How to Deal with Annoying Scratchpad

Posted on 2014-05-07 by nuri

Scratchpad is a tool which is include in Mozilla Firefox browser. It is is essentially a live JavaScript editor and prototyping tool. You can access it through menu Tools -> Web Developer Scratchpad. Or you can just simply open it using shortcut Shift+fn+F4 (In Mac OS X).

Unlike other tools such as Web Console or Firebug, Scratchpad lets you edit larger chunks of JavaScript code, then execute it in various ways depending on how you want to use the output. It wont interpreting single line of code at a time. Using the Scratchpad, a developer can access the current page’s objects, variables and script. In addition, complete functions can be written and tested in the editor within the scope of the live page. These changes can then be attached and saved with the current application.

Although this tools is very handly and friendly for developer, for some people it can be annoying and irritating. There are complaints about it. Eg, sometimes, when you start to type in an email or a form, Javascript Scratchpad opens, and you’re typing in that window. Or Scratchpad is just opened whenever you open a browser tab and accessing a website.

So how to deal with that?

1. Start Firefox in Safe Mode to check if one of the extensions or if hardware acceleration is causing the problem (switch to the DEFAULT theme: Firefox/Tools > Add-ons > Appearance/Themes). To do the Safe mode, follow these steps:

Click on menu icon in the top right of your Firefox browser and click on icon “?” next to Cuztomize

Choose Restart with Add-ons Disable

Confirmation to restart Firefox

2. Various Web Developer tools each have their own pref on the about:config page to enable or disable them.

devtools.scratchpad.enabled
devtools.inspector.enabled

Follow these steps:

type about:config in your address bar

search for devtools.inspector.enabled and set it to false by double click on it

search for devtools.scratchpad.enabled and set it to false by double click on it

Set those configs to false on the about:config page to disable the Scratchpad. All you need to do is just double click on those settings to toggle it true/false.

That should work. If it doesn’t, then you can try to reset your Firefox settings back to its factory default :)

Ref:

Troubleshoot Firefox issues using Safe Mode
Reset Firefox – easily fix most problems

Firefox 29 Australis

Posted on 2014-05-06 by nuri

Pertama kali melihat Firefox #Australis adalah saat saya berada di Mozilla Summit Oktober 2013 di Santa Clara, CA. Namun saat itu, kesan yang timbul dari presentasi mengenai #Australis lebih ke arah theme browser Firefox. Dan beberapa jam sebelum terbang ke San Francisco minggu kemarin saya berkesempatan mencoba sendiri versi official Mozilla Firefox 29 yang mengimplementasikan #Australis ini.

Pas berkesempatan mampir ke kantor Mozilla untuk ikutan launching party Firefox 29 ini, saya menyempatkan bertanya-tanya ke beberapa orang UX designer mengenai fitur-fitur di baliknya.

Awesome, it’s not just a skin make over.
I could say that Firefox 29 is the largest update to Firefox since.… well, ever :)

Secara kasat mata, FFx 29 layoutnya sederhana, lembut dan mirip Google Chrome. Seperti gambar di bawah ini, bentuk tabsnya yang bulat ga kotak lagi, bagian paling kanan atas digantikan dengan ikon menu. Yang masih tersisa adalah kotak pencarian (search bar) dan tombol ‘Back’ yang gede banget itu. Mengingatkan tombol-tombol di Netscape 6 aja.

Firefox 29 vs Chrome

Selain tampilan yang berubah total, Firefox 29 juga mempunyai update terhadap fitur Firefox Sync. Sekarang kita bisa menggunakan Firefox Accounts. Opsi customization-nya juga jadi lebih banyak.

firefox-sync

Buat yang belum tahu apa itu Firefox Sync, fitur ini bisa dibilang sama dengan punya Google Chrome. Dengan Sync, kamu bisa membawa informasi tabs yang kamu buka, bookmark juga info-info personal lainnya ke berbagai perangkat yang kamu gunakan selama itu menggunakan browser Firefox. Katakanlah isi bookmark Firefox di Macbook kamu akan sama dengan Firefox yang ada di tablet maupun ponsel Android kamu (juga ponsel/tablet Firefox OS). Di manapun kamu membuat isian bookmark, dia akan tereplikasi ke perangkat-perangkat lainnya. Cukup login menggunakan Firefox Accounts saja di semua perangkat tadi.

