Quantum Jim's Journal: My First Firefox Extension: "Personal Toolbar Button"

I wrote my first Firefox 1.5 extension called "Personal Toolbar Button." Of course, it simply adds a toolbar button that toggles on/off the "Personal Toolbar" toolbar. This is where I keep all my bookmarks, but too many toolbars wastes useful screen real estate. Install it at extension's web site. (Thanks Mozilla.org!)

I was inspired by the web developer extension which uses the same trick to toggle its toolbar. I created a new GUID for the extension using an online UUID generator. This tutorial at Mozillazine provided the template for the extension. Roachfiend's tutorial filled in the gaps on how to package it as an installable XPI. Oh, and I used the DOM Inspector to figure out which CSS declarations/IDs to use.

The entire project took me about two hours because I kept making stupid mistakes. I originally wanted to write an extension for a programmable set of buttons for Firefox's toolbar, but I quickly realized that was too ambitious. Programming the extension was fun and a very practical use of my time - at least for me. All in all, I'm very pleased with the result. I hope someone else finds this project useful as well...