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SyncPlaces, SortPlaces ... preserving these and other excellent Firefox add-ons

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A few days ago I was re-installing a laptop of mine. Downloading the default add-ons for Firefox came to a stall as I could not find SyncPlaces, which I've been using for a few years to synchronize my bookmarks between the systems I use. As I knew the author, Andy Halford, has a homepage I surfed there and found...

"So long Mozilla and thanks for all the fish

If you are here looking for any of my extensions (SyncPlaces, SortPlaces, CheckPlaces or SearchPlaces) then I'm sad to inform you that these are no longer available.

Unfortunately I do not have the time or the motivation to continue to support these in light of the close-minded, short-sighted and increasingly inflexible organisation that Mozilla has become. Apparently spending 1000's of hours promoting their products and providing my extensions to the general public to fill the gaps in their product, and repair bookmarks destroyed by Firefox Sync, counts for little and does not deserve any flexibility or support from them. Apparently add-on developers are second-class citizens to them whatever they may say. Surprising given that these are the main USP of Firefox, and developers are providing their time and efforts for free. My decision was taken after a series of problems the last one being the final straw."
Andy Halford, 17.06.12 screenshot

I was unable to find any details what caused this rant and the serious decision to remove his excellent add-ons from the Internet. There are a few discussions on the Mozillazine forums but nothing enlightening so far. Andy's personal homepage, family homepage and the TotalValidator product he and his wife offer are all still online, he just pulled all his popular Firefox add-ons.

Andy states on his homepage

"I will not be answering any further emails on this matter, I suggest that you direct any questions to Mozilla themselves and ask them why they were happier for me to leave than to use a little common sense." [ib.]

I still tried to contact him and asked for an interview but he has not come back to me so far. I've sent a second email with the URL of this blog post.

The SyncPlaces plug-in is still prominently featured on Wikipedia's Comparison of browser synchronizers at press time.

Now this is a mess. With some ungraciously licensed closed source software, you're probably used to plan migrations once license terms run out or you have to upgrade to the much improved successor product because "extended support" for your perfectly fine current version gets ridiculously expensive.

But with open source you have more rights and e.g. the security to use the product as long as you wish. If you have kept a copy of the code (and the license file). Because in this case the Mozilla Firefox installer .xpi's are hard to come by. Mozilla has a centralized add-on repository and once the files are pulled from there, they quickly vanish off the net. Now don't get me wrong, these plug-ins are now unmaintained software, so you will have to migrate at some point in time, but not necessarily now. You have some time for planning and evaluation of alternatives.

The advantage of open source licensing to the user

As Andy published his plug-ins under MPL 1.1/GPL 2.0/LGPL 2.1 tri-license, they can be re-distributed freely.

Luckily the ftp.belnet.be add-ons mirror seems to not synchronize deletes. So I was able to pull all of Andy's plug-ins from a known good source without resorting to somewhat dubious link spam/content duplication sites.

SyncPlaces Icon SyncPlaces, 8426 - Synchronize bookmarks and passwords between different installations of Firefox
(using your own ftp/webdav/file server)
v5.1.0D (patched version from gorticus, see the update from 15.12.14 below)
Local mirror: syncplaces-5.1.0D.xpi [214kB]
md5sum: 12895a850bf83e69c6a2f09c58ba0bf9
sha1sum: ba2baaff7f76f25e76de6882f1dfe9fd187f11d8

v5.1.0 (last original version from Andy from the Mozilla add-on repository)
Local mirror: syncplaces-5.1.0-sm+fx.xpi [241kB]
md5sum: 4ad7b1a167c05ab683c72d9f0097f4ec
sha1sum: bfd9d5603b5740cf3c7777037ebcf21d100da4a8

v5.2.0 (last original version from Andy's homepage, see the update from 07.07.14 below)
Local mirror: syncplaces520.xpi [245kB]
md5sum: 355e10877d83a36ec445f0ebd65a3a24
sha1sum: 022760ff2129f7eb8668d4578f5300ad7f1e10c6

  
SortPlaces Icon SortPlaces, 9275 - Flexible bookmarks sorting
v1.9.2B (improved version from Marc, see the update from 18.06.13 below)
Local mirror: sortplaces-1.9.2B-sm+fx.xpi [79kB]
md5sum: 53d8fcd735ced146299e299d9634621f
sha1sum: 80255cddb8540761a86b3efadffcd406f999284d

v1.9.2 (last original version from Andy)
Belnet mirror: All versions
Local mirror: sortplaces-1.9.2-sm+fx.xpi [80kB]
md5sum: 10dfcf3ef4f7cf9122d15fa47e38706b
sha1sum: 5d96b8f1a0735f6251c7748e362ac19811e228a9

  
CheckPlaces Icon CheckPlaces, 10897 - Checks bookmarks whether links are still valid and can update / fix favicons
v2.6.5 (improved version by Stefan Martens, see the update from 31.05.15 below)
Local mirror: checkplaces-2.6.5.xpi [123kB]
md5sum: 15b033d9808dc010befbd68932c4c469
sha1sum: ae65d0a6ee02e42cd375bc8d2ca61b110c6b1d68

v2.6.2 (last original version from Andy)
Local mirror: checkplaces-2.6.2-fx+sm.xpi [127kB]
md5sum: a964693939c878845792ff3cf2570f77
sha1sum: cafac2bbbbf682571221c6fcfa7ea6f539c1f886

  
SearchPlaces Icon SearchPlaces, 10920 - Create and maintain highly sophisticated bookmark queries using the Places API
v1.4.2
Local mirror: searchplaces-1.4.2-sm+fx.xpi [49kB]
md5sum: 499b0e63d441e229d69b7488d4880d71
sha1sum: 14e32a871288ad5e0e218aace65f599d443a2cba

There was a lot of well written documentation on Andy's site but these pages were copyrighted by him and not published under a free (documentation) license so I cannot mirror these. I was able to find site mirrors from 2011 on archive.org's wayback machine. Give it a shot while it's still there.

The unmaintained status of these plug-ins

Mozilla has defined a version identifier within the install manifest contained inside .xpi's that tells Firefox whether the version of the plug-in is deemed compatible. Inside the .xpi files linked above this is:

<em:maxVersion>13.*</em:maxVersion>

for SortPlaces, CheckPlaces and Seachplaces. Andy already put version 14.* in the install manifest for SyncPlaces.

Firefox currently seems on a run to achieve main version jump after jump as fast as possible (marketing suggests the average customer perception will be tilted towards "surely a version 23 must be superior to a product 3.0"). But as the add-ons can hardly keep pace, the strictness of honouring those maxVersion identifiers seems somewhat reduced now. Still, YMMV. If you read this while Firefox is at version 15+ (so sometime soon :-)) you may need to open the .xpi and manually tweak the install.rdf file to fix, sort or sync your bookmarks.

This is unmaintained and unsupported software until Andy changes his mind or somebody picks it up.
Please refrain from asking support questions in the comments section below.

Head over to #firefox on freenode or use one of the many Firefox support forums, e.g. MozillaZine's.

Updates

27.09.2016: Disabling the add-on signing requirement in Firefox 48 and later

Dave Charlton wrote in to point out an article from Martin Brinkmann at ghacks.net How to override the Firefox Add-on Signing requirement. For those who still haven't migrated away from Andy's plug-ins and don't want to do the Mozilla signing process themselves like pointed out in the comments section by Gelfy.

