disable firebug 1.4.0b4 per domain

[xNephilimx]

Hi, everyone. I recently updated to firefox 3.5 and got the last
firebug version and it appears that the excelent feature "Disable
firebug for [domain]" was left out of this version. Is this true? was
this feature left out? It was such a great feature. If anyone knows a
way to do this, please let me know, I'll really appreciate it.

Also I realized that when you open the firebug panel, it keeps open in
any tab, I liked the old way so much more, when you could open the
firebug panel per tab.

I hope there's a way to request these features.

Thanks.

[johnjbarton]

On Jul 6, 8:51 am, xNephilimx <luciano.lo...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi, everyone. I recently updated to firefox 3.5 and got the last
> firebug version and it appears that the excelent feature "Disable
> firebug for [domain]" was left out of this version. Is this true? was

No, but the user interface for the feature is different:

In the upper right corner of the in browser UI, Firebug has three
buttons, roughly like:
[_] [8][X]

[_] : minimize Firebug. Firebug is active on the page but the UI is
hidden.
[8]: detach Firebug: Firebug is active on the page but the UI is in an
external window.
[X]: deactivate Firebug: Firebug is deactivated for this domain.

The Firebug status bar icon also minimizes Firebug if Firebug is open.

> this feature left out? It was such a great feature. If anyone knows a
> way to do this, please let me know, I'll really appreciate it.
>
> Also I realized that when you open the firebug panel, it keeps open in
> any tab, I liked the old way so much more, when you could open the
> firebug panel per tab.

The ability to set how Firebug opens on each domain was a complex
feature and it was removed in 1.4

In 1.4 the "placement" of Firebug is independent of the web page
selected in Firefox. So if you have Firebug open in the browser on one
page, every page you visit that has Firebug active will also have it
open in the browser. Similarly if you minimize Firebug in one page, it
will be minimized in every other page as well.

>
> I hope there's a way to request these features.

While I'm not planning more work on activation, I hope the added
explanation helps. If there are things you cannot do with the new UI,
please let us know.
jjb

[xNephilimx]

Thanks for the quick reply!
I first had to turn it off for all web pages, and then open it in the
ones I want to use it.

It's a little confusing though.

Thanks!

[johnjbarton]

By default Firebug is off for all web pages.

jjb

[Ryan Sullivan]

I think that this is the wrong approach. For someone who does a lot
of web development, I want firebug to be on for just the domains that
I want, and I want it to be hard to accidently turn off. I rely on
the js error counts on the firebug status icon, and since switching to
FF3.5 + FB1.4 I have missed a lot of errors because FB was off, where
I thought or expected it to be on. I have tried using the "On for All
Web Pages" option in the context menu, but that makes sites like Gmail
unresponsive. The list of domains that firebug should always be on
for was a much better solution for day to day use. Please add it back.

[johnjbarton]

I guess you may not realize that the [X] button on the far right side
acts differently in 1.4. The next release will make the difference
clear. Once you realize that the [X] deactivate Firebug for a domain,
I think things will be much better.

There are two controls for minimize, the function you probably want
instead of deactivate:
A minimize icon: [_] on the right
Toggling the firebug status bar icon

jjb

[Nick Foster]

Firebug is a great piece of software but the recent change in
activation is making things tricky for my web development work and
general browsing.

For example right now I have 20+ tabs open. I want firebug active on
them all except my Gmail tab (as it makes Gmail run like a dog) but if
I click "On for All Web Pages" then the "off" button isn't present so
I can't disable it for the Gmail domain. If I choose "Off for All Web
Pages" then I don't have the Gmail issue but if I make Firebug active
for a tab/domain and then switch tabs when I come back to the original
tab Firebug is off again.

I think the thing that is missing is the ability for Firebug to
maintain it's state between tab switches - like becoming a background
process. I am not sure if this is a bug or part of the new feature.

Either way perhaps you can help me by suggesting the settings I should
use to enable Firebug permanently on certain tabs but disable it
permanently on other tabs, and I still want to be able to minimise
Firebug (but it carries on running) for the tabs it is activated on -
as far as I can see this is only possible with domain based
activation?

Thanks

Nick

[johnjbarton]

On Jul 7, 9:57 pm, Nick Foster <n...@cinergix.com> wrote:
> Firebug is a great piece of software but the recent change in
> activation is making things tricky for my web development work and
> general browsing.

