org-capture firefox extension broken [silently]

org-capture firefox extension broken [silently]

[Samuel Wales]

i really like and rely on the org-capture extension for firefox.  it
has worked for years.  i was never able to get manual installation of
org-protocol and bookmarklets to work, so this extension has been
extremely useful.[*]

however, upon an upgrade and a reboot in a security-supported debian,
text no longer appears in org.

the extension does flash its large "captured" notification, suggesting
to the user [me] that something did work.  i used to rely on that to
know it was captured, but now i do not know what it is a reliable
indicator of.

idk when it stopped working as i do not always check captures.  it
possibly worked up until today or yesterday. i rebooted yesterday
after a while of not rebooting.  there were 1-2 recentish firefox
upgrades before i rebooted.


my versions are:

org capture 0.2.1

allow automatic updates is set to default which was probably the default.

there is a debug option but idk where hte console is in firefox.

firefox 91.10esr [64 bit]

this gets updated by debian for security fixes only.  iirc it is
unusual for debian in that it is a normal version patched by upstream,
or something like that.

emacs		25.1.1

cannot upgrade os or emacs at this time, but both are supposed to be
supported for the time being iiuc.

org		9.4.6

this is not the latest org, because i am in the middle of trying to do
the maint to bugfix branch name change [other thread with ihor and
max].

it's probably close to or at the latest maint.


idk if there are other org capture extensions.  i am aware of spookfox
and eagerly look forward to its maturing, at which point i will try
it.  but idk if that can do simple, id-less org capture.

===

[*] it is particularly useful because i usually cannot use the
keyboard.  i can sometimes use a mouse during those times, and so i
capture stuff and deal with it later.  thus, for me, org-capture can
be thought of as an accessibility extension.

Re: org-capture firefox extension broken [silently]

[Richard Kim]

Samuel Wales <samologist@gmail.com> writes:

> idk if there are other org capture extensions.  i am aware of spookfox
> and eagerly look forward to its maturing, at which point i will try
> it.  but idk if that can do simple, id-less org capture.

I too noticed that org-capture stopped working months ago.
Fortunately I had setup https://github.com/kuanyui/copy-as-org-mode
which works great.  It is superset of org-capture in that I can
cut and paste regions of text and it does good job of translating
HTML into org.

Re: org-capture firefox extension broken [silently]

[Samuel Wales]

thank you for the link and suggestion.  it says it works for a version
of ff one more than my current one.

anybody know how to:

1] get a slightly older version from the firefox addons site that
might work with my version of firefox?

2] download it as a file, /inspect it/, and then install it from the
file [the addon site says "This add-on is not actively monitored for
security by Mozilla. Make sure you trust it before installing."?


On 6/9/22, Richard Kim <emacs18@gmail.com> wrote:
> Samuel Wales <samologist@gmail.com> writes:
>
>> idk if there are other org capture extensions.  i am aware of spookfox
>> and eagerly look forward to its maturing, at which point i will try
>> it.  but idk if that can do simple, id-less org capture.
>
> I too noticed that org-capture stopped working months ago.
> Fortunately I had setup https://github.com/kuanyui/copy-as-org-mode
> which works great.  It is superset of org-capture in that I can
> cut and paste regions of text and it does good job of translating
> HTML into org.
>
>
>


-- 
The Kafka Pandemic

A blog about science, health, human rights, and misopathy:
https://thekafkapandemic.blogspot.com

Re: org-capture firefox extension broken [silently]

[Max Nikulin]

On 09/06/2022 04:13, Samuel Wales wrote:
> i really like and rely on the org-capture extension for firefox.
[...]
> however, upon an upgrade and a reboot in a security-supported debian,
> text no longer appears in org.

