Bloggin’ SurfRabbit

It took some time, but we now have a beta that is Leopard compatible (download)

With this release, we’ve made a few changes on how SurfRabbit gets installed. First, we’ve created an installer for it, which can be run at any time to choose the applications  for which you want to enable SurfRabbit. Secondly, the bundle for SurfRabbit gets installed at a system level Library folder for compatibility with Leopard, which means you’ll need to authenticate during the installation; this also means that SurfRabbit will be available to all users of the system, however they will still need to run the installer to enable SurfRabbit for their user account.

This release also takes advantage of a few fixes in WebKit, which Safari 3 uses and is installed by default on Leopard and 10.4.11; as such, this release will only be compatible with 10.4.11 or above, but the older version for Panther users will still be available (but no longer maintained).

Give it a try and feel free to give us feedback!

A new version is available today (download) that brings the following enhancements:

Easier custom CSS, better preview creation

As part of the last nightly, we improved how custom CSS is added and you no longer need to worry about how to apply custom CSS codes to pages when a user style sheet is involved - this is now done automatically, and eliminates and simplifies several options in SurfRabbit.

We’ve also fixed some problems and made improvements to the preview generation, which will produce better images and avoid blank images under certain circumstances.

OmniWeb 5.5 Support

Since the last nightly the final version of OmniWeb 5.5 has been released; while support remains the same as the last nightly (as viewer only), our test on the final version indicate that it will most probably be compatible, however the lack of debugging tools in OmniWeb has not made it possible for us to work out the current incompatibilities to make customizing with OmniWeb work - we’ll keep working on it.

Better handling of dynamic content

Improvements have also been made on how dynamically generated content is handled, and in most cases should now be customizable. We’ve also improved how some other content is handled (such as flash and inline frames), but due to a bug in Webkit flash content may still be displayed after being customized.

Other enhancements

This release should also fix an incompatibility with PyObjC applications that has been reported to us. We’ve also moved all of SurfRabbit’s menu items under its main menu.

We welcome any comments or suggestions about this release. Enjoy!

A new nightly finally fixes the bug preventing from properly creating new customizations (still present in the previous nightly due to a typo), and also fixes a problem with displaying multiple customizations at once (through tabs, etc.).

 Please remember that you should contact us directly if you encounter any bugs or have suggestions. We’ve added a menu item in the SurfRabbit menu that will take you directly to our support page, from which you can access the contact page.

A new nightly released a little while ago fixes a bug that causes problems when creating new customizations. If you had trouble creating customizations with the last nightly you should install this new release.

It would seem Apple’s latest security update may be causing some problems with SurfRabbit - there is sometimes a long delay when loading customized pages, or the browser may stop responding completely when loading customized pages.

We’re looking into the problem, and will try to have a new version with a fix as soon as possible. For now, it is suggested that you uncheck the ‘Enable Customizations’ from the SurfRabbit menu, so that pages load without delay (but not customized).

 [Update] It would seem we had a false alarm. Our test initially seemed to show problems, but we are no longer encountering them. But if you do experience any problems, please be sure to let us know.

For the last few days, the site and some of its functions were unavailable due to our provider making server upgrades that took longer than aniticipated.

We apologize for the delay and inconvenience, and are happy to announce that everything is back to normal now.

A new nightly release (download) today brings the following features:

Improvements

One small improvement is how the thumbnails are displayed and generated; the size will be consistent regardless of the user’s current screen settings when the thumbnail is created - this should make previews much easier to see in most cases.

Another significant improvement is that the user no longer needs to worry about how to apply custom CSS codes to pages when a user style sheet is involved - this is now done automatically, and eliminates and simplifies several options in SurfRabbit.

OmniWeb 5.5 Support (beta)

There is now limited support for OmniWeb 5.5 (yes, 5.5 only).

It is now possible to display customized pages in OmniWeb with SurfRabbit, however there are still significant issues when customizing pages using OmniWeb (due to OmniWeb still not using the OS-provided version of WebKit, but still its own customized version; we’re still working on improving compatibility), so this capability has been disabled at the moment and it is only possible to view customized pages in OmniWeb; to create customizations, Safari or Shiira is still needed for now (or one can simply download “Rabbits” from the SurfRabbit interface).

Please note that support for OmniWeb is currently limited, at least until a final version of OmniWeb 5.5 is released. You are welcome to provide feedback, but please realize that until OmniWeb 5.5 reaches final release, there may be too many daily changes to it to provide adequate updates to SurfRabbit to improve support for OmniWeb.

Feedback

We’d be interested to hear back from testers of this new nightly release - please feel fee to post a comment on your experiences.

We’re also interested in knowing which version of OS X you’re using with your browser and SurfRabbit; this information will help steer future development of SurfRabbit.

Time for a new update!

Fixes

Version 1.2.1 brings some fixes to the NetNewsWire support; now customized pages should be displayed without the feed descriptions settings being disrupted. NetNewsWire support is now considered as final release.

There have also been some interface fixes and enhancements.

Added application support

We’ve added support to more applications: DeskBrowse and WebDesktop; you will now be able to display customized pages in these applications.

What about other applications?

We’re always looking for other application to support. If you’d like to suggest an application with which you’d like to use SurfRabbit, or are a developer and would like to add support for SurfRabbit in your application, please let us know.

And remember to consider making a donation to help the continued development of SurfRabbit!

Finally! A Universal Binary for SurfRabbit.

We’ve also added support for NetNewsWire (this is still in beta), which was a common request. Pages that you’ve customized will be displayed as such when viewed in NetNewsWire’s browser view. Please note that since NetNewsWire is more a RSS reader than a web browser, it doesn’t provide all the functionality to be able to create customizations with SurfRabbit; as such, a supported browser will still be needed to create customizations.

We’ve also made some improvements on the user interface, and we believe we’ve nailed down a pesky problem that a few users reported about font sizes that we could never replicate, until we added support to NetNewsWire. All your setting preferences should now be used when viewing any customized page (given the proper settings in the customization itself).

We’ve also fixed an incompatibility with Saft that seems to have re-appeared. Viewing images should work correctly now.

A new version of SurfRabbit is released today; version 1.1 brings the following fixes and features:

Fix: fixed problem where the ‘Original’ preview image wasn’t always saved with customization
Fix: some customized pages dropped accented/special characters
Added: option to automatically enable user style sheet on new/imported customizations
Added: context menu to disable/enable and delete customizations from the list
Added: option to move SurfRabbit menu out of/back to the main menu bar
Added: shorcut keys to menus