LibX incompatible with Firefox 43.0

[Heidi Senior]

Hi everyone,

I happened to notice today that our reference desk computer didn't have the LibX toolbar, and in the process of remedying that I found that I was unable to install the toolbar for Firefox. The computer is running version 43.0. I updated my office computer to FF 43.0 and got a message that the LibX toolbar has been disabled -- see attached screen captures.

I wanted to make sure you were aware of this problem and was wondering if there will be a solution. I find the toolbar very helpful in my daily work and hope a solution is possible!

Thank you,

Heidi Senior

Heidi E. K. Senior

Reference/Instruction Librarian

Clark Library

University of Portland

5000 N. Willamette Blvd.

Portland, OR 97203

sen...@up.edu <> 503-943-8037

[Godmar Back]

For now, you have to use Google Chrome.

Firefox does not have the technology to automatically approve our extension, it'll take a long process that get it accepted by the AMO supervisors.

Even then, it will only be an 'unlisted' extension, that is, not offered as an Add-On to people searching for it.

The reason are the LibApps, which involve remotely loaded code, something FF policies forbid (that's because the browsers lacks a suitable sandboxing model to restrict their potential impact.)

I think we can get a signature from them, but it'll require fixing over 100 warnings that are emitted by the checking tool.  Perhaps it'll be a day or two during the break.

 - Godmar

[Senior, Heidi]

Thanks, I’m glad to hear that the problem might be fixed soon, and that the Chrome version continues to work.

 

Heidi Senior

[Debbie Flitner]

Hi Godmar,

 

Were you able to get a signature from the AMO supervisors for the Firefox version of LibX?  I’ve had a couple of users start asking about it and I want to be able to give them accurate information about when it might be usable again.

Thanks,

Debbie

[Michael Price]

Hi folks,
I noted that LibX was still working in the latest ESR release of Firefox
and so I've switched our Ref desk computers over to that release channel
for the time being...

   - https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/organizations/all/

-Mike

--

Michael Price
Library Applications Specialist
Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo

805.756.6481

mpr...@calpoly.edu

[Godmar Back]

I've been working my way through the new signing system. I think I got something working (sorry for being so vague).

I tested: fresh download from http://libx.org/releases/

And I think updating existing installs might work as well (that is, the add-on might reenable itself.)

Please give feedback if it doesn't work.

For certain icon sizes (like VT's :-() the toolbar shows the icon in skewed form - I couldn't figure out yet how to make the toolbar button shrink the icon and keep its aspect ratio. (Anything in XUL is time consuming due to the lack of documentation and standards.)

 - Godmar

[Jen Holman]

Hi Godmar -

I'm glad I found this group! I updated our edition and attempted to install in Firefox:



and it doesn't finish installing.  I very much appreciate you continuing to work on this. Has anyone gotten their edition working?

Thanks very much,
Jen Holman

[Jen Holman]

Okay, and of course after I posted this I got it working - choose the mystery button on the right.  Thanks for the fix Godmar!

Jen

[Godmar Back]

The lack of labels in your buttons is unlikely related to LibX.

That said, LibX is what's now called an "unlisted" add-on (like it was before). That is, the user has to confirm they want to install from libx.org.  

What the user downloads is a .xpi that is signed twice. First by Mozilla after they perform some automated checks. That signature is now required as of FF 43. Second by us to confirm that it's an update for a previous version of LibX. The second signature was required all along.

 - Godmar