Samuel, do not panic. I just have tried that my LinkRemark extension is 
still able to launch org-protocol handler from Firefox-91.10 (Debian 
bullseye). My extension is not a replacement, it just mean that 
org-capture may be fixed. However I do not see bug reports for the issue:
https://github.com/sprig/org-capture-extension/issues

- Have you tried to check that org-protocol still works on your system?
       xdg-open 'org-protocol:/org-capture?url=something'
- Have you checked what action is set for org-protocol in Firefox 
settings page about:preferences "Applications" section?
- Have you tried to create a html page with an org-protocol link and to 
click on it?

> the extension does flash its large "captured" notification, suggesting
> to the user [me] that something did work.  i used to rely on that to
> know it was captured, but now i do not know what it is a reliable
> indicator of.

External scheme handler is a shoot and forget method, there is no 
reliable indicator to confirm success. The stance of mozilla developer 
is that native messaging application should be used if some feedback 
about launched application is required. Actually enough commercial 
applications use external scheme handlers. It is tricky, but some 
methods to detect failures exist. On the other hand likely you are using 
no interruption setup when captures are silently added to your inbox 
without rising any application window. It makes detection of errors in 
browser harder.

> there is a debug option but idk where hte console is in firefox.

Which console would you like to get? There are a lot of them in firefox.
- [Ctrl+Shift+J] ("More tools" section of the hamburger menu): Browser 
console. Unlikely your problem may be reported here
- [Ctrl+Shift+K] or from [F12]: web developer tools for the current 
page. Most probable place to notice the error taking into account the 
method used by org-capture-extension code
- about:debugging#/runtime/this-firefox and "Inspect" button for the 
extension: mostly to check other errors related to the extension.

On 10/06/2022 06:55, Samuel Wales wrote:
> thank you for the link and suggestion.  it says it works for a version
> of ff one more than my current one.

Notice that copy-as-org-mode does not support org-protocol, it uses 
clipboard.

> anybody know how to:
> 
> 1] get a slightly older version from the firefox addons site that
> might work with my version of firefox?

There is "See all versions" link on addons.mozilla.org pages. I do not 
think it help you in the case of copy-as-org-mode, likely the developer 
uses either something newer from WebExtensions API or some JavaScript 
feature that is not available in Firefox-91.

> 2] download it as a file, /inspect it/, and then install it from the
> file [the addon site says "This add-on is not actively monitored for
> security by Mozilla. Make sure you trust it before installing."?

This warning is shown for most of add-ons on the site. Only a few of 
most popular extensions are carefully reviewed by developers. Try right 
click (context menu) for the "Add to Firefox" button and choose "Save 
Link As...". .xpi files are just ZIP archives.

Re: org-capture firefox extension broken [silently]

[Bhavin Gandhi]

On Thu, 9 Jun 2022 at 02:45, Samuel Wales <samologist@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> i really like and rely on the org-capture extension for firefox.  it
> has worked for years.  i was never able to get manual installation of
> org-protocol and bookmarklets to work, so this extension has been
> extremely useful.[*]
>
> however, upon an upgrade and a reboot in a security-supported debian,
> text no longer appears in org.
>
> the extension does flash its large "captured" notification, suggesting
> to the user [me] that something did work.  i used to rely on that to
> know it was captured, but now i do not know what it is a reliable
> indicator of.

I use it too, and it seems to be working fine on my machines. I have
everything setup as given here
https://github.com/sprig/org-capture-extension

Here are the versions on my system:
Firefox 100.0.2
Emacs 28.1
Org mode 9.5.2
Org Capture 0.2.1

In the Preferences of the extension, I have "Use New-Style links?"
turned on.

> there is a debug option but idk where hte console is in firefox.