18.12.2015: Firefox 43 requires signed add-ons

Firefox 43 is out and this version requires signed add-ons now. It still can be disabled via a config entry, see the Mozilla Wiki but this in turn will be removed again for the next release, Firefox 44.

So the grace period preserving these add-ons originally authored by Andy Halford has finally come to an end.
We squeezed out another 3 and a half years, so this has been a very long period to eventually say good bye to bookmarks. Or at least to a sensible way bookmark collections were manageable. When the web was still distributed and people had a life outside of Facebook :-).

31.05.2015: Release of checkplaces v2.6.5 by Stefan Martens

Stefan collected the patches available elsewhere and combined them into a checkplaces v2.6.5 that works again with the brand new FF 38.0.1.
Thank you very much for your effort, Stefan!
Grab a copy of checkplaces-2.6.5.xpi [123kB] while its hot and take a look at the checkplaces changelog [5kB].

15.12.2014: Release of syncplaces v5.2.0D by gorticus

Jason Mitchell (gorticus) patched syncplaces to get rid of the PlacesUtils.history.getCharsetForURI(uri) that broke in FF 34. He set up a Github repository for his code and I provide a local mirror again as this one is compatible with Andy's licenses.
Maxversion is set to FF 34 on this .xpi, so get it while it's hot :-). syncplaces-5.1.0D.xpi [214kB]. The syncplaces changelog [8kB] has been updated as usually.

07.07.2014: Original v5.2.0 of syncplaces recovered from archives

Pavel wrote an email to submit links to a syncplaces v5.2.0 that Andy apparently published on his homepage (and some people used, see the comments section below). He pointed me to the download page mirror at archive.org and the corresponding changelog page mirror at archive.org.

The changelog contains just:

May 26th 2012 - SyncPlaces v5.2.0 released:

  • Added interface to logging system to the Advanced tab

The diff of v5.1.0 and 5.2.0 shows that additionally translations were updated and a stray ^M (CR) that broke the en-US locale a bit was fixed into a proper line ending.

This piece:

diff -r old/install.rdf new/install.rdf
8c8
<     <em:version>5.1.0</em:version>
---
>     <em:version>5.2.0</em:version>

37c37
<                               <em:maxVersion>14.*</em:maxVersion>
---
>                               <em:maxVersion>*</em:maxVersion>

46c46
<                               <em:maxVersion>2.11.*</em:maxVersion>
---
>                               <em:maxVersion>*</em:maxVersion>

 

makes we wonder though whether that glimpse into history hints at what got Mozilla and Andy so much disgruntled with each other.

Andy: "I ain't no updating my plugin every few weeks 'cause every tiny release now ups the major version."
Mozilla: "Well, that won't go into the add-ons repository then. It is your duty to test each and every version [... lots of explanatory motivation blurb ...]".
</speculation> :-)

Thanks again for the pointers Pavel.

02.09.2013: Improved version v5.1.0C of syncplaces

Graham packaged the patches TheChief and Strony Internetowe contributed in the comments below and I've tweaked the version number in install.rdf and the maxversion setting to create syncplaces-5.1.0C-sm+fx.xpi [217kB]. This one will work with Firefox 23 but I have had a report that it does not work with an HTTPS server. YMMV.

Review the syncplaces changelog [7kB] for the full account of the continued hacking on Andy's former masterpiece.

25.07.2013: Improved version v5.1.0B of syncplaces

Frank Kirchner packaged the patches Klaus, V and TheChief contributed in the comments below and sent me syncplaces-5.1.0B-sm+fx.xpi [221kB]. This one will work with Firefox 22 but may stop working again with Firefox 23+ as Frank indicates in his comment below. Thanks Frank!

Please check the usual syncplaces changelog [6kB] for the quick & dirty fixes applied.

14.07.2013: Improved version v2.6.2B of checkplaces

Scott Sanders writes:

I have modified CheckPlaces as you suggested and was able to repack it and have it work properly. Attached is the file that I have renamed checkplaces-2.6.2B-fx+sm.xpi that works just fine for me with Firefox 22. This add-on is by far the best bookmark checker I have used and was hoping you could put it on your site for others to use.

Sure thing. Please download the improved checkplaces-2.6.2B-fx+sm.xpi [124kB] and take a look at the checkplaces changelog [2kB].

27.06.2013: Belnet mirror changed directory structure and (unfortunately) re-mirrored

Apparently the Belnet mirror has been re-worked and now uses e.g. http://ftp.belnet.be/ftp.mozilla.org/addons/9275/ dropping the "mirror" top-level directory. Sadly so with that change apparently deletes were synchronized so the addons/xyz directories for Andy's plugins are now empty as on the other mirrors.

18.06.2013: Improved version v1.9.2B of sortplaces

Marc from Montreal, Canada, writes:

Thanks for keeping those excellent plugins. I was dismayed like everybody else when SortPlaces was failing with the "Livemarks" bug so I made a simple mod to remove it and I renamed the plugin as 1.9.2B so nobody gets confused. I tested it and it works great. Considering that I have close to 3000 bookmarks that were "accidentally" sorted alphabetically with another plugin, let's say I was very motivated.

He disabled special livemarks handling code in Andy's last version and updated the sortplaces plugin to be compatible with Firefox versions up to 22.x.

Please download the improved sortplaces-1.9.2B-sm+fx.xpi [79kB] and check the sortplaces changelog [1kB].

Thanks Marc!

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werner on :

thanks gladly appreciated your "mirror".

gab on :

Thanks a lot for mirroring SyncPlaces - I've changed my computer and really needed this to sync back all my bookmarks.

On the other hand - it's sad to hear Andy's story, details I think are not that important. As I see, addons/apps that are solving real problems (sync to MY OWN cloud), are shuting down for one reason or another (eg: foxmarks byos, now syncplaces).

Anyway, thanks again, Gab.

C.G. on :

Your efforts are much appreciated.

Now we all need to start looking at Sparkle or ownClound or ?

CG...

Tom on :

Thank you very much for this - I have no interest whatsoever in using the builtin firefox sync feature, much prefer to store bookmarks and passwords on my own server. Would love to switch to Chrome because mozilla seems to be on a mission to alienate users (and developers) but haven't yet found a good Chrome alternative to this plugin :-(

Mehmet on :

Hello,

Thanks for preserving these add-ons. I had to do a reinstall and was sad to see CheckPlaces and SortPlaces had been removed by the author from the Mozilla add-ons site.

I'm really getting frustrated with Mozilla's relentless Firefox updates and I'm not surprised talented developers like Mr Halford get pissed off and leave. I will too, once I find a suitable alternative to Firefox.

Thorsten on :

I can only consent to what Mehmet and all the others said above. BIG THANKS, Daniel, for your effort. You totally made our day! :-)

Jeff on :

Just before I found this article, I sent Andy the following e-mail...

Subject: You had a great product

And as of June 2012 Mozilla thinks you had the best way to sort bookmarks….

http://kb.mozillazine.org/Sorting_bookmarks_alphabetically

This page was last modified 17:25, 26 June 2012. This page has been accessed 287,876 times. About MozillaZine Knowledge Base

“The best way of sorting bookmarks is with the "SortPlaces extension, which although no longer available on the Addons site, can still be found by an Internet search elsewhere. This extension will be mentioned several times relative to different aspects of this article.”

So someone knows… I do too!

At least I will say – thanks for your hard work.

--Jeff Little

Robert Reid on :

Thank you for posting these Daniel. It's a shame Mozilla didn't appreciate Andy's work as much as the user community still does.