Yup, sama halnya dengan akun Google (gmail) kamu, Firefox Accounts ini -juga merupakan bagian dari Firefox OS- memungkinkan pengguna melacak login mereka untuk berbagai layanan, serta bookmark, history browsing, dan setiap tab yang terbuka.

Berikut ini adalah release notes Firefox 29:

New: Significant new customization mode makes it easy to personalize your Web experience to access the features you use the most (learn more).
New: A new, easy to access menu sits in the right hand corner of Firefox and includes popular browser controls.
New: Sleek new tabs provide an overall smoother look and fade into the background when not active.
New: An interactive onboarding tour to guide users through the new Firefox changes.
New: The ability to set up Firefox Sync by creating a Firefox account (learn more).
New: Gamepad API finalized and enabled (learn more).
New: Malay [ma] locale added.
Changed: Clicking on a W3C Web Notification will switch to the originating tab.
Developer: ‘box-sizing’ (dropping the -moz- prefix) implemented (learn more).
Developer: Console object available in Web Workers (learn more).
Developer: Promises enabled by default (learn more).
Developer: SharedWorker enabled by default.
Developer: input type=”number” implemented and enabled.
Developer: input type=”color” implemented and enabled.
Developer: Enabled ECMAScript Internationalization API.
Developer: Add-on bar has been removed, content moved to navigation bar.

Jadi, tunggu apa lagi?

Segeralah update Firefox kamu ke versi 29 Australis.

ZTE Open with Firefox OS v1.1 Having Trouble with USSD

Posted on 2014-03-09 by nuri

My iPhone is still in service center for about 2 weeks now and a MozRep Indonesia is kind enough to lend me Firefox OS phone. Used to all the fancy things iPhone had so far now I have to use a device that doesnt has all that luxury.
It’s a so-so device -compare to my iPhone- (well, the target market is not for people like me), I dont have many comment about it. But this young O/S is fun to play with, specially making mobile app using only HTML5/CSS/JavaScript in the client side.

The only problem, serious problem that I have is the ability to make a USSD call.
USSD is a protocol used by GSM cellular telephones to communicate with the service provider’s servers. USSD can be used for WAP browsing, prepaid callback service, mobile-money services, location-based content services, menu-based information services, and as part of configuring the phone on the network (wikipedia).

For example:
Dial *888# to check your prepaid balance
Dial *266# if you want to activate your roaming package offers.
and many things.

The ZTE Open I’m using now unfortunately having problem with USSD operation.

The symptom is whenever you dial a USSD Code (let say *888#) via dialler,
the app only show you “connecting” status for a while
and after that, dialer app is like closing the connection and back to dial pad screen

open dialer app can make USSD call *888# to my operator to check the prepaid balance

Call is being made. B number not shown for a while

B number finally shown. But after few seconds, the call will be closed and screen back to the dial pad

When you’re accessing the STK menu (which is more or less is executing USSD command)
You can get the first menu screen. But when you continue selecting any option from the menu, there’s nothing happen.

It supposed to be displaying this kind of information if the USSD is success

Operator in Indonesia use USSD for most of their services because of the easy to use menu and realtime communication with the backend. That’s why it’s a serious problem for Firefox OS/ZTE Open if this issue still occur.

So, is anybody out there using ZTE Open with Firefox OS v1.1?
Do you have the same problem as I do? I’ve posted a bug at bugzilla, but has no response yet.

Firefox OS App – iDanbo

Posted on 2014-03-03 by nuri

Last weekend I tried to prove that my coding skill is not dull yet.

At the same time, my staff wrote this in his FB timeline. OK, let’s make another kind of webapp, Bin :)

idanbo-bintar

After spend some times reading the Firefox OS App for Dummy things and jquery documentations, I’ve decided to make one.

So here it is, iDanbo.

idanbo_grid_320_502
Previously I name it Pocket Danbo. Meh, too mainstream.
Let just call it iDanbo … i love Danbo :)

This little app will do a very simple task.
It gives you a collection with random Danbo photos. The source now is Instagram.