I was able to see the logs:
1. I turned on Debug, hit the save button.
2. Then I visited https://orgmode.org
3. Hit F12, and then select the "Console" tab.
4. Gear icon > Persist Logs
5. While the webpage was active, I did Ctrl+Shift+L (the shortcut I
use for Org Capture).
6. I was able to see a log line in the console:
Capturing the following URI with new org-protocol:
org-protocol://capture?template=L&url=https%3A%2F%2Forgmode.org%2F&title=Org%20mode%20for%20Emacs&body=

Can you try to open the above org-protocol:// link as suggested by Max.
-- 
Regards,
Bhavin Gandhi (bhavin192) | https://geeksocket.in

Re: org-capture firefox extension broken [silently]

[Samuel Wales]

thank you for repllies.  more below.

i will reply to rest of message when can, but wanted to give the
answers.  [n.b. i still have drafts on other things because it takes
me long time to do things but they are there.]

On 6/10/22, Max Nikulin <manikulin@gmail.com> wrote:
> - Have you tried to check that org-protocol still works on your system?
>        xdg-open 'org-protocol:/org-capture?url=something'

i ran this from emacs shell mode bash cli as user.  it brought firefox
to fg, opened a new tab, and the tab has a search page in my default
search engine that says "org-protocol:/org-capture?url=something" in
the search box.  is that correct?

[idk if relevant, but after the rebooting, deluge also broke; it
stopped running the correct bash script upon rclick open on a file.
idk why.  somebody suggested i run xdg-mime with a coupld of commans
for a video fie but xdg-open still fails to call what i set [it calls
a video player when run on that type of file] and deluge is still
broken [called broken video players until i uninstalled them, een
after i did the xdg-mime thing, and now calls the same video player].
i find that xdg-open, mime, and file associations are too complex for
me, do the wrong thing, stop working.]

> - Have you checked what action is set for org-protocol in Firefox
> settings page about:preferences "Applications" section?

org-protocol is there.  strangely it says "always ask" even though
clicking on the org-capture unicorn does not ask.  the icon looks like
a page with a dog-ear.  there is nothing indicating what action is
set.  double clicking does nothing.  rclick oes nothing.  i undid the
tst sidebar and turned on js and still see no action listed.

> - Have you tried to create a html page with an org-protocol link and to
> click on it?

no clue what i would do to do that.

Re: org-capture firefox extension broken [silently]

[Samuel Wales]

i did f12, selected text with mouse, clicked on unicorn icon, and this appeared:

> Prevented navigation to “org-protocol://capture?template=p&url=https%3A%2F%2Fplanet.emacslife.com%2F&title=Planet%20Emacslife&body=This%20month” due to an unknown protocol.


On 6/10/22, Samuel Wales <samologist@gmail.com> wrote:
> thank you for repllies.  more below.
>
> i will reply to rest of message when can, but wanted to give the
> answers.  [n.b. i still have drafts on other things because it takes
> me long time to do things but they are there.]
>
> On 6/10/22, Max Nikulin <manikulin@gmail.com> wrote:
>> - Have you tried to check that org-protocol still works on your system?
>>        xdg-open 'org-protocol:/org-capture?url=something'
>
> i ran this from emacs shell mode bash cli as user.  it brought firefox
> to fg, opened a new tab, and the tab has a search page in my default
> search engine that says "org-protocol:/org-capture?url=something" in
> the search box.  is that correct?
>
> [idk if relevant, but after the rebooting, deluge also broke; it
> stopped running the correct bash script upon rclick open on a file.
> idk why.  somebody suggested i run xdg-mime with a coupld of commans
> for a video fie but xdg-open still fails to call what i set [it calls
> a video player when run on that type of file] and deluge is still
> broken [called broken video players until i uninstalled them, een
> after i did the xdg-mime thing, and now calls the same video player].
> i find that xdg-open, mime, and file associations are too complex for
> me, do the wrong thing, stop working.]
>
>> - Have you checked what action is set for org-protocol in Firefox
>> settings page about:preferences "Applications" section?
>
> org-protocol is there.  strangely it says "always ask" even though
> clicking on the org-capture unicorn does not ask.  the icon looks like
> a page with a dog-ear.  there is nothing indicating what action is
> set.  double clicking does nothing.  rclick oes nothing.  i undid the
> tst sidebar and turned on js and still see no action listed.
>
>> - Have you tried to create a html page with an org-protocol link and to
>> click on it?
>
> no clue what i would do to do that.
>


