178741 - add notes to web pages

Status: VERIFIED DUPLICATE of bug 12305

(SeaMonkey :: General, enhancement)

Description

[Stefano Borini]

i was thinking about ability to add a note to a web page browsed with mozilla.
The feature is simple. Right clicking on the web page brings up the rbm. Here an
option "add note" pops up a dialog for entering the note.
This note is saved in a database in the usual xml format.
When the page is displayed, a small yellow icon like a post-it floats where we
placed the note. Placing the mouse on it pops up a tooltip like widget that
shows the first rows of the note. Clicking on it pops up the complete note.
Not sure if popping up a dialog or displaying the note in a side window is
better. Configuration could solve it.

problems:
1) parsing and matching for possible notes at every page load could be expensive.
2) what happens if the annotated page changes?
3) how to implement the reference position? the note file must keep where we
place the note in the page. some sort of "at character offset x" could be ok,
but could face 2)

Comment 1

[Christopher Hoess (gone)]

Er, see <URL:http://annozilla.mozdev.org/> and anything the W3C Annotation WG's 
published lately.

Comment 2

[Stefano Borini]

I never heard about it, however it does not implement the same i propose.

cite:

"Annozilla project, designed to view and create annotations associated with a
web page, as defined by the W3C Annotea project. The idea is to store
annotations as RDF on a server, using XPointer (or at least XPointer-like
constructs) to identify the region of the document being annotated."

1) as i understand, all depends by the server. I propose annotation on a "per
user" basis, without bothering the server.
2) The GUI seems too complex. The post-it idea is simple to understand and the
interface provided is clear even to the first-time user.

However, i'll give it a try. thanks

Comment 3

[Chris Lyon]

Stephano, I think your idea has merit, but I seriously doubt it will get
implemented in the main Mozilla codebase.  It should probably be an add-on, like
those at Mozdev.

I'm going to resolve this bug as WONTFIX, and let you try to scrape a bunch of
developers together to implement an add-on.

If you disagree, please reopen, and justify why this should be included in the
main codebase.

Thanks

Comment 4

[Stefano Borini]

i dont' have either the competence or the knowledge of the mozilla code to
justify  my request, nor to implement it by myself. I'm just a simple user which
uses mozilla every day to browse in particular way documentation, so i thought
this feature could be either useful and effectively unique in the browser market.
i have no idea why this feature should be an add on and not for the main trunk,
but indeed there's a good reason. I'm a programmer and i understand that not
everything is implementable in a couple of days, either for architecture or for
security/performance reasons, or simply for lack of workforce to implement it.
So i'll accept your wontfix, but i'd like to have also some clue about why this
feature is not good for main trunk.

Comment 5

[Chris Lyon]

Stephano,

There are two reasons why I don't think this would be implemented:
1. as mentioned earlier, there is another project looking to implement similar
functionality, but as an add-on
2. This bug has been open and unconfirmed for over a month.  Even with the
helpwanted keyword there has been no activity.

I'm not saying the idea *shouldn't* be part of Mozilla, I'm saying I just don't
think it will.  I also think you'd get more community support as an add-on, than
as a forgotten bug report.

If you want a more definite answer, I suggest you go on IRC and ask the
component owner for the appropriate component (probably XPApps) what he/she
thinks.  I have a feeling they will tell you the same thing.

Comment 6

[R.K.Aa.]

Annozilla is also compared to in bug 12305 - i'd say this is a dup

Comment 7

[R.K.Aa.]

*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of 12305 ***

Comment 8

[Chris Lyon]

agreed