Firefox Widgets

**fatsheep** · February 25th, 2007

I should note for the record that I stopped supporting the widgets when Firefox 3 was released with native GTK widgets. I felt that these widgets were no longer needed after Firefox 3 came out. However, there are apparently some people who still use these widgets from looking at the posts in this topic. I no longer have the time to update this widgets package consistently but please feel free to improve upon the widgets in any way you see fit and release your improved version wherever you want to. Thanks to everyone who downloaded, I'm glad these widgets could be of use.

- fatsheep, August 25th 2009

News

2.7 has been released (August 6th). There are no changes to the CSS. Changes are strictly to the graphic installer interface. The text entry for the installation path has been replaced with a combo entry containing a dropdown menu. The dropdown menu will "remember" previous installation/removal paths you have used and display them the next time you use it (assuming you don't delete the "paths" file it creates!). It will also display some standard installation paths for browsers such as '/usr/lib/firefox'. The browse button also now will go to the directory specified in the entry box instead of just automatically going to root.

Check out the screenshot below.

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One thing that has always bothered me about Ubuntu's firefox is that the buttons, radio buttons, drop down menus, text fields, and checkboxes (known as widgets) are very cruddy looking. Fortunately I found a simple way to fix this. What we have below is a replacement set of images and CSS code for the widgets which will make them much nicer on the eyes (see bottom of the post for screenshots).

The original widgets are done by Osmo Salomaa <otsaloma@cc.hut.fi>. I have written a bash script to make the installation and removal process easier. You can download this at the bottom of this post.

To run the graphic installer (for point and click installation and removal), simply unpack the archive anywhere you like, double click on the "graphic_installer", then select "Run". If you do not have the python-kiwi, it will be installed (python-kiwi is required for the graphical installer to run). It has been reported that on older Ubuntu's such as Dapper (6.06) this package is simply called "kiwi". If this is the case you will need to install that package by hand. After python-kiwi is installed (if it has not already been installed), the graphical installer will run (shown above).

Or, if you prefer, you can use the text based installer which does not require python-kiwi: open a shell, cd to the directory you unpacked the firefox widgets to and run install script (do this with the ./install command). Now you are presented with a menu.

Read the README for more information. Run the "install" script with the "--help" option for command line option help ("./install --help" works if you are in the same directory).

Also make sure you are installing to the path of your Firefox directory. By default this script installs to /usr/lib/firefox (which is the default location). If that is not your Firefox directory you can change it easily. If you are using the graphic installer it will ask you for the path. If you are using the text installer ("install" script), then you can enter a new path at the main menu or use the "--path=PATH" or "-p=PATH" command line options to set a path (run the "--help" option for more information).

I should also mention, I have included a backup forms.css file incase you mess anything up. This file is from a default 64-bit Firefox 2.0 installation. The forms.css file an be found in Firefox's "res" directory. You won't need my backup unless you accidently delete your's or the script malfunctions (in which case please contact me).

Buttons

Check Boxes

Radio Buttons

Drop Down Menus

Text Fields
Due to image limitations on the forum I've got to hyperlink this image:
http://img525.imageshack.us/img525/4...parisondz6.png

Before

After

Note:

If you are tired of the widgets getting restored after every Firefox update, try this command:

Code:

sudo dpkg-divert --add <INSERT FIREFOX ROOT DIRECTORY HERE>/res/forms.css

This should prevent the file from getting updated when Firefox does. To remove this:

Code:

 sudo dpkg-divert --remove <INSERT FIREFOX ROOT DIRECTORY HERE>/res/forms.css

Let me know if this technique works or not, I have not tested it.

