Flagfox 6.1.6 update released

Flagfox 6.1.6 for Firefox 60+ has been released and is available for update and download from AMO.

Flagfox 6.1.6 changelog:

• IPv4 & IPv6 address location database updates for October 2018
• Fixed error page and offline mode icons not showing correctly
• More cleanups and optimizations

Mozilla ended support for Firefox 52 ESR a month ago and my extended support for Flagfox 5.2.x ended with it. (previous post) That said, Flagfox 5.2.11 won’t start complaining about its database being stale until near the end of the year, so for now we’re in this weird terminology grey area between end-of-support and end-of-life (which doesn’t exist for stuff which has to deal with constant security issues, namely browsers). So, if for some screwy reason you still have to use an old version of Firefox, you can still install a recent version of Flagfox that will work in it, but you really should be migrating to something not out-of-date ASAP.

A note about Geotool use via Flagfox: The way we have Geotool (the default action loaded upon clicking the Flagfox icon) currently set up, normal versions of Flagfox have normal unthrottled use allowed for a month, after which Geotool throttles use with a CAPTCHA (and asks you to update). The last Flagfox 5.2.x ESR version, 5.2.11, has been pinned for now to be allowed through without a CAPTCHA, and will most likely stay there until the end of the year. That said, nothing is set in stone, and if the server is killed via another flood of abuse, there are no promises here. Fortunately, things have been largely fine as of late.

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Flagfox 6.1.5 and 5.2.11 updates released

Flagfox 6.1.5 for Firefox 60+ has been released and is available for update and download from AMO. Flagfox 5.2.11 has also been released for Firefox 52 ESR, SeaMonkey, and Firefox forks based on older Gecko versions (or at least anything newer than Firefox 24). You can download it here.

Flagfox 6.1.5 & 5.2.11 changelog:

• IPv4 & IPv6 address location database updates for September 2018

Mozilla has ended support for Firefox 52 ESR as of a few days ago, and thus this is the final Flagfox 5.2.x ESR update. Everyone should be in the process of upgrading to a currently maintained browser, if they haven’t already. Being labeled EOL does not make it instantly insecure, but continuing to use an out-of-date browser will eventually make yourself a danger to yourself and others. Yes, I’m well aware Mozilla has made a lot of mistakes here, but we’re all hostage to security updates, eventually. Direct your annoyance at somewhere other than here, please. (fortunately, the complaints I’ve received have at least been polite)

This also marks the end of official SeaMonkey support in Flagfox, until they get their act together and implement sufficient WebExtension API parity with Firefox 60 for things to work (and of course, fix the bugs that caused me to disable WebExt storage support in Firefox 5.2.x). If anyone knows what’s going on with them, I would be appreciated for some info. Is the SeaMonkey project dead, or is a Gecko 60 version actually coming?

Flagfox 6.1.4 update released

Flagfox 6.1.4 for Firefox 60+ has been released and is available for update and download from AMO.

Flagfox 6.1.4 changelog:

• Added timeout for favicon fetching (can now handle errors faster)
• Improved favicon cache to only retry failures after a day or so
• Replaced broken “Check Server Status” default action with “Is It Up?”
• Various code, debug, & L10N cleanups

The previous server down checker decided to be ironic and died. It being broken apparently gets handled badly by Firefox, which takes longer than normal/expected to timeout fetching the favicon, which can cause the menus in Flagfox to take too long to load after recent changes. This update fixes this by replacing the primary server status checker with the other one included in the defaults (done this way to keep the localized “Check Server Status” string and default hotclick), and also making my error handling more robust.

I did generally like the old server checker, but even though it’s seemingly working over cleartext HTTP, being completely broken over HTTPS makes it not usable anymore here. Their contact form is also broken, so I can’t even report the problem.

Flagfox 6.1.3 bugfix update released

Flagfox 6.1.3 for Firefox 60+ has been released and is available for update and download from AMO.