Seluna on :

Thank you for the mirror, I removed these extensions a long time ago and couldn't find them again until now.

Per on :

Daniel,

As a follow up, did you ever hear back from Andy on the details of what happened with Mozilla?

Daniel Lange on :

Unfortunately not. Andy has not come back to me at all. He updated the text on his web page a bit against the screenshot in the article and now states: "[D]on't expect anything other than at best a standard response blaming me [from Mozilla]. As I do not wish to encourage anyone to use Mozilla's products at this time, I will not be hosting or providing these extensions to anyone." (andyhalford.com, retrieved 16.09.2012)

But as to the reasons or possible solutions, sadly so no feedback.

tgunda on :

If you didn't reinstall FF and make a new user profile, Syncplaces install file is lurking still in your user profile/extensions folder under the name syncplaces@andyhalford.com.xpi. So you can save it for later use. However, it seems that it does not work 100% under FF 14. It sends the files to the server, but on receiving it ends with a Path not found error message.

Jim on :

in windows 7, I can't find any extenisions that I have removed still lurking there.

Nor any extenisions with a name.xpi just numbers.xpi Am I not looking in the right place. Even did a search for .xpi on my hard drive.

Daniel Lange on :

One of the [numbers].xpi is probably what you're looking for. The .xpi's are given unique filenames when installing. You can look into them with a zip-unpacker and identify which add-on it is.

Joe on :

Many Thanks for preserving Sort Places

Thomas on :

Strike, risen from the dead! :-) Thanks!

Lewis Rosenthal on :

Thanks so much for the article and the links, Daniel, as well as your efforts to contact Andy. As a contributor to Phil Chee's (Xsidebar) collection of extensions modified for SeaMonkey (http://xsidebar.mozdev.org/modifiedmisc.html and http://xsidebar.mozdev.org/modifiedmailnews.html), I've been familiar with - and have used - CheckPlaces for some time (later versions supported SeaMonkey out of the box).

Andy's frustration with MSF (or more appropriately, the people involved) was/is palpable from his text. It's truly disappointing when an organization which prides itself on community involvement in development can do so much damage.

Bill on :

Thanks Daniel for the article and for mirroring the addons. And thanks for the links to other mirrors. I downloaded the SortPlaces addon from the Belnet mirror. I am using Firefox 15.0.1. For those who don't this, as I didn't, one installs it by clicking "addons" from the Firefox tools menu. Then click the gear wheel to get its dropdown menu. Then click "install add-on from file". Browse to the .xpi addon file on your PC. Install.

Francisco on :

Thank you for the tips. I am using SyncPlaces with Firefox 16.0.1 and it is OK. I didn't do any tweak to the files. Has anyone found any good replacement which doesn't copy the bookmarks to the internet?

Ted on :

Well. I was just doing some leisurely review & upkeep on my add-ons collection ... clicked Andy Halford's link in his Checkplaces dialog, just for grins ... and ended up here (after further searching).

The intense upgrade cycle at Firefox, and the "forcing" of updates, is not a good sign. Like the old song says "Nobody does it better, but sometimes I wish someone would".

Everybody says (in regard to 'upgrade-frenzy' & other points), 'What the heck are they doing'?! But of course, no one can answer the question.

Thanks to Mr. Halford for his products that fit my needs so well; and thanks to Daniel Lange for finding & posting fresh copies of the now unavailable add-ons.

Greg G. on :

Thanks for creating a forum for those concerned by the discontinuation of SyncPlaces. Fingers crossed it still sorft of works for me, albeit only one way. If I sync from both my 64bit linux everything is fine and picked up by my old 32bit laptop. If I make changes though from that 32bit machine, the hashes get b0rked and no sync is possible anymore.

So what have been people's alternatives so far?

Malcy on :

Thanks to you for hunting down copies of these excellent Firefox add-ons. Even more thanks to Andy Halford for having developed and maintained them. I have anew laptop so want to do a synch, like many, not iterested in synch-ing over "the cloud".

syncplacesfan on :

Firefox is now bread without butter

I echo the general feeling here, thank you very much to provide a repository for these add-ons, and to give some explanation about the cause.

Please, Andy, change your mind

Wouldn't Halford reconsider his decision, for the sake of his user base? That would be nice :-).

I have a bookmark collection of ~2'5000 bookmark. I use a folder tree and tags. These add-ons have been the core of my bookmark management, for years:

  • Syncplaces
  • Sorplcaces

I have always loved these high quality add-ons. The Andy Halford pages were very clear, and Andy's personal feedback has been equally good.

All the work gone?

After all it's just a dispute(s). People change or get replaced, eventually. I don't think Mozilla cares at all; they have a sync service to push. But we, the users of these add-ons do care. We are the only one saddened and affected by Andy's decisions.

Digital Hobo on :

Thanx for the archive. I followed a link from a Mozilla tutorial on sorting bookmarks to Andy Halfords website, to be greeted by the "Thanks For all the Fish..." notice. So I googled my way to your site here and found the 'sortplaces' xpi. Installed it like normal on Firefox 20 :-) and it works like a charm. Really sad to see such a great coder withdraw his unique products like this. No decent replacement for 'sortplaces'. I've saved the other 3 add-ons on general principle and to use later. Inspired, I went to the wayback machine and opened every page of Andy's documentation in tabs and saved it all as an .mht file with all the associated downloads.

Salabim on :

The SyncPlaces add-on breaks normal Firefox operation since version FF20.x

When updating addons/firefox itself, it will halt Firefox from proper re-starting. Firefox will close itself, but will no longer restart afterwards.

Daniel Lange on :

I can't confirm that. Here Syncplaces still works on all systems with FF 20.x and updates, add-on updates work as usual.

Michael Wegemer on :

I am very happy to have these plug ins back. It is unfortunate that large companies tend to favor vendors offering pay services over the independents offering better solutions with less overhead and less risk. Does anyone know where the source source for syncplaces and sortplaces can be obtained? A big thanks to Andy and I understand his reluctance to deal with a company that has done him wrong.

Daniel Lange on :

The .xpi's are just zip-files that contain the source code and some additional resource files. Javascript is an interpreted language.

Adam on :

Thanks for Sortplaces V1.92B. Any chance of uploading it as a new plugin to Mozilla?. Andy will be getting loads error emails from people using his version with FF22 which I doubt he will appreciate. If he does not want to continue that's fine, but I consider it essential to FF

Daniel Lange on :

I still consider this unsupported software so I'd personally not try to make it easy for new users to stumble upon it in the Mozilla Add-Ons directory. And if Andy gets lots of emails - perhaps he'll reconsider. I'm sure many people would be very happy.

Cris on :

Uhh, seems on FF 22 SyncPlaces 5.1.0 is not compatible anymore. Get Errors:

ReferenceError: exception is not defined

TypeError: PlacesUtils.nodeIsLivemarkContainer is not a function

Shit and i found no good alternative to sync bookmarks and passwords on my own Cloud.

Steve on :

hopefully, it gets updated. Any chance?

TheChief on :

Guys,

I also got the same problem as many here! SortPlaces seems to work again with version 1.9.2B from Marc! Thanks a lot for that! :-)

Now let's come back to SyncPlaces: I just played around with FF 22 and SyncPlaces 5.1.0 and found a curious way to export my bookmarks, but ONLY ONCE. Here's how I did it, can anybody confirm it, please:

In the options of SyncPlaces I added the option to export my bookmarks as .html file too, not only as .json file! After doing so I was able to export my bookmarks to my usual place (an usb-stick) over FTP protocol!

