General suggestions for Opera extensions

General suggestions for Opera extensions

Here's a list with a few general suggestions (some have been posted before by other users) :

Extension Manager in Opera
- add an info to the Extension manager to show who the author of the extension is (so we know which ones are made by Opera and which by other people)
- more info on the "Manage extensions" page (at least allow the info to be multiline)
- when you click on an extension (or maybe the image) in the extension manager to be taken to the extension's webpage
- ability to sort the extensions in the extension manager alphabetically since when you add a lot of extensions it will be hard to search through them if they are not in alphabetical order (maybe even do this automatically)
- ability to hide the disabled extension (so we could easily see which ones are active)


Extension's functionality
- ability to move the place where the extension buttons appear, for example to be able to add them to the statusbar (or any toolbar from Opera)
- support for "Extension settings", for example I'd like the mouse trails extension to allow me to change the color, opacity and size of the trails
- opera:extensions which would open the extension manager
- ability for extensions to create toolbars/menus, some extensions would probably need some visible toolbars/menus. Creating panels (like Quick Settings does) is a place to start, but the extensions should be able to better integrate into Opera's own UI.
- ability for Opera to check for updates and inform the user if there's any (might already exist, didn't find any way to check this )
- some extensions will need Opera to restart, add a "Restart Opera" button/option somewhere (would be nice in the Extensions Manager, but it might be good in the main Opera menu before the "Exit" option)

Extensions Page
All ideas regarding the Extensions page should be posted on the thread specially made for it Help us improve the Opera extensions catalog



Here's a list of ideas for future extensions that I'd like to see

A list with scripts that should be ported to extensions:
- port Ultimate Highlight script (highlights search queries)
- port GoogleFX, or at least part of its functionality (preview search results, show numbers before search results, ...)
- autocomplete for forms/edits (similar to FireFox/Chrome), there's a script now that does something similar
- port MultiPopUp script (shows extended skinnable tooltips)
- port "snaplinks" script to an extension (open multiple links by dragging a border around them)
- port VirtualKeyboard script (shows a virtual keyboard for entering text, very useful for passwords as keyloggers won't work)
- port "Text Area Backup" script (saves any text entered in a textarea so if Opera crashes or you close the page by mistake you can always retrieve the text you've entered)
- port the BugMeNot script

Other ideas
- add a "sticky notes" extension to save notes for a page, subdomain or domain
- site address hider/modifier (rename the title of the site according to some rules)
- port the User JS Manager from Unite to an extension, i believe it's more useful as an extension than as a Unite App
- make an extension to edit/import/export the blocked content list
- or better yet, port the "AdBlock" plugin from FireFox
- make an extension to minimize to tray instead of the taskbar, also add the ability to minimize to tray instead of closing
- make an extension similar to "Quick Translator" which after selecting a text shows a small button, if you press it you can translate the selected text in a floating div (without having to go to another page or translate the entire page)
- extension similar to "Read It Later" so that i can save links to custom lists for later reviewing

Probably it would be nice to have extensions for the Opera Mail (M2) too. I don't personally use it, but I bet a lot of users would like many of the Thunderbird's addons ported to M2

P.S. sorry for the long post, or maybe not

EDIT - added a few more ideas for the Extensions Manager and rearranged the post (also moved the Extension Problems to the next post)

Here are a few suggestions for the extensions themselves :
Mouse Trails
- add the ability to change the color, opacity and size of the trails, also maybe a "precision" setting would be nice, if you set it higher then it's more exact but also uses more CPU
- doesn't activate until you restart Opera (it should at least inform the user about this)

Translate :
- add the ability to translate to any language
- add the ability to set "whitelist/blacklist" so for some sites i can set it not to show the toolbar since i always want to read them in their original language

Edit the page :
- make it more visible that you're in editmode (for example a blinking border around the page)
- add ability to add/remove/move items (didn't find a way to add new links, frames, tables, ...)

YR.No forecast :
- add ability to actually change the location, it always opens the data for Oslo but i don't even live in Norway
I should have read the description, you open the yr.no page, search for your location and then press the button, now the button will show the weather for the selected location
- add ability to show a small popup (I remember i saw in the demo video a popup with the weather forecast, but i wasn't able to do that)

Block External Scripts :
- there's no visual clue to show if it's active or not
- add ability to add/edit a whitelist since there are sites i want scripts to run on but don't seem to have the ability to do that

EDIT : The extension problems should probably be posted in each extension's own thread, for now there doesn't seem to be a forum area for extensions.

I would also suggest to create a general Extensions-Panel - similar to the Widget-Panel, or even merge both.

Well, i can always copy the info over there, i just didn't see those threads when i made this post

EDIT : where should i post the info regarding how the Extension Manager and the extensions should work ?
they are not an extension wishlist and neither are related to the Extensions WebPage.

done, maybe a mod should close this thread as the relevant information has been moved to its proper place.

BugMeNot already has a UserJS.

I guess, every userjs should be ad hoc treated by Opera as Extensions, giving it common UI for user settings and upgrade/disable/deinstall.
Then there'd be no need for separate entity BugMeNot extension.

Same for Widgets and Unite applettes - they'd also be managed by Opera in same UI as Extensions - they are specific subclasses of Extension afterall.

PS: RetailMeNot also needed to be ported, not only BugMeNot :-)

PPS: Mozilla have DealExtreme Currency Converter add-on - it activates on online shops and substitutes prices in local Asia money to user's local money. Guess that would be aso great add-on :-)

this: http://my.opera.com/community/forums/topic.dml?id=744932

Would be cool if Opera could automatically convert .userjs into extensions like Chrome does.

Currently there's no support for extension settings (or none of extensions I seen has settings?).
I would like that in extension manager some extensions had configure buttons. When you press this buttons configuration window appears. I don't want something like speed dial configuration which is not native window. And I don't want if settings are made using html. I want native window and native controls. Just like in FF

Originally posted by albuemil:

- ability for extensions to create toolbars/menus, some extensions would probably need some visible toolbars/menus. Creating panels (like Quick Settings does) is a place to start, but the extensions should be able to better integrate into Opera's own UI.

+1
I'd also like the ability to apply some CSS or some such to some GUI elements, so that something like ColorfulTabs would be possible.

Originally posted by albuemil:

- port "Text Area Backup" script (saves any text entered in a textarea so if Opera crashes or you close the page by mistake you can always retrieve the text you've entered)

I'm not convinced that it would make much of a difference (other than ease of installation) unless there were more interaction with native GUI elements and a way to do something with settings like you said above. Even then I'm not convinced that it's worth it compared to interoperability with GM, but there'd certainly be a stronger case for it then.

Of course anyone's free to make it into an extension if they wish.

Please, add buttons Enable/ Disable all and Uninstall all in Extension Manager. Also - add check-boxes before the extensions - they should give possibility to exclude some extensions from this total selection.

If you installing some extension again then older must be replaced with new one (maybe with backup). The same behavior should be also when you installing newer version of extension. And user should be able to roll back older versions of same extension. So opera will not end up loading tens of same script. This is especially important when developing extension and testing it. In this case you install extension many times and need to uninstall old versions manually.
Also launching opera with extension's file name doesn't install it. Only dragging extension into opera window installs extension