Firecrow - plugin for extracting client side web UI controls

[jomaras]

Hi everybody,

For the last couple of months i've been building a Firebug plugin
called Firecrow, which can be used to extract client side UI controls.
Basically the end idea is that you select a node in Firebug's HTML
panel and replicate the behavior that you wish to extract. Based on
the data gathered during that interaction the tool will extract ONLY
html code, css styles, js code, resources (images, fonts..) that are
needed for that UI control and store it on the disk. Optionally you
can choose to embed the extracted UI control directly into an
existing page.

The tool is far from finished - it's in early alfa stage, so currently
it isn't able to extract every UI control that you encounter (actually
it will screw something up on a large number of them :) ).

I've made three videos demonstrating some of the tool's capabilities:
http://www.fesb.hr/~jomaras/index.php?id=apps

Once it's finished the tool will be open source (there is a version on
the source forge, but it's messy and i've only tested on my comp and a
couple of others, so i offer no guaranties..)

Basically, i've posted here so that i can get your feedback. What do
you think of the idea?
Any comments will be greatly appriciated!

Thanks for your time

Josip

[Mike Ratcliffe]

I really like the idea that code coverage is built into your extension
as it can be used to cut dead code out of apps ... it must work well
if it can follow jquery code ;o) It is also useful to see how a
control has been implemented and how it could be improved.

An excellent extension ... you said it is in early alpha, would you
say that it is ready to use yet?

[Mike Ratcliffe]

BTW: Your xpi does not work because you have the contents in a
firecrow folder inside the xpi ... move them to root and it will work
fine.

On Sep 5, 11:37 pm, jomaras <joma...@gmail.com> wrote:

[jomaras]

Hi Mike,

Sorry for the xpi; i wasn't thinking - i hastly uploaded it this
morning.. Now it should be fine..

For the "is it ready to use yet" - i've tested it on about a dozen
realworld web apps, and it works (but i still have a long way to go)
You can try, eg:

http://www.dalmatino.hr/ (the slider control)
http://www.idt.mdh.se/pride/ (also the slider)
http://www.launchlist.net/ (textboxes, iPod buttons...)
http://www.andreashinkel.com/ (the polaroid menu items)
http://www.gheehappy.com/book1.html (again, the slider)

Thanks for the feedback!

[Mike Ratcliffe]

Pressing Ctrl + F to find something in the browser crashes the browser
every time when the extension is enabled.

On Sep 6, 3:06 pm, jomaras <joma...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi Mike,
>
> Sorry for the xpi; i wasn't thinking - i hastly uploaded it this
> morning.. Now it should be fine..
>
> For the "is it ready to use yet" -  i've tested it on about a dozen
> realworld web apps, and it works (but i still have a long way to go)
> You can try, eg:
>

> http://www.dalmatino.hr/(the slider control)http://www.idt.mdh.se/pride/(also the slider)http://www.launchlist.net/(textboxes, iPod buttons...)http://www.andreashinkel.com/(the polaroid menu items)http://www.gheehappy.com/book1.html(again, the slider)

[jomaras]

Thanks, i'll look into it (as i wrote this is still an early version
and there are bound to be bugs like that..)

On 6 ruj, 16:32, Mike Ratcliffe <mich...@ratcliffefamily.org> wrote:
> Pressing Ctrl + F to find something in the browser crashes the browser
> every time when the extension is enabled.
>
> On Sep 6, 3:06 pm, jomaras <joma...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>
>
> > Hi Mike,
>
> > Sorry for the xpi; i wasn't thinking - i hastly uploaded it this
> > morning.. Now it should be fine..
>
> > For the "is it ready to use yet" -  i've tested it on about a dozen
> > realworld web apps, and it works (but i still have a long way to go)
> > You can try, eg:
>

> >http://www.dalmatino.hr/(theslider control)http://www.idt.mdh.se/pride/(alsothe slider)http://www.launchlist.net/(textboxes, iPod buttons...)http://www.andreashinkel.com/(thepolaroid menu items)http://www.gheehappy.com/book1.html(again, the slider)