This is the official user feedback forum for Sidewise, the Google Chrome extension that brings a dockable sidebar and Tree Style Tabs to Chrome.
+5

Dark theme or just custom css

Pshirshov 8 years ago updated by Serge Kosyrev 6 years ago 1

Save my eyes please...

+5
Answered

Backing up / Importing Sessions or Synchronizing across computers

Nayelianne 12 years ago updated by SkepticalViews 8 years ago 10

First of all I'd like to commend you on the great extension. Back when I used firefox I was a Tree Style Tab user and recently I found the need for keeping my tabs organized. The folder and renaming tab feature is great and the "Note"  button is super handy. So far your extension was the closest(and best functioning) I found to an integrated sidebar on chrome(the whole auto-resize and positioning saves me of a lot of trouble) :)

But more often than not I have the need of working on more than one computer, which means I'm using a different app for keeping those tabs stored on the cloud (it uses google authentication), loading them on the second computer and then manually reorganizing everything on Sidewise to match the other computer. It'd be okay if that list of tabs didn't change as often as it does, but lately, it's been agonizingly time consuming and very tiring to reorganize everything properly.

I tried copying the entire extension folder that's buried inside the AppData folder and replacing it on the second computer, but nothing happened... So I'd really love to know if there's any way to export the saved settings and tabs, even if I have to manually copy files/folders and replace them every time I make a switch.

Anyway, thanks for the great work so far. <3

Answer
Joel Thornton 12 years ago

Some kind of syncing and export functionality is on the todo list, though probably won't make an appearance for some time. I want to get most of the planned core features in place first, which will give me a good idea of what should be syncable/exportable and how it should function -- i.e. what should be synced when, should everything be considered one big "shared session" or do we want to have separate "work", "home", etc. sessions, and so on.

Regarding a manual export/transfer mechanism, there isn't a real clean way to do this right now. While it is possible to dump all of Sidewise's settings and pagetree/notepad content and import it on another machine, the bigger problem is getting the specifically currently-open tabs to carry over from one machine to another, which is more of a Chrome-specific thing. This might be well-accommodated by Chrome's own ability to sync "open tabs" but I haven't tried it.

That being said, if you want to give it a try, I'll give you the basic starting points.

Firstly go to Chrome's Extensions page, check the Developer mode checkbox in the upper right, then click background.html under the Sidewise entry in the extension list. From there switch to the Console tab. We'll be entering Javascript commands into Sidewise's background page to export/import its state data.

Quick and dirty export of Sidewise's state:

copy(JSON.stringify(localStorage))

This exports a copy of Sidewise's state data to your system clipboard.


Quick and dirty import of state from the clipboard:

var s = <PRESS CTRL+V TO PASTE THE DATA><press Enter>
for (var k in s) { settings.set(k, JSON.parse(s[k])); }

This imports the state data from the clipboard into Sidewise's current settings, overwriting whatever's there currently.

Then disable/enable Sidewise from the Extensions page to restart it.


I haven't tested this across multiple machines but I was able to export, hand-modify, and then import the state data on my single Chrome instance and after restarting Sidewise the modifications were there.

But again this doesn't address the issue of which tabs are open on each machine. During its startup, Sidewise will do its best to figure out which open tabs correspond to which entries in the tree, but this is definitely unexplored territory :)

Good luck!


+5
Planned

Color settings

Matthias Henning 11 years ago updated by Joel Thornton 11 years ago 0

This extension is awesome! However I'd love to see an option to change the background and font color.

I'm browsing sites like reddit a lot and with the Reddit Ehancement Suite I can change to a "night mode" which basically inverts the colors to black background and white font. 

Something like that would be awesome.

Thanks

+5
Completed

"Close window" shortcut shouldn't close Sidewise window

Samuli Kärkkäinen 11 years ago updated by Samuli Kärkkäinen 8 years ago 4

Sidewise does its best to act like it's not a separate window, which is good. With Firefox's Tree Style Tab, one of my common usage patterns was changing the tab using mouse wheel, and closing tabs using ^W. With Sidewise that instead closes the Sidewise window. It would be good if ^W in the Sidewise window instead closed the currently active tab.

