Jan Odvarko and John Barton have been working hard on getting a Firebug extension together to track event listeners on DOM objects. The Firefox parts needed to make this work were tackled by Olli Pettay in heroic fashion. You can download the alpha release here: http://getfirebug.com/releases/eventbug/1.5/. You will need Firebug 1.5b1 and Firefox 3.7 alpha (nightly) for this to work.

But before installing, I recommend you read Jan’s blog-post:

Software is hard | Eventbug (alpha) Released.

With that, I’ve updated my AutoGrabUploader script and made it Even Better™! The one thing it didn’t do before was automatically dump the URL of the screenshot into the clipboard for easy pasting. You had to select it manually from the webpage that appeared in the browser. I’ve fixed that so it now gets added to the clipboard as you’d expect.

The list of requirements are pretty much the same as last time:

• Mac OS X 10.6 – template’s been saved with newer version of Automator
• Some kind of web-enabled remote storage (I’m using “people.mozilla.org”, but if you’ve got MobileMe you could do this with an iDisk or some other WebDAV-enabled system)
• MacFUSE + SSHFS – only if you need to mount a folder through SSH!
• FastScripts Lite
• Grabup-selection-template 2 workflow.

Install MacFUSE and sshfs as before. See the notes on the MacFUSE project page for getting that working. I had to remove a library from the sshfs application bundle to make it go on my laptop.

Unzip and edit the Grabup Selelection template in Automator as below (click the image to see the full size version):

automator screen grab uploader on flickr

When you’re done, save it to your ~/Library/Scripts folder as something like “Grabup Selection”. I have two of these, one for Selection and the other to grab a whole window. Use the Type dropdown in the Take Screenshot action to select Window and resave (careful not to copy over the interactive version).

The last step is to assign it a hotkey in FastScripts. Open FastScripts’ Preferences panel and assign Grabup Selection to a hotkey. I use Shift-Cmd-6 for selection and Shift-Cmd-5 for full window. Right next to the default Shift-Cmd-3 and 4 for the Mac’s default screenshot shortcuts.

If you’ve made it through this, congrats! Let me know if you have any problems.

I think the biggest change to Firebug from version 1.3 and earlier is the new activation mechanism and it’s something that can take a bit of getting used to. It’s definitely something we could have blogged more about during the coming months and it still causes some users pain. Honza wrote an excellent introduction to it, which I’ve mentioned here before.

One trick that has stymied some users is how to see an initial request (GET) from an HTTP server if Firebug isn’t active. Or how do you follow Net traffic from one domain to another when you click on a link?

The secret is on the Firebug status icon’s context menu and it’s labelled “On For All Web Pages”.

Selecting this option will open Firebug for any page you visit, giving you a seamless view of your network traffic. Deselecting that option will allow you to turn it off again.

The complementary function, “Off for All Web Pages” will also do a little more than just turn off Firebug. It removes the list of active webpages Firebug has registered, essentially clearing the scene. If you’ve ever visited a webpage and wondered why Firebug was active on it, it’s because you turned it on there before, then probably closed that tab with Firebug still open. Subsequent visits to that or any other webpage you had Firebug opened on (and didn’t turn off!) will reopen Firebug. Selecting “Off For All Web Pages” will clear that list so you don’t have any more surprises.

Don’t forget to turn off “Off For All Web Pages” when you want to use Firebug again. Opening it and pressing reload may confuse you.

(thanks to “brahmana” from IRC for reminding me to write this post)

Lastly, my standard plea: please report any bugs you find on the project’s issues page.

From this:

(Firefox adds %20 for each of the spaces when you save it as a bookmarklet)

The above snippet grabs the currently selected text in a web-page and opens it in a new window. Add it to a bookmarklet of your own on your toolbar and you have a convenient way to open new text in a separate tab. For bonus points, install the keyconfig extension to create a keyboard shortcut (you’ll need to force-install the extension and write a little function to get that to work). Thanks to Neil Lee for the keyconfig tip!

A colleague asked me how I stay on top of the constant surge of information produced by Mozilla and Firebug and whatever else I follow. The question was a good one in and of itself and I replied with my little list of things I read and said I might blog it, because it could be helpful. His reply suggested a Seven-things-style meme to find out what other people are reading and how they stay on top. At the risk of having the entire internet hate me, I conceded that this was an excellent idea.

First, a disclaimer: I don’t believe any one person can possibly stay on top of the incredible volume of information and noise produced in and around Mozilla. Especially when you start doing transitive closures on the information and pulling in data about Mozilla and ancillary projects. I am not claiming this is definitive or even remotely efficient. It sort of works for me, and it’s settled into enough of a routine that I can stick with it.

