AE Creations website outage

I have discovered today that the AE Creations website is down.  Given that the Mozdev system admins have all but abandoned maintenance of the web servers, source code repository and the Drupal forums (the latter was shut down a while back), the shutdown of the whole site is all but inevitable.  On that note, Bugzilla is also down, so it looks like I've lost all my outstanding defect tickets and enhancement requests.

The Mozilla Add-ons pages for Clippings, Panic Button, Delicious Post and Send Tab URLs are still available, and of course, the AE Creations forums is your resource for questions or suggestions.

Clippings 4.0.1 released!

Clippings version 4.0.1, the update to the now-infamous version 4.0, is now available for download from Mozilla Add-ons or the Clippings website.

This minor release fixes the problem in version 4.0 where clippings were disappearing when upgrading from Clippings version 3.2 or older.  Users who have not yet upgraded to version 4.0 (before it was withdrawn from the download sites) can now upgrade to version 4.0.1 without fear of having their clippings disappear on them.

What if I have already upgraded to version 4.0?

If you have already upgraded and have noticed that your clippings have disappeared, please click here to see the blog post for instructions on how to get them back.

Clippings 4.0.1 does not introduce anything new except for the fix for the disappearing clippings issue, as described above.  Users who already have version 4.0 can upgrade to version 4.0.1 anyway.

What's new in Clippings 4.0/4.0.1

For readers who missed out on it when version 4.0 was originally released, here is the list of new features and improvements:

• Customizable data source location.  You can now change the location of the data source using the new, redesigned extension preferences dialog.
• Data source backup and restore from Clippings Manager
• Search for clippings in Clippings Manager using the new Find Bar
• Auto-incrementing placeholders. These are special placeholders that you will be prompted for once to enter a starting numeric value; every time the clipping containing this placeholder is pasted, the placeholder will be automatically substituted with a value that is incremented from the last paste. Auto-incrementing placeholder names are in the format #[variable_name].
• Tab-modal placeholder prompt dialog for Firefox. With this enhancement, it is possible to interact with other browser tabs in the same window while prompted for a clipping placeholder value
• Auto spell checking of clipping text (in New Clipping dialog and Clippings Manager)
• New extension option to enable or disable the shortcut key prefix, CTRL+ALT+V (or Command+Option+V on Mac OS X)
• Shortcut key help. Press the usual shortcut key prefix, CTRL+ALT+V (or Command+Option+V on Mac OS X), then press F1 to get a list of shortcut keys and the clipping they are assigned to. This list can be printed, or saved to an HTML file.
• On Firefox, add the Clippings toolbar button to the Add-on Bar, if it is not there already

Things you should know about Clippings 4.0.1

• If you are a new user of Clippings, the default data source location will be your Firefox or Thunderbird profile folder.  If you're a current user upgrading to version 4.0.1, your data source location will be unchanged.  If you want your clippings to be available in both Firefox and Thunderbird, you will need to change the data source location to a folder accessible to both applications.
• Changing the data source location will not automatically move your clippings to the new data source.  If you want to move your clippings into the new data source location, you should export your clippings (using Tools → Export in Clippings Manager) before changing the data source location.  After changing the data source location, you can then import your clippings (Tools → Import in Clippings Manager).
• The status bar in Clippings Manager is now turned off by default, to reduce visual clutter.  This only affects new Clippings users; the status bar will still be visible to existing users who are upgrading from a previous version.  The status bar can be turned on or off anytime by selecting Options from the Tools menu button in Clippings Manager.

How to get it

Clippings 4.0.1 is available for download from Mozilla Add-ons, or from the Clippings website.

If you already have an older version of Clippings installed, it will be upgraded for you if automatic extension updates are enabled. Otherwise, open Extension Manager (Tools → Add-ons), then right-click on the entry for Clippings in the list of installed extensions and choose Find Update.

Users of Portable Firefox or Portable Thunderbird: Starting with Clippings 4.0/4.0.1, the default location of your clippings data source will be the Portable Firefox or Portable Thunderbird profile folder, which is usually located on your portable media (e.g. USB thumb drive). As a result of this change, the "Portable Edition" of Clippings is not needed anymore, and is no longer available.


Help and support

Questions and comments about Clippings should be directed to the AE Creations forums, now hosted on Google Groups.

New Clippings release coming

The fix for the problem where clippings were disappearing after upgrading to version 4.0 requires that a new version of Clippings to be released.  Due to the Mozilla Add-ons review process that is required for all extension releases, I anticipate that it will be approximately 1-2 weeks before Clippings 4.0.1 is available for download.

