Why does it "protect" right part of add-on bar not allowing me to customize icons

[V S Rawat]

When I click customize, I find ff putting a zebra blockade on part of
add on toolbar at bottom, not allowing me to customize icons there?

What is so pious in these a few icons that these can't be presented to
used to relocate in the add on bar itself or to be shifted to navigation
or other tool bars?

Thanks.
--
Rawat

[VanguardLH]

"V S Rawat" wrote:

> When I click customize, I find ff putting a zebra blockade on part of
> add on toolbar at bottom, not allowing me to customize icons there?

http://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/add-on-bar-quick-access-to-add-ons#w_what-happened-to-the-status-bar

My guess is you installed an add-on that wants to show its icon in the
old status bar that is no longer present. I have Fiddler2 installed and
when I customize it has the zebra bar you mention which makes its icon
unmovable within the add-on toolbar. Fiddler2 has the option of not
showing its statusbar icon or you can edit is fiddlerhook.js file to
delete or comment out:

pref("extensions.fiddlerhook.showstatusbar", true);

From what I see in its firefoxOverlay.xul file, it looks like Fiddler is
creating a statusbar extension (not a button to the add-on toolbar):

<!-- https://developer.mozilla.org/en/Creating_a_dynamic_status_bar_extension -->
<statusbar id="status-bar">
<statusbarpanel id="status-bar-panel-FiddlerHook"
label="FiddlerHook"
tooltiptext="Fiddler"
popup="fiddlerHookStatusMenu"
context="fiddlerHookStatusMenu"
/>
</statusbar>

Read:
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Creating_a_dynamic_status_bar_extension

So what you are trying to drag (the zebra barred section) is not in the
add-on toolbar. Fiddler probably tries to encompass support for
multiple versions of Firefox so it still employs a statusbar icon. You
never identified what icons you see that are zebra barred.

<snipped the rant>

[V S Rawat]

my zebra bar covered icons are ghostery, securelogin, go top/bottom,
screengrab, lazarus

how do I find which of these has put that zebra bar, and how to remove
zebra bar.

for that matter, I wanted go top bottom icons on the navigation bar at
top, not here at the addon bar.

--
If a single addon has added the zebra bar protection, why is it
protecting other addons' icons there?

Thanks.
--
Rawat

[WaltS]

Firefox Code is providing the Zebra bar. It is called the Add-ons bar
for a reason. It is where icons for extensions go.

Icons from the Customize window like Cut, Copy, Paste, etc. are not
allowed to be placed there.

--
Fedora 17 (64-bit) KDE 4.9.2
Thunderbird Beta (17.0) Install and test it.
Win the popular vote, but lose the election?
http://www.nationalpopularvote.com/

[V S Rawat]

I have already put icons for "Cut, Copy, Paste, etc. " in add on bar,
and nothing stopped me.

and all three are working well from addon bar itself.

What is problem in putting them there? I would like to put my icons
wherever it was convenient to me to access them.

--
for the original problem, now I want go top/bottom addon's three icons
to get removed from under the zebra, and go to navigation bar. how
should I do that?

I just want to disable zebra bar. how to do that?

should I do as you suggested above. haven't yet tried because I didn't
have Fiddler2 addon installed so I thought these links could be that
addon specific.

Thanks.
--
Rawat

[WaltS]

I guess I should have tested that. Apologies, and thanks for teaching me
something new.

> for the original problem, now I want go top/bottom addon's three icons
> to get removed from under the zebra, and go to navigation bar. how
> should I do that?

What is go top/bottom? An extension? Does it have a preferences button
in Add-ons manager that you can change where the icons are placed?

>
> I just want to disable zebra bar. how to do that?

I don't want to disable it, and don't know.

<snip>

--
Fedora 17 (64-bit) KDE 4.9.2
Thunderbird Beta (17.0) Install and test it

One state should not decide an election
http://www.nationalpopularvote.com/

[V S Rawat]

My pleasure.

Keep them there. You might also find it quite convenient to handle them
from there, like I am finding.

Thanks.
--
Rawat

[V S Rawat]

it is actually "Back to Top"
http://softwarebychuck.com/backtotop/backtotop.html

its three icons give various left/right/middle clicking options to take
directly to top/bottom of loaded page from wherever we are in the page.
are in rightclick context menu also.

it spares me a lot of mouse scrolling. very handy.