But our goal is not to be tricky. It is supposed to work great...

>
> For example right now I have 20+ tabs open. I want firebug active on
> them all except my Gmail tab (as it makes Gmail run like a dog) but if
> I click "On for All Web Pages" then the "off" button isn't present so
> I can't disable it for the Gmail domain. If I choose "Off for All Web
> Pages" then I don't have the Gmail issue but if I make Firebug active
> for a tab/domain and then switch tabs when I come back to the original
> tab Firebug is off again.

As currently implemented, the Off for All and On for All won't help
you. They really to mean "all" ;-)

>
> I think the thing that is missing is the ability for Firebug to
> maintain it's state between tab switches - like becoming a background
> process. I am not sure if this is a bug or part of the new feature.

I don't know what you mean here. Firebug maintains meta-data for each
tab you've activated it on. But if you select a tab that is not
active, like GMail, then Firebug suspends. Background activity on the
other tabs is not tracked while suspended. Note that the Firefox tabs
are an illusion: there is only one process here and one set of debug
APIs. We cannot suspend GMail and not the other tabs (well actually I
think we could get close by filtering, but we don't do it yet).

>
> Either way perhaps you can help me by suggesting the settings I should
> use to enable Firebug permanently on certain tabs but disable it
> permanently on other tabs, and I still want to be able to minimise
> Firebug (but it carries on running) for the tabs it is activated on -
> as far as I can see this is only possible with domain based
> activation?

I guess you are another victim of the [X] change. I'll spare you the
detail and go right to the suggestion:

1. Uncheck On for all and Off for all.
2. On the sites you want to debug, open Firebug. That activates
Firebug for the site.
3. Don't push [X]. That deactivates the site, you don't want it.
4. To minimize, either use the [_] minimize function or hit the
Firebug Status bar icon.
5. To unminimize, hit the Firebug Status bar icon.

Note that minimize is a property of Firebug now, not of the site/tab.
F12 is bound to the same toggle by default.

jjb

[Nick Foster]

[Snip]

> > I think the thing that is missing is the ability for Firebug to
> > maintain it's state between tab switches - like becoming a background
> > process. I am not sure if this is a bug or part of the new feature.
>
> I don't know what you mean here. Firebug maintains meta-data for each
> tab you've activated it on. But if you select a tab that is not
> active, like GMail, then Firebug suspends. Background activity on the
> other tabs is not tracked while suspended. Note that the Firefox tabs
> are an illusion: there is only one process here and one set of debug
> APIs. We cannot suspend GMail and not the other tabs (well actually I
> think we could get close by filtering, but we don't do it yet).
>

I understand the idea of single processes. See below your steps
(below) as I am not experiencing what you are describing.

>
>
> > Either way perhaps you can help me by suggesting the settings I should
> > use to enable Firebug permanently on certain tabs but disable it
> > permanently on other tabs, and I still want to be able to minimise
> > Firebug (but it carries on running) for the tabs it is activated on -
> > as far as I can see this is only possible with domain based
> > activation?
>
> I guess you are another victim of the [X] change. I'll spare you the
> detail and go right to the suggestion:
>
> 1. Uncheck On for all and Off for all.
> 2. On the sites you want to debug, open Firebug. That activates
> Firebug for the site.
> 3. Don't push [X]. That deactivates the site, you don't want it.
> 4. To minimize, either use the [_] minimize function or hit the
> Firebug Status bar icon.
> 5. To unminimize, hit the Firebug Status bar icon.

I followed your steps exactly and I think I get it - it seems to be
working as 1.3 now. I think the thing that was confusing me was the
"Off for all Web Pages" & "On for all Web Pages" menu options. It
seems it is really a three way switch:

* On for all Web Pages
* Off for all Web Pages
* User Activated per Web Page

(switching the first two off doesn't instinctively mean the third)
Just having the two options in the menu caused confusion and so
perhaps you should extend it to three mutually exclusive options.

Also can you clarify what 'Web Page' means? Does it mean domain - as
in two FF tabs both on the same domain will have Firebug switched on
or does it mean on a FF tab by tab basis?
Will Firebug remember my settings between FF restarts ie. Session
Manager style? - It seems too but perhaps you can confirm.

