Debugging LiveClick 0.4.0.0
Catching up—finally!—on all the comments and email, it’s clear that LiveClick 0.4.0.0 isn’t quite ready for wide release just yet. We’ll run a couple more betas to address the most significant bugs with the new goal being a stable LiveClick by Firefox 4’s official release date (March maybe?). Download the latest LiveClick beta and see how you can help debug any problems below.
Download v0.4.0.0 Beta 6 (Firefox 3.5 - 4.0.*)
Fully localized in 0.4.0.0: en-US, fr, hu-HU, it-IT, ko-KR, nl, pl, zh-TW
Debugging
Starting with Beta 4, LiveClick has a special status page to see what’s going on in the background. Enter chrome://liveclick/content/status.html in your address bar to view it. The important fields to note are the “Next check time” (especially if LiveClick isn’t automatically checking Live Bookmarks for you) and “Never expiring” (which should be 0). I will likely ask you for the details on this page to help me troubleshoot your problems.
LiveClick 0.4.0.0 has a hidden preference that provides a more verbose report on the Live Bookmark update process. To activate this preference, type about:config in your address bar (assure Firefox you’ll be careful, if it prompts you). Then create a new boolean named extensions.liveclick.debug and set its value to true. The new preference will be remembered until you manually reset it via about:config.
To use the debug preference, look to Firefox’s Error Console (Tools > Error Console). When checking for new items, manually or automatically, here you’ll see LiveClick messages, e.g. which feed is being checked or if a feed has new items. The debug preference can also tell you when a Live Bookmark is due to be checked next. Right-click a Live Bookmark and you’ll find a minute counter next to the Reload command. If the number is extremely high or negative, the Live Bookmark isn’t being properly scheduled for automatic updates.
Extension Conflicts
There’s a good chance LiveClick 0.4.0.0 won’t work with other extensions that deal with Live Bookmarks, like Brief, Boox, and Reliby. The latest LiveClick uses its own Live Bookmarks checker and suppresses the native service. If another extension depends on or makes use of the original Live Bookmarks checker, LiveClick will almost certainly get in the way. This was necessary to include several features introduced in 0.4.0.0 and also to improve LiveClick’s efficiency. A future version of LiveClick will include support for managing Live Bookmarks in the sidebar.
Xmarks wants to sync when Live Bookmark item titles or positions change. I’m pretty sure this can be fixed, but I haven’t looked at Xmarks long enough to find the solution.
Toolbar Button Menu
Does anyone regularly use the Clear Live Bookmarks History command in the toolbar button (or Live Bookmarks) menu? Unless there’s a high demand for it here, the next beta might remove it. You’ll still be able to clear the Live Bookmarks History from LiveClick’s options dialog.
With the feed (subscribe) button removed from the default UI in Firefox 4, LiveClick’s toolbar button will very likely adopt its functionality. More on that soon.
0.4.0.0 Changelog:
+ Added LiveClick toolbar button for one-click checking [Details…]
* Checking for new items is less aggressive and uses fewer resources
+ Option to disable checking for new items on Firefox startup [Details…]
+ Option to disable checking for new items automatically
+ Option to suspend automatic checking until browser restart
* Automatic checking is suspended while in Private Browsing
+ Option to clear Live Bookmarks history when clearing browsing history
+ Option to style parent folders like livemarks [Details…]
+ Option to set global max Live Bookmark items per menu [Details…]
+ Option to set custom max items per Live Bookmark
* Counter more accurately accounts for hidden items
* Hide custom Live Bookmark settings by default
* Predefined choices available for custom interval times
* Interval between automatic checks is more precise
* Live Bookmark item styles are cached
* Feed states are no longer stored in database
* States of proxied feed items (e.g. FeedBurner) more accurately managed
* Status items (e.g. failed, loading) position properly and always styled
* Item previews are fetched with feed and stored in database
* Item previews no longer cut off the last word in preview
* Improved multiple window handling
+ Added LiveClick status page for troubleshooting: chrome://liveclick/content/status.html
View the original 0.4.0.0 beta thread.
