[jdev] Firefox plugin for bookmarks through XMPP

[Jehan]

Hi,

I have begun a small plugin for Firefox which enables to store one's
bookmarks on pubsub nodes (XEP-0048):

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/9970

Note that it requires the library xmpp4moz (which is also a Fx plugin)
to work. Currently the plugin works if you have an account on a ejabberd
server at least. I could not on Tigase or Openfire. I think I may know
why but I must do further tests first. So if you have a jabber.org
account, it will work for instance.

The add-on is still basic, but the XEP is as well. Currently you can
"only" store your bookmarks all in the same level (no category/tag,
etc.). Still it is working:

- Once installed, through the add-on page, you click "Preference" to
configure with your JID.

- Once configured, on any page, you will have a button (yes I know,
there should be a menu item, but I made temporarily to work around a
Firefox bug. I will improve this later) on the context menu (click right
on any page) and a small icon representing a bookmark (with the XMPP
logo) on the right of the status-bar. You can click right on this icon
as well to get the same menu. The number on the right of the icon is the
number of saved bookmarks.

- Then from this menu, you will be able to "connect". (note that this
is only the first time. But once the plugin is configured, it will
connect automatically at each run of Fx).

- Once connected, the contextual menu will be different. You will have
the possibility to "bookmark this page (XMPP)". If you don't have this
menu item, then it means that you are not well connected. Check your JID
parameters.
By clicking it, the default page title will be displayed in a dialog
box and propose to change it before saving.

- Each time you add a bookmark, it will be added to the same menu. You
will have then 3 possible actions with your mouse:
* left click: it opens the bookmark in the current tab;
* middle: it opens in a new tab;
* right: it opens a dialog box giving the possibility to rename the
bookmark or to delete it.

------

To be improved:

- I want to add a category/group system for storing bookmarks into
groups/subgroups.
- I want to add a tag system (different from group. You can give tags
like "important", "to read", etc.).
- I would like to add a "comments" system to make further (and longer
that the title) comments on a bookmark.
- I would like to propose a system for sharing bookmarks, read-only, or
else by enabling several users to add bookmarks (white list, roster
groups, etc.), by using the right system of pubsub.
- Gestion of several separated bookmarks (which may have differents
rights, some shared, some private, etc. for instance) for the same JID.

For these 5 items in particular, I think the XEP could be improved
because it is just too basic. So I will propose some changes. If anyone
wants to propose what is nice in shared bookmarks, don't hesitate...
:-)

- Related to Firefox, as you have noticed, I am using a completely
separated bookmark system than the core one. Yet the development part is
not so complicated (Fx has a good API to interface with its bookmarks).
There are several reasons to this:
* One of them is that if ever you can use Fx but cannot connect to your
Jabber server, then it could cause a synchronisation issue. And dealing
with this can be complicated.
* Another is that this plugin is stocking no bookmark information on
the client side. Everything is on the server only and just temporary
displayed in the browser. I like this idea (like you can be on another
computer with the plugin and just set your jid to have your bookmarks a
few minutes. Then you remove your jid and it is erased). Using the Fx
bookmarks API would really complicate this.
So this is to be thought of...

And finally there is only one problem with this plugin. Because of a
bug in xmpp4moz apparently (I reported and wait for developpers'
validation/fix or a solution), on connection a presence stanza is sent.
I send immediately another with a negative presence so that the plugin
should never receive any message (which would be lost). But in the few
microseconds between the 2 sent presences, if you had offline messages
and no other XMPP chat client opened, I fear the server would forward
them to the plugin.

Note that it has been tested otherwise that during the normal run of
the plugin, when someone send a message to you, the server (at least
ejabberd) does not forward the message to the plugin, as expected with a
negative priority. It waits for another client to connect.
Hence I just need this automatic and unrequested presence stanza not
being sent and it will be "secure" (for not losing info)!

Jehan


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