Answer
Joel Thornton 11 years ago

Good idea. Fixed in next version. 

+5

Is Sidewise supposed to save folders and their content between browser sessions?

Johnny Wilson 11 years ago updated by christy adams 4 years ago 4

Is Sidewise supposed to save folders and their content between browser sessions?

+5

Always show last session tabs.

donzon 10 years ago 0
It's not working to disabling 'Tree remembers open tabs between browser sessions' option. When restarting Chrome, Sidewise always show previous opened tabs under a hibernated 'Last Session' regardless of disabling this option.
+5

Closed tabs still visible in Sidewise

RevHardt 9 years ago updated by Hawk 9 years ago 1
  • Tabs closed from the browser window (via mouse or keyboard) remain in the Sidewise window without fail. In addition, they are indistinguishable from open tabs, which causes mass confusion.
    They have to be manually closed in Sidewise too, and sometimes refuse to be removed (cannot reproduce on demand, but fairly common).
    Closing tabs from Sidewise works as expected. No other tab management extensions enabled.
  • Tabs remain in Sidewise between sessions (corresponding option is unchecked - not sure if it is because Chrome continues in background)
  • Open tabs jump around sometimes (not reproducible on demand), and often refuse to remain in position even after manual rearrangement. Happens irrespective of Sidewise smart focus logic option status.
+5
Under review

Chrome scrollbar no longer at right hand side

onguarde 12 years ago updated by Joel Thornton 12 years ago 4

The chrome window is no longer minimised when sidewise tree is docked.

I can no longer easily right the right scrollbar simply by flinging my mouse over to the rightmost side of the screen.


I use it frequently for panning so its a little annoying.

In windows, placing the chrome window slightly offscreen doesn't work. 

Windows 7 will automatically, move it back into the viewable area. I tried to search for a way to turn this off but it seems its not possible.


Anyone else finding this an issue?

+4

Open source your code or at least make your license less restrictive

John Good 8 years ago 0

Given that the latest release for Sidewise is from 2014, you need to open source your code if you want to see any improvement on this.


Chrome extensions are not exactly black boxes, but your license states that we must seek written permission prior to being able to release a fork of the project on the Chrome Store. Since this is the only way to install extensions to Chrome without it being disabled on the next reboot, the clause in your license for anyone to be able to modify and redistribute the code is essentially worthless.

There don't seem to be any extensions which can compete with how Sidewise docks next to Chrome, so I believe you should do something to help with the innovation of this extension.


Open source your code, or remove the clause which prevents people from hosting on the Chrome store, since it's the only way people can "distribute" anything they "modify" and not have it disable itself the next time Chrome restarts.



For anyone who hasn't seen the license, here is the relevant parts of it:


----


Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, and/or distribute copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:


The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

The Software and any software derived from it may not be published via the Chrome Web Store at https://chrome.google.com/webstore without specific prior written permission.

+4
Planned

Multiple sidebars for multi-monitor setup. AND styling/themes for sidewise

Abbas Khan 11 years ago updated by Joel Thornton 11 years ago 1

Hey, I've been using tree-style-tabs on firefox for a long time, and finding something similar on chrome is really great. I was wondering about two things.: 

(A) is there a way to get a separate sidebar on each monitor? Right now i have two monitors, each have a chrome window but i have to keep going to the 1st monitor to select tabs on the second monitor. It'd be awesome to have each monitor have its own sidebar .

(B) styling for sidebar. A darker backgorund version would be nice as the white  background is too strong on the eyes (with my otherwise dark browser/windows).


Thank you

Answer
Joel Thornton 11 years ago

(A) This is tentatively planned but probably won't get completed for some time. 

(B) Styling support in general is planned, and I'm planning on at least a couple darker themes to come packaged with that: one that closely mimics Tree Style Tabs, and one that mimics this editor's lovely color scheme.