Due to the serious nature of this issue, version 4.0 of Clippings has been withdrawn.  New users can continue to install version 3.2.  Current users wanting to upgrade will have to wait until version 4.0.1 is released.

What if I have already upgraded?

If you have already upgraded and have noticed that your clippings have disappeared, please click here to see the blog post for instructions on how to get them back.

Disappearing Clippings data after upgrading to version 4.0

There have been a few reports from users that their clippings have disappeared after upgrading to version 4.0.

This problem is under investigation (bug 25520).  In the meantime, if you have experienced this problem, try doing the following:

Update - 3 August 2013 - The following steps should get your clippings back.  Follow them first before trying the other approaches below:

1. In Firefox, enter "about:config" in the address bar.  In Thunderbird, invoke the preferences dialog (on Windows, Tools → Options; on Mac OS X, Thunderbird → Preferences; on Linux, Edit → Preferences), click Advanced, then click Config Editor.
2. Search for the pref "extensions.aecreations.clippings.datasource.location"
3. Change the value of that pref to your user home folder.  For example, this would be C:\Users\username on Windows 7, C:\Documents and Settings\username on Windows XP, ~\username on Linux and Mac OS X.
4. Exit and restart Firefox or Thunderbird

 The original suggested steps for recovery are below.  Try them if the above steps don't work:

• Open Clippings Manager, select Tools → Restore and choose the most recent date/time that appears in the menu.
• If that doesn't work, select Tools → Import, browse to the Clippings backup folder (e.g. for users on Windows 7 this would be C:\Users\username\.clipbak; on Linux and Mac OS X, it would be ~/username/.clipbak), and then choose the most recent backup file

Clippings 4.0 released!

Clippings 4.0 has finally been released, and is now available for download!

This release contains many improvements, including the often-requested ability to customize the location of the data source.  A few new features have also been introduced -- check out the list below.

What's new in Clippings 4.0

• Customizable data source location.  You can now change the location of the data source using the new, redesigned extension preferences dialog.
• Data source backup and restore from Clippings Manager
• Search for clippings in Clippings Manager using the new Find Bar
• Auto-incrementing placeholders. These are special placeholders that you will be prompted for once to enter a starting numeric value; every time the clipping containing this placeholder is pasted, the placeholder will be automatically substituted with a value that is incremented from the last paste. Auto-incrementing placeholder names are in the format #[variable_name].
• Tab-modal placeholder prompt dialog for Firefox. With this enhancement, it is possible to interact with other browser tabs in the same window while prompted for a clipping placeholder value
• Auto spell checking of clipping text (in New Clipping dialog and Clippings Manager)
• New extension option to enable or disable the shortcut key prefix, CTRL+ALT+V (or Command+Option+V on Mac OS X)
• Shortcut key help. Press the usual shortcut key prefix, CTRL+ALT+V (or Command+Option+V on Mac OS X), then press F1 to get a list of shortcut keys and the clipping they are assigned to. This list can be printed, or saved to an HTML file.
• On Firefox, add the Clippings toolbar button to the Add-on Bar, if it is not there already

Things you should know about Clippings 4.0

• If you are a new user of Clippings, the default data source location will be your Firefox or Thunderbird profile folder.  If you're a current user upgrading to version 4.0, your data source location will be unchanged.  If you want your clippings to be available in both Firefox and Thunderbird, you will need to change the data source location to a folder accessible to both applications.
• Changing the data source location will not automatically move your clippings to the new data source.  If you want to move your clippings into the new data source location, you should export your clippings (using Tools → Export in Clippings Manager) before changing the data source location.  After changing the data source location, you can then import your clippings (Tools → Import in Clippings Manager).
• The status bar in Clippings Manager is now turned off by default, to reduce visual clutter.  This only affects new Clippings users; the status bar will still be visible to existing users who are upgrading from a previous version.  The status bar can be turned on or off anytime by selecting Options from the Tools menu button in Clippings Manager.

How to get it

Clippings 4.0 is available for download from Mozilla Add-ons, or from the Clippings website.

If you already have an older version of Clippings installed, it will be upgraded for you if automatic extension updates are enabled. Otherwise, open Extension Manager (Tools → Add-ons), then right-click on the entry for Clippings in the list of installed extensions and choose Find Update.

Users of Portable Firefox or Portable Thunderbird: Starting with Clippings 4.0, the default location of your clippings data source will be the Portable Firefox or Portable Thunderbird profile folder, which is usually located on your portable media (e.g. USB thumb drive). As a result of this change, the "Portable Edition" of Clippings is not needed anymore, and is no longer available.


