CoolPreviews: Replacement suggestions (or help saving code to file)

Add-ons
#1

CoolPreviews is no longer supported by the developer (the Cool Iris team has been acquired by Yahoo for iPhone shtuff). This qualifies as a “major drag!”

Can anyone offer help by either:

1.) suggesting a good/suitable replacement browser extension
2.) provide advice as to how I can locate the CoolPreviews code & save it to file for (re)installation after moving to Windows 10. (I haven’t been able to find code/extension/add-on file saving solutions in the Firefox support forums.)

Regarding option 2.) I’m not experienced in coding, etc. I’ve located specific reference to CoolPreviews in Firefox “about:config” text, but I can’t figure out what (if anything) I can do with it. I haven’t been able to identify any specific reference to the CoolPreviews extension within the Mozilla Firefox program files visible on my HDD.

Thanks

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#2

I’m not sure what the addon is. Can you provide the link to it on AMO?

#3

Thanks for your reply, arenlor;

No links to the CoolPreviews extension in AMO I’m afraid, as the previous url ( https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/coolpreviews/?src=api ) yields a “Not Found” message.

CoolPreviews allows/allowed the user to hover the cursor over a link within a web page to generate an onscreen target. Clicking the target then opened up an overlay window that displayed the web page pointed to by the link that was hovered. It’s a terriffic way for gaining quick access to info that’s a valuable referrence for fuller comprehension of the original web page content.

CoolPreviews has/had additional functionality, such as opening the overlay page to a full-on Firefox page/tab; add the overlay page to a stack of overlay pages/tabs; hover the cursor over a 2nd (3rd, 4th … etc.) link to overwrite the existing overlay window with content from the page pointed to by the 2nd (3rd, 4th … etc.) link; other functions as well.

Previous web page addresses I have for the developer now point to https://www.coolpreviews.com/. This page advises that support has ceased & provides a contact email address. Earlier pages advised the developers were acquired by Yahoo to focus on “Beamit” & also supplied other urls, email addresses, physical (San Francisco) street addresses, phone #s, etc.

That’s all I can offer.

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#4

Don’t have any useful replacements, however you may be able to backup the extension. I’m not booted into Linux at the moment to confirm, but the instructions at http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_folder_-_Firefox will take you to your profile folder (about:support, click the button by Profile Folder). In there will be a folder called extensions. In the extensions folder you’ll find either an XPI or folder for CoolPreviews. Copy that folder/xpi file somewhere secure, and you should be able to restore it by copying it back to any profile extensions folder. You can test by creating a new profile on your computer: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/profile-manager-create-and-remove-firefox-profiles?redirectlocale=en-US&redirectslug=Managing+profiles

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#5

Your instructions to copy/save/test for extension preservation went off swimmingly! Thank you so much for this assistance! CoolPreviews absence would (& at some future point, quite probably will) rather hobble my routines.

Apologies for my very belated thanks; I had … uh, STUFF … maybe???. (Though this “explanation” is true only if you read “stuff” as equating to “stuff + poor memory + procrastination”).

Personal character flaws aside & in any event, again, my many thanks! … Rob

#6

I still have Coolpreviews working - with one BIG caveat. It seems that its code is simply incompatible with any later versions of Firefox, therefore, I can only have it working with Firefox 41.0.2.5765 and earlier…

You have to take the “coolpreviews-4.5-fx.xpi” file from your old extensions folder and drag it onto the firefox window to install it anew.

Like I say, mine is still working (October 21, 2016 - with the above mentioned version of Firefox…) , so this ‘workaround’ does indeed work! Some websites though, do NOT like my ‘older version’ of Firefox! Screw 'em though! :slight_smile:

Good luck, & happy previewing!

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#7

I also still have CoolPreviews working, and I’m on Firefox 47. I did have to do an “about:config” mod (as described in the FF support forum on unsigned add-ons) to get FF to let me run an unsigned add-on, but I also read something about that no longer being allowed/available starting with FF 50, so I haven’t even considered upgrading past 47. I keep a safe copy of CoolPreviews, but I also have found I can just use Time Machine to restore my FF back to when it was working last, so that’s how I ended-up back at 47.

I find it shocking that no one else has developed an app to replace CoolPreviews. AFAI am concerned, if I could have only ONE add-on for FF, this would be it, and is largely the reason I’ve continued to use Firefox. Once I am no longer able to use CoolPreviews, I’m just as likely to return to Safari, or possibly consider Chrome. Any time I have to use a browser without it I find I miss it terribly, as everything takes so much longer when one has to load every website to view it.

Sigh–I keep looking and hoping that someone will start a CoolPreviews Meetup, or some sort of forum dedicated to replacing or somehow rejuvenating it–if I had the skills, I’d be working on this.

#8

Are you still using coolpreviews? I miss it so much but have not found a replacement. Suggestion?

#9

try this

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-us/firefox/addon/interclue/

#10

Coolprevies still work on Firefox ESR v52.9.0 (64-bit). This Extended Support Release supports legacy Add-Ons and it has security updates up to date (till now…)

#11

ESR 52 is now out of support. Maybe it’s still up to date with security fixes, but not for long.