After restarting my FF 22 the bug was there again and I had to redo the procedure again to export my bookmarks (again)...

TheChief on :

Guys,

one additional comment to my findings above: It was enough to set AND reset the .html export option in one step, no need to leave the options menu and go back to it to make it work!

Mikka on :

I get a "couldn't save bookmarks", even with the fixed plugins on FF 22. Any way I can try to debug this?

Chris on :

Same here! We installed Firefox v22 on a brand-new HP Win7Pro machine, new profile, new everything. Now doing a receive in SyncPlaces just gets the errorL

"COULD NOT SAVE BOOKMARKS"

Five hours spent trying different things in FF with no luck. Just great...the only browser extension that allows syncing of bookmark .json files using a private server, and it's now officially broken. >:(

Can't anyone talk to Andy about giving up the source so this can be fixed??? The community doesn't need any new features, nor even hosted on Mozilla. Just updated to keep it working. Uggghh

Daniel Lange on :

The source is inside the .xpi's. They are basically .zip files with Javascript and some metadata inside. No need for Andy to publish anything else. You have everything you need to fix it available. If your company lacks the skill to develop in Javascript, I'm sure you can find a capable developer willing to fix SyncPlaces for a fee.

frydd on :

since FF22 the addons didn't work anymore :-(

Digital Hobo on :

TypeError: PlacesUtils.livemarks.isLivemark is not a function

In Firefox 22.0 the above error now appears when I try to use the original, or the new sortplaces-1.9.2B-sm+fx.xpi from Marc from Montreal. Any chance of some advice, or a guess on the problem? Thanx Marc! I am so glad Daniel and you are working to keep this add-on going.

Daniel Lange on :

I just ack'd this comment because you've been a commenter before. As I said in the blog entry: This is unsupported software and please refrain from asking support questions in the comments.

tom on :

mhmm, we really need someone with a bit programming skills to get it working again. i googled like a pro, theres nothing when u want to sync with your own ftp plus encryption :/ maaaaarc, do it agaiiin ;-)

Michael on :

Thanks a lot the updated SortPlaces!

syncplacesfan on :

Effectively F22 breaks Sort-places on my system (Fedora).

(to the other users who have commented here) How do you manage sorting alphabetically >20000 bookmarks on Firefox?

If Andy had ported his add-on on a different browser, I would change browser, even though I like FF best.

I don't think the average users manage a large collection of bookmarks to sort and sync between machines, but for those who do, it really hurts.

syncplacesfan on :

In the meantime, a big thanks to Marc from Montreal for the reprieve (sort-places/FF22)

TheChief on :

Folks,

maybe I just found a also maybe dirty solution for our FF 22 SyncPlaces impact!

Here's how I did it:

I've only modified one line in the Javascript code of SyncPlaces in the file bookmarks.js to now:

Line# 751: if(PlacesUtils.nodeIsQuery(node)) {

The old line# 751 looked like this: if (PlacesUtils.nodeIsQuery(node) || PlacesUtils.nodeIsLivemarkContainer(node)) {

So as you can see I've simply removed the second part of the OR operator and itself in the if statement to get rid of the function call: PlacesUtils.nodeIsLivemarkContainer(node) which caused the execption!

My first tests just a few minutes ago are looking good...

Maybe someone out there want's to test my modification on his own machine...

But be aware, this is ONLY A BLOODY EGDE VERSION - QUICK AND DIRTY!!!

Provided with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY!!!

V on :

Here is my fix for SyncPlaces "COULD NOT SAVE BOOKMARKS" (TypeError: PlacesUtils.livemarks.isLivemark is not a function) issue.

WARNING!!! Do at your own risk! Also this may screw things up if you are using Live Marks (RSS).

1) Find this file and make a backup copy: "C:\Documents and Settings\xxx\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\xxx\extensions\syncplaces@andyhalford.com\chrome\content\bookmarks.js"

2) In bookmarks.js using text editor replace all occurences of "PlacesUtils.nodeIsLivemarkContainer(child)" and "PlacesUtils.nodeIsLivemarkContainer(node)" with "false". Case sensitive! For example old line:

if (PlacesUtils.nodeIsQuery(node) || PlacesUtils.nodeIsLivemarkContainer(node)) {

should now be:

if (PlacesUtils.nodeIsQuery(node) || false) {

3) Restart Firefox. Should work now!

Enjoy :-)

tom on :

thanks to you and thechief for your fix, u made me happy for some min. i stopped being happy when i checked the fix with firefox 23 beta 2... the error message 'cant save bookmarks' was back :-( maybe i did something wrong, would be nice if someone could check it too. i used the fix of 'v' with the false command. thanks for your work, v and thechief. was a try...

this is the sync-log with 23 beta 2:

TypeError: PlacesUtils.toJSONString is not a function

seems like they remove needed commands with every new version O.o

Steven Bartlett on :

Thanks for the Sort Places mirror that seems to have fixed the PlacesUtils.livemarks.isLivemark is not a function issue for me which started after upgrading to FF22. You guys are great

Daniel Rainha on :

CheckPlaces 2.6.2 fix for firefox beta 23,just delete line 167 to 204 "progress.js" (N:..\extensions\checkplaces@andyhalford.com\chrome\content\progress.js)

http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?f=48&t=2722799

I recommend Notepad++ 6.4.2 for the job, http://notepad-plus-plus.org/

Scott Sanders on :

I have tried deleting the lines in progress.js of CheckPlaces 2.6.2 but must be having problems repacking it as I get an error "this addon could not be installed because it appears to be corrupt".

How do you personally repack the extension? I used Winrar to change it to a .rar file and then rename it to an .xpi file. This does not work.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Daniel Lange on :

You need to create a .zip file, not a .rar. The latter is a completely different archive format and not supported by Firefox (or anything else Mozilla) for add-ons.

brian on :

After I upgraded to FF 22.0, sortplaces-1.9.2 gave "TypeError: PlacesUtils.nodeIsLivemarkContainer is not a function"

The improved sortplaces-1.9.2B-sm+fx.xpi fixed the problem.

TheChief on :

Guys,

please have a look here:

https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Mozilla/Firefox/Releases/21

for the changes made by the Mozilla development team mentioning our SyncPlaces issues. There you'll find a section which says that the function: PlacesUtils.nodeIsLivemarkContainer()

is replaced:

Replaced by mozIAsyncLivemarks:

nsILivemarkService::*
PlacesUtils.itemIsLivemark
PlacesUtils.nodeIsLivemarkContainer
PlacesUtils.nodeIsLivemarkItem

So next step should be to figure out if we can use some of the new functions as a replacement of the now missing functions.

Tom on :

im not good in programming, but i know that writing a async code is much more than replacing some commands, its like writing the code completely new. some ff-addons got removed cause of this.

plus it seems like there are new changes in ff 23.

so i think we have to realize that we have to say goodbye to syncplaces and maybe the other addons too.

and who knows, when u read the news, its maybe the best to stop sending your bookmarks through the internet :-)

atm im searching for something to sync the bookmarks offline. if someone knows a tool for windows... would be nice to post it here.

thanks to daniel for this place and all the others for the help.

Al on :

I really appreciate you updating these add-on's for the newer versions of FireFox. I didn't update FireFox because the newer versions didn't work with CheckPlaces or SortPlaces. Whatever the upgrades from 14.01 to 22.00 were, without CheckPlaces or SortPlaces it wasn't worth it.

