9 ms·

Chickenfoot for Firefox: Rewrite the Web

56 points by nir 17y ago

gfunk911 17y ago
This is pretty cool. I wish they had reused jQuery where possible, or layered on top of jQuery.
nir 17y ago
Sort of like GreaseMonkey, but in addition to pure JS adds a nice API for simple access to most common operations. Pretty neat.
- xtho 17y ago
  One wonders though why they didn't implement it as a general js library that could also be used from gm.
  - alnayyir 17y ago
    You know, it's open source, you can just grab the code. This situation is kinda the point of free software mate.
wendroid 17y ago
I have used it before now. I made it write the URL of the currentp age to a listener than processed it and sent back any js it decided to run (whcih sounds a bit inner platform but I had my reasons). It is a nifty little tool though I have a slight concern because it has had no updates since 2008 and looks like it might be an orphan.
- joshu 17y ago
  Looks like there was a december 2009 release?
  - wendroid 17y ago
    Ah, stupid me. I was going by the copyright notices. I was using it before Dec 2009 when I had my concerns. Go Chickenfoot !
mcantelon 17y ago
How does it compare in capabilities to Selenium?
- Maciek416 17y ago
  One significant advantage that Selenium seems to have is that it accepts CSS3 selectors as target element patterns. Chickenfoot has XPath, but not CSS3. A bit of a bummer because this otherwise looks like it will be fun to play with.
  - squidsoup 17y ago
    I use Selenium regularly and while it is exceptionally useful, it's also quite buggy. I heard mumblings some time ago about Google contributing to the Selenium project or even forking it, but I'm not certain what's happened there.
    - hugs 17y ago
      I created the Selenium project 6 years ago. These days, I'm working on my own Selenium-based startup, Sauce Labs ( http://saucelabs.com http://saucelabs.com ) -- We offer commercial support for Selenium and have a cloud-based web app testing service, too, called Sauce OnDemand. Regarding Google, you might be thinking of the on-going merger between the Selenium and the WebDriver projects. WebDriver was created by Googler Simon Stewart. He currently works at Google, but WebDriver was created when Simon was still at ThoughtWorks. Also, I am a former Googler (and former ThoughtWorker), and worked on Selenium during my time at both places.
imurray 17y ago
They'd need to sort this out before it can be widely recommended: http://groups.csail.mit.edu/uid/chickenfoot/faq.html#xss http://groups.csail.mit.edu/uid/chickenfoot/faq.html#xss
- jessriedel 17y ago
  Is there a way to find the text you need to append after the # symbol (#xss) to get to a particular section without looking at the page source or using the TOC links?
  - gojomo 17y ago
    Not in stock browsers. But if you are happy with a bookmarklet solution, see the 'named anchors' bookmarklet on this page: https://www.squarefree.com/bookmarklets/webdevel.html https://www.squarefree.com/bookmarklets/webdevel.html
    - pbhjpbhj 17y ago
      I use the webdev toolbar addon for this: Information > Display Anchors.
niels_olson 17y ago
Have barely tried anything with javascript. This instantly reminded me of the joy of the learning HTML in Mozilla back in the day. Will now, finally, be learning some javascript.
bpung 17y ago
I worked as a developer on Chickenfoot for about 6 months going into my sophomore year at MIT. It does share a lot of similarities with GreaseMonkey, but I've found it to be a much more powerful tool for writing quick scripts to perform simple interactions with web sites. This is largely assisted by its API of commonly used operations (some of which I wrote). The ability to quickly package your Chickenfoot scripts into Firefox extensions also holds a lot of value.
- nir 17y ago
  The ability to quickly package your Chickenfoot scripts into Firefox extensions also holds a lot of value Definitely! I'm really interested in that feature - could you link to some docs of it? Couldn't find much on the site

56 points by nir 17y ago

This is pretty cool. I wish they had reused jQuery where possible, or layered on top of jQuery.

nir 17y ago

Sort of like GreaseMonkey, but in addition to pure JS adds a nice API for simple access to most common operations. Pretty neat.

xtho 17y ago
One wonders though why they didn't implement it as a general js library that could also be used from gm.
- alnayyir 17y ago
  You know, it's open source, you can just grab the code. This situation is kinda the point of free software mate.

wendroid 17y ago

I have used it before now. I made it write the URL of the currentp age to a listener than processed it and sent back any js it decided to run (whcih sounds a bit inner platform but I had my reasons). It is a nifty little tool though I have a slight concern because it has had no updates since 2008 and looks like it might be an orphan.

joshu 17y ago
Looks like there was a december 2009 release?
- wendroid 17y ago
  Ah, stupid me. I was going by the copyright notices. I was using it before Dec 2009 when I had my concerns. Go Chickenfoot !

mcantelon 17y ago

How does it compare in capabilities to Selenium?

Maciek416 17y ago
One significant advantage that Selenium seems to have is that it accepts CSS3 selectors as target element patterns. Chickenfoot has XPath, but not CSS3. A bit of a bummer because this otherwise looks like it will be fun to play with.
- squidsoup 17y ago
  I use Selenium regularly and while it is exceptionally useful, it's also quite buggy. I heard mumblings some time ago about Google contributing to the Selenium project or even forking it, but I'm not certain what's happened there.
  - hugs 17y ago
    I created the Selenium project 6 years ago. These days, I'm working on my own Selenium-based startup, Sauce Labs ( http://saucelabs.com http://saucelabs.com ) -- We offer commercial support for Selenium and have a cloud-based web app testing service, too, called Sauce OnDemand. Regarding Google, you might be thinking of the on-going merger between the Selenium and the WebDriver projects. WebDriver was created by Googler Simon Stewart. He currently works at Google, but WebDriver was created when Simon was still at ThoughtWorks. Also, I am a former Googler (and former ThoughtWorker), and worked on Selenium during my time at both places.

imurray 17y ago

They'd need to sort this out before it can be widely recommended: http://groups.csail.mit.edu/uid/chickenfoot/faq.html#xss http://groups.csail.mit.edu/uid/chickenfoot/faq.html#xss

jessriedel 17y ago
Is there a way to find the text you need to append after the # symbol (#xss) to get to a particular section without looking at the page source or using the TOC links?
- gojomo 17y ago
  Not in stock browsers. But if you are happy with a bookmarklet solution, see the 'named anchors' bookmarklet on this page: https://www.squarefree.com/bookmarklets/webdevel.html https://www.squarefree.com/bookmarklets/webdevel.html
  - pbhjpbhj 17y ago
    I use the webdev toolbar addon for this: Information > Display Anchors.

niels_olson 17y ago

Have barely tried anything with javascript. This instantly reminded me of the joy of the learning HTML in Mozilla back in the day. Will now, finally, be learning some javascript.

bpung 17y ago

I worked as a developer on Chickenfoot for about 6 months going into my sophomore year at MIT. It does share a lot of similarities with GreaseMonkey, but I've found it to be a much more powerful tool for writing quick scripts to perform simple interactions with web sites. This is largely assisted by its API of commonly used operations (some of which I wrote). The ability to quickly package your Chickenfoot scripts into Firefox extensions also holds a lot of value.

nir 17y ago
The ability to quickly package your Chickenfoot scripts into Firefox extensions also holds a lot of value Definitely! I'm really interested in that feature - could you link to some docs of it? Couldn't find much on the site