Beta 3 notes:
- FIXED Live Bookmark counter incorrect if linked items are visited prior to discovery
- FIXED Check timer still initialized after immediate suspend
- FIXED Imported settings fail to update custom site locations
- FIXED Malformed context menu appears on feed button with no feeds (Fx4.0+)
- CHANGED Live bookmark item tooltip line-height decreased to 1.3em (Fx4.0+)
- CHANGED LiveClick toolbar button icon/throbber sizes decreased to 16px
- CHANGED LiveClick toolbar button throbber tweaked again (ever a work in progress)
Beta 4 notes:
- FIXED No reason to keep using Firefox’s livemark refresh rate
- FIXED Update intervals don’t default properly
- FIXED Should treat non-expiring Live Bookmarks as expired
- FIXED Automatic on/startup off should determine first check based on next expiration
- FIXED Live Bookmark items always re-styled even without state changes
- FIXED Live Bookmark item previews should complete the last word
- FIXED Live Bookmarks fail to update when GUIDs (proxies) are invalid links
- FIXED Extension version is null in about dialog (Fx4.0+)
- ADDED LiveClick status page: chrome://liveclick/content/status.html (unstyled in Fx3.5-3.6)
- CHANGED Staggered initial tasks to improve startup performance
- CHANGED LiveClick toolbar button throbber tweaked yet again
Beta 5 notes:
- FIXED Live Bookmarks not checking automatically without initial manual request
- FIXED Native service starts with each new browser window
- FIXED LiveClick toolbar button icon does not reflect suspend state on new window
Beta 6 notes:
- FIXED Some style preferences are being ignored
- FIXED Favicons shown in monitored feeds list when favicons disabled
- FIXED LiveClick alerts not working with Growl
- FIXED [Ext] Xmarks wants to sync when item titles/positions change
Known issues:
- liveclick.js script sometimes unresponsive (if you see this, please tell me what line it points to)
- Custom site locations, favicons revert when native service attempts reload
- Suspend, enter and exit Private browsing, automatic checking back on
- Checks should suspend when importing LiveClick settings
- Live Bookmark checking should timeout sooner
- “Open All in Tabs” does not recognize Live Bookmark locations
- Live Bookmarks show up as history and persist across sessions
Subscribe to this thread’s comments feed.
Posted on Jan 30 2011 at 02:24 PM
Next entry: LiveClick 0.4.0.0
Previous entry: Designing the Toolbar Button Icons
Thanks for the new version. I was afraid that you had abandoned the development of the addon…
I’ve tried it in firefox 4b12 x64
and it works rather ok, but I think that the “check for new items” (of my about 25 live bookmarks) takes a bit long to complete (based on the liveclick icon on the toolbar: it’s moving most of the time—I’ve set to check for new feeds every 5 min).
Also the new folders (in firefox 4b12) are now colored orange ok.
The problem is that the coloring of folders that contain new items is no longer working in firefox 3.6.13 with liveclick 0.4.0.0 beta3 - I have to revert to Liveclick 3.8.0.
And, I’d suggest not to remove the Clear Live Bookmarks History command. It’s very useful, in case something goes wrong in Liveclick.
Also, I’ve made also some other suggestions in https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/liveclick/
Keep up the good work!
Posted by Kostas L on 02/07 at 04:35 AM
And another thing:
I noticed that, upon enabling LiveClick in addons,
the entry browser.bookmarks.livemark_refresh_seconds
(http://kb.mozillazine.org/Browser.bookmarks.livemark_refresh_seconds)
in about:config
gets the value 14400.
Is this necessairy?
I’m asking this because, if someone decides to uninstall LiveClick,
then his live bookmarks will be updated less frequent than the default:
every (14400/60/60=)4 hours (instead of 1 hour)
Posted by Kostas L on 02/08 at 06:16 PM
Hi, tried to install Beta 3 (after finding only the old page with Beta 2, to which one is redirected from the LiveClick entry on the Mozilla Addons page) and both immediately crash Firefox (4.10b) when trying to install (“Firefox has just crashed. Report to Mozilla? (y/n)”). The addon does not show up after restarting Firefox.
