Contribute Addon Idea fonon-coder coder?

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#1

Hi, IM Alex,

Over there years I have several ideas for Firefox addons, some of which I have seen In the top rated area. Seeing something, I thought of long ago, become so helpful has helped to quiet the voice telling me that nobody wants to here my ideas.

I have began learning how to code many times in several different languages (including python which I read is the easiest) but have little capacity for the finickiness of coding.

I have searched for such an addon with no luck; So I propose this as an addon:

In basic form, a mock-up webpage can be created that in a sense overlays the real one. On this mock-up page you can edit, highlight, take notes, alter links and basically reconstruct as you wish.
When you go back to visit said website, your mock-up will be loaded with it.
I understand that web pages are dynamic and your mock-up might look very dissimilar in a matter of days. That is something for a person who is more informed about how coding communicates than I am. Maybe there are code tags or something that the mock-up could use to adapt.

I would love some feedback from a smarter person.
Thanks
Alex

#2

I think the idea needs a bit more detail. What do you mean by a mock-up? An image, a static web page, something else? Is the idea that the add-on will transform the web page to match this mockup?

If so, it does sound like a really difficult thing to accomplish. Mapping the elements on the web page to the mockup is one big problem, and like you stated, keeping track of changes to the web page is another big one.

#3

The best way I can think to do this either to look at this feature as an editable image of the webpage or maybe like putting a clear canvas over the page.

(Now again, quick note, some pages such as youtube are different everytime you go there so that might need some more thought.)

Ok, for simplicity sake, take for instance you visit google a million times a day, but you don’t like the size of the search box. The user would simply be able to resize the box however they see fit.

With the addon, it would operate in such a way that the user would seem to be able to manipulate the features of the page.

What if you were in college and the college had an online portal to complete courses? You could drag info, text, images or even links to the top of the screen that you want easily available. Then say while you were researching a topic in your world history class, you visited a different site for for some research sources. You could use the addon to highlight certain things or copy and paste a few sentences from the site to your schools page for quick reference. Then one your schools page you could add a link that brings up the research page.

The data you generated by manipulating the page would be stored on the users computer or via cloud. Everytime the user went to that page the user generated info would appear, but there would have to be a button to toggle between the actual page and the user created one. And, if there is a way to use YOUR mock-up pages on any computer or device that had firefox installed, all the better.
(Which makes me think of a game changer idea that is completely unrelated.)

I don’t know nearly enough. Im sure the program would have to scan the source code and redepict it in editable form. The exception being the highlight portion, or copy/paste some text from one page to another. That could be done by placing something like a clear digital canvas over the page that you can write on.

What you think?
Very involved?

#4

It sounds extremely complicated. It’s a cool idea, but once you consider the details it becomes really difficult.

#5

Im sure it would be difficult and time consuming. Do you have any idea of someone, or a group of coder who would want to tackle it?

#6

No. Maybe someone in this forum will be interested, and this is pretty much the best place to ask.