Cheers

Nick

[Matt]

I would like to have the ability to block Firebug for specific sites
and be on by default for all other websites.

My problem now is that for most web applications that I work on, I
want Firebug to be enabled--mostly because of the error count in the
browser's status bar (or else a lot of time is wasted, not knowing a
page has JavaScript or CSS errors on it) but also because it is an
extremely powerful and useful extension. However, I also participate
in many public developer discussion mailing groups so I need to have
an email account where spam filtering is really good and that means I
need to use Gmail. Unfortunately, Gmail is non-functional/non-
responsive when Firebug is enabled.

Currently, I have 2 competing choices:
1. Have Firebug off by default and lose time by not being notified of
JS and CSS errors
2. Have Firebug on by default and lose time when trying to check my
email waiting for Gmail to time out and then once it finally lets the
Firefox process respond to user interaction, temporarily disable
Firebug

Even just a simple about:config preference to define a regex for URL
matching would be perfect for me. Please consider this.

In the mean time, does anyone know of any extensions that can report
the JS/CSS error count in the status bar like Firebug does? If I had
an extension like this, then I would be perfectly okay with choice #1.

Thank you,
Matt

[Kara Rawson]

sounds like maybe firebug should have a quiet or stealth mode, which it
just sniffs for errors, but doesn't rerender the DOM or any of that
fanciness. IE doesn't create a super resource load on the browser. FB
typically makes evrtying run twice as slow.

Ive run in the same damn problem as you, arrrgh. My recomendation (dont
take this the wrong way) use thunderbird to check your gmail. Yes i know
what you are thinking, but for now it solves the problem.

kara

[johnjbarton]

If you like you could add you use case to
http://code.google.com/p/fbug/issues/detail?id=2045
(assuming the existing one is close to your needs).

jjb

[johnjbarton]

On Jul 17, 10:53 am, Kara Rawson <karacu...@gmail.com> wrote:
...

> sounds like maybe firebug should have a quiet or stealth mode, which it
> just sniffs for errors, but doesn't rerender the DOM or any of that
> fanciness. IE doesn't create a super resource load on the browser. FB
> typically makes evrtying run twice as slow.

With changes in Firefox we can't assign errors to the correct window
with out the Script panel enabled and with the Script panel enabled
eval() processing is on by default. If you don't use the JS debugger
for eval() you can try setting Firebug > Script > limiter(all) to
"static".

jjb

[Kara Rawson]

is there a way we could link all of these relate prefernces to one
master option toggle, like a button to have FB run on the most minimist
settings? Would the most minimal settings to FB yeild accepatble load
times and such. (Maybe use gmail as the acid test?)??

maybe stealth mode could just report on whats going on with firefox's
error console???

kara

[sir_brizz]

I posted, what I think, is a useful use-case on there involving
google.com. Hopefully that is what you're looking for. I have this
issue on my own development environment quite often because I have a
couple sites that make Firebug lock up Firefox.

[Polarbeast]

I'm running into the same issue where I'm really missing the "disable
for domain" option. I'm on Mac Firefox, and I see no set of "[_][8][X]
" buttons to use.

So I have both the "Off for All Web Pages" and "On for All Web Pages"
options unchecked, and try to open Firebug for just the tabs I want.

However, since I do a lot of Flash development, I usually have to
clear my cache and force-refresh to see changes made... which suddenly
shuts down Firebug for that tab ("Activate Firebug for the selected
Firefox tab"), and I have to re-Activate it. This gives me the "Reload
to activate window console" messaging because the site is busy
loading, so I have to refresh, again.

Am I setting something incorrectly?... and is there another means by
which I can keep Firebug perpetually active for certain sites, and
disabled for others?

Dave

[johnjbarton]

On Jul 17, 12:27 pm, Polarbeast <h...@deadlounge.com> wrote:
> I'm running into the same issue where I'm really missing the "disable
> for domain" option. I'm on Mac Firefox, and I see no set of "[_][8][X]
> " buttons to use.

Sorry I don't the mac, I did not realize the button were not in sync.