I remember something similar from another addon (forgot which one), but it then showed up after restarting Firefox. Perhaps my profile is messed up, as it works fine if I try with a new one.
Greetings from Germany!
Posted by Mike Rofone on 02/12 at 06:02 AM
And another thing: I’ve noticed in latest 4.0b12pre
that LiveClick doesn’t automatically check for new items,
neither in startup (even if “check for new items on firefox startup” is checked)
nor later (every x mins).
I have to manually press “check for new items now” once
in order liveclick to start working(=checking).
Posted by Kostas L on 02/12 at 10:24 AM
I can confirm that B3 on FF4.0b11 doesn’t check automatically for changes when FF start.
Later on it work fine for me.
Another thing that didn’t solve yet is the compatibility with Xmarks, new items shown as new bookmarks for Xmarks.
keep it going.
Posted by em28 on 02/12 at 10:54 AM
LiveClick 0.4.0.0 Beta 4: install it now. Fixes a few things (view the full changelog above). It also includes a new status page, which you can view by entering chrome://liveclick/content/status.html into your address bar. If LiveClick isn’t checking your Live Bookmarks automatically, tell me what’s in the “Next check time” and “Never expiring” fields on your status page.
Thanks for your comments!
Posted by protejohnny on 02/15 at 03:46 PM
After starting FFb11, my feeds did not refresh.
Here are the details from the status page:
Check on start: Yes
Check automatically: Yes
Suspend checks: No
Next check time: Not Available
Next check count: n/a
Now expired: 40 (Almost all my feeds)
Never expiring: 0
Failed: 2 (2 feeds)
Posted by em28 on 02/16 at 09:40 AM
I don’t suppose you can add LiveClick’s new status page into LiveClick’s toolbar icon’s context menu options, protejohnny? You could call the entry “Check LiveClick’s Status” or whatever works better. It would either open the status page in the current tab or a new tab depending on user’s personal tab settings.
Posted by Ngamer01 on 02/16 at 08:45 PM
Ngamer01: Honestly, I’m hoping that the status page won’t need such a prominent place for most users. It just seems useful now while we’re troubleshooting some problems. In any case, I’ll find a place for it.
Posted by protejohnny on 02/16 at 10:34 PM
LiveClick 0.4.0.0 Beta 5: install it now. I normally test builds for several days before I release them like this, but I want to get confirmation from you all that the automatic checker is finally working as it should. Please let me know!
Posted by protejohnny on 02/16 at 10:48 PM
Hi, protejohnny.
I install b5 on FF3.6.8 at work.
it seem like automatic update is working but there is a new issue.
I define Livebookmark to show bookmarks folders with new items as Boldface.
On b4 it works fine, but with b5 the only folder that shown on bold is the 1st folder, although there are new items at other folders.
Status page:
LiveClick Status
General
Extension LiveClick 0.4.0.0b5
User Agent Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.1; he; rv:1.9.2.8) Gecko/20100722 Firefox/3.6.8 ImageShackToolbar/5.2.3
Scheduler
Check on start: Yes
Check automatically: Yes
Suspend checks: No
Next check time: יום חמישי 17 פברואר 2011 11:09:07
Next check count: 36
Now expired: 0
Never expiring: 0
Failed: 2
Posted by em28 on 02/17 at 04:14 AM
Update:
I checked b5 all over again with FF4.0 beta.
It is working fine, seems to be some conflict with FF3.6.
The Xmarks issue is still there.
keep the good work.
Posted by em28 on 02/17 at 01:29 PM
Thanks for your comments, em28. I haven’t been able to reproduce the new items bug, which you, Kostas, and others have reported variations of. It seems that it only occurs in Fx3.6, though. Can anyone else confirm this?
As for Xmarks, I may not be able to fix this as I originally thought. Having gone over their code (and LiveClick’s, of course), I can’t find a way to edit Live Bookmark item titles without alerting Xmarks or rewriting core Firefox functions. I’m going to contact the Xmarks developers and kindly request that they update Xmarks to ignore changes to Live Bookmark items (they can do this with a simple one-line addition to their code). Update: Actually, I just thought of something that might work. There’s a slight performance hit, but it might be able to get around the Xmarks problem. I’ll let you know when I get to chance to test it.
