General / Sidewise

+6

Import Failures on Version 2017.2.12.0

6 years ago • updated by 5 years ago • 2

I am getting an error when trying to import any Sidewise config export.

A pop-up opens and says: "There was a problem importing the data. Unexpected token u in JSON at position 1464." as well as a long dump of errors.

How to duplicate:

Install Sidewise.
Open a single tab for google.com.
Click Sidewise gear.
Scroll to the bottom of the Sidewise Options and click Export.
Click Import and paste what you just exported.

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+6

Planned

Saving tab trees to bookmarks

12 years ago • updated by 12 years ago • 0

The problem

In the event of a Sidewise/browser malfunction, or accidental closing of a branch, the ability to save all tabs (including hibernated) to a folder in the bookmarks would be very useful.

Currently, I manually hibernate everything, and then individually wake trees that need to be saved. I then use the "FreshStart - Cross Browser Session Manager" extension to save these tabs. Unfortunately, it is a slow method when I have a large number of tabs in a tree.

A solution

Saving the bookmarks to a folder like FreshStart does would be useful. Each folder in Sidewise will correspond with a folder in the bookmarks.

This is just an idea (and a bad one): a 'metadata bookmark' could be saved as well to record the state/location of each tab in the branch, as well as its labels/highlights.

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P.S. You may want to take this into consideration before implementing "non-core features" -- even if I suggest some! ;)

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Answer

12 years ago

An ability to save both single tabs and branches of tabs to bookmarks is definitely planned and I consider it a core feature. The "metadata bookmark" idea is an interesting one; I'll have to give this some consideration. It would definitely be a hack, but it would sure be nice to have those Sidewise-specific states retained. Perhaps it will be a (default off) option that users can turn on if they want to make that trade-off.

Regarding the issue of feature bloat: I agree this is something to be studiously avoided; I can think of numerous examples of once-great lightweight apps that gradually become laden with features that are low-value cruft, and which end up detracting from the performance, usefulness, and clarity-of-vision of the earlier versions.

I have in mind a "core" feature set that will eventually result in a total of about 9 sidebar panes that will come "built in" with a Sidewise install, and I plan to have 4 or 5 of these *at most* turned on by default, along with an ability for the user to control which panes are visible (and their ordering) in the options page. I consider these "built in" panes to be a part of my original vision for Sidewise, together comprising a comprehensive set of sidebar-oriented tools that give great visibility and control over the user's browsing experience. All of these panes will be designed to work together in a holistic manner.

Any additional sidebar panes will likely be made available by installing extra "sidebar pane" extensions from the Chrome Web Store, which will also allow for other folks to create their own sidebar panes, or give existing extensions the ability to show up as a Sidewise pane.

I am taking a similar tack with the options page, with an overall goal of the default "non advanced" options page taking up about one screen-height at the most. Power users can then "reveal advanced options" if they really want to get customization-crazy.

+6

Sidewise won't launch anymore

9 years ago • 0

Sidewise won't launch anymore. The icon is still there but nothing would happen when you click it.

I've been using Sidewise for about 2 months and have accumulated more than a thousand hibernated tabs. Before this problem of Sidewise not launching occurred I'd noticed that some of tabs I opened were not appearing in Sidewise. But, when I restarted Chrome and reloaded the last session tabs, the tabs previously not appearing could now be seen in Sidewise.

But now when I click Sidewise icon nothing happens. I tried restarting Chrome and also restarting computer but it still won't work. I'd like to try reinstalling Sidewise but I'm afraid that I might lose my hibernated tabs.

Please advise on how can I make Sidewise work again or how to recover my hibernated tabs. Thanks in advance.

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+6

Use chrome.storage.local rather than localStorage

12 years ago • updated by 8 years ago • 8

As the title says, it might be better to use chrome.storage.local rather than localStorage. There's two reasons for this: chrome.storage is asynchronous, which supposedly makes it faster. But more importantly, localStorage is limited to either 2.5MB or 5MB of data. But if you use chrome.storage, you can use the "unlimitedStorage" permission.

Speaking from experience writing Chrome Extensions, chrome.storage.local is the best way I've found to persistently store user data. And if you're worried about it being async, it's easy to write a buffer so that the API remains synchronous, but behind the scenes it's still async. I can give more details if you like, including working code.

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+6

new version chrome (32.0.1700.76) trouble

11 years ago • updated by 11 years ago • 1

I have new chrome (version 32.0.1700.76) with sidewise (Version 2013.9.15.0). Behavior is unstable. Often sidewise is crashed and ask for close. Sometimes (very often) chrome is blinking. Restart chrome is not helps.

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+6

Planned

Open new tabs at the top instead of bottom

12 years ago • updated by 8 years ago • 9

The idea is to make it easier to see...

Currently, when you have a lot of tabs, you have to frequently glance down!

This is inconvenient because we are usually focussed in the top left of the screen. (where the text starts on the page view).

As such, the best place to put the tabs we're currently working on will be near the top.

The older tabs should be at the bottom.

(The concept is similar to webpage design. The prime view estate is the top part. The bottom parts is not where the eye lands first.)

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Answer

12 years ago

I don't have a date for this, but consider it on the priority todo list.

What I would really like to do is just rethink how the tab-ordering/nesting logic works overall, and create options for each specific case, e.g. "where to place new tabs opened via address bar", et al.