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Mozilla Ubiquity 0.5 update - Taskfox for Firefox 3.6?

By Sean Michael Kerner on July 10, 2009 10:34 AM

From the 'Firefox 3.6 features' files:

With Firefox 3.5 now a stable release (with an update coming soon), I'm turning my attention to the next release, Firefox 3.6. One of the key new features that should be part of that release is the Mozilla Labs project called Ubiquity -- though in Firefox 3.6 it is being called Taskfox.

Ubiquity is interesting tool that enables to developers (and end users) to have commands they can send through the browser in order to execute tasks. The Ubiquity 0.5 update is a major release for the project - and it breaks compatibility with older Ubiquity releases.

"The new version of the parser has a new API for command developers," Mozilla Ubiquity developers blogged. "Unfortunately, this means custom Ubiquity commands will need to be updated in order to work with the new version. Fortunately, the required updates are very minor; they mostly have to do with how commands declare their arguments."

The new API is a key feature of the 0.5 release and it fixes a few things that the older versions of Ubiquity could not do.

Ubiquity now supports multiple languages and for commands, it now support the use of spaces in command (instead of having to hyphenate). The example Mozilla staffers provide is that,"...instead of saying 'add-to-calendar 3pm lunch with Mitcho', you can now use a more natural syntax like 'add 3pm lunch with Mitcho to calendar'.

It looks like with this new API change, Mozilla is also aiming to try and keep this new API as the basis for future versions too - which is a great idea since it will be a whole lot less painful for developers.

"We know that changing the API is a pain for command developers, so we will try not to do it often," Ubiquity 0.5 release notes state. "We tried to make the new API future-proof and flexible enough to support our plans for the foreseeable future, so we don't think we'll have to change the API again after this."

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