Help and support

Questions and comments about Clippings should be directed to the AE Creations forums, now hosted on Google Groups.

Clippings 4.0 Release Candidate 1 is released!

Finally, after a year of toiling away at improvements to Clippings during my spare time, I am pleased to announce the release candidate of Clippings 4.0!

Barring any last-minute show stoppers, this release candidate may become the official version 4.0 release.

What's new in Clippings 4.0

• Customizable data source location.  You can now change the location of the data source using the new, redesigned extension preferences dialog.
• Data source backup and restore from Clippings Manager
• Search for clippings in Clippings Manager using the new Find Bar
• Auto-incrementing placeholders. These are special placeholders that you will be prompted for once to enter a starting numeric value; every time the clipping containing this placeholder is pasted, the placeholder will be automatically substituted with a value that is incremented from the last paste. Auto-incrementing placeholder names are in the format #[variable_name].
• Tab-modal placeholder prompt dialog for Firefox. With this enhancement, it is possible to interact with other browser tabs in the same window while prompted for a clipping placeholder value
• Auto spell checking of clipping text (in New Clipping dialog and Clippings Manager)
• New extension option to enable or disable the shortcut key prefix, CTRL+ALT+V (or Command+Option+V on Mac OS X)
• Shortcut key help. Press the usual shortcut key prefix, CTRL+ALT+V (or Command+Option+V on Mac OS X), then press F1 to get a list of shortcut keys and the clipping they are assigned to. This list can be printed, or saved to an HTML file.
• On Firefox, add the Clippings toolbar button to the Add-on Bar, if it is not there already

Things you should know about

• If you are a new user of Clippings, the default data source location will be your Firefox or Thunderbird profile folder.  If you're a current user upgrading to version 4.0, your data source location will be unchanged.  If you want your clippings to be available in both Firefox and Thunderbird, you will need to change the data source location to a folder accessible to both applications.
• Changing the data source location will not automatically move your clippings to the new data source.  If you want to move your clippings into the new data source location, you should export your clippings (using Tools → Export in Clippings Manager) before changing the data source location.  After changing the data source location, you can then import your clippings (Tools → Import in Clippings Manager).
• The status bar in Clippings Manager is now turned off by default, to reduce visual clutter.  This only affects new Clippings users; the status bar will still be visible to existing users who are upgrading from a previous version.  The status bar can be turned on or off anytime by selecting Options from the Tools menu button in Clippings Manager.

How to get it

Head over to the Clippings page on the Mozilla Add-ons website, then scroll to the bottom and expand Development Channel.  Click on the yellow "Add to Firefox" button to install it for Firefox.

To install Clippings 4.0 Release Candidate 1 for Thunderbird, right-click on the yellow "Add to Firefox" button and select the option to save the XPI file.  Choose a location to save the file to, then launch Thunderbird, open the Add-ons Manager, then click the Tools icon and select Install Add-on From File.

Help and Support

Questions and comments about Clippings should be directed to the AE Creations forums, now hosted on Google Groups.

Panic Button 1.5.3.1 released!

A minor release of Panic Button is now available on Mozilla Add-ons and the AE Creations website.

If you already have an older version of Panic Button installed, it will be upgraded for you if automatic extension updates are enabled. Otherwise, open Extension Manager (Tools → Add-ons), then right-click on the entry for Panic Button in the list of installed extensions and choose Find Update.

What's New

• Added translations for German and Hebrew
• Extensions preferences in about:config are moved into the "extensions.*" preferences branch

Help and Support

Questions and comments about Panic Button should be directed to the AE Creations forums, now hosted on Google Groups.

Clippings 4.0 beta 3 released!

This is the third beta release of the next version of Clippings, intended for early adopters who crave the latest and greatest. Users not comfortable trying out pre-release software and tolerating its many bugs should stick with Clippings 3.2 for now.