So, without further ado, the meme-ified questionnaire:

Q1: What is your reading schedule? Do you have a schedule?
I have a schedule, but I also read randomly when I’m stuck someplace with my phone and have decent wireless connectivity. I typically start the day with email and bugmail, then check important feeds. Twice per week (usually), I check digestified versions of dev.planning and platform. Usually Monday and Wednesday. I don’t have it scheduled, (though maybe I should!) but I read feeds throughout the day. I will admit that they can be a strongly seductive distraction from real work. And of course, there’s IRC competing for my attention.

Q2: What do you read daily and how often?
E-mail, naturally. Several times / day, first pass, check for urgent messages, scan subscribed lists and subfolders later.
Blogs / Planet (with coffee)
Bugmail. Check once morning, once afternoon.
Firebug Bugmail. As it comes in.
Firebug working group individual emails

Q3: What do you read more than once / week? How often?
newsgroups, dev.planning, dev.platform
Blogs, Newsfeeds

Q4: What blogs/feeds/newsgroups do you read? (list three or more)

blogs:
lifehacker
daring fireball
schneier on security
michael geist
planet.mozilla.org – this I have been reading less of late, mostly because of the noise. Highlights from About:Mozilla newsletter fill in the important gaps.

feeds:
cbc/bbc
macnn
engadget

newsgroups:
firebug discussion group
mozilla.dev.planning
mozilla.dev.platform
mozilla.dev.extensions

Q5: Lastly, name a guilty pleasure in your feedreader:
kotaku!

bonus question: What do you use to read feeds?
I use Feedly. I used to use Vienna, but found the app was stagnating somewhat. I have also tried Times, which came with this year’s MacHeist bundle and it looks good, but prefer Feedly’s integration with Firefox. I considered trying Fever which looks promising.

Now tag at least three people you want to hear from (making sure you notify them via email, twitter, or whatever means of communication you have in case they don’t actually read your blog all the time):

Deb Richardson
Mike Beltzner
Kev Needham
Curtis Bartley

Let the meming begin!

IRC user Templarian mocked up this design using the Silk icon set from FamFamFam. I think it looks pretty sweet.

He’s also started a discussion on the Firebug Google Discussion group, so please leave comments there, in the Flickr photo or right here if you don’t feel like traveling.

And while we’re on the topic, you should check out the latest Firebug 1.4(a30) in the latest nightly of Firefox 3.5. It’s coming together.

But first, we’d like some feedback on a little feature introduced with this version. “Minimize to status bar” is the new little down arrow next to the “Open in New Window” and “Close” icons on the tab strip. On the Mac, it looks like this:

Clicking that down arrow will drop the currently open Firebug panel into a new icon on the status bar and leave everything running. This sort of approximates the old behavior where you could turn on Firebug and still close the window and receive updates on the console and net panel, but not requiring a separate window to be active. There was some discussion in today’s meeting about the ramifications of this behavior. I think the biggest contention was having multiple icons on the status bar. As you minimize more Firebug panels, you get more icons. This could look a little strange, but on the plus side, you get a visual indicator of how many Firebugs are actually running.

So, if you’re into testing bleeding edge debugging software, install this into a testing profile and try it out. Leave us a comment here or on the Firebug discussion page.

I would also like to note that auto updates to the 1.4 alpha line should be working again after a somewhat embarrassing typo made by yours truly to the install.rdf file. Thanks to “geki007″ for finding the error!

The Rules for This Particular Meme

• Link to your original tagger(s) and list these rules in your post. (see above)
• Share seven facts about yourself in the post. (see below)
• Tag seven people at the end of your post by leaving their names and the links to their blogs. (see below)
• Let them know they’ve been tagged. (you’ll just have to trust me)

