[TheShooter93]

Hello,

I was looking through the Google Chrome App Store for different things that might be of some use to me. Most of them are for games or are senseless apps, though I do have an email notification app.

About 10 minutes of searching later, I realized that the only thing I was really missing was an app telling me if I had any notifications here on TSG. I know there is the option of sending an email, and that is what I do for other tech support sites I'm on, but I've always liked that TSG has separate notifications under "My Account."

I don't have any idea of the size of project, this could be something simple or very complex - hoping someone who knows more about programming web apps would be able to shed some light on this.

What do you guys think of the web app idea?

[Ent]

You don't feel like taking on a programming challenge?

A very long time ago (it hasn't worked since Fx version 3.5) Ciberblade made a TSG add-on for firefox. I'm sure that the same sort of thing could be made for Chrome. I don't know how, but that's normal for new ideas.

However if I remember correctly (I'll check in a minute), that particular add-on just added a menu of links for getting to the different fora.
If you want something that is more interactive, such as informing you of interesting new things, the programming task gets harder fast.
1. You need to think about security/identification.
2. You need a permanent AJAX style link to the server, or at least need to be regularly querying it for new information. You'd also want to think about the possible bandwidth implications of this.
3. You need extra code on the server allowing it to respond appropriately to said queries. This is possible (combine "my account", the notification area, and some sort of "unread threads" code) but an additional hurdle. In other words, it can't just be an initiative by one member.

Then of course you need to think about the logos, menu, whether it changes colour when there's something juicy, all the normal challenges of a programmer.

None of these are necessarily prohibitive, and of course it depends on what you actually have in mind. Definitely a good idea though.

[Ent]

Originally Posted by Ent

However if I remember correctly (I'll check in a minute), that particular add-on just added a menu of links for getting to the different fora.

Yep. See Screenshot.

[TheShooter93]

Ah, gotcha.

Yeah, I know a little of C and a little of Java, but that's about it with programming.

I wonder if there's anyone in our community that would be up for the challenge.

[Cookiegal]

Cypherblade? Ummmmm I believe it's Ciberblade.

[Ent]

Hmm, must have been, err, encrypted in transmission.
OOPS.

[Cookiegal]

Originally Posted by Ent

Hmm, must have been, err, encrypted in transmission.
OOPS.

That would be Decypherblade.

[TheShooter93]

Originally Posted by Cookiegal

That would be Decypherblade.

Haha.

[ckphilli]

This actually sounds like a really cool idea...kind of like a notification add on for the top right corner that functions like pm's. Maybe limited to subscribed threads in the last 48 hours that have a response.

[Ent]

I agree it would be really cool. Even cooler if it worked for Firefox.

I guess we need to wait and see what Mike thinks is possible on the server side.

[TheShooter93]

Originally Posted by Ent

Even cooler if it worked for Firefox.

I guess we need to wait and see what Mike thinks is possible on the server side.

Google Chrome World's Most Popular Web Browser

Must disagree with you there, I love my Chrome.

Was a Firefox user for years though.

But yeah, I'm interested to see what is possible from our end.

[Ent]

It looks like Chrome extensions are primarily written in standard web-dev technology (such as HTML and JS), though you still need additional chrome-specific code to work with things like tabs or cookies. They also really take their whole permissions & sandboxing thing a little bit too seriously...

Foxy addons are a bit less familiar, but I actually suspect easier to implement.

We could probably get either to the same level as Decypherblade's old code without even talking to the server. However, getting special notifications about PMs or answers to subscribed threads should require an extra server-provided page (or just the raw info in XML or JSON format) for the extension to talk to. Of course you could just call up the pages you already use and write your own script to chuck out the bulk of the unnecessary information, but that seems very much like the Wrong Thing.

________
Kmtjbi

[Ent]

Over the past couple of days I've been working at renovating Ciberblade's old Firefox add-on. I had a look at chrome code too, but it would take me quite a bit longer to get my head round that.

For the most part it remains a load of links to the different fora and other useful pages on site. I've added in all the new fora, and naturally stuck a few links to the library in there too.
I've also added a "Links" section that copies the target link (currently Sysinfo or the important Malware sticky) to the clipboard so that you can paste them into your replies.
For the moment I've got the extension code hosted on my own site; if people want to give it a test run and give me some comments that would be appreciated.
http://tinashe.elim-moz.org/ProgramDownloads/TSG_FX.xpi

I figured it would be easier to use something like this as a base platform, which we could then extend with some of the functionality Cody suggests as and when it becomes feasible server side.

[TheShooter93]

I should still have Firefox loaded on my machine, I might be able to give you some comments on it if I get some free time in the next few days. Way too much stuff going on with school and work lately.

Anyway, I'm hoping someone out there has some experience with the Chrome code, or that Mike can come across this thread for some insight as far as what is possible server-side.

[Ent]

Originally Posted by TheShooter93

Anyway, I'm hoping someone out there has some experience with the Chrome code

I'm reading, I'm reading. This time last week I couldn't do firefox add-ons either.
If I work out how I'll port the fox base over to chrome.

But yes, getting Mike's opinion on whether the Server could cooperate is critical before we can go any further.