Notices

There is a an early Fremantle one in Extras-devel, still developing it though.

This is very exciting!

Integration with the Control Panel would be slick. This kind of functionality seems like a natural fit there. But I think it would be perfectly acceptable to have a simple Python app. Either way, the GUI will be key to giving the functionality a wide audience.

BTW, if you're still undecided on a name, another possibility if you're interested in going the "dry but self-explanatory" route, occurred to me: Set Default Browser.

just as long as it can not be confused with the similar program that controls webkit-eal...

I'm pleased to announce version 2.2 of Browser Switchboard (formerly browser-proxy), a script which lets you use Tear (or other alternative browsers) as the default browser on Maemo devices.

Source and prebuilt packages for Diablo can be downloaded from our new page on Garage: https://garage.maemo.org/frs/?group_id=1159. Installing the package (browser-switchboard_2.2-1_all.deb) will take care of installing and setting up the script for you.

IF YOU ARE UPGRADING from one of my previous browser-proxy packages, you must remove it before installing this new package; otherwise, the new browser-switchboard package will refuse to install. Unfortunately, the package rename doesn't play nice with seamless upgrading.

Full instructions for configuring and using Browser Switchboard, along with instructions for installing it manually, are available in the README file.

The headline change in this release is of course the new name (thanks buurmas for the suggestion). Along with the new, hopefully less confusing name comes rewritten and extended documentation, which I hope is clear and comprehensive. (If it's not, suggested improvements and/or patches are welcome.)

The script now also launches MicroB if there is no config file and Tear's not installed, so installing the script without configuring it on a system without Tear installed no longer breaks opening links. As a result, the package no longer depends on Tear being installed, so if you installed Tear just to try this script out you can now remove it. (Note that this behavior is a stopgap measure until we get a configuration UI; once that happens, I expect to just default to launching MicroB and let the user choose a different browser if he/she wants.)

If you're upgrading from browser-proxy version 2.1, and have a config file, note that the default config file location has moved to /home/user/.config/browser-switchboard to match the new name. The old config file location will continue to work for now, but you may want to rename your config file.

Bleeding-edge source code is now hosted using Git; see https://garage.maemo.org/scm/?group_id=1159 for more information.

Future directions:

• Building a configuration UI is the primary focus for the next release.
• I'll shortly be pushing a reimplementation of the core script in plain C to a branch in the repository. The C implementation is considerably faster to start and has a smaller memory footprint than the current Python script, but lacks the maintainability and readability of the Python version, which is why I'm not sold on switching to it on a permanent basis.
• I don't know whether this works on Fremantle and/or Mer, though I suspect it would take little to no work to get it working there. Success/failure reports, and patches if necessary, are welcome.
• Once we have a UI, get this into extras where more people will find it.

Here are some screenshots of the configuration UI which I'm working on for Browser Switchboard:




Source code for the implementation (which doesn't actually do anything other than display the UI yet) is in the config-ui branch in Git.

What I need now is feedback on the UI. Could the design/layout be improved? Is the text clear, and if not, how could it be improved? (I'm really not a fan of the text for the continuous mode checkbox, but it's the best I could come up with on the spot.)

Also, if someone is willing to draw up an icon for this, that would be great as well.

In general, it looks fine to me. Re: the checkbox, I have tried to maintain a certain amount of ignorance so as to better <cough> represent the new user perspective (yeah, that's why). So, I will say that I don't really understand what this checkbox does or under what circumstances I would check it. Does it apply to all browsers or just MicroB? What bad/good thing will happen when I check/uncheck it? Maybe the checkbox text is fine & maybe this could just be clarified in the documentation for the feature.

For inspiration, some online images of switchboards. I was thinking of the globe used for the Nokia "Web" features with a little box with dots in it in the lower right representing the switchboard.

I'm pleased to announce version 3.0rc1 of Browser Switchboard (formerly browser-proxy), a script which lets you use Tear (or other alternative browsers) as the default browser on Maemo devices. (As the version number suggests, this is a release candidate, not a stable release; you may wish to wait for a final release before installing and/or upgrading.)

Source and prebuilt packages for Diablo can be downloaded from our page on Garage: https://garage.maemo.org/frs/?group_id=1159. Installing the package (browser-switchboard_3.0rc1-1_all.deb) will take care of installing and setting up the script for you.

Direct upgrades from Browser Switchboard 2.2 are supported. Direct upgrades from browser-proxy packages (2.1 and below) are NOT supported. You must remove browser-proxy before installing this new package; otherwise, the new browser-switchboard package will refuse to install. Unfortunately, the package rename doesn't play nice with seamless upgrading.

Full instructions for configuring and using Browser Switchboard, along with instructions for compiling and installing manually, are available in the README file.



The headline change in this release is a brand-new configuration UI, accessible from the control panel. The UI exposes all of the configuration options for Browser Switchboard in a manner that I hope is clear and intuitive. (If not, suggested improvements and/or patches are welcome.)

Browser Switchboard now defaults to opening MicroB if there is no config file -- this is a change in behavior from previous versions. If you were using Browser Switchboard to launch Tear before, and hadn't made a configuration file, you'll now need to set Tear as your default browser explicitly using the UI (or by hand).

The D-Bus proxy component, previously a Python script, has also been rewritten in C. The C implementation is faster and uses much less memory than the Python script, and shares the config file parser with the configuration UI (also in C). I've tested this change extensively, but I can't guarantee that it's bug-free -- please report if you do experience problems.

HIGHLY EXPERIMENTAL packages for Fremantle are also available on Garage. As far as I know, these packages should work, but I haven't been able to test them beyond verifying that the control panel applet works in my (highly broken) Maemo 5 SDK environment. BACK UP your device before installing -- and do let me know how it goes! In particular, I'd like to know whether the Fremantle build launches MicroB successfully.

If you're upgrading from browser-proxy version 2.1, and have a config file, note that the default config file location has moved to /home/user/.config/browser-switchboard to match the new name. The old config file location will continue to work for now, but you may want to rename your config file.

Bleeding-edge source code is now hosted using Git; see https://garage.maemo.org/scm/?group_id=1159 for more information.

Future directions:

• We could use an icon -- right now, the control panel applet uses the stock browser icon, and the package itself doesn't display an icon in the Application Manager. Volunteers?
• Once these changes settle in, get this into extras where more people will find it.

Browser Switchboard may now warrant its own thread.

Great work, Steven!

just had a weird experience.

when i hit close all and save on a single window, i got 9 when i opened tear the next time.

all where different, and all was related to some search i had entered in the address line, or opened by way of dbus...

and funny enough, a page thats already bookmarked will not be saved when hitting close and save all. Maybe related to my earlier issue of bookmarked pages not showing up in the most used list, so it could be said problem is no longer there in the dev version.

on that note, any chance for a new release of tear for diablo this year?