Jon Fox

Ubiquity: PHP function lookup

Posted by Jon on Sep 22, 2008

So I guess I’m getting into this Ubiquity thing a bit. I’ve created another one to lookup php functions on php.net. Simply subscribe to the command here to add it to your command list.

Once you’ve got the command installed you can lookup PHP functions by simply opening Ubiquity (CTRL+SPACE) and typing “php [function]“. This one was pretty simple to do, but very useful already. I look up syntax for PHP functions several times a day and saving my “Google step” is really nice.

Let me know what you think.

Ubiquity: Password Generator

Posted by Jon on Sep 11, 2008

I recently made a stab at another Ubiquity command. This one is a password generator to generate site-specific passwords. Simply subscribe to the command here to get started. I’d suggest manually changing the “mypass” value to some unique string rather than use the default, but this is not technically required.

Once you’ve got the initial command setup you can generate a password by simply opening Ubiquity (CTRL+SPACE) and typing “password”. You can specify the site by adding it as a parameter after “password” or the command will use the current window’s location href as the default. Passwords are an 8 character hash based on the site and the “mypass” key set at install. The password will then be pasted at the current cursor location for your convenience.

Let me know what you think.

Ubiquity

Posted by Jon on Sep 9, 2008

For those of you that don’t already know, Mozilla Labs recently released an early version of Ubiquity. Ubiquity is a command line interface that opens up new options to interface with your browser and integrate your web apps. Check out the video for more info.

Overall I think this project is very interesting. For the techies/power users out there it provides a much more efficient way to do complex tasks. This type of UI lends itself well to the repetitive tasks that you face on a daily basis (in particular the email commands in Ubiquity are a great example of this). The real power of Ubiquity comes from its expandability though. New commands can be added by adding simple javascript functions to the addon. These additional commands can then be shared with a special link tag in a document and can even be automatically updated (if the user has given permissions for this).

I’ve taken a stab at my first Ubiquity command. You can get it here. It adds a command to add RSS feeds to Newsgator (my RSS reader of choice). Just hit CTRL+SPACE (to open Ubiquity) then execute the command “add-to-newsgator” and it’ll search the current page for an RSS feed and add it to your Newsgator account.

What do you think of Ubiquity?