Having one "brain" in a Firefox Addon? - firefox

I have an addon that every 5 minuets or so checks an rss feed for a new post, and if there is one, it displays an alert(). Problem is, I'm afraid that if the user opens multiple windows, that when there's a new post a millions of alerts will popup saying the same thing. Is there anyway to have just one "brain" running at a time?
Thanks in advance!

Look up something called "Javascript shared code modules" or JSMs.
Primary docs are here:
https://developer.mozilla.org/En/Using_JavaScript_code_modules
Each .js file in your addon that needs shared memory will open with the following line:
Components.utils.import("resource://xxxxxxxx/modules/[yourFilenameHere].jsm", com.myFirefoxAddon.shared);
The above line opens [yourFilenameHere].jsm and loads its exported (see below) functions and variables into the com.myFirefoxAddon.shared object. Each instance of that object loaded will point to the same instance in memory.
Note that if you want to have any hope of you addon making it past moderation, you will need to write all your code in a com.myFirefoxAddon.* type object as the goons at AMO are preventing approval of addons that do not Respect the Global Namespace
The biggest caveat for JSM is that you need to manually export each function that you want to be available to the rest of your code... since JS doesn't support public/private type stuff this strikes me as a sort of poor-man's "public" support... in any case, you will need to create an EXPORTED_SYMBOLS array somewhere in your JSM file and name out each function or object that you want to export, like this:
var EXPORTED_SYMBOLS = [
/* CONSTANTS */
"SERVER_DEBUG",
"SERVER_RELEASE",
"LIST_COUNTRIES",
"LIST_TERRITORIES_NOEX",
/* GLOBAL VARIABLES */
/* note: primitive type variables need to be stored in the globals object */
"urlTable",
"globals",
/* INTERFACES */
"iStrSet",
/* FUNCTIONS */
"globalStartup",
/* OBJECTS */
"thinger",
"myObject"
]

[edited] Modules are not the right solution to this problem, since the code will still be imported into every window and the whatever listeners/timers you set up will run in every window. You should be careful with using modules for this -- all the timers/callbacks must be set up in the module code (not just using the observer object defined in the module) and you shouldn't use any references to the window in the module.
The right way to do this is I would prefer to write an XPCOM component (in JS). It's somewhat complicated, yes and I don't have a handy link explaining how to do it. One thing: implementing it using XPCOMUtils is easier, older documentation will throw lots of boilerplate code on you.

Related

Best Way To Define Params For A Widget?

I'm creating a widget where there will be 2 types of params:
-The one that can change depending on where we call the widget, those one will be defined in the widget call:
<?php $this->widget('ext.myWidget', array(
'someParams' => 'someValues',
)); ?>
-The one that are the same for all the call to the widget (a path to a library, a place to save an image, ...)
I would like to know what is the best way to define the second type of parameters.
I'm hesitating between making the user define it in the params array in the config file or defining it in an array in the Widget file.
The main advantage of the first option is that the user won't have to modify the Widget file so in case of update his modifications won't be overwritten, but this is not a specific user params so putting it in the parmas array in config file might seem strange.
So what would be the best solution? If there is another one better thant the 2 above please tell me!
Edit:
To clarify my thought:
My widget will generate some images that can be stored in a configurable directory. But since this directory has to be the same each time the widget is called I don't see the point of putting this configuration into the widget call!
This is why I was thinking about putting some params into the config file, in the params array like:
params => array(
'myWidget' => array(
'imageDir' => 'images',
)
)
But I don't know if it is a good practice that an extension has some configuration values in the params array.
Another solution would be to have a config.php file in my extension directory where the user can set his own values so he won't have to modify his main config file for the plugin. But the main drawback of this alternative is that if the user update the extension, he'll loose his configuration.
This is why I'm looking for the best practice concerning the configuration of a widget
Maybe what your looking for is more of an application component than a widget. You've got a lot more power within a component that you have with a widget. It can all still live in your extensions directory, under a folder with all the relevant files, and still be easily called from anywhere but the configuration can then be defined in configuration files for each environment.
When your setting the component in your configs, just point the class array parameter to the extensions folder, instead of the components folder.
Update:
If you do want to use a widget because there's not a lot more complexity, you can provide some defaults within application configurations for widgets I believe, I've never used it myself, see here: http://www.yiiframework.com/doc/guide/1.1/en/topics.theming#customizing-widgets-globally.
But I've found with more complex widgets that a component serves me better in the long run as I can call methods and retrieve options on it much easier and cleaner, but still have everything related to the extension within one folder.