I'm happy to report that your updates work just fine with Version 22.00 of FireFox.

Many thanks.

Good job, well done.

Klaus on :

Hi,

I patched all the js files of syncplaces to no longer reference the removed API. Dowload the files from http://www.upload.ee/files/3455453/content_after_removing_dead_API.zip.html and put the files into your c:\Users\you\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\profile.default\extensions\syncplaces@andyhalford.com\chrome\content. Hope it works for you as well.

Best, Klaus

Daniel Lange on :

There's also much more logging to SyncPlacesIO.log in what Klaus patched. If somebody cleans that up a bit and packages it properly, I'd be happy to host a v5.1.0B of SyncPlaces.

Frank on :

Hi everybody,

i also did the dirty changes into the searchplaces plugin and i test an repack the changes of claus as Daniel said and send it to him to change the plugin on the page above.

but everybody remeber - this is only a dirty fix. next version of firefox (release Date 8.8.2013) will become api-updates again.

we need to fix this in the code. i also got programming experiences but i never develop firefox extensions. so its not quite easy to fix this (remember to andy) casualy.

if someone can help me to leave a message. but remember: i need no links to MDN, i also know it! some tips to got a quick debug an development system, a good ide for that an so on might help!

please feel free to test it and give us some feedback!

thank you! Frank

ps: sorry for my rusty english...

bm on :

hi folks

a maybe stupid but simple workaround:

  1. keep a ff21 version on your system (on mac, just rename it to firefox_21.app, for example)

  2. Install a new ff (v22). it will automatically use your profile with all your bokamrks.

  3. With ff22, you can export bookmark as usually.

  4. To import bookmarks, close ff22, start ff21, import bookmarks, close ff_21, start ff22, enjoy your new bookmarks.

Of course i'd like to see a syncplace addon working without that!

best regards

bm

Mike Dover on :

Installing the above version of Sort Places into FF22 ended up corrupting my bookmarks, but I was able to restore since I use xmarks.

Tried it in FF21, same problem. Weird thing is, everything I visit this blog in firefox, firefox crashes (at least doesn't respond)! I'm not writing in Chrome of all things.

Now I'm in FF23, and am going to try again.

Mike Dover on :

Ok, used the Reset button in Troubleshooting, and reinstalled, and now everything seems to be working with this: http://daniel-lange.com/software/sortplaces-1.9.2B-sm+fx.xpi

Thanks!

p.s. you can use xmarks and then share your bookmarks with more recent added!

Mike Dover on :

Wow, spent all day on this. Ok, here is final resolution, I hope. I rolled back to version 21 and that seemed to work with the 1.92B from Marc, but then the darn thing updated to 22 even though I had set it to NOT update and custom installed it so that it would NOT install the background Firefox maintain software.

Anyway, one problem I ran into was the bookmark add dates all being made the same. Again, saved by xmarks, but it had problems too. It wouldn't sync propersly.

  • Version 22 of Firefox
  • Version 4.2.1 that show sup in the addon window of Firefox NOT the lastest 4.2.3 from Xmarks site.
  • 1.92B from Marc: http://daniel-lange.com/software/sortplaces-1.9.2B-sm+fx.xpi

This seems to be a stable solution. I'm lobbying Xmarks to step in and solve this problem, they were bought by LastPass. They have the resources to stay on top of this. They should work with Marc to ensure that a stable combination of Firefox, Sort Places, and Xmarks is available so folks canpublish RSS feeds and public shares of bookmarks.

m.a.dover@csuohio.edu

Raf on :

Syncplaces ko with FF Version 23 :-(

Frank on :

hi raf,

actually the only solution is to roll back to FF22 because there is no working version of syncplaces for FF23.

User the following page, choose your language an copy the download-link, change the version-number to 22 and download last version to install.

For US-version: https://download.mozilla.org/?product=firefox-22.0&os=win&lang=en-US

This version will work with the current version of syncplaces.

TheChief on :

Guys,

now that we are on version 23 of FF, the show must go on:

As far as I've seen yet, the next problem to be solved is the now missing Javascript function: toJSONString()!

So I've googled the function name and found the following webpage:

http://crisp.tweakblogs.net/blog/312/

Where the author Crisp talked about exactly this function and provided an alternative (he calls it second version) version of it!

Please have a look at it by following this link:

http://therealcrisp.xs4all.nl/upload/json2.js

As I'm not a Javascript guy, the question now to all others here:

Can somebody implement this alternative version of the toJSONString() function into our SyncPlaces modul?

Have fun...

TheChief

Strony Internetowe on :

To work with FF 23 you have to change all phrases: PlacesUtils.toJSONString to: JSON.stringify

And syncplaces will work again :-)

Jake on :

It took a while to search all the files to make sure I got every reference you sited, however once finished it works like a charm!

Firefox 23.0 (20130730113002)

Thanks!

Cris on :

Has changed the phrases per PSPad > search & replace but doesn't work for me. Can anyone post a working version of Syncplaces please!

P.S.: Testing now FF Sync minimal Server on my Synology NAS. FeBe Backup was not a practicable option.

Graham on :

I changed PlacesUtils.toJSONString to: JSON.stringify Works fine for ftp. This works for me.

https://www.drivehq.com/file/DFPublishFile.aspx/FileID1514552927/Keynss6ljcliu6q/syncplaces-5.1.0B-sm+fx.xpi

Diego on :

Thanks Graham, that version works for firefox 23 with ftp

X on :

CheckPlaces does not load favicons or reload favicons. I tried the GET method put it choked on about the 300 bookmark.

Please fix.

Thanks

Daniel Lange on :

I'm sorry to disappoint you, this is unsupported software and been unsupported for more than a year, see the section in the article above. There is no "please fix". Fix it yourself if you need it. It's open source. Time to learn some JavaScript.

Michael on :

A good replacement: Auto-Sort Bookmarks

Hermann on :

@Graham: Thanks for your fix. Please give your version a differential name (for example with suffix C instead of B). Otherwise it can be cofused with B version of Frank Kirchner. @Daniel Lange: Could you update your main article "Updates" please. @all: What is about license/right? Is it legal to post xpi files in www and is it permitted from mozilla's point of view?

Daniel Lange on :

This is Free software, licensed as MPL 1.1/GPL 2.0/LGPL 2.1 as said in the article above. You can re-distribute it freely.

Graham on :

Re-posted with new link and appended version number. Working with Firefox 23.0 - 23.01

http://www.hellsteeth.talktalk.net/syncplaces-5.1.0C-sm+fx.xpi

PeterS on :

Hi there

Somehow the SW also stopped working over here... But when I download the file syncplaces-5.1.0C-sm+fx.xpi mentioned above, it still reports itself as revision 'B' - and doesn't really work with a fresh install of FF23. Could there be a mixup with the revisions?

I'd GREATLY appreciate if this software could be kept operational...

Tnx & best regards, P.

Daniel Lange on :

Graham's version is only renamed (file wise) to "C", the one I made and linked within the blog entry also has the version identifier within install.rdf set to "5.1.0C". So that one should report itself accurately in the add-ons list.

Graham on :

I have updated install.rdf to show correct version id.

sorry about that. G

PeterS on :

Thanks for the reply and the changes.

The addons-page shows the 'C' correctly, but the interface of SyncPlaces still shows 5.1.0B I found that in options.xul -> line 43 and actions.xul also line 43 But that is just cosmetics...

