Firefox vs Win7 taskbar.

[DarkyDan]

I like the little feature that IE8 and explorer have where the taskbar button fills up like a progressbar.

Has anybody on these forums had the time to sift through the new superbar API's and fashion a plugin for firefox that lets it have this functionality? I have no idea how hard or easy it might be. I also no it doesn't really detract from my positive experience in Windows 7 thus far.. but everyone likes the little 'cool factor' things.

[Denholm]

I think its something mozilla has to work on and add.

[Digitalx]

It's just an api probably they have to call on ... will probably come around sooner or later.

[hdood]

It's not difficult to use. The code below sets the progress bar for a window to 50% and then turns it red to indicate an error.

ITaskbarList3 *tl3 = NULL;
hr = CoCreateInstance(CLSID_TaskbarList, NULL, CLSCTX_INPROC_SERVER,
	__uuidof(ITaskbarList3), (void **)&tl3);

hr = tl3->HrInit();

hr = tl3->SetProgressValue(hwnd, 50, 100);
hr = tl3->SetProgressState(hwnd, TBPF_ERROR);

I really hope this new feature isn't abused though. I don't want my taskbar to turn into a rave party because everyone decides their program needs a taskbar progress indicator for every little thing. If someone adds it to Firefox, limit it to the download window only!

Edited January 13, 2009 by hdood

[zhangm Supervisor]

Haha, I remember when VLC's volume bar was a Vista-styled progress bar. Could you imagine the absurdity?

[hdood]

Yeah, the rule is pretty much that anything that can be abused, will be abused. Usually in ways no one could ever have imagined.

[DarkyDan]

Yeah I only think it is useful for file progress, as it is not interactive. IE is the slowest piece of fecal failure since the last time a snail took a dump. I want firefox all blingy in the same superbar way.

[sKiDz]

The Windows 7 taskbar has a couple of APIs that could be implemented into firefox using add-ons...

It may be something for a programmer to jump on before Win7 goes retail so that Mozilla doesn't lose out to the features that IE8 has.

There is two things that would be good to look at implementing; namely the progress bar (obviously for page loading progress rather than volume - lol) and the taskbar tabs.

Both can be sorted out by using the APIs found on this page: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd378460(VS.85).aspx

It's times like these that I wish I was a coder. I'd do it my self if I had the 'sweet computer hacking skills' required to make it work...

[sKiDz]

there is a better thread here: https://www.neowin.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=719716

[neo158]

I'm running Firefox 3.0.5 on Windows 7 and AFAIK this feature works, I could be wrong but i'll check and post here again.

[burnblue]

There is two things that would be good to look at implementing; namely the progress bar (obviously for page loading progress rather than volume - lol) and the taskbar tabs.\

I don't think it would be useful for page loads.. we're constantly loading new pages, in different tabs.

Downloads only.

[ToneKnee]

Can anyone put this in an extention please? I would, but I wouldn't know how to start. :s

[Brandon Live Veteran]

It's not difficult to use. The code below sets the progress bar for a window to 50% and then turns it red to indicate an error.

CComPtr<ITaskbarList3> sptl;
hr = CoCreateInstance(CLSID_TaskbarList, NULL, CLSCTX_INPROC_SERVER, IID_PPV_ARGS(&sptl));
if (SUCCEEDED(hr))
{
	hr = sptl->HrInit();
	if (SUCCEEDED(hr))
	{
		hr = sptl->SetProgressValue(hwnd, 50, 100);
		if (SUCCEEDED(hr))
		{
			hr = sptl->SetProgressState(hwnd, TBPF_ERROR);
		}
	}
}

Cleaned that up a bit for you :)

[Quillz]

I would hope (and expect) that all the major popular browsers, even Safari, will eventually make use of the (useful) taskbar APIs.

[Brandon Live Veteran]

would this be something that someone could possible build using the firefox extensions? Or is it something that has to be hard coded into firefox?

Windows doesn't care, so it's just a matter of how extensive the Firefox extension APIs are. If an extension can monitor download progress, then it should be pretty straightforward. However, I'm not sure if add-ons are given that capability or not.

[ToneKnee]

Come on people. This is a must! :p

[Linkinfamous]

Windows doesn't care, so it's just a matter of how extensive the Firefox extension APIs are. If an extension can monitor download progress, then it should be pretty straightforward. However, I'm not sure if add-ons are given that capability or not.

I seem to recall an extension that replaced the download manager a while back, so I assume it's possible.

[sid1337]

Hey, I'm working on it here: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=474060

It's certainly possible to listen to download progress, which is what I'll be using.