Codeigniter extend helper but want to call old helper

I am developing an Application in Bonfire.
They have extended the form helper.
Is there a way to call the original form helper from Codigniter without removing the extended one from Bonfire?
"Helpers" are just files with PHP functions in them. They aren't actually "extended", Codeigniter loads it's default helpers after loading yours, and checks if you "overwrote" a function like so:
if ( ! function_exists('form_open'))
{
function form_open() {/* default code */}
}
So unfortunately, no - there's no way to call the original function if you already declared your own.
HOWEVER: It appears that Bonfire does the exact same thing, checking with function_exists, so if you want to - you should be able to load your own form helper before it, but you still cannot simply load the original one without hacking Bonfire and removing the functions (which could have terrible side effects).
Faced the same prob, user742736's comment is the only answer that solved the prob.
Explained in detail, may be this can help some one
You can create your own helper function with out the divs surrounding the drop down here
bonfire/application/helpers/MY_form_helper.php
make a copy of the function form_dropdown, name it like form_dropdown_plain
modify the last few lines of the function to output with out divs
call form_dropdown_plain instead of form_dropdown

Can a Joomla module "know" what position it's in?

I'm fairly new to Joomla (I've been more of a Wordpress guy) and I have a question about module positions.
Can a module know what position it's in. For instance can I do something like this:
if(modulePosition =='left'){
Do this...
}else{
Do that...
}
It seems easy enough, but I've searched for hours and can't find anything that will help me with that. I know there is a countModules function but from what I can tell, that just checks to see if the module is active or not.
Thanks for your help!
I found the answer! Mostly thanks to #Hanny. His idea of using the modules id got me googling for that and I came across the answer. For anyone else that happens to be looking to do something similar here it is.
You use a global variable $module (who'd a thought, right?)
So my code now looks like this:
$class = '';
if($module->position == 'position1'){
$class = 'class1';
}
and so on...
Pretty simple, huh?
To find out what else you can do with the global variable $module just put this in your code and see what info you can use:
echo(print_r($module));
Thanks for all your help!
The short answer is 'yes', you'll assign a module a position based on your template. When it shows up you can have conditionals like that regarding that position (different templates have different naming conventions for positions, so make sure you know what they are before coding).
For example, some use "Position12", others may use "leftcol", etc. You just have to check in the template files to see (you can check the .xml file in the template directory to see the positions listed in the template, or look in the index.php file for the jdoc includes).
In some of my experience, the only time you'll really ever need code like that is in the core layout files of the template (for example, if you have different widths of columns depending on modules being present or not), otherwise there won't really be a time where you 'may or may not' have a module showing up - because you'll explicitly be telling them where to be and when on the back end.
I tried to comment under john's solution but I don't have a enough rep points-- I wanted to add it doesn't matter what you name the module position in your template case-wise the position name you get back from $module->position is always all lowercase regardless of how you named the position in the template... ie. in your template xml somewhere you might have topBar position will be named 'topbar' not 'topBar' when you try to check it with
if($module->position == 'topBar') //always false... use instead
if($module->position == 'topbar') //what you need to use
I'm going to disagree with Hanny. I think the answer is no, not as you describe.
The template knows when it has reached a module position, and it gets a list of modules assigned to that position, then calls for them to be rendered. But it doesn't pass that information on. It's not stored in JApplication or JDocument etc either (like, nothing stores where in the template the rendering is up to or anything).
There are some hacky ways to almost get what you want though. If you know the template positions you need to search (sadly there's no easy method for getting this from the template - otherwise you could parse your template's .XML file for <position> elements...), then you could do something like:
<?php
$positions = array('left', 'right', 'top', 'bottom')
$found_in = false;
foreach ($positions as $cur_position)
{
$module_positions = JModuleHelper::getModules($cur_position);
foreach ($module_positions as $cur_module_in_pos)
{
if ($cur_module_in_pos->module == 'mod_MYMODULE')
{
$found_in = $cur_position;
}
}
}
if ($found_in)
...
Of course, this doesn't work well if your module is included multiple times on the page, but maybe that's an assumption you can make?
Otherwise it'd be up to hacking the core - you could use a JDispatcher::trigger() call before the template calls a module, set some var etc. Unfortunately there's no such event in core to start (a pre_module_render or something).
A module instance is assigned to a single position and this is stored in the database and normally you would style the position in the template. A module instance can only be assigned to one position. So while it's an interesting question, it's not really a practical one.
The exceptions to this are the following:
loadposition ... you might want to know if a module is being loaded using the plugin because this would put it potentially somewhere besides the styled area for the position. THough i would recommend always making a new instance for this precisely so you have more control.
loadmodule ... module loaded by name using the plugin. In this case again you are probably better off making a new instance of the module and styling it. Also I'd put it in a span or div anyway, depending what it is.
jdocinclude:module ... loading a module directly in a template. Again if you are doing this I would wrap it in a span or div. In this case you are also allowed to include a string of inline styles if you like that kind of thing.
Rendering the module to a string and echoing it, again that is basically a very customized solution and you would want to set the styles and options.

