Firefox will soon have inline autocomplete [blog.mozilla.com] in the AwesomeBar, so I’ve updated Enter Selects [addons.mozilla.org] to be compatible with that new functionality.

If you’ve previously used Enter Selects, the behavior will now be the same as it was before — pressing [Enter] after typing in the AwesomeBar will automatically select the first result from the list. This is different from the new inline autocomplete behavior of completing a domain or url that begins with the letters you’ve typed.

Enter automatically selects the highlighted first result.

Enter Selects’ behavior is good for you if you tend to type words that match in the title or mid-url or use multiple words where the AwesomeBar’s adaptive behavior will push these non-prefix domain matches to the top. If you do want inline autocomplete after Enter Selects highlights the first result, just press [Up] to edit or load the inline-completed url.

Just as before, Firefox’s adaptive learning behavior will push the sites that you frequently visit to the top, so quite quickly, you’ll be able to type 1 letter and press [Enter] to go to the page you want.

I’ve also revamped the code from the original Firefox 3 implementation to be restartless by using the Add-on SDK [addons.mozilla.org]. Additionally I converted the repository from hg to git for people to fork [github.com].

“what a fine add-on! Saves so much on needless keystrokes!” “Thanks a lot, this function is easy but necessary, now I can forget about chrome~” “This is the BOMB! This should be a built-in feature in Firefox, as it is with IE9. Keep up the good work!” -st3ve, yaapal, Deep Thought [addons.mozilla.org]

Try out restartless Enter Selects in Firefox! [addons.mozilla.org]

Continuing yesterday’s initial add-on for a Restartless Dominant Color, I’ve taken some ideas from the Firefox UX team to associate search engines with a color.

Colorful tabs appear along the whole bottom edge on install

Here I’ve used the dominant color to add search engine tabs to the bottom of the screen. Normally they’re hidden away, but when you first install the restartless add-on, all the tabs appear for a few seconds. You can also see that all installed search engines are available, such as the one for Twitter Address Bar Search.

Selecting text shows colored tips

When you select some text or start typing in a text box (including those in the Firefox interface like the AwesomeBar!), the tabs will peek up from below only to show their transparent color-filled tips. If you do point at one of the tabs, it’ll become fully opaque and pop up to show the icon. Clicking it will let you search for whatever you have selected or typed.

Install Search Tabs on Firefox 4 without needing a restart. Just reply back in comments if you have any feedback. Or check the code on GitHub and file suggestions or issues!

I’ve packaged Margaret’s getDominantColor code into a restartless add-on and put the source up on GitHub for people to try out and tweak the logic.

After installing the add-on, hold shift while pointing at an image to have it report the color and show it behind the image. One slight difference from Margaret’s code is that color and transparency values are rounded down to a multiple of 16.

Pointing at an image in about:addons

Download the add-on and check out the code!

mfinkle’s recent posts [starkravingfinkle.org] on restartless add-ons reminded me that I was going to write a more detailed post about my restartless GitHub repository, but I’ve been distracted with another project.

So briefly, I’ve put together some helper functions [github.com] that have been useful for developing various restartless add-ons. I’ve organized the repository to have a bunch of “examples/” branches that build on top of other named branches that implement helper functions.

These first few are very simple examples:

- examples/autoReload: saves a step when developing a restartless addon by automatically re-enabling when you disable the add-on from about:addons

- examples/ensureEnabled: the install method always gets executed even when disabled, so this code makes sure the add-on runs on install; useful when combined with the following..

- examples/oneTime: run once and disable itself; useful for debugging problems on other people’s Firefox without doing the usual “copy/paste this into the Error Console”

The next couple helper functions have been incredibly useful for the restartless add-ons I’ve written:

- unload: add a callback to run when the add-on is disabled by calling unload(callback). This function makes it easy to ensure Firefox returns to its original state when a restartless add-on is disabled (which is very important for developing as you’re likely to disable and re-enable many times!) (example)

- watchWindows: add a callback to run when the main Firefox browser window is open (navigator:browser) by calling watchWindows(callback). The callback will be called immediately for existing windows and future windows, so put whatever browser UI modification code you want inside the callback. (example)

One last helper in the repository is the getString function that adds some l10n support to get the correct .properties file for the current locale. It shows off getting additionally packaged files and picking the right locale and some plural forms. I’ve put together a silly example at examples/l10nDialogs.

With all these helper functions, Erik Vold and Nils Maier helped put together some code that loads packaged scripts. We ended up with some code that makes use of getResourceURI so that it correctly works if the addon is .xpi packaged or an extension proxy file. Separating out the code this way lets you better organize the code and makes it easier to share.