-- 
The Kafka Pandemic

A blog about science, health, human rights, and misopathy:
https://thekafkapandemic.blogspot.com

Re: org-capture firefox extension broken [silently]

[Max Nikulin]

On 11/06/2022 08:43, Samuel Wales wrote:
> On 6/10/22, Max Nikulin wrote:
>> - Have you tried to check that org-protocol still works on your system?
>>         xdg-open 'org-protocol:/org-capture?url=something'
> 
> i ran this from emacs shell mode bash cli as user.  it brought firefox
> to fg, opened a new tab, and the tab has a search page in my default
> search engine that says "org-protocol:/org-capture?url=something" in
> the search box.  is that correct?

First of all, I recommend to run such command in a terminal application 
instead of Emacs. I do not remember which of Emacs shell modes executes 
commands asynchronously (eshell?), so xdg-open fails e.g. for Gnome or 
KDE. Having fluxbox you should be affected in less degree. Another point 
is that when shell running emacsclient is associated with a terminal 
then emacs might try to create a frame inside this terminal. I am unsure 
concerning your preferences for capture windows, but it is better to 
factor out Emacs as shell here.

Actually you have found the source of the problem. A handler for 
org-protocol is not configured in your environment, so xdg-open falls 
back to a browser and firefox falls back to search engine. It is not a 
problem of the browser add-on.

>> Prevented navigation to “org-protocol://capture?template=p&url=https%3A%2F%2Fplanet.emacslife.com%2F&title=Planet%20Emacslife&body=This%20month” due to an unknown protocol.

"unknown protocol" confirms the conclusion.

Check that the ~/.config/mimeapps.list (or maybe 
~/.local/share/applications/mimeapps.list) file contains the following 
sections and entries therein (unsure exact name of your desktop file)

[Added Associations]
x-scheme-handler/org-protocol=org-protocol.desktop;
[Default Applications]
x-scheme-handler/org-protocol=org-protocol.desktop;

Or ~/.local/share/applications/mimeinfo.cache has
[MIME Cache]
x-scheme-handler/org-protocol=org-protocol.desktop;

I just have realized that for kde-open5 it is enough to have 
mimeinfo.cache entry. Gnome without "Default Application" entry shows 
its own application selection dialogue. When there is no handlers like 
kde-open5 specific to desktop environment, xdg-open may scan .desktop 
files. It seems, you have some problem with your .desktop file for 
org-protocol. Check that you have it in ~/.local/share/applications/ and 
try the command specified in the Exec field in a terminal (with some 
org-protocol URI).

An entry in ~/.local/share/applications/mimeinfo.cache is usually created by
     update-desktop-database ~/.local/share/applications
and entries to ~/.config/mimeapps.list may be added by
     xdg-mime default org-protocol.desktop x-scheme-handler/org-protocol
or something like
     xdg-settings set default-url-scheme-handler org-protocol 
org-protocol.desktop
The latter actually calls the former. To check that files are updated:
     xdg-mime query default x-scheme-handler/org-protocol
     xdg-settings get default-url-scheme-handler org-protocol

If it is still broken then it is time to inspect output of
     sh -x /usr/bin/xdg-open 'org-protocol:/org-capture?url=something'

>> - Have you tried to create a html page with an org-protocol link and to
>> click on it?
> 
> no clue what i would do to do that.

For example, create an org file with some link, export it as HTML, edit 
the result to use the URI from "Prevented navigation" error in <a 
href="..."> and open this html file in Firefox. Using org-protocol URI 
as link target in an org file is possible as well, but additional setup 
may be required to avoid treating it as unknown target.

By the way, https://github.com/sprig/org-capture-extension/ has some 
instructions. They are not perfect, but they are still in some points 
better than worg page for org-protocol.