AMO changes for better or worse.

AMO -- addons.mozilla.org

Location: http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/firefox/#skel.htm
Home page: http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/firefox/firefox.htm
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Problems with AMO from Remora update

addons.mozilla.org, has been made practically unusable for those who were using the advanced search which was used by many directly or indirectly in search engines and to help others. The format was changed, the articles have been shortened, the enlarged pictures are smaller than before and aren't easily brought up by themselves so that you can zoom the image or bring up an image editor for a better view. The author's site is available only be clicking on the author's name link rather than a more direct approach. The categories and keywords have been removed. The promise was that it was going to be improved and in fact was all but destroyed for someone's misconception of a prettier visual display.

Round about method to add Advanced Search to search engines

After Remora, there is no advance search and the added search engine will result in a 404 (not found error). Following is the gyrations [Oct 30, 2006] that one had to go through to even get the advanced search engine and to add to search engines with what is not the "Add to Search Bar" extension.
But with "SearchEngineOrdering" (now "Add to Search Bar") extension you can go to a site like https://addons.mozilla.org/search.php?app=firefox click on the the advanced options next to the search bar. Choose the drop down values you want to enter then place the cursor on the search field invoke the SearchEngineOrdering via the context menu and you've just created a search engine with all of the choosen options Any/Extensions/Firefox/Any/newest/50 then anytime you can select that search engine fill in the search field and hit Enter (or equivalent button) and you can find an extension, Unfortunately the author of the extension was somewhat mislead into believing that all of the features would be builtin to Firefox 2, and it was only the sorting of the search engins, and the the so simply executed creation of a search engine from any search web form.

[Dec 01,2006]The advanced search at addons.mozilla.org/firefox works fine for me, see "More Extensions" on my page. http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/firefox/firefox.htm#moreext it's mainly a matter of using the Advanced features, *and* creating a search engine (as described) for it makes it even easier.

[March 27, 2006] > But after logging on to a.m.o. with username & password I still can't locate > the sandbox, or how to make it visible. Hi Tony, Well it is simply not true that the pre-existing addons have all been restored. There is nothing intuitive about the usage. I still can't find the hard to get at Advanced search for Addons that you previously had to first do a search to get to, because it did not have a url and that was where you could specify what kinds of addons, the PLATFORM (Operating System). The preexisting addons have gone through a usage experience far beyond what is needed to get something through the sandbox. I think the sandbox process is not going to work as currently implemented. A certification process would be much better (IMO) which would have simply added some certification seal at the install button. Nothing is intuitive, to get to the Sandbox you have to click on your email address (after being logged on) then click on sandbox, then the public vs sandbox can be addressed from the top line. The sandbox is for submitting addons that the author wants to make available at addons which may take quite a while to go through the sandbox to production (public view) as currently set forth. Kind of bugzilla, assigned to nobody.

[April 09, 2007] //// and now everything about Addons is basically broken ////

[April 09, 2007] While many of the comments may have been out of date and irrelevant there still were a lot of useful information in the comments and indications of some trends. The advanced search allowed you to specify that you only wanted to look for Firefox extensions on Windows and ordered by name and 50 results per page. ALL GONE.

April 23, 2007
I was hoping for a big improvement in this area, including a direct url link to the advanced search that could be bookmarked and used by "Add to Search Bar" extension, and an enhanced advanced search form, and instead of being improved it appears to be gone.

I've placed the following page on my site listing several problems. http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/firefox/addons_2007.htm and kind of working around the problem for now anyway by using the old search engine on the old addons site. Hopefully this will this will get corrected before the workaround and old site is no longer available. (I ALREADY HAD A PAGE, now I will have to consolidate)

April 23, 2007

> For me, your links to the old interface IP now redirect to
> mozilla.com's main page:
> https://63.245.209.31/firefox/3682

I guess I shouldn't have mentioned the workaround, now nobody can use it.

Anyway the main problem is that the Advanced Search is not available aside from not being improved, and of course there are those other annoyances.

[May 16, 2007] The main thing is to bring back the Advanced Search, I will provide some information here but most of the information concerning Advanced search and shortcomings in the original and what we are now left with along with my notes on extension documentation requirements is on my web page Addons Site Interface and Search (addons.mozilla.org) http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/firefox/amo_search.htm I believe it is still available if you can start from the correct server, there was one day, when you could use the Advanced Search, don't know which database it went after, but it returned the hits from the new extensions database. Little embarrassing to have been using the method for over a week and then within two hours of posting how and saying don't know how long it will last to have the workaround pulled out from under me. The Advanced Search could only be reached after using the basic search box, since it did not have a URL, so could not be bookmarked and could not be pointed to directly to users.

There was no link to a page of search options, so you don't even know what areas are being searched on. I found that single words worked best and if you had multiple words you were better off if they were entered in alphabetical order. [If that is actually true it must be a really primitive sort]

It had been possible; however, to reference the Advanced search by filling in what you wanted for basics: Platform (operating system), Extensions (/Themes), category (All is a choice), how many hits you wanted per page (the default is a useless 10), and what order (alpha, rating (popularity contest), category} then to use the "Add to Engines" extension to be able to effect an advanced search from the Search engines Add to Search Bar, by Malte Kraus (Dr. Evil) https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/3682 Again without a url to the Advanced Search, this put it out of the reach of casual users.

Currently we are left with a simple search box: Even the simple search was made very annoying by redimensioning the search entry box as you begin to type.

The former and very useful verbose search results listing with much detail about each extension has been replaced with a minimal search results listing with no detail and there is no choice as to what you get, there are now only pretty pictures that provide little information instead of detailed description.

for additional information see: http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/firefox/amo_search.htm

Improvements with AMO from Remora update

You've got to be kidding.
The information here ...

Descriptive stuff here.
(continued)

Formatted documentation wanted for each addon (#wanted)

Lost Search (needs to be restored)

Replacement search Bug: 372841
test:  http://peano.mynetwork.org/mozilla/Bug372841p/site/en-US/firefox/

http://peano.mynetwork.org/mozilla/Bug372841p/site/en-US/firefox/search?q=sss &cat=all&as=true&appid=1 &lver=0.3&hver=3.0pre&atype=1&pid=1&lup=&pp=100&sort=name