Bloglines Toolkit 1.7.0 »
It's been a monstrous fifteen months since I last updated the Bloglines Toolkit. Frankly, there just isn't that much of a reason to do so. Unfortunately, the Bloglines Notifier API just hasn't changed that much. Ever. And since it hasn't, there just isn't that much to be done with the toolkit. I did have a branch of the tookit at one time that offered an unread count in the status bar, but since there was so much trouble getting the icon to look right in the first place, I eventually decided against releasing it, and figured I'd just stick with things the way they are.
So why is there an update now? For several reasons. First and foremost, to get some updated languages out there. Some of you may be interested to know that the extension is now available in 13 languages, thanks to the fine folks at BabelZilla. This release includes Danish (da-DK), Italian (it-IT), Korean (ko-KR) and Polish (pl-PL). Second, I wanted to see if things would work in Firefox version 3 (it does), so I updated the MaxVersion string, and made a couple of other tweaks as well. Finally, I updated the copyright dates and web site links.
That's about it really - functionally, everything else is the same as it ever has been, just in more languages and updated to work in the latest version of Firefox (and it should continue to work in Flock too, but I don't use Flock, so I don't know that for sure.
Anyone who is interested in helping to continue the translation effort, head over to BabelZilla and sign up for a language. I'll include them in the next distribution. Those of you who have already helped out, thanks much!
Get it now. Anyone monitoring for updates may have already been notified that a new version is available. If you haven't, check for updates - it's there now!
Comments (20)
I downloaded your Bloglines Mozilla Extension, and when I right-click the "B" icon in the lower right corner of my browser, the preferences are in a language other than English. Why is that? I'm using SeaMonkey 1.1.9.
Posted by KJC | April 2, 2008 5:19 PM
Hi KJC -
Honestly, I can't say. I've never tested it under SeaMonkey. It looks fine under Firefox (2.x and 3.x). Anyone else seeing this? You may want to try re-downloading the extension, to make sure it isn't corrupt or anything, and just for kicks see if it works in Firefox (or another Mozilla platform).
Posted by Chad Everett | April 3, 2008 10:37 AM
I just installed the toolkit 1.7.0 (I had 1.6.8) in the hopes it would resolve an issue I had; alas, it didn't. I have new messages on the feeds, but the notified doesn't tell me anymore. This started late last week. IS there some way to turn on logging/debugging and see what's going on?
Posted by Jonathan Wildstrom | May 19, 2008 9:42 AM
Hi Jonathan -
This doesn't have anything to do with the Toolkit. It's the Bloglines API.
To test, first log into Bloglines, to see if you have some unread items. Once you do, go here:
http://rpc.bloglines.com/update?user=foo@example.com
Where "foo@example.com" is your email address, as registered at Bloglines. You should be able to use your username as well, but the email address always works, and the username doesn't, so I'd suggest using the email address.
You should get a response that looks like this:
|0||
The number (0 in this case) is the number of unread items. According to Bloglines (the UI), I have 103 items unread at this moment (items set to not notify will affect this count, so be aware of this).
In any case, according to the API, as you can see, I have 0. As long as the API reports 0, the Bloglines Toolkit will report the same - it can't report anything different, unfortunately - but it's not a Toolkit issue.
Posted by Chad Everett | May 19, 2008 9:55 AM
Thanks; I remembered something like that, but not how to do it. OK, over to complain at bloglines...
Posted by Jonathan Wildstrom | May 19, 2008 10:56 AM
Chad, You could use the Sync API instead of the Notifier API. It has detailed unread counts, and it works. You could even extend the plugin so that a popup shows which RSS feed has been updated, but that's just a dream. ;-)
Dirk.
