Today we're quietly making available our next generation bookmark synchronizer to people who are interested in helping us test it. If you're the kind of person who is comfortable testing new software, finding bugs, and providing feedback, please head on over and download the latest from here. Please note, however, that the current release does yet not allow you to use your own server, and the Chinese, German, and Portuguese localizations are not yet available.
What's New?
The new release (which we've been calling "Jezebel") looks similar to the old Foxmarks 1.0.1. Underneath the hood, though, it's all new, as is the server that we're also introducing today. Where the old synchronizer had to upload and download your entire bookmark set, Jezebel now exchanges only information that has changed with the server. This yields a huge benefit to users with large and constantly changing bookmark sets. We're also now able to sync favicons, something we've wanted to for a long time but was prohibitive until now. On top of this solid platform, we'll be introducing more useful features in short order.
What should I expect?
If you're upgrading from Foxmarks 1.0.1, you'll have to "kickstart" Jezebel by doing a manual sync (Tools -> Foxmarks -> Synchronize Now). This first sync may take a while, as Jezebel has to upload everything to our server. After that, it should be smooth sailing.
Note that you cannot easily mix Foxmarks 1.0.1 and Foxmarks 2.0; they exist in separate universes. If you do choose to run with Foxmarks 2.0, make sure you update all your existing installations to Foxmarks 2.0. There's no risk of data loss, but changes you make with one version 1.0.1 won't find their way to your Foxmarks 2.0 installations until you upgrade (and vice versa). Once you upgrade your first computer to Foxmarks 2.0, going to My Foxmarks will only show you Foxmarks 2.0 data -- another reason to upgrade all your machines.
Our experience so far with Jezebel in internal testing has been positive. No one has lost data (though we recommend that you back up your bookmarks before starting). There are certainly rough edges that we hope to polish off, and you may well find a synchronization error or two -- generally this means that Jezebel detects a condition that prevents it from syncing. If you discover one of these, we encourage you to contact us to let us know.
Regardless, we look forward to hearing from you -- please let us know how it goes.
Superb...Is it compatible with FF 3?
ReplyDelete@Jigar Shah:
ReplyDeleteAlas, no, it's still a Firefox 1.5/2.0 product.
We're keeping an eye on Firefox 3, though, and will start porting Jezebel as soon as the first beta version is available. That now looks to be set for the end of this month, or early next month.
-Todd
Very nice work on this to date. First item I noticed was the bottom browser bar item allowing me to access options and such. I am using the Alpha 7 build of 3.0 on one system and am awaiting that update. On my other systems it's working like a champ.
ReplyDelete@Treekat:
ReplyDeleteCool! Thanks for letting us know.
[...] Foxmarks I recently installed foxmarks - a bookmark synchroniser for firefox and I like it. I don’t use bookmarks a lot (except for the bookmarks toolbar) but now I can bookmark a page instead of emailing myself the link between work/home/laptop. [...]
ReplyDeleteTodd,
ReplyDeletelooks good so far . You can get pre- release versions of FF3 from the following:
http://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/firefox/nightly/latest-trunk/
cheers
Hi, great work. I use this all the time on firefox in work and at home. I have however been using flock at home a fair bit, are there any plans to make a flock version, it doesn't seem to be a dificult change.
ReplyDelete@Gareth:
ReplyDeleteThanks for the compliments!
Unfortunately, Flock's model for bookmarks is entirely different from Firefox's, so the change actually is quite substantial.
-Todd
Great work!
ReplyDeletePls in the future consider the possibility to sync passwords, userchrome and other personal files.
Thanks, ciao!
Cool, thanks for the Beta info.
ReplyDeletePrese
"... We’re also now able to sync favicons ..."
ReplyDeleteI am not seeing favicons at my.foxmarks.com
Is this feature available yet?
Ka Hooli
@Ka Hooli:
ReplyDeleteThis is a feature we plan on implementing once this version of the extension has moved to full release. Stay tuned!
I just updated to the Foxmarks 2 Beta on both my PC and MacBook Pro and voila, Bookmarks and favicons sync quickly and easily!
ReplyDeleteGreat job guys. :-)
I think I spoke to soon. On my PC, I no longer have a Personal Toolbar folder showing on the menu bar. They still show up in the Bookmarks window but something isn't working right.
ReplyDelete@Mark:
ReplyDeleteThis may be an old bug rearing its ugly head again. You can probably fix this by going to the Bookmarks Manager (Bookmarks -> Organize Bookmarks...), selecting the folder that is supposed to be on your toolbar, and then going to Edit -> Set as Toolbar Folder.
This is probably a straightforward fix on our end, but if we get stuck we may ask you to send us your log files.
-Todd
Yes, that fixed it!
ReplyDeleteFYI, this happened on both the PC (FF 2.0.0.9) and Mac (FF/Bon Echo 2.0.0.8)
Thanks.
@Mark:
ReplyDeleteWe're trying to narrow down how that might happen; were you only using your browser bookmarks, or did you also access (and possibly make changes in) http://my.foxmarks.com/?
I did not use my.foxmarks.com. I noticed that after syncing, everything was fine, but then an hour later or so, the personal toolbar was gone. One thing I just noticed is that when I click on Bookmarks, in the pull down menu, there is a folder "Bookmarks Toolbar Folder" that is empty. My toolbar stuff is under the folder "Personal Toolbar Folder."
ReplyDeleteHello,
ReplyDeleteI have been using it for a few days and have noticed no probs, besides the setting interface. The buttons get cut off. Im using FF 2.0 and Mac OS X 10.5 ...I took a screen shot so you may see and posted it here >
http://www.livearevolution.org/
Fady
@Fady:
ReplyDeleteVery interesting! What theme are you using on Firefox? Have you tried disabling that theme to see if the behavior persists? (My guess is that it won't, but it's also possibly an issue with the size of the fonts in the text display.)
Keep us posted!
http://www.livearevolution.org/ -- almost forgot to show you..
ReplyDeleteHello Eric,
ReplyDeleteYes, I change it to the default theme and odd enough the issue was not present.. Has something to do with the themes GUI. Well..will let you know if I figure it out..
Cheers
@Fady:
ReplyDeleteThanks for trying that! Please let us know which theme you're using so we can try replicating it on our end, and determine whether it's something we're doing wrong, or just some funkiness with that theme.
Im using a very popular theme called Cobalt Firefox....I will do test on all the themes that I think are worth the time and let you know.. Have a good weekend
ReplyDeleteF
your help on password recovery dosent help me as I cannot remember my ID because i know that i mispelled it and cannot duplicate the spelling of the ID. if you would please email me with the correct spelling for my account ID i would appreciate it so that i can recover from my mozilla brouser crash.
ReplyDelete