Understand and Power Pack Your Firefox! - Part 1
Saturday, April 15, 2006
Information about Extensions or Plugins of Firefox.
The file extension of Firefox's extension's is XPI (pronounced as zippy) and is derived from XPInstall. It is basically a ZIP file which contains some installation script and with the help of that installation script, the extensions are installed in the browser. To check it you can simply open up the extension in ZIP utilites and it will show you the structure of the extension.
Once installed, the extensions can be found(in windows 2000/XP) in this directory :
DRIVE:\Documents and Settings\USER\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\n57mc4gl.default\extensions
DRIVE = The partition where windows is insatlled.
USER = The username through which user logs in.
n57mc4gl.default = This folder name will be different in your case.
In this directory you'll find some folders which will be having some random numbers like this {77b819fa-95ad-4f2c-ac7c-486b356188a9}, this is basically the GUID of the installed extension and this information can be found in a file called install.rdf & this file is in the XPI file.
So, in case your firefox gets corrupt because of any extension and evenif you are uninstalling the extension the firefox is still not working good then you can simple find the GUID of the extension and remove that directory from the above mentioned location.
You can find new and updated extensions at http://www.mozilla.com/firefox/central/
This is enough for the information regarding XPI file and the information of the extensions and now lets come to that section of this technical guide which is power packing your firefox. I use following extension to power pack my firefox and I find myself incomplete if I am not surfing through firefox with these extension. They make life simple and help you in doing your tasks quickly. I'll be distributing this list of extension in 3 parts. So, here's the list of extensions which will power pack your firefox browser :
All-In-One-Sidebar : This extension is a sidebar control and allows users to view the downloads, extensions, history, bookmarks in the sidebars and gives the option to quickly hide and view them. It brings major things in the sidebar so it becomes easy for users to access them.
Click here for more information on All-In-One-Sidebar.
Click here for more screenshots.
Del.Icio.Us : This extension lets you save your bookmarks easily and allows you to keep them on the internet thus gives you the ability to enjoy them where ever you go. For e.g. http://del.icio.us/reviewsaurus/ is the site which gives me the bookmarks and I can access them anywhere.
Click here for more information on Del.Icio.Us.
Click here for more screenshots.
Download StatusBar : It shows you the download and lets you control them through a tidy status bar. It has got lots of options and the best thing is that it doesnt interfere your browsing.
Click here for more information on Download statusbar.
Click here for more screenshots.
downTHEMall! : This extension is a download manager for firefox. You dont need any external download manager after installing this. It lets you download the files by accelarating the speed and lets you resume the downloads too. It has tons of options and lets you even filter the media and find the download links.
Click here for more information on downTHEMall!.
Click here for more screenshots.
FireFtp : This extension lets you connect to the FTP servers and offers a dual pane window option and lets you upload or download files with ease. You will not need an external FTP software and it does the job effectively.
Click here for more information on FireFTP.
Click here for more screenshots.
Well, so this is the list of five greatest extensions of firefox. I'll come up with some more in next two articles and will try to provide as much as information about firefox. I hope you will find this series of article helpful and that it will change the way you surf.
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