--
Rawat

[Tarkus]

On 11/7/2012 12:26 PM, V S Rawat wrote:
> it is actually "Back to Top"
> http://softwarebychuck.com/backtotop/backtotop.html
>
> its three icons give various left/right/middle clicking options to take
> directly to top/bottom of loaded page from wherever we are in the page.
> are in rightclick context menu also.
>
> it spares me a lot of mouse scrolling. very handy.

So like Home and End? ;)

[V S Rawat]

yeah, but home and end are keyboard thinggies. when we are scrolling
through a mouse, it is convenient to move mouse quickly to an icon and
click, instead of moving hand to keyboard, press the key, go back to
hold mouse. :-)

Waiting for the day when tb-ff will be fully keyboard and fully mouse.
currently we have to necessarily use both keyboard and mouse for obvious
things also.

Thanks.
--
Rawat

[WaltS]

Page Up/Page Down ? ;)

[The Wanderer]

On 11/07/2012 07:57 AM, V S Rawat wrote:

> for the original problem, now I want go top/bottom addon's three icons to get
> removed from under the zebra, and go to navigation bar. how should I do
> that?

1: Go to each add-on which is providing one of the icons you want to move.

2: Find the option(s) for "show toolbar button(s)", and enable it/them.

3: Find the option(s) for "show status-bar icon(s)", and disable it/them.

4: Open the "Customize Toolbar" dialog, and move any new toolbar icons to where
you want them.


If one of those add-ons turns out to be missing one or both of those options,
then you're out of luck; as far as I've been able to discover, there is no way
to move the icon to the navigation bar without modifying the add-on.

> I just want to disable zebra bar. how to do that?

As I understand it, you have four (or possibly five) options:

1: Disable the "show a status-bar icon" option on all of the add-ons which are
showing icons there. (Again, if there is no such option, this won't work.)

2: Disable or remove those add-ons themselves.

3. Modify all of those add-ons so that they provide a toolbar button, not a
status-bar icon.

4: Patch Firefox to add an option for not displaying the "old status-bar icons"
area.

(It might also be possible to create an add-on to remove display of the "zebra
bar", but I'm not sure about that. If it is possible that would be a fifth option.)


Except for option 3, all of these approaches would mean that you won't have any
toolbar icon for any of these add-ons at all.

--
The Wanderer

Warning: Simply because I argue an issue does not mean I agree with any
side of it.

Every time you let somebody set a limit they start moving it.
- LiveJournal user antonia_tiger

[V S Rawat]

I could get ghostery and securelogin icons out of the zebra.

lazarus was appearing under zebra, and when I asked it in options to hid
status bar, there was no icon left any where, not even in customize
window to place elsewhere, so I have to switch the display on again. it
is still under zebra.

screengrab was under zebra, its options have no method of hiding it, so
I have also put another copy of its icon. Now one icon is in unzebra
part of addon bar, another icon is covered under zebra.

Back to top was unique. I aksed it to stop showing 3 icons in addon bar,
it still shows them, under zebra. there was one more set of 3 icons so I
have added that to top navigation bar. Now I have two sets of icons.

So, now, Back to Top, screengrab and lazarus are under zebra.

Thanks.
--
Rawat

[V S Rawat]

On 11/9/2012 7:06 PM, The Wanderer wrote:

[The Wanderer]

On 11/09/2012 09:41 AM, V S Rawat wrote:

> On 11/9/2012 7:06 PM, The Wanderer wrote:
>
>> On 11/07/2012 07:57 AM, V S Rawat wrote:
>>
>>> for the original problem, now I want go top/bottom addon's three icons to
>>> get removed from under the zebra, and go to navigation bar. how should I
>>> do that?
>>
>> 1: Go to each add-on which is providing one of the icons you want to move.
>>
>> 2: Find the option(s) for "show toolbar button(s)", and enable it/them.
>>
>> 3: Find the option(s) for "show status-bar icon(s)", and disable it/them.
>>
>> 4: Open the "Customize Toolbar" dialog, and move any new toolbar icons to
>> where you want them.
>>
>>
>> If one of those add-ons turns out to be missing one or both of those
>> options, then you're out of luck; as far as I've been able to discover,
>> there is no way to move the icon to the navigation bar without modifying
>> the add-on.
>

> I could get ghostery and securelogin icons out of the zebra.
>
> lazarus was appearing under zebra, and when I asked it in options to hid
> status bar, there was no icon left any where, not even in customize window to
> place elsewhere, so I have to switch the display on again. it is still under
> zebra.

