Archive for the 'Web Browsers' Category

Widget coding: Google Translator

Published
by
kyleabaker
on August 5, 2008
in Ajax, Applications, CSS, ECMAScript, HTML, JavaScript, News, Open Source, Opera, Picture, Web and Web Design
. 0 Comments

google translatorIt’s been a while since I’ve worked on the widgets that I submitted to Opera Widgets. So I spent the last few days in my spare time just working on one of my most popular widgets…Google Translator. For the longest time it was handy, but not very well designed and the layout was poor…just a quick solution.

If you do translations from time to time or even often then you may find my widget very useful! You can convert text to and from many different languages and even web pages. The translations are done using ajax in the widget to fetch results from Google’s Translate service.

This widget, which is currently only available through Opera and Opera Widgets, happens to be a very popular widget and downloads count some where near ~82,000 at the moment.

I just uploaded version 2.1 yesterday, but the Opera team has to inspect the widgets to make sure there are no problems or possibly fraudulent activities going on in the background (kind of annoying since they don’t go live immediately and end up taking days, but worth the security).

Anyways, v2.1 included several improvements over the previous 1.42 (a.k.a. 2.0). An update notification is now included, the tabs are redesigned to match Gmail’s design a little closer, jQuery effects are now tied into the widget to make it more aesthetically pleasing to the eye, options were moved from a sloppy and quick side panel to the footer of the widget and can be toggled on and off, a more menu was added to pack in several more features that didn’t fit anywhere else (similar to Gmail’s more menu), useless images that could be replaced with css have been removed and a stylesheet has taken the burden off of inline styling which was never intended to be permanent..but a quick way to get the layout fixed right.

There are actually many many more changes and if you want to see a list then you can take a look at the changelog here.

I actually went above and beyond v2.1 almost immediately after publishing it. After creating a stable version (2.1) it was time to push the widget further, so v2.2 has many more fixes and updates. Optimizations are in progress and going well to reduce wasted code and duplicate elements that are not needed. There is actually a “Beta” version of v2.2pre1 on my Google Translator site. You can go a head and check it out if you want and see some of the updates from 2.1. It should be stable enough to use, but it’s not finalized just yet. ;)

Anyhoo, just wanted to update everyone who reads my blog! Hope you’re all using Opera or at least gave it an honest run. ;) It’s a great browser, but sometimes you just can’t break away from the chains that tie you to another piece of software (most of us that would be Microsoft, lol).

Stay cool!

[Ask] [Bloglines] [del.icio.us] [Digg] [Facebook] [Feed Me Links] [Friendsite] [Google] [MySpace] [Reddit] [Rojo] [Shoutwire] [Slashdot] [StumbleUpon] [Technorati] [Windows Live] [Yahoo!] [Email]

Join us in Linköping!

Published
by
Arjan van Leeuwen
on August 5, 2008
in Apple, Linux, Mac, Microsoft, Opera, Ubuntu, Web Browsers and Windows
. 0 Comments
Here in the desktop team we are always looking at ways to make your browsing experience better. Doing that means that we have to keep innovating, and we have to keep up with the latest technologies at all time.

We are now putting together a crack team of software experts in Linköping, Sweden, that will work on some very exciting new stuff indeed. Of course I can't tell you exactly what's being developed in this top-secret Opera base, but it's technology that's able to transform the browser as we know it, using the latest computer hardware to our advantage.

And to do that, we need you. Are you a software developer and are you up for a challenge like no other? Do you like working with cutting-edge software technology, and to boldly go where no browser has gone before? Can you keep a secret?

Join us in Linköping now! Look at our job requirements for User Interface / Desktop developers and Mail / Desktop Developers, click the link to apply, and make sure to mention 'top secret' in the field that says 'How did you hear about this job?'.

9.52 August Snapshot

Published
by
Desktop Team
on August 1, 2008
in Apple, Linux, Mac, Microsoft, Opera, Ubuntu, Web Browsers and Windows
. 0 Comments
Coming back from a two week vacation just to find the office half empty because the others have gone on vacation is a bit boring, but at the same time it is very relaxing, giving me a slow start.... The boring part is that so little happens at work when people are on vacation. While I was expecting to make a small changelog this time, I didn't expect it to be this small. Anyway, give the build a spin, we're closing in on 9.52 final now.