Posted by Dirk Moebius | May 30, 2008 11:31 AM
@Dirk -
The Sync API is definitely more robust - it just means I have to figure out how to read the data, not to mention the popop/slider and build a new interface. I'll add it to my list of things to do. :)
Posted by Chad Everett | June 2, 2008 9:29 AM
Hi, I have toolkit 1.7.0 working for 2 weeks, this morning I found the "B" no longer report new items in Bloglines although there are 200+ waiting for me, uninstall and reinstall doesn't help. I left click on the "B" it cannot bring me the Bloglines page but just report no new item. I have to right click and disable the "Notifier Option" in order to get my Bloglines page to load. Any idea what's going wrong all of a sudden?
Posted by Samson Luk | July 17, 2008 5:00 AM
Yes, having similar problems myself. Worked fine just a few days ago. Great program, so hope the error is fixed soon!
Posted by Gregg | July 17, 2008 12:26 PM
The problem's happened before; it's a bloglines issue, not a notifier issue.
I tried to post this a while back, but for some reason, it got eaten. I've started using beta.bloglines.com for my feeds. Would it be possible to have a future version of the notifier allow alternate URLs to use?
Posted by Jonathan Wildstrom | July 17, 2008 12:49 PM
Thanks for the reminder Jonathan - for the rest of you, the instructions are above, in the fourth comment. I can't make Bloglines work. Sorry!
(And yes, the Sync API is probably a potential solution, but I still don't have time to rewrite the extension to do this, and the Sync API may have the same problem.)
As to an alternate URL - you can do this now, it just takes a bit of work. Open up the btoolkit.dtd file (found in the language-appropriate directory of the distribution file), and edit the appropriate string (the default is btoolkit.url.bloglines). Then save and repackage everything and re-install. It should work fine - basically akin to installing an alternate language. Hope this helps!
Posted by Chad Everett | July 17, 2008 1:11 PM
Thanks guys. They seem to have gotten it working again.
Posted by Gregg | July 17, 2008 1:51 PM
Confirmed, works again now ... :-)
Posted by Samson Luk | July 18, 2008 5:28 AM
It won't install now :(
Posted by Victor Chavez | December 17, 2008 7:27 PM
Hi Victor -
You'll have to be a bit more specific. I have no problem installing. Can you provide any more information?
Posted by Chad Everett | December 18, 2008 8:52 AM
Chad,
I noticed Bloglines toolkit links to https://www.bloglines.com/myblogs/
for whatever odd reason, bloglines is not supporting that url anymore.
Could you advise on how to change the url to drop the s or provide an update?
Ive been using this extension for what feels like forever & eternally gracious that you spent your time to make it.
Thanks
- Andy
Posted by Andy | January 5, 2009 7:48 PM
Hi Andy -
Assuming that you are using version 1.7.0, if the problem is just the https at the beginning, go into the prefs and turn off the checkbox that says "Use SSL When Available". It is perhaps a bit misleading - because obviously SSL isn't available, and it's still trying to use it. I didn't put a timeout in there or anything, because it didn't really work out. But just turn it off and save your prefs and it will try a regular http connection the next time.
In fact, that's the default (it's what is in the strings, anyway) - you have to turn it on. Hope this helps!
Posted by Chad Everett | January 6, 2009 9:45 AM
Worked perfect. Thanks Chad. Like i said...this is my fave plugin.
Posted by Andy | January 7, 2009 1:32 PM
Hi Chad
New Firefox user and I just put your bloglines program on my machine. The text on bloglines says it will:
"In addition to embedding a notifier within the lower-right portion of the browser window, the extension adds a number of additional options to the right-click context menu. Right click on a web page, and you will have the option to subscribe to it within Bloglines or find references to that page. Highlight text within a web page, and the context menu will offer the option to search Bloglines for that text."
When I right-click on the web page there is no selection that says "subscribe to bloglines" - what am i looking for to complete that command?
Posted by Kel | January 11, 2009 3:08 AM
Hi Kel -
Check your preferences, to make sure you have enabled any options you want to be active.
Posted by Chad Everett | January 12, 2009 10:52 AM