Flock Browser extensions (extended)

Just had a look at my Awstats and saw that a lot of visitors are coming here this month searching for Flock extensions because of this post.

At this moment you have a few ways to get some Firefox extensions on your fresh Flock browser. To name a few:

BUT

How about making yourself your favourite Firefox extension work in Flock? Wouldn’t that be cool?
So. Let’s get our hands dirty now.

Step 1. Go to the Firefox Extensions website and locate the extension you need.

Step 2. Right click on the “Install now” link and choose “Save link as…” and save the extension on your hard disk

Step 3. Unpack the extension in a folder. XPI files are in fact archive files. If you are like me and use Total Commander, select the xpi file and use ALT+F9 to unpack

Step 4. Now you have a folder that should have a file called install.rdf and a directory named chrome.

Step 5. Now we will start playing progrramer ;) Open “install.rdf” file in your notepad. I will use now a real example to make you better understand. I will use the rdf file of the MeasureIt Extension. It will look like this:


< ?xml version="1.0"?>



    

        {75CEEE46-9B64-46f8-94BF-54012DE155F0}
        MeasureIt
        0.3.3
        Draw out a ruler to get the pixel width and height of any elements on a webpage.
        Kevin Freitas
        http://www.kevinfreitas.net/pro/extensions/
        chrome://measureit/skin/measureit.png
        chrome://measureit/content/about.xul
        
            
                content/measureit/
                skin/classic/measureit/
            
        

        
            
                {ec8030f7-c20a-464f-9b0e-13a3a9e97384}
                0.9
                1.4.1

Now you will have to insert some piece of code to make it compatible with Flock. After insertion of the code it will look like this:


< ?xml version="1.0"?>



    


  
    {a463f10c-3994-11da-9945-000d60ca027b}
    1.0+
    1.0+
  

        {75CEEE46-9B64-46f8-94BF-54012DE155F0}
        MeasureIt
        0.3.3
        Draw out a ruler to get the pixel width and height of any elements on a webpage.
        Kevin Freitas
        http://www.kevinfreitas.net/pro/extensions/
        chrome://measureit/skin/measureit.png
        chrome://measureit/content/about.xul
        
            
                content/measureit/
                skin/classic/measureit/
            
        

        
            
                {ec8030f7-c20a-464f-9b0e-13a3a9e97384}
                0.9
                1.4.1

The code inserted being:




  
    {a463f10c-3994-11da-9945-000d60ca027b}
    1.0+
    1.0+

Be careful to insert that just below:

Step 6. Save the install.rdf file and unpack install.rdf and chrome directory (ALT+F5 in Total Commander). Rename the extension of the archive from zip to xpi and you just have a new fresh Flock compatible extension ;)

Step 7. Open your extensions window from flock.

Step 8. Drag and drop the downloaded extension into the extensions window

Step 9. Restart Flock and enjoy your hard work :)

Notes:

  • Don’t be an asshole and publish the extensions you customize on the net and claim you made them. Eventually drop an email to the author and asks for permission to do that
  • Don’t start complaining if something gets screwed.Take this post as it is
2005
10/25
CATEGORY
General
4 comments

  1. Check my site at frobba.com for an app I wrote to do this automatically.

    Edit: I edited your link to point directly to your flocker app. Nice job Geoff
    Razvan

  2. Thank you , i was searching for something like this

  3. Glad to help :)

  4. Perfect, sir! Exactly what I was looking for. (And I even use Total Commander, heh.)

    Folks – if you’re using an early beta like Flock 0.5.0, make sure your MinVersion number reads 0.5.0 or whatever version number you’re on. 1.0+ won’t work with early betas.

  1. November 12th, 2005
    Trackback from : Tutorial