How can I view information about a variable or array in symfony 1.4

I am trying to learn symfony framework by creating a small project.
Since I started developing the project I have been wondering if there is a convenience function to see the contents or information of a variable or array anywherea in the application by print_r or echo or var_dump (I can use the aforesaid function straight away anywhere in the application but the output is not properly readable in case of large arrays, moreover there are warnings showin like header already sent etc. etc.).
I have also used cakePHP and it has a convenience function named pr() which prints out the contents of variable or array nicely indented (properly readable).
If I had to create such function than how can I make sure that it can be called anywhere in the application?
Any tips (links/blogs/tutorials) related to "how to debug your symfony applications" are greatly appreciated.
To put it simple: you can't output debug "things" in your controller. The controller has nothing to do with the View (output), so when executing it does not know if there's going to be any output.
But, you can output debug "things" in your controller ;-)...
Just print_r() or var_dump(). And immediately die afterwards. That way you can see your debugging.
Call the logger. $this->getLogger()->debug($message);
Add a custom slot which you assign in your controller ($this->getResponse()->setSlot('debug', $debugData)). And include this slot somewhere in your layout file (preferably only in the dev environment.)

How to add components in to an existing GUI created by guide?

I just created a GUI using guide in MATLAB for a small project I'm working on. I have amongst other things two text fields for from and to dates. Now I'd like to get rid of them and use a Java date select tool. Of course this is not possible using guide so I need to add them manually.
I've managed to get them to show up by putting this code into my Opening_Fcn,
uicomponent(handles, 'style','com.jidesoft.combobox.DateChooserPanel','tag','til2');
using UICOMPONENT.
But even though it shows up I can't access the date select's attributes, for example
get(handles.til2)
returns
??? Reference to non-existent field 'til2'.
How can I fix this?
Unless you edit the saved GUI figure, the basic handles structure will not include your new component by default.
One way to access you component is to store the handle via guidata, by adding the following to your opening function:
handles.til2 = uicomponent(handles, 'style','com.jidesoft.combobox.DateChooserPanel','tag','til2');
guidata(hObject,handles)
Functions that need to access the handle need the line
handles = guidata(hObject)
to return the full handles structure that includes the filed til2

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