Why?
1. There are a lot of Danbo photo you could find in Instagram only
2. They have API
3. Square image, you dont have to make effort sizing the image :) Simply choose either 150×150, 306×306 or 612×612.

It’s passed the Firefox Marketplace Validator with no error. Next, register it to Marketplace ^_^

Notes:
– It will hit the Instagram limit access at some point because I’m not authenticating the user

Antara Mozilla-Spreadtrum dan Telkomsel-Indosat :)

Posted on 2014-02-25 by nuri

2-3 hari ini seiring dengan dibukanya Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2014 di Barcelona berita yang cukup santer (at least for me) adalah Mozilla mengumumkan kerjasama dengan pabrikan chipset asal China bernama Spreadtrum. Hasil kerjasama ini nantinya adalah sebuah ponsel pintar yang dapat diproduksi di kisaran harga USD 25 (IDR 292,375 kalo pake kurs BCA 25/2/2014).

Seperti dilansir di blog Mozilla, selain kerjama sama dengan Spreadtrum ada 7 ponsel baru yang diperkenalkan. Dan yang =mungkin= membuat berita ini jadi ramai di Indonesia adalah bergabungnya Telkomsel dan Indosat ke dalam 21 operator yang mendukung gerakan ‘Open Web Device‘. Yayyyyy, bravo Telkomsel.

Cuman apakah dengan bergabungnya Telkomsel dan Indosat (plus Polytron sebagai hardware player) langsung bisa diterjemahkan sebagai ‘Ponsel Firefox OS segera dipasarkan di Indonesia, paling tidak diperkirakan akhir tahun 2014 pula’? *smile* *wink* :) Really?

Dari 21 daftar operator tadi, sejauh ini sepertinya baru 4 doang lho yang telah memasarkan perangkat Firefox OS.

What I can tell you is that operators (context: in Indonesia ) will support anyone, specially if it could help increasing the customer base (hopefully ARPU) :)

I dont want to make any more comment on this. The PR guys will do their job when the time comes. Back in MozSummit, I met some people asked some questions more or less about it and got no suitable answers :) Oh well maybe I asked the wrong Mozilla employee :)

Ok, kembali ke Spreadtrum.

Dilansir dari press release Spreadtrum, bahwa kerjasamanya dengan Mozilla telah menghasilkan sebuah referensi desain komplit untuk Firefox OS dengan menggunakan chipset buatan Spreadtrum. Di kesempatan ini, Spreadtrum memperkenalkan chipset SC6821 yang disebut sebagai chipset pertama yang memungkinkan industri dapat memproduksi smartphone seharga USD 25.

Saya agak bingung menerjemahkan istilah turnkey dari press release Mozilla maupun Spreadtrum. Tapi kalo di kerjaan saya sehari-hari sih turnkey (dalam hal ini turnkey project) analoginya adalah satu solusi yang komplit, all in, terima jadi.

Kenapa kata turnkey digunakan di berita-berita tadi?
Kita harus lihat desain chip SC6821 itu sendiri supaya dapat gambaran. Namun sayangnya saya ga nemu info lebih jauh mengenai chipset SC6821 :( Asumsi saya sih dia masih dalam tahap finalisasi dan semoga bisa dapat ‘segera’ diproduksi masal. Yah, supaya Polytron ga nunggu kelamaan juga buat bikin devicenya :)

Tapi kalau desainnya ga jauh-jauh dari chipset SC6820, kira-kira si SC6821 akan seperti ini.

Spreadtrum’s SC6820

Cukup 1 chipset, sudah cukup untuk mengerjakan hampir semuanya. Makanya disebut sebagai turnkey.
SC6820 hanya bekerja di jaringan 2G, sementara SC6821 akan mendukung jaringan 3G (no, no, no. Jangan ngarep 4G/LTE dulu yah :)
Speknya kurang lebih CPU ARM Cortex-A5 1GHz, 128 MB RAM, 256 MB NAND flash, 3.5″ HVGA touchscreen, built-in Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, FM radio, dan tentu saja Firefox OS.