WARNING: These are development snapshots: they contain the latest changes, but they also have severe known issues, including crashes and data loss situations. In fact, they may not work at all.

Changelog
  • Readded the Windows shell menu to the Transfer context menu
  • Fixed an issue with lists not displaying correctly when text rendering is RTL
  • Fixed opening of files in external applications when disk cache is off
  • Fixed issue with low quality on YouTube video previews
  • Fixed mail appearance when Opera is installed in a folder with a "#" character in its name
  • Fixed RealPlayer on BBC
  • Added work-arounds for problems with various POP servers
  • Fixed problem updating signature when switching accounts
  • Quite a few stability fixes



Download
Windows
Windows Classic
Macintosh
UNIX

File I/O, Video, 3D Canvas - all in one go!

Published
by
Arjan van Leeuwen
on July 18, 2008
in Apple, Linux, Mac, Microsoft, Opera, Ubuntu, Web Browsers and Windows
. 0 Comments
We have previously released experimental Labs builds containing File I/O, and 3D . For the first time we now have bundled them all into one build. On all of our desktop platforms.

Head over to the Labs to read more about the newest singing, dancing labs build… and to download your build!


WARNING: These are development snapshots: they contain the latest changes, but they also have severe known issues, including crashes and data loss situations. In fact, they may not work at all.

Opera Mobile 9.5 Beta Released for WM Touchscreen Devices

Published
by
BAMAToNE
on July 18, 2008
in Apple, Linux, Mac, Microsoft, Opera, Ubuntu, Web Browsers and Windows
. 0 Comments

The first public beta of Opera Mobile 9.5 has finally arrived. Some of the new features:

  • Speed tests show Opera Mobile 9.5 beta loads Web pages 2.5 times faster than Internet Explorer Mobile
  • Opera Mobile 9.5 defaults to full Web page viewing and allows users to pan and zoom into their desired content in just a few clicks
  • With a click, simply save your selected content and view it later offline
  • Multitask with tabbed browsing, view content in widescreen, and enjoy small-screen rendering
  • Browse with the full richness of AJAX
  • Save time with address auto-complete and Password Manager
  • Upload to Web sites such as online mail services or blogs

A more complete list of features can be found here.

Be warned, however, that this beta is for Windows Mobile / Pocket PC touchscreen devices only. Non-touchscreen Windows Mobile and Symbian users are out of luck. The Opera Mobile blog reports they are “planning to add compatibility for non-touchscreen phones in the future.” The Mobile team has already promised a Symbian version.

Keep in mind this is beta software: “This release is intended for developers and advanced users. It may cause data loss or other unintended actions.”

And be sure to check out the “Reviewer’s Guide to Opera Mobile 9.5 Beta,” which looks excellent!

Download Opera Mobile 9.5 Beta

A peek under the hood

Published
by
Arjan van Leeuwen
on July 18, 2008
in Apple, Linux, Mac, Microsoft, Opera, Ubuntu, Web Browsers and Windows
. 0 Comments
Today's post will be a bit unusual in the sense that it won't be about Opera itself, but rather about how Opera is brought to you. This post will attempt to explain to you how we get from a lump of source code that can be compiled in a lot of different ways with many different options to the Opera packages that you can download and install from this blog.

Install? That is already a complex process on its own. You do it once and never think about it again, but the fact is that installation is a crucial process and it has to work properly, otherwise you can't enjoy your favorite software! So, how do we fit all our code in an executable, then pack it in an installer?

There are essentially two processes that take part here: Building and packaging. We have a build system that realizes both of them. The first part of it is a web interface that collects build requests from everyone and then dispatches them to our build servers, each of which can make a build for the requested OS. The second part is a script, partly different for each OS, running on each build server which takes care of building and packaging.

The building part is pretty much the same on each platform: it obtains the requested version of the source code, compiles it with the right options and builds it into an executable (and libraries). The compilation part is taken care of by a compiler specific to the platform on which the build is made and it mostly takes care of itself, as long as the source code is correct.

At that point, everything is ready for packaging, and the script becomes very different depending on the OS. I will talk more specifically about packaging on Windows, since I am responsible for the Windows part of the build system.