Se7en Thing5

1. I have worked many different jobs in my lifetime. I have worked in retail selling clothes, stereos and parts for cars. I have worked on construction sites. I have been the guy with the leaf blower who gets your ball out of the windmill at the miniature golf course. Perhaps most-interestingly, I have dressed up as a giant stick of balogna (or “baloney” as some prefer to spell it) and made appearances at grocery stores.
2. I speak French. For the romance.
3. I am self-taught on the guitar and keyboard and can mash my way through most songs by ear. I dabble in recording music and have recorded bands with a laptop and some microphones. The first musical instrument I learned to play was the banjo. My parents thought it would be funny to show me to their friends playing dueling banjos “Deliverance-style” when I was 4 or 5 years old. I never forgave them.
4. Which brings me to cars. When I was 16 I got my driver’s license and proceeded to crash my father’s then-new 1987 Audi 4000S Quattro. I was attempting a timed-run from the mini-putt course (see #1) and crashed going around a turn at several times the posted speed limit. I maintain the car’s tires were under-inflated. The car was totalled. Later that year, I spun out on a patch of ice into a parked car in my mother’s Chevrolet Acadian (badged “Chevette” in the US and English-speaking Canada). It was not totalled, but the Toyota was. Still later, driving the same car, I was struck by a drunk elderly gentleman who drove through a stop-sign and broad-sided me. My first year of driving included 3 accidents. The Audi didn’t survive, but the Chevette is probably still on the road to this day. After that year, I got a 1978 BMW320i which I restored from the junk-heap. I stopped having accidents when I got my own car. (parents: there’s a lesson there)
5. My early lessons driving different vehicles in less than optimal conditions prepared me well for my task as a balloon chase driver. I have an uncle who flies hot-air balloons and often needs ground-crew to help inflate, deflate and chase after them in large pickup trucks in various exciting, often off-road conditions. I did this several times in my late-teens and early twenties including when he was sponsored by Shell Oil. We got special jump-suits for those outings which I think came from their line of pit-crew overalls. There’s a picture of me in the Halifax Herald from the early nineties with my uncle and the balloon in the Halifax Commons. His preferred metro launch site.
6. I have sailed to the Grenadine islands, specifically, Bequia just south of St. Vincent to deliver a boat for the winter chartering season. We departed from Shediac, New Brunswick, sailed on a 54′ Chinese-built sloop through the Strait of Canso at Port Hawkesbury, Nova Scotia and then into the deep Atlantic. First port of call was Bermuda after 10 days of not seeing land. It rained the entire time and we were in heavy waves. After Bermuda, the weather improved considerably. I got to experience “dead calm”, rapid oncoming storms, ball lightning and hearing Philipino and Greek sailors calling each other names over the radio. We had guns on-board “for pirates”. Grimmest moment: learning that we were in the Bermuda Triangle and had been for two days. I did not get seasick. Total distance: >4000kms.
7. I have been robbed at gun point while working in a pharmacy. The thief had backup in the form of another guy with a kitchen knife. No-one got hurt.

Seven People
Now the truly distasteful part. I have to name 7 people to do this same thing! Don’t be scared. If people ask why, you can tell them, The Internet Made Me Do It. Like Beltzner. And me.

1. Deb Richardson – you have been called. You blog all the time so this should be a piece of cake for you.
2. Kev Needham – you don’t blog enough. I bet you have some funny stories hidden away in there. Get ‘em out!
3. Chris Cooper – I know you like cheese, but there’s more to this story than meets the brie.
4. Neil Lee – Are those G4 and G5 builds really optimized? I just met you and not even in person! Give it up.
5. Mike Hoye – I don’t really know you at all. But you’re funny and you have a blog so I think you’ll be OK with this. I hope. Don’t hate me.
6. Paul Kim Johnath Nightingale – Paul’s having blog problems, so I’m going to double up on you.
7. Brad Sucks – I only met you, like, once, but I feel like I’ve known you all my life! You might think you’re “too cool for memes” and maybe you are, but you can’t refuse! Also, more puppy pics.

I’m sorry.

Happy Holidays everybody!

PS, to all my bearded brothers and sisters out there. Good work on the NSID. Peace.

a — Firefox Add-ons
b — Buildbot – MozillaWiki
c — Rancilio Silvia
d — Digg – All News, Videos, & Images
e — Expedia.ca
f — Issues – fbug – Google Code
g — Firebug Releases
h — ~robcee/
i — Is it friday?
j — Just Us! Coffee Roasters Co-op
k — FILM FREAK CENTRAL
l — IPhone: Track Free and Price-Dropped iPhone Apps
m — Mercurial – MDC
n — Newegg.ca – Computer Parts, PC Components, Laptop Computers, Digital Cameras and more!
o — The Onion – America’s Finest News Source
p — Mozilla Pastebin – collaborative debugging tool
q — The irc.mozilla.org QDB: Welcome
r — ReferencePlatforms – MozillaWiki
s — The Global Broadband Speed Test
t — Twitter / Home
u — tinderbox: UnitTest
v — VLC media player – Overview
w — Main Page – MozillaWiki
x — xkcd – A Webcomic – Ballmer Peak
y — Yammer
z — Zap Your PRAM Conference 2008

Update: Ed Lee (aka Mardak) has an excellent code snippet for producing these lists right from the Error Console in Firefox 3.1.