What's new in beta 3

• Bug fix: When searching for clippings and folders, searching for a specific folder doesn't return any results if there aren't also any matching clippings of the same name (bug 25420)
• Bug fix: The drop-down field in the General pane of the extension preferences dialog is distorted (bug 25423)
• Bug fix: On Mac OS X, the height of the extension preferences dialog is wrong, causing the dialog content to be cut off (bug 25443).  NOTE: This issue is fixed on Firefox but is still occurring on Thunderbird.
• Bug fix: On Ubuntu 12.04, the Clippings Manager toolbar background is too dark (bug 25424)

Cumulative list of new features in Clippings 4.0

• Customizable data source location
• Data source backup and restore from Clippings Manager
• Search for clippings in Clippings Manager using the new Find Bar
• Auto-incrementing placeholders. These are special placeholders that you will be prompted for once to enter a starting numeric value; every time the clipping containing this placeholder is pasted, the placeholder will be automatically substituted with a value that is incremented from the last paste. Auto-incrementing placeholder names are in the format #[variable_name].
• Tab-modal placeholder prompt dialog for Firefox. With this enhancement, it is possible to interact with other browser tabs in the same window while prompted for a clipping placeholder value
• Auto spell checking of clipping text (in New Clipping dialog and Clippings Manager)
• New extension option to enable or disable the shortcut key prefix, CTRL+ALT+V (or Command+Option+V on Mac OS X)
• Shortcut key help. Press the usual shortcut key prefix, CTRL+ALT+V (or Command+Option+V on Mac OS X), then press F1 to get a list of shortcut keys and the clipping they are assigned to. This list can be printed, or saved to an HTML file.
• On Firefox, add the Clippings toolbar button to the Add-on Bar, if it is not there already 
• Redesigned extension preferences dialog 

 How to Get It

Head over to the Clippings page on the Mozilla Add-ons website, then scroll to the bottom and expand Development Channel.  Click on the yellow "Add to Firefox" button to install it for Firefox.

To install Clippings 4.0 beta 2 for Thunderbird, right-click on the yellow "Add to Firefox" button and select the option to save the XPI file.  Choose a location to save the file to, then launch Thunderbird, open the Add-ons Manager, then click the Tools icon and select Install Add-on From File.

Help and Support

Send your questions and comments to the AE Creations forums.  If you wish to report a bug, you can do so in Bugzilla; you will need a Bugzilla account if you don't have one already.

Send Tab URLs 2.1.1 released!

Send Tab URLs 2.1.1 has been released and is available for download from the AE Creations website.

If you already have an older version of Send Tab URLs installed, you will need to uninstall it first, then go to the download link above and download the new version from there.

What's New

• Compatible with Firefox 20
• Automatically reload any unloaded browser tabs before sending their URLs, due to browser tab load optimizations that were introduced in Firefox 20. The auto reload is necessary to retrieve the browser tab titles for the URL list
• Updated localizations, and added support for Simplified Chinese

Help and Support

Questions and comments about Send Tab URLs should be directed to the AE Creations forums, now hosted on Google Groups.  

Known issues with Clippings 4.0 beta 2

A few issues have been discovered during testing of Clippings 4.0 beta 2, and are listed here.  This list will be updated as new bugs are reported.

• On Mac OS X, the extension preferences dialog is not sized properly; the bottom part of the dialog is cut off. This happens if the extension preferences dialog is invoked from Add-ons Manager.
• On Gnome, the drop-down list in the General pane of the extension preferences dialog is distorted (bug 25423)  -- Update: This issue is also occurring on Mac OS X, and Windows (if not using the "classic" desktop theme).
• In Clippings Manager, when searching for a folder using the Find Bar, the search doesn't return a match if there aren't any clippings containing the same search term (bug 25420)

What if I've found a new bug?

If you wish to report a bug, you can do so in Bugzilla; you will need a Bugzilla account if you don't have one already.  You can also post your findings to the AE Creations Help and Support forums; make sure to tag your post with "Clippings."  Make sure you check first that your bug has not already been reported.

Clippings 4.0 beta 2 released!

Clippings 4.0 beta 2 is now available for download!

This beta release is intended for early adopters who crave the latest and greatest. Users not comfortable trying out pre-release software and tolerating its inevitable bugs should stick with Clippings 3.2 for now.

What's new in beta 2:

• The new Find Bar in Clippings Manager now lets you choose the search scope.  You can search for clippings only, or search for clippings and folders.
• Redesigned extension preferences dialog
• Several bug fixes and refinements of functionality introduced in beta 1

Cumulative list of new features in Clippings 4.0

• Customizable data source location
• Data source backup and restore from Clippings Manager
• Search for clippings in Clippings Manager using the new Find Bar
• Auto-incrementing placeholders. These are special placeholders that you will be prompted for once to enter a starting numeric value; every time the clipping containing this placeholder is pasted, the placeholder will be automatically substituted with a value that is incremented from the last paste. Auto-incrementing placeholder names are in the format #[variable_name].
• Tab-modal placeholder prompt dialog for Firefox. With this enhancement, it is possible to interact with other browser tabs in the same window while prompted for a clipping placeholder value.
• Auto spell checking of clipping text (in New Clipping dialog and Clippings Manager)
• New extension option to enable or disable the shortcut key prefix, CTRL+ALT+V (or Command+Option+V on Mac OS X)
• Shortcut key help. Press the usual shortcut key prefix, CTRL+ALT+V (or Command+Option+V on Mac OS X), then press F1 to get a list of shortcut keys and the clipping they are assigned to.  This list can be printed, or saved to an HTML file.
• On Firefox, add the Clippings toolbar button to the Add-on Bar, if it is not there already

