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November 14th, 2007
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Read it Later Extension Updated

Nate Weiner - Posted in Blog, ,

It’s been a busy week!. After my Facebook Beacon post got dugg, I had a flurry of traffic here. People started noticing this plugin and since Thursday, the plugin has been downloaded over 8,000 times!

The previous version was the definition of BETA, so people had lots of suggestions and problems. I’ve tried to accommodate a lot of your suggestions for this new version.

Mind you this extension is still considered Beta. I am trying my best to make updates and take care of issues that come up.

You can download the new version on the Read it Later page.

**UPDATE: Apparently many users are having some issues with the ‘read it later’ button not appearing, I’ve made a fix that I believe should solve it, please let me know if you still have issues (make sure you have version 0.521 or higher) **

So here’s what’s new:

  • Most importantly you can now sync your reading list with other computers! You can do this by using the Foxmarks plugin, Google Browser Sync, or any browser syncing tool in conjunction with the Read it Later plugin. And the reason you can now do this brings me to the next biggest update.
  • Your reading list is now stored in a ‘Read-It-Later’ folder in your standard Firefox bookmarks. This allows you to have greater control over the items in your list and in addition it allows you to export/sync them however you wish.
  • Smaller Buttons (sorry about before, I have no idea what I was thinking with those beasts.) Also, support for ‘use small icons’ mode.
  • User Options:
    • Choose whether clicking the reading list button grabs an item randomly or goes in order
    • Choose whether selected items open in the same tab or a new tab.
    • Choose whether or not clicking ‘mark as read’ grabs the next page from your list
  • The extension will now look for updates so that it can keep up with new updates and fixes on its own.
  • General bug fixes to make it more stable. (It’s still beta!)

My To-Do List:

Note: If anyone has experience with building plugins and knows how to handle these, give me a shout. I want to pick your brain.

  • More control over icons. Want to offer a smaller/consolidated mode and the ability to move the icons to different toolbars aside from the nav bar.
  • Ability to add sub-folders in the Read It Later folder (without the plugin going psycho)
  • Issue with sites that redirect, need a way to update an existing bookmark.
  • Extra Language Support
  • Keystrokes (Can you guys clarify, give some examples?)
  • What else do you want from me?? (leave in the comments)

What Next?

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Comments (18)


  1. Nate, you’re awsome!

    November 14th, 2007 T

  2. awesome thanks.

    November 14th, 2007 yba

  3. Hi

    I’m afraid it didn’t work with Foxmarks for me. Maybe because the way I did it.

    Here’s what happened;

    - Installed on computer 1. As expected “Read it Later” folder appeared

    - Went to computer 2. Fired up my browser and synced bookmarks with compuer 1. “Read it Later” folder appeared filled with my reading list.

    - Installed extension on Computer 2. But the extension created a second “Read it Later” folder and there seems no way to tell it to use the first “read it Later” folder as its source (deleting the new folder doesn’t make it use the older one.

    Might be good if it could do what the sage extension does and let you choose the folder to use from a settings page.

    November 14th, 2007 Stephen

  4. that’s a very useful addon. Thanks a lot.

    November 14th, 2007 cubicleanimal

  5. Stephen

    Thanks for drawing my attention to that problem.

    I just worked out the ability to select folders, so you should now be able to make it work. Download the latest version on the site.

    To update, select the dropdown next to ’save for later’, and at the top you’ll see ‘Select Read It Later bookmark folder’.

    Then just select the name of the folder you want to use and you should be good to go.

    Let me know if that works.

    Nate

    November 14th, 2007 Nate Weiner

  6. I think I must be experiencing some kind if problem with this extension. I have .51 installed, but the only thing I have access to is the “read something from your reading list” button in my toolbar, and the “read this link/page later” context menu options, neither of which do anything.

    Basically it isn’t working, which is a bummer as I was really looking forward to using this extension :(.

    Is it know to clash with any other extensions?