Flagfox 6.1.3 changelog:

• Fixed a bug caused by polyfill for new JS methods for Firefox 60-61 that broke the options page

This was caught the night after the release by a very kind Flagfox user/tester and reported via Twitter. Easily reproducible problem; basically, the light boxes in the options page were broken (assuming you were on Firefox 60 or 61, where the polyfill is needed). I tracked down the issue, and it’s nice to see that it was my fault, and not yet another Mozilla bug. I tested and released the fix shortly thereafter. Sorry about that. Basically, JS is too much of a mess for me to extend stuff the way I learned 10-20 years ago… I have re-educated myself on the topic and learned the modern more complicated way of doing things without breaking things as easily.

Flagfox 6.1.2 and 5.2.10 updates released

Flagfox 6.1.2 for Firefox 60+ has been released and is available for update and download from AMO. Flagfox 5.2.10 has also been released for Firefox 52 ESR, SeaMonkey, and Firefox forks based on older Gecko versions (or at least anything newer than Firefox 24). You can download it here.

Flagfox 6.1.2 changelog:

• IPv4 & IPv6 address location database updates for August 2018
• Added DNS cache check retries if no IP is found within a minute of startup (for already loaded tabs)
• Created a hack to allow hiding of menus without deletion+recreation (WebExt API can only disable)
• Flagfox menus now hide automatically for all URLs which never show Flagfox icons (e.g. about:newtab)
• Flagfox menus are now generated on first open instead of all at first startup (using new APIs more)
• More cleanups and optimizations

Flagfox 5.2.10 changelog:

• IPv4 & IPv6 address location database updates for August 2018

This release was delayed a little bit this month for more testing of the menus revamp and startup DNS handling. No real user-facing changes here beyond working better, so still just counting this as a minor update. As per usual, contact me if something explodes.

Mozilla ends support for Firefox 52 ESR next month and thus the Flagfox 5.2.11 ESR update will be the final one on the old branch. Update to Firefox 60 ESR and Flagfox 6.1.x within the next couple months.

One final note: I’ve been checking the reviews on AMO for Flagfox less often these days, as they seem to have a rather bad spam/abuse problem at the moment. AMO reviews have never been a good contact method for anyone, so please don’t expect replies there, let alone quick. Bug reports and support requests should only be posted in any addon’s reviews as an act of desperation after all other contact channels have been exhausted.

Flagfox 6.1.1 and 5.2.9 updates released

Flagfox 6.1.1 for Firefox 60+ has been released and is available for update and download from AMO. Flagfox 5.2.9 has also been released for Firefox 52 ESR, SeaMonkey, and Firefox forks based on older Gecko versions (or at least anything newer than Firefox 24). You can download it here.

Flagfox 6.1.1 changelog:

• Fixed checking/disabling of unavailable actions in menus in some circumstances
• Worked-around WebExt menu API bugs when at “about:” URLs
• Various code cleanups and minor optimizations

(Flagfox 6.1.x already received the monthly IPDB update in 6.1.0; IPDB version is July 2018)

Flagfox 5.2.9 changelog:

• IPv4 & IPv6 address location database updates for July 2018

Just to reiterate for the last time: Flagfox 6.0.x is now EOL; upgrade to Flagfox 6.1.x.

An update on the topic of Mac keyboard shortcuts: For anyone who didn’t read the discussion in the comments on the Flagfox 6.1.0 release blog post, we seem to have come to the conclusion after testing on a Mac that Flagfox 6.1.0+ is actually handling things correctly for the platform, however there are more mystery hotkey combinations that Firefox thinks are fine and allows setting, but don’t actually ever work. Mozilla has provided no method to detect this problem. I suspect these are keyboard shortcuts for OS functions of some kind, and on Mac, this generally means the Command key, even though it gets used for lots of other stuff too. Alt and Ctrl were reported to be working fine, as well. So, for the moment, there’s nothing left for me to do with this issue. If Mozilla ever gets their act together here they might fix this by properly rejecting not-allowed hotkey combinations instead of setting up for silent fails. If anything changes here, please let me know.