Firefox Stack Overflow Toolbar [closed]

Question

You can follow development progress on Twitter: @stack_o_bar

There's a Google Groups in place for discussion.

New Developments:

• The Stack Overflow Bar has been accepted into the public as of 24 April 2009.
• I finally caved in to some suggestions about posting the code and created a project on Assembla: StackOverflow Bar on Assembla.com
  With this project, I have included a ticket system. I was too busy to host it myself anyway. Please use the facilities provided to give me some feedback.

This bar is a search bar and offers quick access to some of the areas of SO:

1. One button to access the home page.
2. A search box, with history, to search Stack Overflow.
3. A button to access the "Ask Question" link.
4. 6 buttons to access "Newest", "Hot", "Votes", "Active", "Unanswered" and "User" areas.

Please get the Stack Overflow Bar:

• version 0.1.2.305

I've begun to setup the bar's site and I've also created a Google Groups List (Stack Overflow Bar) where we can initiate our discussions about this bar.
Both are quite in the beginning so please be gentle on the comments.

To Do List:

• Add notification with API calls.
• Correct common typos on the variations of "Stack Overflow".
• Implement a drop-down on buttons with the top 5 entries on that SO area.

Answer 1

1. I could bookmark the homepage, but since I always have a stackoverflow page open I always have a link to the homepage available.
2. I don't need search history (I already get that for the search box in the upper right corner, or I can use Firefox's Awesomebar feature to find previously visited pages)
3. Again, the ask question link is on every page, or I could bookmark it. (with a keyword if I wanted fast access to it without having to take my fingers off the keyboard)
4. Again, I could bookmark whatever pages I want fast access to and put them on my bookmarks toolbar
5. Stackoverflow already highlights the search terms in search results.

So I don't really see the need for this extension. When would it come in useful? What does it do that isn't available already?

Either you've created something that is unnecessary or you've failed to adequately describe the value of it.

Answer 2

I think it's a bad idea to ask people to install a plugin without providing, at the very least:

• a description of what it does
• screenshots or some other indication of what the user should expect to see when it's installed
• a way to get it through formal channels (eg Firefox addons page)

Answer 3

I don't much like toolbars in general, but providing some kind of browser integration could of course be handy. Still, why not just use the searchbar plugin that already exists, or perhaps write an Ubiquity command that's able to perform all the fancy SO-integration features you can think of?

Going through your ideas, here are my thoughts:

1. Pointless. This is what bookmarks are for, and we already have those.
2. Pointless. Firefox has a searchbar built in, and a SO plugin already exists for that.
3. That'd be useful. But I'd personally rather see it as an Ubiquity command than a toolbar
4. See above, partly solved by bookmarks, but could be handy as well - but I'd rather see it in Ubiquity than a toolbar

Answer 4

I would love it if it does..

• tell me how many new questions there are since I last looked, for specific tags I choose. (ie. Delphi(3), C++(123) C#(313413342344),...)
• notifies me if there're new answers to my question (as well as the comments).

Answer 5

Some suggestions:

1. I think making the last search result a button is a bad idea. Just use the history in the drop down list.

2. The toolbar might be more useful if it opened new tabs, or at least had the option, maybe a checkbox on the toolbar.

3. Add an item to the right-click context menu to search a highlighted term on Stack Overflow. Again, open it in a new tab.

4. Maybe have a "Favorites" button, and an option to save a question as a favorite question in the toolbar. And/or have an option in the Add-Ons preferences for a username, and display a list of the Stack Overflow favorites from the profile.

5. Make the Newest, Hot, etc. buttons with optional dropdown lists that will display the top X number of questions for that option.

Answer 6

I always look at questions tagged for some particular language like C++ or Java" or include both. New/Hot/Unanswered mean New/Hot/Unanswered in a particular language. Do I have an option for that?