>
> So I have both the "Off for All Web Pages" and "On for All Web Pages"
> options unchecked, and try to open Firebug for just the tabs I want.
>
> However, since I do a lot of Flash development, I usually have to
> clear my cache and force-refresh to see changes made... which suddenly
> shuts down Firebug for that tab ("Activate Firebug for the selected

Firebug is attached to the web page, not the tab. Since Force-refresh
deletes the page, firebug deletes the corresponding metadata. I think
the next thing that Firefox does is create "about:blank" which causes
you to get the activate message. Then Firefox opens the page. Firebug
should start up on the page at that point, you should not need to do
anything. Most of the time the about:blank phase is short; I would
like to see if we can avoid the flashing of the UI.

> Firefox tab"), and I have to re-Activate it. This gives me the "Reload
> to activate window console" messaging because the site is busy
> loading, so I have to refresh, again.

Probably you are seeing an erroneous message.
http://code.google.com/p/fbug/issues/detail?id=2042&sort=-id

>
> Am I setting something incorrectly?... and is there another means by
> which I can keep Firebug perpetually active for certain sites, and
> disabled for others?

What happens if you force reload but just wait and don't click
anything until the page is loaded?

>
> Dave

[sir_brizz]

What is the behavior of having both "On for all pages" and "Off for
all pages" checked??? o_O

On Jul 17, 2:49 pm, johnjbarton <johnjbar...@johnjbarton.com> wrote:
> On Jul 17, 12:27 pm, Polarbeast <h...@deadlounge.com> wrote:
>
> > I'm running into the same issue where I'm really missing the "disable
> > for domain" option. I'm on Mac Firefox, and I see no set of "[_][8][X]
> > " buttons to use.
>
> Sorry I don't the mac, I did not realize the button were not in sync.
>
>
>
> > So I have both the "Off for All Web Pages" and "On for All Web Pages"
> > options unchecked, and try to open Firebug for just the tabs I want.
>
> > However, since I do a lot of Flash development, I usually have to
> > clear my cache and force-refresh to see changes made... which suddenly
> > shuts down Firebug for that tab ("Activate Firebug for the selected
>
> Firebug is attached to the web page, not the tab. Since Force-refresh
> deletes the page, firebug deletes the corresponding metadata.  I think
> the next thing that Firefox does is create "about:blank" which causes
> you to get the activate message. Then Firefox opens the page. Firebug
> should start up on the page at that point, you should not need to do
> anything.  Most of the time the about:blank phase is short; I would
> like to see if we can avoid the flashing of the UI.
>
> > Firefox tab"), and I have to re-Activate it. This gives me the "Reload
> > to activate window console" messaging because the site is busy
> > loading, so I have to refresh, again.
>

> Probably you are seeing an erroneous message.http://code.google.com/p/fbug/issues/detail?id=2042&sort=-id

[Polarbeast]

> Sorry I don't the mac, I did not realize the button were not in sync.<

No worries... I see that depending on the state, there is a down arrow
for minimize, an up arrow for launch new window, and the text "off" to
deactivate... which seems to work. So deactivating websites is not
troublesome... it's the keeping it activated for the sites I want that
I'm working around.

> What happens if you force reload but just wait and don't click anything until the page is loaded?<

The other aspects of Firebug--Net, DOM, HTML, CSS, etc.--all begin to
populate successfully. This I can work with, since Firebug is just
minimizing, and I can simply pop it back up.

Only the Console continues to display the "Reload to activate window
console" message... and it is the Console content that I'm looking
for, since I have Flash sending trace statements to it.

Many thanks for your response!

Dave

[recusant]

I realize that a more thought has probably gone into this than I can
imagine but I'd guess there are users who are finding the new per-
domain rather than per-tab setup a bit frustrating. It's not a big
inconvenience but, if you spend a lot of time working on CMS-based
sites, the per-domain basis is definitely not going to feel like an
improvement.

If you're working on any type of CMS, you're generally going back and
forth between an admin tab and a front-end tab and you're now having
to switch Firebug on or off each time. It was a luxury we took for
granted. We used to be able to keep Firebug active on the www.domain.com/index.php
tab while, on another tab, having access to www.domain.com/administrator/index.php
without Firebug.

If the per-domain basis was a switchable option, it's one I would
probably never use. Per-tab made more sense for CMS-based sites.

