I have taken the Macromedia News Firefox extension and modified it, the result: The Oracle News Firefox extension.
If you use OraBlogs or OraNA to keep up with the latest from the Oracle blogging community, the Oracle News Firefox extension is for you. If you do not use the Firefox browser, now is a great time to switch. So, what does the Oracle News extension do?
The extension will place a small icon on the right side of Firefox’s status bar at the bottom of the window. By default, the icon will blink and turn to full red when new items on OraNA are found. To view the latest posts, simply click the icon, and a menu will open with the latest information. You can then click an item to open its web page within a tab in the browser. New items since the last refresh will be marked with a green check mark:
You can adjust preferences either by clicking the icon and choosing “preferences” or through the Firefox extension manager (Tools > Extensions):
Among the preferences, there are two rendering options. You can view items by source as shown above, or chronologically, you can also add the source next to the item:
To install the Oracle News Firefox Extension:
- From within Firefox, click this install link.
- You may need to allow awads.net to install extensions into Firefox.
- Follow the directions.
- Once the installation is complete, restart Firefox.
The extension also works in Thunderbird. To install in Thunderbird:
- Download the extension from this link.
- From within Thunderbird, open the Extension Manager (Tools > Extensions).
- Click the install button and select the downloaded extension.
- Once the installation is complete, restart Thunderbird.
Firefox and Thunderbird will automatically check for updates to the extension, and prompt you if a new version is available.
Known issues:
- The Macromedia News extension and Oracle News extension do not play well together.
For feedback, please comment below.
Possibly related:
- Oracle News Firefox 1.5 Extension
- Oracle Firefox Extensions
- Cool Firefox extension: Foxmarks
- Useful Firefox Extension: ConQuery
- My favorite Firefox keyboard shortcuts
Tagged aggregator, blog, extension, Firefox | Post a Comment
Great!
November 15th, 2005, at 11:12 am #it’s small and effective!
thank you
Carl
Excellent!! Good job and Thanks!
November 15th, 2005, at 11:32 am #I like it!
Just one small point though… when viewing items by source my eye is drawn to link the rows of text that lie between the dividing horizontal lines… I then associate the wrong blog with the wrong author. This may just be me, but I do find it a little distracting. However I guess this is a feature of the original Macromedia extension. However this is but a minor issue.
Cheers,
Pete
November 15th, 2005, at 11:37 am #Good extension Eddie, it is easier than using rss readers to keep up with the blogs.
November 16th, 2005, at 5:33 am #Eddie,
Are you going to modify this for version 1.5 of Firefox?
Thanks,
December 1st, 2005, at 12:53 pm #Frank
Frank, yes I will. I cannot promise a date but it should be in the near future. Stay tuned.
December 1st, 2005, at 1:19 pm #Hi Eddie - still waiting patiently on support for FirefoX 1.5 - i miss your extension a lot!
December 14th, 2005, at 5:23 am #Karl
Carl, I miss it too. However, Firefox 1.5 somehow broke this extension.
Since this extension is based on Macromedia News extension, you can take a look at what the issue is here:
weblogs.macromedia.com/mesh/archives/2005/12/macromedianews4.cfm
December 14th, 2005, at 12:39 pm #Any news on the update for Firefox 1.5?
February 2nd, 2006, at 2:03 am #Guido, I have it on my to do list. I should be able to get to it either this weekend or the next. Stay tuned. Thanks.
February 2nd, 2006, at 7:52 pm #[…] The extension is now compatible with Firefox 1.5. […]
February 8th, 2006, at 7:25 am #Thanx
February 9th, 2006, at 12:40 am #hmmmm……
look like it is not working. The extension installs correct, but I don’t receive updates.
I de-installed the older version and did a fresh install of the new one.
Guido
February 9th, 2006, at 3:25 am #I have released a new version (1.1.0.1) that polls OraNA. Make sure you update the extension in your browser.
February 9th, 2006, at 10:00 am #It’s working.
Thanx
February 13th, 2006, at 11:49 pm #[…] OraNA has a Firefox extension, get it here. […]
June 6th, 2006, at 6:15 pm #Eddie, is it possible to get an update for the Oracle News firefox plugin.
It is complaining (during install) that it won’t install the plugin because off:
“Oracle News” will not be installed because it does not provide secure updates…
June 18th, 2008, at 2:21 pm #Ehhh, sorry forgot. It gives this new warning in Firefox 3
June 18th, 2008, at 2:22 pm #@Marco: I will update the extension to make it work with Firefox 3 soon.
June 19th, 2008, at 9:56 pm #