There are two kind of packages on Windows: MSI packages made with InstallShield and "Classic" packages made using an old version of the WISE installer. The WISE installer is relatively easy to configure. It takes a sort of installation script, written in its own scripting language, and just executes it. It uses an additional DLL to realize functions that are not possible with only the script itself (like detecting Windows Vista). Although it is nice and easy, the WISE installer is not very well adapted to Windows versions more recent than Windows 98.

InstallShield is a much more powerful tool and MSI installers are a lot more complicated to put together. I won't get into much details here, but there is a huge amount of configuration that can be applied to an InstallShield package. It relies on an ISM file (Installer definition) which is XML formatted and indicates what the package should do, once compiled.

The packaging script starts by opening the installer definition file and set up a few things in it, preparing languages and translations of the installer itself. It enumerates all the files that need to be in the package and puts them in the right place. After a few more tweaks it builds the MSI package. The process is done once for each MSI package. The WISE installer is built along with the english-only MSI package but the process is trivial in comparison.

Maintaining and improving the build system and packaging scripts is no small task, but also an important task. Without it all builds and packages would have to be made manually!

This was it, a small peek at a hidden, but important part of Opera development.

In other news, our QA team has started their own blog - head over to the new QA blog for more peeks "under the hood".



Changelog:
  • Fixed a URL encoding issue in javascript: URLs
  • Fixed an issue with the BBC iPlayer RealPlayer plugin not working
  • Several stability fixes
  • Fixed a problem where GMail would not load



Download
Windows
Windows Classic
Macintosh
UNIX

Opera 9.52 snapshot “summer edition”

Published
by
Desktop Team
on July 11, 2008
in Apple, Linux, Mac, Microsoft, Opera, Ubuntu, Web Browsers and Windows
. 0 Comments
Hei
We are still doing polishing on Kestrel and have some more crashfixes etc for you all to play with.
Please look for regressions since 9.50

Changelog:
  • Lots of stability fixes
  • Fixed an issue with history navigation: an iframe with document.write is not added to history anymore
  • Fixed an issue where IRC would disconnec users without informing them
  • Fixed window.close() not functioning after invoking context menu - now also in widgets :whistle:
  • Fixed an issue where "Mark all as read" in M2 would also mark as read some mails not visible in the current view
  • Fixed creation of POP aim.com account


Download
Windows
Windows Classic
Macintosh
UNIX

Advanced search, thumbnails & sorting in opera:cache

Published
by
Tamil
on July 5, 2008
in Apple, Linux, Mac, Microsoft, Opera, Ubuntu, Web Browsers and Windows
. 0 Comments

From Opera 9.50, cache files no longer use file extensions. The following will add advanced search, thumbnails and sorting to opera:cache.

  1. Copy language file (*.lng) from Opera installation directory to your profile (Help → About Opera → Paths → Opera Directory).
  2. Open language file in any text editor and replace string for -1713924769 with modified one.
  3. Go to Preferences → General → Language → Details… → Use Interface language → Choose… and select modified language file.
  4. Restart Opera.
  5. Type opera:cache in address field to see extra features.

Opera Cache
Advanced search, thumbnails & sorting in opera:cache

Note: You have to update modified language file, whenever you install major version of Opera.

[via A.Ruzanov]

Guardian: Forget Firefox - I’m going back to Opera for browsing and email

Published
by
Daniel Goldman
on July 4, 2008
in Apple, Linux, Mac, Microsoft, Opera, Ubuntu, Web Browsers and Windows
. 0 Comments

Columnist Andrew Brown, of The Guardian, wrote a nice column yesterday about why he’s switching back to Opera from Firefox 3.

“With the release of Firefox 3, I mounted a private celebration: I went back to using Opera 9.5 as my main browser. This wasn’t just perversity. Firefox without its add-ons is clearly inferior to Opera. Firefox with enough add-ons to make it really useful is very much slower. And Opera has one advantage over all the competition which is enough to outweigh all its other faults to me.”

(Read the entire column)

- Hat tip: Keith Rapado

Opera 9.51 update

Published
by
Tamil
on July 3, 2008
in Apple, Linux, Mac, Microsoft, Opera, Ubuntu, Web Browsers and Windows
. 0 Comments

The Opera Desktop Team released Opera 9.51 today, which addresses a few security and lots of stability issues. This release is a recommended upgrade for all those running the latest stable releases.

See the changelog for more information.

Download Opera 9.51

Digg!