[johnjbarton]

On Jul 19, 1:31 pm, recusant <masonh...@googlemail.com> wrote:
> I realize that a more thought has probably gone into this than I can
> imagine but I'd guess there are users who are finding the new per-
> domain rather than per-tab setup a bit frustrating. It's not a big
> inconvenience but, if you spend a lot of time working on CMS-based
> sites, the per-domain basis is definitely not going to feel like an
> improvement.

Hmm..but Firebug never had a per-tab setup.

>
> If you're working on any type of CMS, you're generally going back and
> forth between an admin tab and a front-end tab and you're now having
> to switch Firebug on or off each time. It was a luxury we took for
> granted. We used to be able to keep Firebug active on thewww.domain.com/index.php
> tab while, on another tab, having access towww.domain.com/administrator/index.php
> without Firebug.

So use Firebug Icon Menu > Options > Activate Same Domain URL OFF
then on www.domain.com/adminstator/index.php, click "[U] OFF".

>
> If the per-domain basis was a switchable option, it's one I would
> probably never use.  Per-tab made more sense for CMS-based sites.

I wonder what about the 1.3 solution made this case work (since it was
not per tab).
jjb

[johnjbarton]

On Jul 17, 2:51 pm, Polarbeast <h...@deadlounge.com> wrote:
> > Sorry I don't the mac, I did not realize the button were not in sync.<
>
> No worries... I see that depending on the state, there is a down arrow
> for minimize, an up arrow for launch new window, and the text "off" to
> deactivate... which seems to work. So deactivating websites is not
> troublesome... it's the keeping it activated for the sites I want that
> I'm working around.
>
> > What happens if you force reload but just wait and don't click anything until the page is loaded?<
>
> The other aspects of Firebug--Net, DOM, HTML, CSS, etc.--all begin to
> populate successfully. This I can work with, since Firebug is just
> minimizing, and I can simply pop it back up.

Ok so Firebug is just working fine then.

>
> Only the Console continues to display the "Reload to activate window
> console" message... and it is the Console content that I'm looking
> for, since I have Flash sending trace statements to it.

And the bogus Reload message will be fixed in the next release.

>
> Many thanks for your response!

Your welcome, I appreciate you positive attitude.
jjb

> Dave

[benz]

I'll second recusant's comments - this is an invaluable tool, but the
1.4 per domain feature is proving very awkward to work with for CMS/
shopping cart//wordpress type work - anything with an Admin screen and
a frontend on the same domain.

For the first time ever this awesome tool is starting to feel awkward.
My apologies if I'm just not 'getting it' but the per tab approach
just worked :-)

The domain management approach sounds ultimately more promising but
ideally needs to be be something we can disable, or control more
precisely.
You could imagine having a 'domain profile' settings page where you
could enter URL paths/regexs and link them to firebug behaviour eg
enable Net, Console, Script for example.com, disable console, net,
script for for example.com/admin/*
Until that develops it would be great to toggle the behaviour between
old style and new.

[johnjbarton]

On Jul 19, 6:37 pm, benz <bdgeo...@gmail.com> wrote:
> I'll second recusant's comments - this is an invaluable tool, but the
> 1.4 per domain feature is proving very awkward to work with for CMS/
> shopping cart//wordpress type work - anything with an Admin screen and
> a frontend on the same domain.
>
> For the first time ever this awesome tool is starting to feel awkward.
> My apologies if I'm just not 'getting it' but the per tab approach
> just worked :-)

But there never was a per tab approach....

>
> The domain management approach sounds ultimately more promising but
> ideally needs to be be something we can disable, or control more
> precisely.
> You could imagine having a 'domain profile' settings page where you
> could enter URL paths/regexs and link them to firebug behaviour eg
> enable Net, Console, Script for example.com, disable console, net,
> script for for example.com/admin/

> Until that develops it would be great to toggle the behaviour between
> old style and new.

As in the previous post you can try Activate Same Domain URL OFF
jjb

[benz]

Thanks John that seems to be doing it - just to clarify is the option
you describe as

>So use Firebug Icon Menu > Options > Activate Same Domain URL OFF
>then on www.domain.com/adminstator/index.php, click "[U] OFF".

The one that's called "Activate Same Origin URL's" on the Mac version?
The impression I had from this blog post (http://blog.getfirebug.com/?
p=222) was that this option would do the opposite of what I was
looking for :-)

Cheers,
ben