What is more annoying is that the 3 RSS feeds led to a 'Invalid or corrupted bookmarks received' error. The debugging log shows the following lines:

Donnerstag, 12. September 2013 00:31:54 ERROR 9: TypeError: PlacesUtils.livemarks.createLivemarkFolderOnly is not a function

Donnerstag, 12. September 2013 00:31:54 ERROR 9 key: invalid_bookmarks

Donnerstag, 12. September 2013 00:31:54 ERROR 9 extraText: null

As I do not really depend too much on the RSS feeds, I simply deleted them and now receiving the bookmarks back from the server is also working... I'm fully aware that simply removing some entries from the bookmarks is not a general solution that can be taken seriously, but at least in my case it solved this problem...

Thanks again & best regards,

Peter

Gerd on :

Here is the next function which cannot be found any more for Syncplaces:

PlacesUtils.livemarks.createLivemarkFolderOnly is not a function

There is only one reference made to this function: in chrome/content/utils.js.

For now, I commented out lines 509 and 510 in utils.js:

//                  id = PlacesUtils.livemarks.createLivemarkFolderOnly(container, node.title, siteURI, feedURI, index);
//                  receivedIds.push(id);

I hope that fixes it at least for the moment.

Gerd on :

Syncplaces has another problem with a missing function:

PlacesUtils.livemarks.createLivemarkFolderOnly is not a function

Reference to this function is made in chrome/content/utils.js, line 509.

I have now inserted a variable definition like this

var livemarkService = Components.classes["@mozilla.org/browser/livemark-service;2\"].getService(Components.interfaces.nsILivemarkService);

into the affected function and changed the offending line from

id = PlacesUtils.livemarks.createLivemarkFolderOnly(container, node.title, siteURI, feedURI, index);

to

id = livemarkService.createLivemark(container, node.title, siteURI, feedURI, index);

Please check if this is valid and comment. Thank you very much.

Daniel Lange on :

That's another hack that'll work until Mozilla removes that interface as well, it's depreciated now (https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/XPCOM_Interface_Reference/nsILivemarkService).

IMHO SyncPlaces either needs a major overhaul with the new API (https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Places_Developer_Guide) or it will die for good. We squeezed more than a year of additional usage out of it, so that's pretty impressive already.

Graham on :

Version ID shows correctly in window head now.

http://www.hellsteeth.talktalk.net/syncplaces-5.1.0C-sm+fx.xpi

Thanks PeterS for: options.xul - line 43

I use Firefox 23.0.1 with the following extensions.

http://www.hellsteeth.talktalk.net/FEBE%20Results.htm

I use SyncPlaces configured for FTP, encrypted AES 256. Earlier I deleted all my bookmarks, re-installed SyncPlaces and restored all without problem.

My SyncPlaces log is as follows.

12 September 2013 23:23:27 Synchronize
12 September 2013 23:23:27 ERROR 11: Transfer in progress ...
12 September 2013 23:23:27 Receiving Hash,
12 September 2013 23:23:28 ERROR 11: Transfer in progress ...,
12 September 2013 23:23:28 case this.JSON,
12 September 2013 23:23:29 showAlert=false,
12 September 2013 23:23:29 returning backupFilePath=[xpconnect wrapped nsIFile],
12 September 2013 23:23:29 ERROR 11: Already up to date

It does sync/send/overwrite for me no problem.

http - https config gave me a headache.(functioned intermittently)

I agree, it needs an overhaul, and even better a fresh start. For those that still use it, we have had another year. which is good.

I was gutted when it stopped working. It has been very helpful over the years.

Cheers everyone for the input/output. G

Gerd on :

Then, most likely, you do not have Livemarks (bookmarks to RSS feeds).

For me, the latest version available here gave the error "invalid or corrupted bookmarks received" - culprit was the reference to PlacesUtils.livemarks.createLivemarkFolderOnly (as described above).

Fortunately, the API changes currently affect the Livemark system only, and there are only two references which need to be updated in SyncPlaces: PlacesUtils.livemarks.createLivemarkFolderOnly and PlacesUtils.nodeIsLivemarkContainer

I have now updated both of them to point to the current API. Please find the updated version 5.1.1-GR for download at http://home.arcor.de/dac324/firefox/syncplaces/syncplaces-5.1.1-GR.xpi

Kind regards, Gerd

Gerd on :

Update: After fiddling around with the JavaScript peculiarities (new methods have to be inserted into an existing object at the very last position, otherwise, the whole object will not be found any more) I have now restored the Livemarks functionality. Both PlacesUtils.livemarks.createLivemarkFolderOnly and PlacesUtils.nodeIsLivemarkContainer are replaced by alternative coding and at least I do not get livemarks-related errors any more. Download at http://home.arcor.de/dac324/firefox/syncplaces/syncplaces-5.1.2.xpi

Frank on :

@Gerd: Thank you very much, i test it and it works fine with Firefox 24.

@Daniel: can you change the version above and remarkt, that the version already run unter ff24?

has anybody test it on the next release of ff?

Daniel Lange on :

I asked Gerd for a slightly cleaned up version (he needs to remedy a copyright issue with the documentation) via email 20.09.13. He has not come back to me so far.

Gerd on :

Seems that this mail got lost somewhere. At least I did not receive it. Meanwhile, I have incorporated some changes, resulting in version 5.1.2 downloadable at http://home.arcor.de/dac324/firefox/syncplaces/syncplaces-5.1.2.xpi .

What documentation issue are you referring to? I have to admit that the links in the add-on still point to Andy's pages which are not available any more. I fetched a copy from web.archive.org but it has to be edited a little bit before including it into the add-on.

Daniel Lange on :

I sent it 20.09.13 18:23 CEST. Have a look. The issue is that Andy's documentation is not under a free license but his personal copyright. So you cannot legally copy and redistribute it. In my humble opinion you may be able to link to archive.org but IANAL.

Rus on :

I was staying at FF 22 just because Syncplaces 5.1.0b supposedly only worked up to FF 22 or 23. I finally bit the bullet and upgraded to FF 27 last night just for security purposes and of course Syncplace quit working via FTP. I found your 5.1.2 version and it works just fine in FF 27.

Bo on :

I'm on ff 27.0.1 and sp 5.1.0c and it's working fine, on most machines. I'm going to upgrade to the latest build anyway.

Thanks to you guys for keeping this going. I've been using it for years and it's the only thing that works the way I want to keep my bookmarks; privately! I can't thank you enough!

Frank on :

I create a github-account and a syncplaces-repository for teamwork on the project. If you might help us develop syncplaces for the future, let me know your github user to connect to the repository!

Contributed release in XPI-files already will be published on daniel lange's site but team-development might be better on the github-plattform.

All version futher 5.1.0 are commited: https://github.com/Qixuga/syncplaces/

Source code can be find here: https://github.com/Qixuga/syncplaces/tree/master/source

Releases/builds of complete Plugin (XPI-Format): https://github.com/Qixuga/syncplaces/tree/master/build

Keith on :

just wanted to let everyone know sortplaces-1.9.2B working perfect with FF24 (not using Andy's other add-ons)

will be staying with the last version of FF that works with sortplaces-1.9.2B for life

thanks to Marc and Daniel for keeping it going so far ....

tschoepler on :

thanks so much for your efforts on checkplaces

Farchan on :

Thank you so much for preserving and updating Andy's works Daniel. i really need those awesome add ons.

Thank you

Al Kalian on :

Daniel: This might be a bit off topic so I'll leave it to you whether or not you want to post it. One way to avoid all this is to stay with an old version. Unfortunately FireFox will at some point force you to upgrade. You can avoid this by changing the Update Channel.