Far too low for me, tapi bukan berarti seperti itu buat orang lain.
Dengan harga segitu, maka -ok, ini hiperbolik – siapa saja bisa punya smartphone yang terkoneksi dengan internet. Kembali ke manifesto Mozilla sendiri bawah internet sudah dan semakin menjadi bagian penting dari kehidupan kita. Semakin kita terhubung satu sama lain, semakin banyak info yang tersampaikan harapannya akan dapat membuat kehidupan manusia akan jadi lebih baik.

Know more, do more, do better.
Awesome!

Ah iya, Mozilla dan Spreadturm juga telah selesai melakukan integrasi Firefox OS di chipset SC7710 yang merupakan chipset WCDMA (ok, istilah awamnya 3G deh) dan diharapkan hasil bagus juga didapatkan di chipset yang lebih advance yaitu SC7715 bulan Maret nanti.

: SC7710

: SC7715

Spreadtrum Launches Next Generation Single-core Smartphone Platform
Spreadtrum and Mozilla Take Aim at Global Smartphone Accessibility with Turnkey Solution for US$25 Smartphones
Firefox OS Unleashes the Future of Mobile

Firefox 27.0

Posted on 2014-02-06 by nuri

Right, just check my lovely browser Firefox and it’s been updated to version 27.0.

Yayyy \^_^/

So what new in version 27?

As part of commitment to to provide privacy and data integrity while you’re online, Transport Layer Security (TLS) version 1.2 has been added to Firefox 27. It’s now running both TLS 1.1 and 1.2 by default.

There is also update on Social API that allows multiple social integration partners to send notifications at the same time. Facebook, Cliqz, Mixi, MSN Now, Weibo plus additional Delicious and Saavn are now integrated with the Social API.

What else?

Added support for SPDY 3.1 protocol.
Ability to reset style sheets using ‘all:unset’.
You can now choose to deobfuscate javascript in the debugger
Added support for scrolled fieldsets
Implemented allow-popups directive for iframe sandbox, enabling increased security
CSS cursor keywords -moz-grab and -moz-grabbing have been unprefixed
Added support for ES6 generators in SpiderMonkey
Implemented support for mathematical function Math.hypot() in ES6
Dashed line support on Canvas
Get Azure/Skia content rendering working on Linux
And of course, security fixes. Read the security fixes here.

You can read the complete release note in here

So, what is your Firefox version now?

Firefox OS, a year after

Posted on 2014-02-06 by nuri

A look back?

Hahaha no, somebody’s done that already.
It’s look a head

It’s been a while before Firefox OS chosen to be the new mobile operating system from Mozilla. We knew it before as Boot 2 Gecko (B2G) and i’ve got no success installation story :P Seems my phone is not in the recommended list, and i’ve messed up my raspberry pi.

Fortunately I met Philipp Wagner at Santa Clara during Mozilla Summit. Philipp is the guy who make some hacks for making FirefoxOS works on RasPi. Visit his blog and you’ll find his notes about it.

A year ago, I made this post —it’s in Indonesian— about the “launch” of Firefox OS in Mobile World Congress Barcelona 2013. Along 2013, Firefox OS is starting to shine. Well, not yet shiny. It will take some times and good support from anybody.

Firefox OS (FFOS) is an open-source operating system for smartphones and tablet computers. It’s based on Linux and open source. Not only for smartphones, FFOS is set to be used on smart TVs also. Early 2014, Panasonic and Mozilla announced their partnership to bring FFOS for powering the next generation Smart TVs. Cool, isn’t it?

Oh, there’ll be a Firefox OS Tablet also on the way.

FFOS is now available in 14 markets, mostly in South America. Big Telco names have been partnership with Mozilla to use Firefox OS including Deutsche Telekom, Telefonica, Telecom Italia, Telenor. And I’m happy the the company i’m working for will be one of them :) Yayyy…

Alcatel, ZTE, LG, Huawei and don’t forget Geekphone are shipping Firefox OS devices now. VIA is working on something to bring FFOS to desktop world.

But still, it’s hard to get the devices here to play with. Rely on simulator only is not enough.

So, what’s it gonna be this year? I’m sure FFOS will shine brighter this year, and I wish it will be easier for us (in developer point of view) to purchase the device.

@nurikidy

There's always a story to tell

Tag Archives: firefox