Posted by protejohnny on 02/17 at 05:15 PM
Hi would you like me to create a German language localisation? What file would I need to edit?
Posted by SKH on 02/18 at 11:50 AM
@protejohnny
yes, I just checked LiveClick beta5 in Fx3.6
and the new items bug only occurs there
On the other hand, LiveClick beta 5
seems to work ok without any problems in Firefox 4 (latest nightly 4.0b12pre)
Keep up the great work
Posted by Kostas L on 02/19 at 03:29 PM
SKH: LiveClick’s localizations are managed through BabelZilla.org. I’ve asked my current German translator to submit an updated locale for the latest LiveClick. If he’s unable to, I would definitely welcome your help. In any case, I recommend registering with BabelZilla. There are probably some addons who could use a new translator, too. I’ll let you know about LiveClick next week.
Kostas: Thanks for that information. I believe I’ve located something that could be causing the problem. Expect a new beta in a few days with the fix and, if this bug is indeed solved, a final 0.4.0.0 release shortly after that.
Posted by protejohnny on 02/19 at 05:12 PM
edit: I’ve noticed this:
suppose that that you have set “Check for new items every 30 mins”
It’s 10:00
and either LiveClick itself has just finished checking for new items
or you have just pressed “Check for new Items Now”.
Both ways, all the livebookmarks checking finishes ok.
The problem is this:
if at eg. 10:02 you close+RESTART firefox 4,
then LiveClick DOESN’T recheck for new items immediately after Firefox’s re-launch
(even if you have enabled “Check for new items on Firefox startup”).
INSTEAD, in chrome://liveclick/content/status.html
it shows :
Next check time: 10:31:00
and LiveClick will wait until 10:31
in order to recheck for new items again.
Is this normal???
Posted by Kostas L on 02/19 at 06:59 PM
Working rather fine for me in FF4.0b11 so I’ll take this chance to say thank you again for this great addon and your continuous work on it.
Posted by cyruz on 02/19 at 07:03 PM
Kostas: Yes, it sounds like LiveClick is doing exactly what it should. The startup check (like the automatic checker) only handles feeds that are due to be checked at that time. If none are detected during startup, LiveClick will wait until the next feed expires. And if you view the status page at the right time (between 5 and 15s after starting Firefox), you’ll see that a startup check is scheduled properly but has nothing to check.
Cyruz: I can always count on your support. Thanks so much!
Posted by protejohnny on 02/20 at 01:24 PM
display favicons instead of livemark options has problems. only some of the favicons display and after turning it off, the ones that did work are now stuck in the Monitored tab. yes i restarted firefox
Posted by dave on 02/21 at 05:31 AM
LiveClick 0.4.0.0 Beta 6: install it now. Fixes a bug where some style preferences were being ignored. Hopefully this solves the problems reported with Firefox 3.6. If so, expect a final LiveClick 0.4.0.0 release soon and we’ll move on to what’s next on the list.
Note that the LiveClick toolbar icon may look slightly stretched. This is expected and will be fixed with a change in the next Firefox 4 beta.
Posted by protejohnny on 02/21 at 09:32 PM
I just checked out the toolbar button. It’s a bit small on my high resolution. Can it be made fullsize like other buttons ?
Posted by dave on 02/22 at 01:05 AM
dave: The toolbar icon is as large as it can be, while still working on all OSes (which frustratingly have different default sizes). I might do more work on this in the future, but the icon is set for LiveClick 0.4.0.0. Out of curiosity, what OS do you use and where have you placed the LiveClick button (e.g. navigation toolbar, bookmarks toolbar, addon bar, menu bar)?
Posted by protejohnny on 02/23 at 02:44 PM
Thanks a lot for the release. Will test it thoroughly.
I’m not using the Clear Live Bookmarks History command at all btw.
Posted by cyruz on 01/30 at 03:15 PM