=======================================

To get off the Update Channel, use Notepad and change the value in: C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\defaults\pref\channel-prefs.js from "esr" or "release", or whatever is in there to "default". The contents of the file look like this:

============================================

//@line 2 "e:\builds\moz2_slave\yyy\build\browser\app\profile\channel-prefs.js" /* This Source Code Form is subject to the terms of the Mozilla Public * License, v. 2.0. If a copy of the MPL was not distributed with this * file, You can obtain one at http://mozilla.org/MPL/2.0/. */

pref("app.update.channel", "default");

============================================

Once you do this, FireFox will never check for updates and you can run old versions for as long as you want. I did this, and restored my 14.01 working directory and no "update demons" came a calling.

Thanks for all your hard work. It's appreciated.

Al Kalian

Daniel Lange on :

Thanks for the info. I'm sure some folks will find this helpful.

Please notice though: The reason for Firefox updates is usually a bunch of security relevant bugs that were fixed. So if you run an old version in a protected Intranet environment that may be fine, out in the Internet it is not advisable to use anything but the latest version.

To replace SyncPlaces I'd recommend taking a look at Syncserver (https://www.unixadm.org/software/syncserver/), a perl script that will allow you to host your own Firefox sync server which is relatively easy to setup. But you obviously need some hosting that can execute perl scripts. A FTP or WebDav account as for SyncPlaces is not sufficient.

Dave on :

Thank you very mutch for keeping it alive !!! I still think this piece of software is the best one of its kind. I dont like to put stuff in clouds and hope its save or still private.

Again... great work! (please keep it up).

Greg on :

THANK YOU Daniel!!! I have been looking for a solution like SyncPlaces forever.

I run Firefox sandboxed in a VMWare virtual machine which restores to the original disk image each time I shut down. Which means all the bad stuff I picked up while surfing is gone..... along with all my new bookmarks. I had been using a different solution but it was saving the whole firefox profile which kind of negated some of the advantage.

Now I can save my bookmarks to my own private "cloud"

Thanks a ton for saving this extension!!!

BTW, Syncplaces working fine in FF 24

mushi on :

Thanks for preserving these add-ons. Interesting thing is that I need these addons because sync (firefox last version) is messing my sorting everytime it runs.

Frank on :

The actualy release won't work correct in the actual Firefox-Browser. We need to fix the bugs, i like to summarize them:

  • in my case there are old password und user-data on an ftp-server. a empty install will find and import it.

  • a update after changing or adding data in local browser seems not to work, i don't know if the transfer or other thinks fail, but the ftp-access data are correct. i need to debug this :-(

  • also every period (normale the plugin should sync data) there appears a empty message-box. i think this could be a failure-message but i need to finde the exact place.

i will active debug-mode an hope to get more information about the problems.

somebody here also hat any or all of these things?

thanks frank

Friedel on :

I´m syncing between 3 machines here (Ubuntu, Fedora & Win7) with FTP and have no problems with passwords on the Server. Sometimes there comes a message that the data can not be saved but 2 or 3 manually triggered syncs later it works. The empty message-box appears sometimes, but i´ve not seen anything wrong with my data...

Michael on :

Thank you very mutch for keeping it alive !!!
I still think this piece of software is the best one of its kind.
I dont like to put stuff in clouds and hope its save or still private.

Nothing more needs to be said.
Thank you Daniel, and please keep it up

infeel on :

Thanks

Al Kalian on :

Due to some problems with Flash I upgraded from Version 17 to the latest esr version which is 24.3.0 and was hoping both CheckPlaces and SortBookmarks worked in the newer versions.

When I imported the Bookmarks.json file from the previous version and sorted the bookmarks, SortBookmarks ran, and didn't complain.

When I ran CheckPlaces it ran and didn't complain but didn't update the Favicons as it usually did. But I found an easy workaround. Provided you had a backed up your previous bookmarks by saving them as HTML as well as JSON.

Here's what I discovered. There are no Favicons in the JSON file. I went back several backups and looked. Not a one. So where do they hide. The answer is in places.sqlite but when you import a new Bookmarks.json it replaces everything in places.sqlite, and when you run CheckPlaces, along with checking the web sites, it used to get the favicons and write them to places.sqlite. Something in the newer versions of FireFox are preventing CheckPlaces from doing this.

But I found an easy workaround. I backup my bookmarks weekly, and saved them as a .JSON file as well as "Export to HTML" so I can import the FireFox bookmarks into any other browser. Although I had never used the HTML file to import into FireFox, I figured I'd try it. Much to my surprise, all the Favicons were there after I imported the HTML file.

The only downside to this is that when you import the HTML file, it adds to the existing bookmarks, whereas the JSON file replaces them. NBD, I just deleted all the old ones without the Favicons, and I'm happy again.

To keep the icons, just Export the bookmarks as HTML and they will all be saved, or save off the Places.sqlite that has the Favicons stored. Either way works.

Ralph on :

Great! Thank you so much for preserving a unique piece of software! Ralph from Germany

Al Kalian on :

Well I was wrong about Favicons not being stored in the file Places.sqlite. They are all there, both the web addresses and I'm pretty sure the favicons themselves, although I can't be 100% sure.

I searched high and low for a program to view the Sqlite files that FireFox uses but came up empty. The program that I had used before, an addon for FireFox, Sqlite Manager doesn't work with the newer versions of FireFox.

I did find one that will read the Sqlite files that FireFox uses. It's called sqlitestudio-2.1.5.exe and the link for it is here: http://sqlitestudio.pl

With it I was able to export the tables in Places.Sqlite, and there is one called moz_favicons that has all of the favicons in it, as well as the web addresses. I'm pretty sure that the information stored in the table is the actual favicon code itself, but I'm not 100% sure.

I'm sure there are others that will read the files, but so far SqliteStudio is the best I've found. To save you some effort, here's a list of the programs that didn't work: LINQPad4Setup Sqlite_manager-0.8.1-fx+tb+sm.xpi SQLite2009Pro-v3.8.3.1 Sqliteadmin_0.8.3.2.zip Sqlitebrowser_200_b1_win.zip Sqlitemanager-0.7.7-all.xpi

If I find out more information I'll report back.

Jan Huijsmans on :

Thanks for preserving these plugins. I've been searching for some time, but probably not to good. (Just found and bookmarked this page)

RichardD on :

Wonderful to have found these as I'm doing update routines this week (prompted by support for WinXP ending)... I've been frozen at Firefox 19 for awhile now ... but, I noticed I have been running version 5.2.0 of Syncplaces from Andy via the Waybackmachine, I see no references to that version here.

According to the changelog:

5.2.0 (26th May 2012)

o Added interface to logging system to the Advanced tab

As an exercise in learning Java, I may try running diffs and seeing if I can fold that into 5.1.0C from here, once I see what the effective change actually is when I (back/forward version to 5.1.0C)

GoneToPlaid on :

I am glad that I found this page since I have used Andy's add-ons for years. The modified SortPlaces and CheckPlaces versions found here work fine with Firefox 30. Nobody can blame Andy for getting fed up with Mozilla. I recall thinking that it was an incredibly stupid idea for Mozilla to both fast track and name each new version of Firefox with a new version number. In a couple of years we will be up to Firefox 101 or whatever. Just stupid, as it goes against all standard practices for program version numbering.

