ConquerBar v1.0 Beta - FEEDBACK NEEDED

by **ConquererKing** on Mon Jul 09, 2007 10:30 am

Announcing ConquerBar, a new Firefox extension that started off as an improvement to ConquerTell but now adds whole new features. I recently asked jonducrou for his source code and built on his game concept to add more functionality.
Note: This is beta test, so I would really appreciate input and suggestions and any bugs you can find

Download
Simply click here, then click to download ConquerBar. Firefox might ask you for confirmation to install before allowing you to download it. After installation, restart Firefox and then click on the Options button to enter your preferences. Note: Soon I will have it uploaded to the main Firefox Extensions website, in which case it won't ask for confirmation to install, but it might take a few days.

Version Features
---------ConquerBar v1.0 Beta---------
> A handy toolbar to manage everything
> Quick links to important CC pages
> Displays games that are ready, waiting, playing and eliminated for the username you enter
> A fully-featured options dialog that allows more customization of preferences
> Allows you to easily manage your friends and shows who is online and who is offline
> A reload button to refresh games and friends whenever you want
---------Features Coming Soon---------
> Notifications that pop up when a game becomes active
> Ability to have a "Favourite Games" list to keep track of games that you want to watch
> Interactive sidebars that can display more information on friends and games

Help
I'm working on a full-feature help page but it's not ready yet so for now just PM me or post here.

by **cicero** on Thu Jul 12, 2007 2:54 pm

Conquerer King

The specification of your extension sounds really cool. However, being slightly paranoid, I am cautious about downloading extensions from unknown sources in case it is malicious code masquerading as a cool extension.

Please don't misunderstand - I'm not accusing you personally of anything, but I wonder if you can advise of any precautions to take in general?

Regards

Cicero

by **clapper011** on Thu Jul 12, 2007 3:01 pm

cool but what we really need is a feature in there so it tells us how long we have for each turn or which ones are getting close to missing a turn...without having to enter the games to check:)

by **reverend_kyle** on Thu Jul 12, 2007 3:10 pm

don't worry guys it's legit.

by **RiskTycoon** on Thu Jul 12, 2007 3:27 pm

hmm the only thing that bothers me so far is how it doesn't "stack" so to speak i guess.....with so many games the red boxes just shoot behind the window and i can't click them if i want to ....that was my problem with the other one, after you have 100 games active or so it screws up the whole window experience..... if that makes any sense to anyone lol

by **Coleman** on Thu Jul 12, 2007 3:46 pm

How hard would it be for you to make the friends thing more like the mac only one? Where it displays more like a messenger so its easier to see who's online.

I'm not saying necessarily as part of your tool bar, but you obviously have some working code for it you could just make its own add on? Maybe? Please? lol

by **WingsWord** on Thu Jul 12, 2007 3:49 pm

Great work King. I find all features usefull and very easy to manage including changing options. Def going to use it as it is now , and if any new functions will be added its bonus.

by **hwhrhett** on Thu Jul 12, 2007 3:52 pm

i like the refresh button, but it seems that if i play some turns and then hit refresh, there is still a few minutes lag time before it realizes those turns have been taken.

by **The1exile** on Thu Jul 12, 2007 5:46 pm

Looks good. Nice work CK!

by **Coleman** on Thu Jul 12, 2007 11:34 pm

I think your friends list is a little buggy actually. It seems to be showing DiM online when evil dimwit is, and also shows I have 6 friends when in fact I only entered 5.

by **RiskTycoon** on Fri Jul 13, 2007 11:39 am

i experienced that too, you need to delete the empty spot at the top of add a friend...you'll see it....i also noticed that it plays the same sound for friends coming on as it does for a game, even if you have them set to different sounds

by **The1exile** on Fri Jul 13, 2007 8:13 pm

Dunno if it's possible, any way of having pm notification up there too?

by **The1exile** on Sat Jul 14, 2007 9:40 am

More about the friends bit... I need to go in to manage friends and then refresh for it to work (otherwise, it thinks I have 0).

by **ConquererKing** on Sun Jul 15, 2007 5:17 pm

Sorry I was away but now I can answer your questions.

cicero wrote:Conquerer King

The specification of your extension sounds really cool. However, being slightly paranoid, I am cautious about downloading extensions from unknown sources in case it is malicious code masquerading as a cool extension.

Please don't misunderstand - I'm not accusing you personally of anything, but I wonder if you can advise of any precautions to take in general?

Regards

Cicero

I understand your worries, but as reverend kyle said, it works like it's supposed to. The only reason I don't have it up on the Mozilla Extension area is because I need to pass their qualifiers.

by **ConquererKing** on Sun Jul 15, 2007 5:22 pm

clapper011 wrote:cool but what we really need is a feature in there so it tells us how long we have for each turn or which ones are getting close to missing a turn...without having to enter the games to check:)

Sorry, I would try to do this but at this time it is impossible. Any of these addons gets their information from this RSS feed that only gives certain information. To show the amount of time left, we would need to have access to the site's database which is not allowed, for obvious reasons. It's annoying but what we can do is very limited at this time.

by **ConquererKing** on Sun Jul 15, 2007 5:23 pm

RiskTycoon wrote:hmm the only thing that bothers me so far is how it doesn't "stack" so to speak i guess.....with so many games the red boxes just shoot behind the window and i can't click them if i want to ....that was my problem with the other one, after you have 100 games active or so it screws up the whole window experience..... if that makes any sense to anyone lol

I thought of you people with 100+ games by adding an arrow button beside the list of games. On it there are options to collapse all your games or to show only the games you have that are ready.

by **ConquererKing** on Sun Jul 15, 2007 5:26 pm

hwhrhett wrote:i like the refresh button, but it seems that if i play some turns and then hit refresh, there is still a few minutes lag time before it realizes those turns have been taken.

Yeah, that's annoying, it's only because of that RSS feed that shows your games. Lack only updates it once every few minutes. When you click refresh, it reloads your games, but since the RSS feed might not be updated yet, it could show game statuses from a few minutes ago. There's nothing I can do about this, the only reason Lack has it like that is to avoid overloading the server :wink:

by **ConquererKing** on Sun Jul 15, 2007 5:29 pm

Coleman wrote:I think your friends list is a little buggy actually. It seems to be showing DiM online when evil dimwit is, and also shows I have 6 friends when in fact I only entered 5.

I'm sure it is

this is only a beta test, so you spotting these problems is good. It would be great if you could completely describe what you did and what happened if you find a bug because the code is pretty complicated in parts and this is the first firefox extension I've made :wink:

by **RiskTycoon** on Mon Jul 16, 2007 9:03 am

ConquererKing wrote:
RiskTycoon wrote:hmm the only thing that bothers me so far is how it doesn't "stack" so to speak i guess.....with so many games the red boxes just shoot behind the window and i can't click them if i want to ....that was my problem with the other one, after you have 100 games active or so it screws up the whole window experience..... if that makes any sense to anyone lol

I thought of you people with 100+ games by adding an arrow button beside the list of games. On it there are options to collapse all your games or to show only the games you have that are ready.

aye yes i know, but still i enjoy having them all shown for certain reasons...

by **hwhrhett** on Sat Jul 21, 2007 10:46 pm

sometimes when i first load up firefox, i have to hit the refresh button to get my games to show up, and i have to go to manage contacts and hit ok, in order for my friends list to pop up, otherwise it just always says loading....
is this normal?

btw, i am lovin this addon btw... :-)