Revisions

1.1 (March 24th 2007) - Fixes a bug where the widgets override the Ubuntu forum's default "Go!" button (to the right of the search box in the top right). I'm assuming this bug could also appear on other sites but have not seen it.
1.2 (June 8th 2007) - Fixes a bug that distorted buttons on this website: http://www.extjs.com/deploy/ext/docs/index.html.
1.5 BETA - All past bug fixes have been made by removal of specific !important statements in the CSS that overrode web page defaults. In this BETA I have removed all !important statements in the CSS. Please report any problems.
1.6 BETA (June 9th 2007) - The removal of a few !important statements caused the corruption of radio buttons, checkboxes, and some text fields. These !important statements have been edited back in to correct the problem.
1.7 BETA (June 9th 2007) - python-kiwi now automatically installs when you choose to run the graphic interface. Added information for LKRaider to the "AUTHORS" file.
1.8 BETA (June 10th 2007) - Minor bug fixes: a typo in the graphic_installer file that may have caused the prompt to install python-kiwi to pop up when it shouldn't have as well as a fix for a bug where buttons would expand to the right and left when selected.
1.9 BETA (June 13th 2007) - Removes the margin from buttons so they wil be located in the right place.
2.0 BETA (June 14th 2007) - Added messages to the graphic installer and to the text installer instructing the user to restart firefox after installation or removal. The python-kiwi package is now installed in an xterm terminal. Fixed a bug in the graphic_installer script. Minor changes to the install script (I removed a lot of messages to make the output of the script less verbose).
2.1 (June 17th 2007) - Increased text input border to 2 px and removed padding and margin from dropdowns. Minor message changes to the script and graphic installer. Minor changes to the README. Removed borders from active (clicked on), disabled radio buttons.
2.2 (June 19th 2007) - Added reinstallation option. The graphic installer now tells you what type of change was completed (installation, removal, or reinstallation) instead of just "changes applied". Install script modified so that it doesn't produce messages already being displayed by the GUI. Fixed a re-occuring problem where disabled radio buttons were deformed. Fixes the size of checkboxes at 12 pixels and radio buttons at 13 pixels in order to avoid the tiling of radio or checkbox images when larger sizes are used like in this website: http://govsearch.publications.gov.au...p=1&query=book.
2.3 (June 20th 2007) - Fixed bug #2: deformed radio buttons on http://www.vietfinsv.net/ due to borders and background-colors that conflict with the site's defaults.
2.4 (June 21st 2007) - Fixed bug #3: Deformed checkbox on http://forums.invisionpower.com/index.php?act=Search. Removed reinstallation (upgrade) option. The install option now can install over previous installations of the Firefox Widgets. Modified the installation script to make better use of functions.
2.5 (July 9th 2007) - Radio buttons now gray out when disabled, show a slightly different color when active (pressed), and drop down menus show the correct button image.
2.6 (July 11th 2007) - Fixed a bug where the image for the drop down menu did not display properly on http://arcticmonkeys.trinitystreetdirect.com/. Borders are also now removed from dropdown menus.
2.7 (August 6th 2007) - Improved the graphic installer so it now has a dropdown menu to select standard install paths from as well as the previous 5 installation or removal paths. The number "5" is one that I picked and is set by the max_saved_path variable in ff_widgets.py. You can change it if you like. All installation/removal paths are saved in the "paths" file (path_file variable in ff_widgets.py if you want to change this name). The browse button also now opens to the directory specified in the entry field.

**fatsheep** · March 6th, 2007

I hate to be the one bumping my own topic but I'd really appreciate some feedback. Of the 43 of you who downloaded the attachment so far, what did you think? Did it work well for you?

**Bossieman** · March 6th, 2007

Thanks for bumping it. I tried it out and it worked perfect.
I use swiftfox so I changed the path to /opt/swiftfox

Thanks!

**lcohen999** · March 6th, 2007

trying it out now

thank you!

**stalefries** · March 7th, 2007

Very nice, worked perfectly. I had forgotten all about this.

**Nikron** · March 7th, 2007

Worked perfectly... Even used my gtk theme better than the default ccs did. Thanks a lot. The only bad thing I can say is that the drop down menu is still a drop down menu, those arrows don't work.

**kobewan** · March 7th, 2007

Looks really nice, but is there any way to customize what you want to change? For example, I love the radio buttons and checkboxes, but prefer the default 'Buttons'.

**userundefine** · March 7th, 2007

And for KDE:

Form widgets
As you can see, the default forms that firefox renders is not too nice (disgusting).
The solution is pretty easy, i found that here.

You need to download a tarball with some css and pngs, then extract it to your firefox install direcotory.

Code:

Code:

wget http://home.comcast.net/~tehdnite/linux/prettywidgets_firefox2_linux.tar.gz
sudo cp -r /usr/lib/firefox/res/ /usr/lib/firefox/res_original
tar -xvvzf prettywidgets_firefox2_linux.tar.gz
sudo mv ./prettywidgets_firefox2_linux/* /usr/lib/firefox/res/

Then, restart firefox, and enjoy the first step of this how to.

credit