I just finished reading a post on CyberNet ( http://cybernetnews.com/2008/06/23/portable-firefox-3-for-mac-os-x/ ) that highlighted a portable version of Firefox (to be used with Mac OS) that automatically copied an existing local Firefox profile into the fresh Firefox Portable 'installation.' While this is obviously possible to be done manually (if desired), adding an option to do this automatically could be a nice little addition!
Although I certainly don't know much about the nuances of licensing, I would imagine that something like this could be replicated in the Portable Apps installer itself, leaving the actual Firefox binaries untouched.
I think this could be a worthwhile contribution to the already strong Firefox Portable. Is this possible, or what do you all think of suggesting this be implemented?
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i think the reason for this is that mac OSx and Windows handle profiles differently and this is the reason that they can do it in mac and john or one of the other developers hasn't done this already
NOTE
i don't claim to be any type of expert on this thing
I too am not any expert, per se, but I would imagine that the installer could look at (for example) the %AppData%/Mozilla/Firefox/profiles.ini file to see what profiles are stored locally, and their location. These profiles could then be listed, you would choose which profile(s) you wanted, and then they would be copied into the fresh 'installation' of Firefox Portable.
This, of course, could be an option. If instead you wanted to progress with the installation as normal, that would be offered too.
i just looked at that file and it seem pretty simple
well now we just have to wait for john to say whether this is actually with in the limits of NSIS
well john?
I think this could be done, but maybe not as part of the installer.
I would suggest an add-on or a separate app for this.
I prefer the last suggestion, since it is only needed one time.
The other reason for a separate app is that probably only a few people need to import their configuration from a local install of FF.
For those who uses both local and portable version, a profile synchronizer would be a better option.
Alive and kicking!
"If you were a robot, and I knew but you didn't, would you want me to tell you?"
I agree that a synchronizer is a nice idea, but I think that doesn't exclude my original idea.
With regards to the idea of having an addon or some additional application, that's the entire point of this idea - to not have to add more hassle. Instead, the idea was to make the whole process as streamlined and simple as possible. ...and besides, you only need to 'install' it once, too.