Status bar removed from Firefox beginning with version 4.0b7

jthetzel
Beginning with Firefox 4.0b7, the status bar has been removed (http://support.mozilla.com/en-US/questions/764307). There is no option to make the status bar available, as suggested by http://www.zotero.org/support/kb/no_status_bar_icon . Instead, there is a new 'Add-on' toolbar, which can be activated through the usual View -> Toolbars menu. The Zotero icon now lives in this 'Add-on' toolbar. One problem with this new behavior is that the Zotero icon now takes up an entire horizontal menu bar, which serves no other purpose and is hidden by default.

One can customize the other toolbars and add the Zotero 'Z' icon. If Firefox decides to permanently do away with the status bar at the bottom of the window, perhaps having a Zotero icon installed on one of the upper toolbars should be the default behavior for future Zotero installs on Firefox 4. This would fit better with Firefox's new style moving forward and avoid confusion from new users who are not able to find the 'Add-on' toolbar, which is hidden by default.

Cheers,
Jeremy
  • dstillman
    For extensions that haven't been updated to use the add-on bar, Firefox automatically adds the old status bar to the add-on bar. If an extension adds something to the add-on bar, the add-on bar is displayed automatically (at least in theory, though I'm not sure if this is the case yet).
    One problem with this new behavior is that the Zotero icon now takes up an entire horizontal menu bar, which serves no other purpose and is hidden by default.
    I don't know what you mean by "takes up the entire horizontal menu bar"—I have an add-on bar extension installed and Zotero takes up only the width of the icon.

    One thing I have noticed is that the status bar shim isn't movable like the rest of the add-on bar contents, which is another reason for Zotero to switch to using the add-on bar natively. It may be a little tricky to support both the status bar (for Fx3.6) and the add-on bar (for Fx4), but we're planning to look into doing so in a future Zotero 2.1 beta.
  • jthetzel
    So far (4.0b9pre), if an extension adds something to the add-on bar, the add-on bar is not displayed automatically. But that of course could change before the final release.

    To clarify my comment about the Zotero icon taking up an entire horizontal tool bar:
    For me, the only icon in the add-on bar is the Zotero icon. The Zotero icon only takes up the width of the icon, but the Add-on bar takes up the width of the window. If not for the Zotero icon, I would have no need for the add-on toolbar. Thus, the Zotero icon necessitates an almost empty gray toolbar at the bottom of the window. Screen real-estate would be conserved by moving the Zotero icon to an upper toolbar. Of course, this can be easily done through customization. I just humbly ask us to consider whether having a Zotero icon in the add-on toolbar is superior to having a Zotero icon in an upper toolbar. At the moment, having the icon in the add on toolbar is confusing, as the add on toolbar is hidden by default. Also, a single icon necessitates an entire horizontal toolbar, which is particularly noticeable for laptop users with limited screen real-estate. That all said, perhaps others have a better understanding of the benefits of the add on toolbar and how the Firefox team envisages the add on tool bar benefitting add ons like Zotero.
  • dstillman
    Ah, I see what you're saying. But plenty of extensions add icons to the status bar currently, so the switch to the add-on bar hasn't really changed much in that sense. The main difference (other than the removal of the progress info) is really just a technical one—the add-on bar is a standard toolbar, so anything can be placed there and it can be customized. And it is called the "Add-on Bar", so it's hard to argue that this isn't an appropriate use of it. Zotero could use the upper toolbar by default, but, then, if every extension did that, you'd just have an extremely crowded upper toolbar.
    So far (4.0b9pre), if an extension adds something to the add-on bar, the add-on bar is not displayed automatically.
    That's entirely possible, but are you sure you've tested with extensions that actually use the add-on bar (rather than the old status bar)? It is supposed to behave as I described. It also might not change automatically if you've ever manually opened or closed it.

    (For what it's worth, I find the removal of the status bar to be a terrible change, and I'm using Status-4-Evar to restore the previous functionality.)
  • jthetzel
    That's entirely possible, but are you sure you've tested with extensions that actually use the add-on bar (rather than the old status bar)?
    Ah, very good point. I have not.

    Thanks for the replies and links.
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