Public Firefox Add-ons 07112008 part II

Maria researched some search tools for us to add to Firefox. They are really easy to add. We just add them to the searchplugins folder. We narrowed them down to the following:

ACPL Catalog
Google
Yahoo
Amazon.com
Answers.com
Wikipedia
Webster

All we need to do is copy the the xml files for the plugins to:
C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\searchplugins
Just like we added the ACPL Catalog for the staff application object.

The only add-on that will be available for the public is Print Preview 0.7.1.4. This allows us to add Print Preview along with Print to the toolbar.

Progress so far:
As of today the snapshot was made of the Firefox install. The snAppShot folder was named Public _Firefox. The folder was copied to the working directory on the server. The initial application object was completed and our documentation file for Public_Firefox was update. An install of Firefox along with the search plugins and print preview was set up on another computer. This will be used for a template as the applicatoin object is modifieid.

Public Firefox 07112008

I am thinking aloud so to speak., but if you have anything to add let me know. Also if you think I am going about this the wrong way let me know too.

OK. So I have been thinking about this and I tried tinkering with the User.js configuration file for Firefox and I can't get everything to go. I am going to try this. Make a snapshot for the public of Firefox. Add firfox.exe to RPM so it will launch on a public machine. Then use another computer to set up Firefox, using the menu editor add-on, to lock it down. Add the search tools and other plugins/settings as desired.

Now I have the application object and a template to work from. Next is just a matter of copying files from the template to the application object. Then editing the appropriate configuration file. This should point firefox to the add-ons and extensions that I copied over from the template (other computer).

I had a more user friendly theme I wanted to use but that may be trickier to set up than getting the other add-ons to work. So the theme will be the last obstacle. If it doesn't work that is no big deal. Oh the name of the theme is Office if you wanted to check it out: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/4561

I use it and thought it would a good choice for the public.

The goal is to lock down Firefox in much the same way Internet Explorer already is. And to make sure all the plugins are functioning.

The list of add-ons, search tools, and plugins to be posted soon.

Firefox 070108

Sent email informing staff of Firefox upgrade. Included instructions on how to export and import bookmarks, if needed. Next step is to begin tweaking Firefox for public deployment.

One note:
Proxy setting for the browser is set to No Proxy by default. This needs to be changed to auto detect. To do this I had to edit the All.js file. It is located at:
C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\greprefs\all.js
I reviewed the filedef.txt and All.js is 105.fil. I edited the following statement in the 105.fil (All.js) file:
Changed pref("network.proxy.type", 0);
To
pref("network.proxy.type"' 4);
and saved changes to the working directory. Note 0 = No Proxy and 4 = Auto detect