Philip Bondi on :

I'm using SyncPlaces against Subversion server backend over HTTPS. SyncPlaces v5.1.0C stopped working for me with release of Firefox 22, so I was pinned down to FF21. Now that I've upgraded to FF30, I find that v5.1.0C works! Happy to be back on latest browser version.

Gerd on :

Another function change in the latest Nightly builds which affects SyncPlaces:

PlacesUtils.history.GetCharsetForURI is not a function

This thime, the fix is rather simple - PlacesUtils.GetCharsetForURI has to be used instead.

In addition, there was a bug in the 5.2.0 version with regards to the logging interface which caused the settings dialog being unable to close on clicking the "OK" button.

I have fixed both in version 5.2.3 of SyncPlaces which is available at http://home.arcor.de/dac324/firefox/syncplaces/syncplaces-5.2.3.xpi

Kind regards, Gerd

Matthew on :

Thank you very much for preserving these great add-ons. I prefer to keep my bookmark backups on my own server, and sync places lets me easily do that unlike Mozilla's built-in sync which is almost impossible to configure to store backups locally.

I would love to see a single download link somewhere on this page that would take visitors to the latest versions of the plugins if possible. There are several releases of sync places on this page, and all seem to be located in a different spot, and that makes it difficult to know which version is the latest and where to get it.

Thank you.

Daniel Lange on :

The versions not linked explicitly (and not hosted on my site) are not conforming to the license of Andy's website documentation (personal copyright not GFDL or a permissive CC license). I keep respecting Andy's license choices.

Gerd on :

Hello,

just FYI: As I was able to find a replacement for PlacesUtils.nodeIsLiveMarkContainer() in SyncPlaces, I have now incorporated this replacement in SortPlaces, too. Thus, SortPlaces is now able to sort LiveMarks (RSS Feeds) again :-) You can download version 1.9.3 of SortPlaces at http://home.arcor.de/dac324/firefox/sortplaces/sortplaces-1.9.3.xpi

Kind regards, Gerd

Scott on :

It appears at FF 34.0 broke Syncplaces again today! I wish I was a programmer and could address this. It seems the passwords work and bookmarks don't..

Ingmar on :

Hi All,

just wanted to put some weight to this, since FF34.0 indeed broke SyncPlaces for me as well and given that FF34 is meant to fix the recent SSL issues, it seems like a must-have update.

I realize from the discussions above that there is a limited scope for further adjustments in SyncPlaces to counteract internal FF changes. Can anyone say if we have reached that point?

Regards, Ingmar

Philip Bondi on :

Updated to FF34.0.5 and SyncPlaces 5.1.0.D, today. Send works. Receive does not. I get "Invalid or corrupted bookmarks received". Workaround: XBEL import.

Graham Webdale on :

I set synchronization to XBEL but my file name is: /syncplaces.xml

Not had any problems sending or receiving from my server.

Graham Webdale on :

Sorry I meant to add that i use it over FTP and not HTTPS

GW

Andrew R. on :

I have the same problem with 5.1.0.D and Firefox 34.0.5. Receiving JSON bookmarks through http connection does not work and the received bookmarks are corrupted.

Hackintosh HD on :

I've had the very same problem, until I switched to the SyncPlaces version patched by Gerd.

I don't know what he has modified differently, but the "received corrupted bookmarks" problem is now gone and by bookmarks are being synchronised again, no matter on which machine I add them.

The only remaining problem is an empty dialog coming up now and then, which I can click away.

Art on :

Sadly, because Mozilla has added a requirement to the latest version of Firefox that all add-ons must be signed by Mozilla, these incredibly useful tools are disable in newer(40 or so and later) releases of Firefox. They still work just fine in recent versions and the sorted or checked places work fine when ported to the current Firefox, but unless someone can take the time to get a signoff from Mozilla they will not operate in current or future versions of Firefox.

Graham Webdale on :

Hi, I am a bit of a diehard with this very usefull addon.

You can disable the add-ons must be signed/verified by Mozilla function.

I do not recommend following the below instructions unless you are very sure you know what your doing.

Type about:config in the browser's address bar and hit enter. This loads Firefox's main configuration page. Confirm the warning prompt when it appears. Search for the preference xpinstall.signatures.required Double-click on it to toggle its value.

When you set it to false, you disable the add-on signing requirement.

G Webdale

Marki on :

You can get signed version easily. Just create an account on addons.mozilla.org and submit the addon + check that it won't be listed on AMO. Then you will get only preliminary checks and you can download your signed copy of extension and host it here.

I did it now for CheckPlaces and it got automatically signed. I just had to change 2 things:

1) ID which was considered duplicate, so I had to change it 2) maxSupportedVersion can be only 48, not higher.

Gelfy on :

Thanks Marki! I am still a user of SortPlaces and have found no suitable replacement.

Now that Firefox 48 is nearly upon us I needed to do something to continue to use this addon.

Inspired by your post, I looked into getting the xpi signed myself. I'm not an IT pro, but after reading and working on things for 30mins or so I managed to get the addon signed!

First install npm and jpm as explained here: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/Add-ons/SDK/Tools/jpm

Then get it signed as shown here: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US /Add-ons/SDK/Tools/jpm#jpm_sign

Previously you will have needed to log into Mozilla addon developer hub: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-GB/developers/addon/api/key/ and generate API key (same as JWT issuer) and secret key.

Like Marki, I had to change the addon ID in the rdf file inside the xpi, as it initially came up as duplicate.

Frank on :

Hi everyone. I'm very sad to know there's no actualy no posibility to use Andi's extensions cause Firefox leave more and more possibilities to got compatiblity.

i update my repository with some versions of all plugins: https://github.com/Qixuga

But if you like to use the old extensions i found a solution:

Use the Firefox-Fork: Pale Moon http://www.palemoon.org

It can run the old extensions without any problems cause it offers the old api and no signing is required.

i hope also there is a possibility to update the extensions but with the update-policy from FF you need to drop very much time to that.

Hope this info helps, Frank

Beng Tang on :

I am using Firefox 49 and I found out how to disable the silly requirement to have signed extensions. You can find out how to do this if you search for the web pages entitled: "Disable add-on signature enforcement in Firefox 49 and above" from winaero, and, "How to override the Firefox Add-on Signing requirement" from ghacks. I now have CheckPlaces 2.6.5 running in Firefox 49! It works!

Kidaru on :

add-on is working with FF52 in Ubuntu also

but i only changed the about:config line "xpinstall.signatures.required" to "false"

that's all

Mark on :

Thank you! Still very useful.

Scott on :

An updated version of checkplaces 2.70 can be found at:

https://github.com/dieterds/checkplaces/releases

I am using it without problems so far.

TarekJor on :

Thanks Daniel Lange, for saving this addons and preserving this work and legacy from Andy Halford beyond himself as author, it is very appreciated

A Developer remembers ;-)

For those who are disappointed with Firefox Quantum by Mozilla Corporation about legacy-addons and XUL support, you can use pre Firefox57-forks like PaleMoon/Basilisk or WaterFox (extended Firefox ESR support)

Juliana on :

Love the blog thanks

Geronius on :

Thanks Daniel, for preserving Andy's addons for so many years.

With the launch of Firefox Quantum however, even on their esr-channel, the final end of syncplaces seems to have arrived. I have been desperately searching for acceptable alternate plugins since 2013, to no avail.

Either freeze on latest working version (Firefox 52.9.0 esr) or move on to products as mentioned by TarekJor.

beng on :

Can anyone get checkplaces to work in FF 65?

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