Firefox - "no linkeable item"

Discussion & Help
1

Hi,

I’m guessing that this has come up before, but I am no longer able to link to a page in Firefox (I get the “no linkable item found” message). I used to be able to link a page in firefox to a Bear note, but no longer. Can someone tell me how to fix this?

Thanks!

Ps. I’m using Firefox 68.0.2

2

I apologize – the latest script updated which reduced dependencies on keystrokes seems to have introduced issues. (I have been testing 1.2 which is not publicly released yet and had assumed it was related to that). In my own use of FireFox (for a few projects/tasks; I use Safari for the rest), the issue that you report only seems to occur about one time out of 20 or so.

Are you seeing the issue every time you “Copy as Link” in FireFox?

It’s a holiday in Canada today (labour day) so we might not be able to update the integration server today; but I will post the prior set of integration scripts here.

3

I’ve reverted the script on the integration server, it should be ready now.

1 Like
4

Hook > Gear Menu > Check for Updates

At the bottom of that tab you’ll notice Scripts version 76, which contains the change.

5

Hi guys,

Thanks for the help!

When I go to Hook > Gear Menu > Check for Updates, I get “You’re up to date!” I don’t see any other tabs or options. And, yes, I get the “no linkable item” message every time I select Hook from within Firefox.

Thanks much. I really appreciate it.

6

What version numbers does Hook say it’s running? (For app and for scripts)

7

Hi,

It tells me that I’m running Version 1.1.2 (2595)

Thanks!

8

Like other macOS app developers, we publish the version number and build number. 2595 is the application build number.

In addition, there’s a subtlety about Hook in that the Scripts can be updated without updating and relaunching the entire app. So we publish the script bundle number too.

On Hook’s Updates preferences tab , at the very bottom right, you should see a Scripts version <number>.) If you’ve checked for updates while connected to the internet, it should read 76.

For convenience, the information is duplicated at the bottom of the Scripts tab.

9

Fixed!

Thanks so much. Really appreciate it.

1 Like
10

Mozilla really should add automation , at least for get URL/ getName – it’s such a basic function. There’s an old ticket somewhere on their website for automation. As the profile of Hook and its user base grow, I hope we exert an influence towards that.

It would be nice to see the Mac automation community join in on this too. I know there are several other websites , bloggers etc. out there with whose views this would be consistent. I suppose they simply avoid using FireFox, so they don’t think much about it nor advocate for it.

11

Thanks to @grahamb for:

Here is the Mozilla issue ticket for Applescript support, opened 18 years ago
(!)
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=125419
Unless we write our own patch and submit it to them I don’t think we’re going
to see progress anytime soon.

Aside: When I was leading gStudy (before nStudy) development at SFU.ca, we worked with the Firefox code base, to embed its rendering engine in gStudy. But that was over 10 years ago. It was a big project. (gStudy and nStudy were integrated learning environments for educational psychologists to research self-regulated learning; nStudy is still going). One of the core ideas I brought to those projects was “linking anything to anything” within the environment. gStudy and nStudy built and integrated several tools (rendering, note-taking, concept mapping, etc.) Hook builds on the linking idea, providing links between any addressable resource, without reinventing the individual components (note taking, rendering, etc.) Anyway, it means we have some knowledge of Firefox in house to build on in principle.

1 Like
12

Hello,

I am testing Hook (I like the idea a lot!), but I get the same problem with Firefox even today.
FF: 83.0
Hook: 2.0.3
Scripts: 137 (I can see the FF script in the database but Hook tells me that there is nothing to link when FF is on the front)
Am I doing something wrong?
Thank you for your advice.
Murat

13

Oups, I see that Hook has already switched to the Lite mode. I have installed it yesterday, but maybe I have installed it sometime ago to test and forgotten to do it. If I remember, the Lite version only works with mails, maybe this is why it does not look in FF at this point. The message when I invoke Hook is that it cannot find any linkable item in Hook (and not in FF).

14

OK, I have bought a Pro license and the problem persists. When I have FF in front, Hook says me that: “No likable article found in Hook”.

15

Did you click on the license activation link? You may need to restart Hook if it doesn’t switch back to Pro mode automatically.

16

I have checked the About box and my Pro license is visible there.

17

Is the problem just in Firefox?

Firefox doesn’t have automation (that’s it’s main weakness IMO), so one (including Hook) must rely on UI scripting for that particular app. Most of us find that Hook works with it most of the time, but your mileage may vary. There may be latency issues.

(If anyone were to add automation to Firefox even just for getting the name and title of the current resource, which is something all the other major browsers support, that would be a good thing. There’s a ticket in the Firefox issue tracking system about automation – has been dormant for eons.)

Are you on Big Sur? That one hasn’t been exercised as much of course.

18

Hello Luc,
Thank you for your reply.
I am on Mojave (10.14.6 (18G6042)). I have made many tentative but Hook never catches the front window of FF in my case. I will try to check the script if I can locate the problem (I am not very proficient in APS).
How does Hook select which script to execute?
Best,
Murat

19

A few more elements:
First problem was that I am using OSX in French and the menus of FF where in French.
I have switched FF to English and now the script gets the page name and the link when I execute it in Script debugger:
For example, I get

[Firefox - "no linkeable item" - Discussion & Help - Hook Productivity Forum](https://discourse.hookproductivity.com/t/firefox-no-linkeable-item/735/18)

for this page.
And Hook can also find now these elements.
I was not attentive enough to see that the script was language dependent. I can live in English in FF if that makes it compatible with Hook, no problem.

20

Très désolé, @myildi that I didn’t mention that possibility! if you have the Pro version of Hook, here’s a script you can paste in Hook > Preferences > Script Editor tab > Firefox Get Address tab

use framework "AppKit"
-- classes, constants, and enums used
property NSShiftKeyMask : a reference to 131072
property NSAlternateKeyMask : a reference to 524288
property NSControlKeyMask : a reference to 262144
property NSEvent : a reference to current application's NSEvent

set modifier_down to true
repeat while modifier_down
	set modifier_flags to NSEvent's modifierFlags()
	set option_down to ((modifier_flags div (get NSAlternateKeyMask)) mod 2) = 1
	set shift_down to ((modifier_flags div (get NSShiftKeyMask)) mod 2) = 1
	set control_down to ((modifier_flags div (get NSControlKeyMask)) mod 2) = 1
	set modifier_down to option_down or shift_down or control_down
end repeat

tell application "Firefox"
	activate
	delay 0.05
	set myName to get name of front window
	if version > 72 and myName ends with " - Mozilla Firefox" then
		if length of myName > 18 then
			set myName to text 1 through -19 of myName
		else
			set myName to ""
		end if
	end if
end tell
tell application "System Events"
	keystroke "l" using {command down}
	keystroke (key code 53)
	keystroke (key code 53)
	--keystroke "c" using {command down}
	tell process "Firefox"
		click menu item "Copier" of menu "Édition" of menu bar 1
	end tell
	delay 0.05
	set theClipboard to current application's NSPasteboard's generalPasteboard's stringForType:(current application's NSPasteboardTypeString)
	return ("[" & myName & "](" & the theClipboard as string) & ")"
end tell

The key modified line is

	click menu item "Copier" of menu "Édition" of menu bar 1

so you can just change that one instead if you like.

I’ve tested on Big Sur with latest Hook and same Firefox version.

Luc