I'm taking the unusual step of doing a pre-release for this new Firefox release. This is primarily because I've been so under the weather this week so I wasn't able to get the test out with BUILD1 of 3.0.1 on Sunday/Monday. I'm still far from 100% so having some folks test before release would be much appreciated. Especially in light of the new features.
First off, INI handling has been much improved. I've written a custom function/macro/define I wrote that handles default passing that will making reading from INIs easier (and easy to code, too). This means that the FirefoxPortable.ini file entries are now all optional. And any that are missing will be filled with their default value.
Secondly, and this is one I've been wanting to get done for a bit, updating of the pref.js and mimetypes.rdf has been greatly improved. I'm using a pre-compiled NSIS plugin called TextReplace to accomplish it along with a custom function/macro/define wrapper I wrote for it that makes it very easy to add to scripts. The upside is that the changes to paths (when your drive letter changes) will be made quicker, which means quicker launches when you wind up on a new PC. If the drive letter doesn't change, the files won't be updated (as before). The files will also be untouched if they don't need a change. And if they do need to change, it handles them each independently doing a much faster case insensitive comparison on the prefs.js.
Third, the prefs.js handling has been updated to account for both extensions that store paths as "C:\\..." as well as those which store it as "file:\\\C:...". So, extensions like Newsfox are now portable.
Fourth, the issue with the launcher closing early in Live mode has been fixed.
Fifth, an updated installer is included (most recent as of now) which fixes all known issues (proper free space calculation, subtraction of plugin space and data from calculation, multi combined with single line to change mode, etc).
So, please download, test, bang away, change drive letters, review code, etc and post your comments.
Download Mozilla Firefox, Portable Edition 3.0.1 Pre-Release 1 [8MB down]
MD5: 67240540d0469ca899849dfca569e342
Thanks,
John
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I will definetly test this John .
PS Hope you feel better ^_^
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Hi John,
I ran a limited test. (Limited because my limited knowledge of NSIS) For me it worked under Windows XPsp3.
It is noticeable faster, thank you for the hard work.
I hoped the new handling of stored paths like "C:\\..." and "file:\\\C:.." will solve one of my old problems, but It is not the case.
For some reason, when I move FirefoxPortable from one HDD to another some extensions are breaking. For example "Gmark". This problem is old so I don't think has to do anything with the new release. Please note that this problem only occurs when the FirefoxPortable is move from one HDD to another or from PortableApps directory to ProgFiles (for example) directory. The change of the drive letter only do not expose the problem. Also this problem is specific only for FirefoxPortable 3.0.x. In the old version 2.0.x I was able to move my FirefoxPortable from one HDD to another with no problems at all. It will be nice if we able to fix the new version so I can switch completely.
Thank you,
SAL-e
GMarks is doing something really odd. It doesn't like to be moved. Even when all the compatibility, extensions, prefs files in Firefox are updated, it still borks it. You can open the Options - Add-Ons window and right-click Find Update and it'll fix itself, though. Not sure how or why. If anyone can shed light, please do.
As for moving, remember, this is designed to be installed to a single path on a device and stay there and then be moved from PC to PC... that's the point of portable apps (you can also move it from one drive to another maintaining the same path, of course). It's recommended you do X:\PortableApps\. If you move between paths X:\PortableApps to X:\ProgFiles for instance, multiple things in multiple apps will break and need to be reconfigured as they remember things relatively from the root of the drive.
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launcher seems to work..splash addon with a fixed path to the splashimage now works even when changing the drive letter and PC, with about 30 addons quick loading even after changing the PC - didn´t stop the time but the last launcher already was a giant step in loading velocity for me,so this brought only a few seconds...
copied the launcher to my default 3.0 - no change of the paths happened in splash addon, so launcher seems to work correctly in FF3.0.1 but not 3.0
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Your 3.0 stuff is already out of sync so it won't work with the new launcher. It will work once you configure anything after first run and from then forward.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
John:
Hope your recovery is going well. I am installing the test version now and will test it today (Sunday).
Paulf
fine for me on Vista SP1 Admin rights. Hope you are getting better
Tried it on WinXP-SP2 installed on the local HD. I answered a session store question during installation and then browsed for a while.
No issues.
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John:
I tested the new release on an IBM thinkpad running XP SP1. The only "problem" seems to be that the download window stays blank, before, during, and after the download (Most curious).
The downloads are going on since I can see the files in the directory that they are supposed to be going to, just the download window stays blank.
Other than that, all appears fine. Firefox imported my bookmarks, let me install some add-ins, etc.
Its a little slow but that's an affectation of writing to and fro the flash drive.
Paulf