Flagfox 6.1.9 update released

Flagfox 6.1.9 for Firefox 60+ has been released and is available for update and download from AMO.

Flagfox 6.1.9 changelog:

• IPv4 & IPv6 address location database updates for December 2018
• Improved favicon prefetching to allow for longer timeouts on startup

If the browser/system/connection was a bit strained, favicons could fail to be prefetched on first start because the timeout was short, sometimes resulting in default icons being shown when actual icons could’ve been downloaded and cached. I’d much prefer to not have to put my own timeouts on things, or even have any prefetching here, but the WebExt API was not designed with the ability to progressively load icons (like was trivially possible in the past; you may have sensed a pattern, here). Mozilla finally updated their API recently to allow icons to be updated after menu creation, though there’s not really a good way to switch to doing this whilst still supporting the current Firefox ESR (Extended Support Release), which of course is never supported with API fixes. It’s fine for now, I guess.

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Flagfox 6.1.8 update released

Flagfox 6.1.8 for Firefox 60+ has been released and is available for update and download from AMO.

Flagfox 6.1.8 changelog:

• Added forward-compatibility for HTTP/3+ checking
• Added variant of insecure HTTP tooltip tag for FTP
• Fixed action list item selection colors in options under newer Firefox versions
• Reimplemented support for hotkeys using two ctrl/alt/cmd keys (upgraded WebExt API; requires Firefox 63+)
• Reimplemented middle-click on menu item to open in background tab (new WebExt API; requires Firefox 64+)
• Yet more minor code cleanups

I decided to not wait until next month’s IPDB update to post this, as the broken selection color was annoying. (Mozilla changed the color for one of the “-moz” CSS values for a recent Firefox update; fortunately, it’s easily fixed)

Additionally, I’ve added support for some of Mozilla’s tinkering around the edges of the WebExtension API, bringing back a few minor features that were previously in Flagfox 5.x: hotkeys aren’t required to be as dumbed-down anymore and middle-clicking in menus to open in background tabs is supported again. The hotkey support requires Firefox 63+ (current main release) and middle-click in menu support requires Firefox 64+ (next month’s update). (the middle-click support just adds back the ability to open actions in background tabs via the mouse; support still exists for using the keyboard by just holding ctrl when clicking and/or shift to open in a window, instead) Neither of these features is available if you’re using Firefox 60 ESR, as Mozilla doesn’t backport API improvements at all.

The other change of note is that flag tooltips should now be able to detect HTTP/3 and later, in addition to HTTP/2. Yeah, nothing actually runs that yet, as it’s still so early in development as to have only been officially named HTTP/3 recently, but it’s simple enough to add forward-compatibility here by actually reading the version number out of the status line instead of just checking for “HTTP/2”. I decided against always putting the version in the tooltip for HTTP/1.x, as that’s not really useful information.

Flagfox 6.1.7 update released

Flagfox 6.1.7 for Firefox 60+ has been released and is available for update and download from AMO.

Flagfox 6.1.7 changelog:

• IPv4 & IPv6 address location database updates for November 2018
• Favicon cache is now cleared after disabling favicons and closing/refreshing options
• Fixed bug that could cause formfield actions to not be disabled when not applicable
• Fixed recent regression that broke formfield action favicons (e.g. Ping)
• More cleanups and optimizations (incl. fixing some slow WebExt API calls)

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.

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.