How to Get It

Head over to the Clippings page on the Mozilla Add-ons website, then scroll to the bottom and expand Development Channel.  Click on the yellow "Add to Firefox" button to install it for Firefox.

To install Clippings 4.0 beta 2 for Thunderbird, right-click on the yellow "Add to Firefox" button and select the option to save the XPI file.  Choose a location to save the file to, then launch Thunderbird, open the Add-ons Manager, then click the Tools icon and select Install Add-on From File.

Help and Support

Send your questions and comments to the AE Creations forums.  If you wish to report a bug, you can do so in Bugzilla; you will need a Bugzilla account if you don't have one already.

Panic Button 1.5.2 released!

Panic Button 1.5.2 has been released and is available for download from the AE Creations website or from Mozilla Add-ons.

If you already have an older version of Panic Button installed, it will be upgraded for you if automatic extension updates are enabled. Otherwise, open Extension Manager (Tools → Add-ons), then right-click on the entry for Panic Button in the list of installed extensions and choose Find Update.

What's New

• Compatible with Firefox 20 and newer.  Fixed missing toolbar icon issue that was present in Firefox 20 beta releases
• Bug fix: Restore Session toolbar shows black-colored space below the toolbar content on Mac OS X

Help and Support

Questions and comments about Panic Button should be directed to the AE Creations forums, now hosted on Google Groups.

Compatibility issues with extensions on Firefox 20

Firefox version 20 is now in beta, and some initial testing has revealed some issues with Panic Button and Send Tab URLs.  New releases of both extensions will be needed.

Clippings and Delicious Post don't appear to be affected.

Panic Button

On Firefox 20, the Panic Button toolbar button icon is not displayed.

Send Tab URLs

Firefox 20 further optimizes the loading of browser tabs by not loading their content until the user clicks on the tab.  This includes the web page title, which is used by Send Tab URLs to create the tab list.  The problem is that if the browser tab isn't loaded, Send Tab URLs is unable to retrieve the title of the web page in the browser tab; it will appear as "null" in the URL list.

Clippings 4.0 beta 1 released!

Clippings 4.0 beta 1 is now available for download!

This beta release is intended for early adopters who crave the latest and greatest. Users not comfortable trying out pre-release software and tolerating its inevitable bugs should stick with Clippings 3.2 for now.

What's New

• Customizable data source location
• Data source backup and restore from Clippings Manager
• Search for clippings in Clippings Manager using the new Find Bar
• Auto-incrementing placeholders. These are special placeholders that you will be prompted for once to enter a starting numeric value; every time the clipping containing this placeholder is pasted, the placeholder will be automatically substituted with a value that is incremented from the last paste. Auto-incrementing placeholder names are in the format #[variable_name].
• Tab-modal placeholder prompt dialog for Firefox. With this enhancement, it is possible to interact with other browser tabs in the same window while prompted for a clipping placeholder value.
• Auto spell checking of clipping text (in New Clipping dialog and Clippings Manager)
• New extension option to enable or disable the shortcut key prefix, CTRL+ALT+V (or Command+Option+V on Mac OS X)
• Shortcut key help. Press the usual shortcut key prefix, CTRL+ALT+V (or Command+Option+V on Mac OS X), then press F1 to get a list of shortcut keys and the clipping they are assigned to.  This list can be printed, or saved to an HTML file.
• On Firefox, add the Clippings toolbar button to the Add-on Bar, if it is not there already

How to Get It

Head over to the Clippings page on the Mozilla Add-ons website, then scroll to the bottom and expand Development Channel.  Click on the yellow "Add to Firefox" button to install it for Firefox.

To install Clippings 4.0 beta 1 for Thunderbird, right-click on the yellow "Add to Firefox" button and select the option to save the XPI file.  Choose a location to save the file to, then launch Thunderbird, open the Add-ons Manager, then click the Tools icon and select Install Add-on From File.

Help and Support

Send your questions and comments to the AE Creations forums.  If you wish to report a bug, you can do so in Bugzilla; you will need a Bugzilla account if you don't have one already.