FEBE 7.0 and CLEO 5.0 wishlist

[HeresJohnny]

Hello, thank you for this great piece of software, it's been a lifesaver more than once! I've got it working with Aurora 7a2 with the "Alternating" schedule, and there's one thing I'd love to see added: The possibility what kind of backup to perform on Startup/Shutdown. I know the program has a very logic interface separating the What/Where/When/How but I would find it more convenient if "When" were integrated with "What".

Let me explain. As an Aurora user, Firefox has to restart relatively often. I have ticked both "On Startup" and "On Shutdown" options in addition to scheduled backups. Due to the plug-in working nicely in Async mode, Firefox is blocked mere seconds by the script while it keeps running in the background, it's really convenient. But, when backup occurs on shutdown, it's a gamble if the next backup is "Full" or "Selective". If it's selective, Firefox ends with no noticeable lag and restarts after an update. If it's "Full" on the other hand, Firefox seems to close but the task keeps on running until the backup finishes which may well be over a minute. So, I'd love to do a "Selective" backup on shutdown always BUT keep my alternating scheduled backups.

That said, maybe the options could be re-organized in a way that Scheduled/Shutdown/Startup are the 3 big startup points, for each of which a WHAT could be set. I realize this introduces an added level of complexity but hopefully my explanations before made enough sense to warrant it.

Thanks in advance!

[febe to amazon s3]

+ backup to amazon s3 directly instead of via box.net proxy

recently box.net was shamed in the blogosphere into offering 5gigs free as it was revealed that amazon s3 provided five gigs free. I trust amazon s3. I do not trust box.net


+ encrypt via GPG locally prior to upload

++ assisting the user to install- and configure locally a huge plus as more encryption users is more better

+ encrypt via zip AES locally prior to upload, user specified STRONG key. do not accept weak keys.

[Fatman]

I have to echo part of `HeresJohnny's` remarks about backup on startup.

I use several different profiles with Firefox 5, 6, 7 and 8; all are set to backup on startup of Firefox. I do this, to allow recovery in the event something goes wrong during testing (of the nightly, aurora and beta versions).

One thing I have encountered is a Javascript application warning that extension data is still loading, please wait a few seconds. I have a hunch this is a timing issue, with the backup starting too soon. So, perhaps a delay could be inserted to allow the extensions to continue to be loaded, and then start the backup.

I don't know how easy this would be to accomplish, considering FF now operates asynchronously.

[iBenny]

Hi and congrat for this outstanding extension !

I would strongly suggest that you consider adding a bookmark synchronization feature in Febe. Firefox does have one built in. Couple of free existing programs does it too. But the drawback of these is that they rely on Internet storage to implement the sync, something that I (and many users) are reluctant to do. I would prefer carrying my bookmarks on a key and not expose them on the net. I will never trust their supposedly confidentiality claim because everything can be accessed and hacked on the net, despite any of their confidentiality claim.

A tougher challenge would be cross browser synchronization FF|Chrome|Safari ! But let's begin with FF|FF.

Best regards

iBenny

[cbaker_admin]

While not explicitly described as such, bookmark synchronization can be accomplish by merely restoring the bookmarks{profileName}.json file created by FEBE on the target computer. The file can be found in your FEBE backup destination directory.

Another option would be to carry around a copy of your file. You could simply copy the file (with Fx closed) to the target computer's Fx profile directory. And you would not even need FEBE installed to do it.

[cactuspat]

I need to be able to selectively backup bookmark folders.

The problem is my bookmark file has become very large (10MB+) over the yrs and won't import completely into IE, only about half of it successfully imports into IE.

I've looked on the FF/Mozilla forums for an easy solution and there appears to be none. Hence I thought Id try FEBE but no joy.

One other suggestion from the FF forum was to try XMARKS but that involves online back-up and synchro.

Another was to right click/copy on the bookmark folder in FF and paste into a text editor and save as a html file but that strips out the html and you get one large list that includes all the bookmarks sans sub-folders, icons, creation date, notes, tags etc.

Any chance of FEBE being able to selectively back-up bookmark folders?

[cbaker_admin]

What you need to do is export your Fx bookmarks to a html file. This can be done with FEBE or through Fx directly.

To export directly, go go Bookmarks > Show all bookmarks > Import and backup > Export bookmarks to HTML...

To backup with FEBE, make sure you have FEBE Options > What to backup > Additional items > Backup bookmarks (html) selected when you perform a selective backup.

Both of these options create a webpage (html file) that includes all meta data and folder names. The file can be imported directly into IE. If the file is too large to import, you still have a valid html file that you can manually edit to remove entries.

[redheelerdog]

Hi Chuck,

I wanted to publicly say THANKS to you and your awesome coding of the Firefox Environment Backup Extension.

I have been messing around with Xmarks for years and got fed-up with their server accessibility funk, etc., etc.

I recently bought a Synology NAS and tried to use Xmarks and WebDav to serve locally my bookmarks and add-on backups. Well, I spent several hours of frustration flailing around in Synology’s WebDav and shared folders to no avail.

I knew there was something out there that did what I (we) needed: A basic backup of add-ons and bookmarks. – That is when I can across FEBE.

I have 6+ machines on my personal LAN and 4 of those I need to keep backed up with the same FF bookmarks and extensions.

FEBE is awesome, the features and options are exactly what I and what many others needed – oh… and the report, are you kidding me? That thing is crazy detailed, it gives the names, authors, size and date with an awesome mouse-over.

An html link to my NAS drive with all my bookmarks and extensions – VERY nice.

YOU are a miracle worker Chuck! – Paypal sent!

Happy Thanksgiving.

John H. - Montana