Hacking Firefox: More Than X Hacks, Mods and Customizations (ExtremeTech) [Paperback]

Every time I think there's not much more someone could do with a Firefox book, I end up being wrong. I've found a great new advanced Firefox book... Hacking Firefox by Mel Reyes (published by Wiley).

Contents:

Part 1 - Basic Hacking: Hacking Firefox Boot Camp; Hacking Around Manually; Hacking Extensions; Hacking Themes and Icons

Part 2 - Hacking Performance, Security, and Banner Ads: Performance Tweaks and Hacks; Hacking Security and Privacy; Hacking Banner Ads, Content, Images, and Cookies

Part 3 - Hacking Menus, Toolbars, and the Status Bar: Hacking Menus; Hacking Toolbars and the Status Bar

Part 4 - Hacking Navigation, Downloads, and Searching: Hacking Navigation and Tab Browsing; Download and Plugin Hacks; Search Hacks

Part 5 - Installation, Automation, Tools, and Tricks: Hacking Installation and Deployment; Backing Up and Managing Your Profile/Settings; Hacking Tools for Web Programmers

Part 6 - Creating Extensions and Themes: Understanding Mozilla Programming; Creating Extensions; Creating Themes

Index

One of the main strengths of Firefox over IE is its extensibility and ability to customize the browser experience. Using the about:config URL in Firefox, you have an incredible amount of options listed out and open to alteration. Hacking Firefox doesn't bother with teaching you how to use the browser. The assumption is that you already know the basics. This simple little thing helps the book keep a tight focus and makes sure the target audience gets full value. The author strikes the perfect balance between uncovering the guts of Firefox and making the information accessible to the reader. These aren't completely esoteric hacks that you'd never want to do. For instance, I've been a bit frustrated over being restricted to a couple of downloads at a time when pulling down files. I changed that registry setting in IE a long time ago, but I wasn't sure where it was in Firefox. In the Performance hacks chapter, I found that setting as well as a number of other ones to tweak to get better download performance. I can already notice the difference. Very nice stuff...

It's probably not the book you want to get if you're just wanting to know how to use Firefox. It's *definitely* not the book to give to Uncle Joe to get him to move off IE so you don't have to remove viruses every other week. But if you've already made the switch and you like what you see, this is a must-read book to take your Firefox browsing to the next level. A recommended read...

Of the popular browsers, Firefox has certainly joined those ranks recently and rapidly. But its appeal is not just to the user. Reyes explains how it was made from the ground up to be easily extensible by programmers. He illustrates this at length, with over 150 hacks developed by its fans. These are grouped into sections like performance, menus and navigation.

But you may want to try and thumb through the detailed contents and then through the hacks, to see if any catch your fancy. Because the book can be used in two ways. Firstly, to get ideas about new extensions, by seeing what has already been done. (A lot!) Secondly, to scope out if any of that earlier work is worth installing on your machine. To either end, the book naturally refers to websites where the extensions can be found. The book is a hardcopy portal.

You should also be careful. The very flexibility of Firefox can mean trouble if you go to a computer at a publicly accessible place and use it there. Think of a library or cybercafe. Several of the extensions can be used by a phisher to mislead what you see when browsing. Firefox on your machine can help protect you, and the book talks about this. But on an unknown machine, some extensions can be turned against you. The book never talks about this aspect of Firefox. It's not the fault of the author. He's part of the Firefox community. They are all so fired up about it. Which is cool. But they largely neglected to consider that its ease of programming can be a weapon turned against the unwary user.

Briefly describes lists anyone could have culled from the usual Firefox websites. Given Firefox's fast-changing nature, this ends up not being a good second step.