and bang on Mozilla's door like an impatient child until they take notice and fix the incompatibilities. This is where YOU all come in. And with a total of 24,000 visits to this website over the past year (avg. 60 p/d) there is enough of you to make a difference. Here is what you need to do:
1. Download and install the latest Firefox Beta from http://www.mozilla.com/firefox/beta. This will NOT install over or remove your current stable 3.6* version of Firefox. It will instead be a second separate installation which you can remove at any time.
2. Download and install our Modified Google Notebook Extension from, well you know where to get that from, I hope ;-)
http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif
3. Download and install the Add-on Compatibility Checker from https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/15003/
4. After you have installed the compatibility checker and restarted Firefox, then try and use the Notebook extension and see if it works.
5. If the notebook extension does not work at all for you or only partially works then you need to report it to Mozilla.
6. Go to your Add-ons Manager about:addons and on the Compatibility button beside the Google Notebook extension, select "This add-on no longer works" and explain in the error report what is not working for you and how you expect it should work for you. Then submit the report. Simple as that.
7. Keep both the Notebook extension and Add-on Compatibility reporting extension installed and update your Firefox 4 Beta to each new beta version that is released and again test if our notebook extension is working or not and report.
The more Mozilla gets reports from users about broken extensions the more they are likely to take notice and try and fix the problem.
8. Now get social, get on to Facebook, Twitter, Identi.ca, MySpace, post and add in your local newspapers, send your Grandma a postcard, get your priest to say a prayer. The point is, tell everyone and get as many people as possible to post reports to Mozilla about our broken beloved extension. To work people!
Update:
Here is an example of a report I have submitted:
Note: The original developers of this extension and the service it is connected to were Google Inc. however the extension itself is now being maintained by the user community as Google have stopped providing support for their Google Notebook service. Currently this extension is maintained simply by changing the maxVersion value in the install.rdf file of the XPI
Please download this extension from http://www.http://notebookaddon.tk or via Mozilla AMO https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/50380
When installed the extension should add a 'notebook' icon to the status bar. When you click on the notebook icon you should expect to see JavaScript window pop open presenting a login screen for the Google Notebook service. Currently this JavaScript window is failing to open when you click on the notebook icon.
The extension also adds an option to the context menu. When some text is selected on a webpage and you open the context menu, if you click on 'Note This (Google Notebook)' this should send the selected text to the Google Notebook service as a new note. Currently when you click on the 'Note This...' nothing happens.
The above mentioned features of this extension were working in Firefox 3.6*
