Software is hard

• Published:November 16th, 2009
• Comments:3 Comments
• Category:Firebug, Firestarter, Planet Mozilla

Firebug 1.5 beta phase has started (about a month ago) and so, I would like to also summarize state of Firebug activation model (I wrote about how to enable and disable Firebug 1.2/1.4). This feature has been always a bit unconvincing and we have got a lot of feedback with various proposals how to do it differently.

Since there is many views on how the activation model should look like (from the user experience point of view) and these vary in the (UI) implementation, we have decided to create a Firebug extension Firestarter that extends Firebug's built-in activation model.

Distribute activation enhancements using such an extension is faster than waiting for new Firebug release and it can also be used as an incubator for better solutions.

Firebug 1.5 Activation

First of all, let's summarize the the basic activation model in 1.5. It remains the same as in Firebug 1.4 (just one unnecessary menu item has been removed, see below).

The entire activation logic is based on following:

• Web pages can be active or inactive.
• The panel Console, Script and Net can each be disabled or enabled.

Yes, that is all.

Now, here are some UI details.

	If you see this icon in Firefox status bar, the current page is inactive (Firebug is disabled for the page). This is the default state. Just click to enable Firebug.
	If you see this icon in Firefox status bar, the current page is active (Firebug is enabled for the page).
	You can close/disable Firebug for the current site using this button. The URL is black-listed and Firebug will be disabled when the page loads the next time.
	You can minimize Firebug UI using this button. Firebug is still enabled (Firebug's status bar icon still orange). If you leave the page with Firebug enabled (minimized or not), the URL is white-listed and Firebug will be enabled for the page the next time.
	Panels Console, Script and Net can be disabled/enabled individually (this is done for all pages). These panels are disabled by default.
	There are some helper actions in Firebug's status bar menu. Enabling/disabling all panels at once, set Firebug to be enabled for all pages by default (option) and clear activation list (black-listed and white-listed URLs).*
	There is also an additional option in the Firebug->Options. If checked, white-listed and a black-listed URLs applies to entire domain (not only to specific page).

* Off for All Web Pages has been removed in 1.5, since this is the default Firebug behavior.

Firebug 1.5 + Firestarter Activation

Now, for all those who don't like the built-in activation model described above, there is an activation extension called Firestarter.

Following is a summary of things that are modified, if you have this extension installed.

	Firebug's status bar menu has one additional action that logs the white-listed and black-listed URLs into the Console panel. The On for All Web Pages option is moved into Firebug->Options menu and renamed to Activate By Default.
	Yes, here is the Activate By Default option. If enabled, Firebug is just activated by default for any page.

If you have any further specific requests for activation related features, please create new ticket in the Firebug issue list.

As far as I know, following requests were repeated several times.

• I want back site-specific activation - It's still supported (see black-listing and white-listing of URLs. So, I guess better UI could implemented in Firestarter to make this more obvious.
• I want to manage visibility of Firebug's UI (minimized, opened) independently per Firefox tab - Should Firebug UI visibility (opened, minimized) be synchronize among more Firefox tabs for pages coming from the same domain? Perhaps we could have an option for this?