Yeah, that's the main "out of luck" case I was talking about: no option for a
non-status-bar toolbar button.

> screengrab was under zebra, its options have no method of hiding it, so I
> have also put another copy of its icon. Now one icon is in unzebra part of
> addon bar, another icon is covered under zebra.

And that's the other "out of luck" case: no way to turn off the status-bar icon.

> Back to top was unique. I aksed it to stop showing 3 icons in addon bar, it
> still shows them, under zebra. there was one more set of 3 icons so I have
> added that to top navigation bar. Now I have two sets of icons.

Hmm. I'm not familiar with that add-on, but from that description, it sounds
like there really should be a combination of options that would let you have
only one set of icons (the toolbar buttons)... it might be worth playing around
with that a bit more.

> So, now, Back to Top, screengrab and lazarus are under zebra.
>
> Thanks.

You're quite welcome.

[V S Rawat]

I even disabled the three addons, one by one. (restarting after each
disabling) whichever was left was still coming under zebra.

Then I uninstalled the three addons.

And reinstalled them one by one (restarting after each install)

whichever came back was under zebra.

now I have icons of all three under zebra, and I am none the wiser how
exactly the zebra came from?

Thanks.
--
Rawat

[V S Rawat]

I started ff with my old profile. there also, screengrab was coming
under zebra. I had not installed back to top and lazarus addons then.

in old profile, addon bar icons were coming clubbed to the left end of
addon bar, whereas they come right end of addon bar in new one.

Thanks.
--
Rawat

[The Wanderer]

On 11/09/2012 10:28 AM, V S Rawat wrote:

> I even disabled the three addons, one by one. (restarting after each
> disabling) whichever was left was still coming under zebra.
>
> Then I uninstalled the three addons.
>
> And reinstalled them one by one (restarting after each install)
>
> whichever came back was under zebra.
>
> now I have icons of all three under zebra, and I am none the wiser how
> exactly the zebra came from?

As I understand matters, what you're calling the "zebra" is simply the space
which Firefox reserves for old-style status-bar buttons.

Back in the day, before there was such a thing as the "add-on bar", there was a
hook which add-ons could use to say "Put an icon in the status bar". Status-bar
icons were not movable and not configurable, except when the add-on itself
included configuration options.

When the add-on bar was introduced, the status bar was removed. In order to
prevent add-ons which still used the old "Put an icon in the status bar" hook
from being broken, Firefox introduced what you are calling the "zebra" area,
located in the add-on bar.

When there is an add-on which wants to use the old "Put an icon in the status
bar" hook, Firefox adds the "zebra" area to the add-on bar, so that there is
somewhere to put the icon.

Just like the old, pre-addon-bar version of the status bar, there is no way to
modify or configure the "zebra" area except for what the add-ons themselves
provide. If you want to get rid of the need for the "zebra" area, you have to
modify the add-ons which ask for it, so that they don't ask for it anymore.

It might be reasonable to ask the Firefox developers to introduce an option to
move the "zebra" area to somewhere other than the add-on bar. However, first,
doing so would probably not be very useful, because you would have to move the
entire "zebra" area as a whole (instead of being able to move individual icons);
and second, rumor has it that they are going to remove the add-on bar entirely,
and so it's not very likely that they would take the time to do this in the
first place.

[V S Rawat]

In the new style of firefox, where menu bar can be hidden, there is no
direct access to Tools menu items where the addons were adding there
menu entry. in such a case, Add on bar came as a boon so that add ons
can put their icons in add on bar, giving quick access.

now, if the addon bar is removed the same problem would come that we
will have to fiddle around to find the add on activation through the
menu entries, or we have to switch on the main menu bar.

addon bar is good, and will become better if ff can directly put at
least one icon of each addon in the addon bar right at the time of
installing, saving the user botheration of customizing to move the icon
from customize window to add on bar.

Thanks for explaining the dynamics of this all.
--
Rawat