    November 14th, 2007 Craig

  7. Nate, the way you interact with your users and how you deal with suggestions and support requests is just… awesome! :) You’re the first one who manages to give me literally an /urge/ to write another comment or suggestion (as soon as there is something to suggest).

    Thanks for your great work here at ideashower.com. Good on you!

    November 15th, 2007 the contented

  8. Storing the links in the Firefox bookmarks folder is brilliant! The update works perfectly - you have taken a good application and made it great!

    I am sure many of the 8,000 plus users would like to leave you a cash “tip” for the great work you have done. Do you have a mechanism for that? I would love to support you for continued development.

    November 15th, 2007 Mike Nash

  9. This is really awesome. Thank you for this idea and the quick updates! Too many extensions/programs have been stuck in BETA for way too long. Luckily it ain’t yours! :)

    November 15th, 2007 Ash

  10. hi, very good idea for the plugin, but, I don’t know why, it doesn’t work properly for me. First of all I don’t use forxmarks or the firexof bookmarks. Firefox bookmarks have the default links that come with firefox installation.

    1st problem: I see only one icon on the nav toolbar. The one with the open book and the tooltip “Read something from your reading list”.
    2nd problem: links or pages I right clicked and pressed “read it later” (page or link) don’t appear on the pull down list of that button in the nav toolbar. I see an empty box like when it appears when you have an empty list.
    3rd: problem: there is no new folder named “read it later” in the firefox folder in documents and settings, however I can access stored links and the folder itself through the bookmark manager in the “bookmarks” dropdown menu in the main menu.

    Suggestion: I don’t want to install foxmarks or any other sync addon and I don’t want to use firefox bookmarks. I want to be able to see all the read it later links from a different pc and since I think it’s too much to ask to store the links on the web so they can be accessed from any computer, I suggest the plugin to create a real folder in the bookmarks folder (or anywhere) so I can take this folder with me and take it home and vice versa. If I try to export so I can take it with me it exports all links that appear in the firefox bookmark manager.
    I want only my “read it later” links to come with me.

    plz help as I really like this addon and I find it very useful.

    November 15th, 2007 george

  11. My place of work uses WebSense to ban quite a few websites, so it would be useful if I could share my read-it-later site list with my home pc

    November 15th, 2007 Andy Hudson

  12. 2nd problem is fixed after I reseted the pc…dunno why it needed this to work, but now I can see the links when I press the down arrow.
    I still can’t see the 2nd button and I can’t “mark as read” the links.

    I figured that the link are stored in the html file bookmarks.html so it kinda solves the problem of taking with me my reading list by copying this file only and overwriting it to the other pc.

    November 15th, 2007 george

  13. Nate,

    Looks like just the kind of tool I have been looking for, now I just have to get it to work. Need some help.

    It only installed the icon for the list of stored links. It didn’t install an icon to store a link. I am using FFX 2.0.0.9 on an iMac Intel Duo with Leopard.

    Skip

    November 15th, 2007 Skip Dodson

  14. Apparently many users are having some issues with the ‘read it later’ button not appearing, I’m looking into it and will try to have a fix up tonight (11/15). Thanks everyone for so much feedback!

    November 15th, 2007 Nate Weiner

  15. Hi Nate! Great addon! Just one small question: does this work with Google Browser Sync? If it doesn’t, could you please look into how it can? Thanks!

    Addon writers make Firefox so much better than it already is!

    November 15th, 2007 Waleed

  16. Gr8 extension …very useful

    November 15th, 2007 s banerjee

  17. [...] buzz was recently created around a new Firefox add-on called Read Me Later published on IdeaShower. The add-on lets the user add websites that he find interesting to a Read [...]

    November 16th, 2007 Firefox Mastery » Should I Use the Read Me Later Add-on ?

  18. BUG: every time it start mozilla it appears the dialog box:”If you are upgrading for an older version of read it later.”
    I like the program. Bye.

    January 2nd, 2008 Federico

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