url-alias-assistant

The addon for Firefox and Chrome browsers which simplifies navigation to frequently used URLs especially if these URLs are ID-based URLs. Please read Native Support in Browsers chapter - maybe you actually don't need this plug-in.

Purpose

Originally based on ideas implemented in URL Alias plug-in for Firefox I've used widely. But the plug-in stopped work after my Firefox was upgraded to v57.

I often need to open URLs like Jira issues. And often I don’t have a full URL, but have only it's ID. Without the plug-in I have to open some Jira page, paste the Jira ID into Search field and click Enter. With the plug-in I just type g jDO-1 in browser and it navigates me to a proper page like https://sample.atlassian.net/browse/DO-1. Fast and efficient!

Another case that can't be covered by simple bookmarking: I want to search Jira issues by a text phrase. All I need is type g jt"error string" and it will open a search results page like https://sample.atlassian.net/issues/?jql=text~%22%5C%22error%20string%5C%22%22%20ORDER%20BY%20created%20DESC

Works both in Google Chrome and Firefox v57+.

Native Support in Browsers

After the plug-in was released, I was told there are native ways both in Firefox and Chrome browsers to get the same functionality, so the plug-in became useless for most of scenarios. I've put some how-to below. Hope it will help you.

Chrome

Open the following Search Settings link. Here you can see all custom search engines currently registered in your browser (the list is growing automaticaly once you visit a site advertising such custom search support). You can customize the list:

• in 1st column put the Hint text to be shown in a list of address bar suggestions. Sample: GitHub
• in 2nd column put the Keyword. It could be a hostname of the site or some shorter string. Sample: github.com
• in 3rd column put the target URL, using "%s" as a placeholder for parameters. Sample: https://github.com/search?q=%s&ref=opensearch

Firefox

Open your bookmarks page (press Ctrl+B). Create new bookmark with the following important fields specified:

• Name: Quick-Search Github
• Location: https://github.com/search?q=%s&ref=opensearch
• Keyword: github.com

How to Configure

Go to plug-in Options page and see the JSON representing the current settings. Copy the whole text and paste into your favorite JSON editor. Edit the rules as you need and copy-paste them back into Options page.

Format

Minimal Rule Sample

The rule below is a typical tiny rule which helps you to translate any phrase to English using Google Translate website:

  {
    "prefix": "te",
    "suggestions": [
      {
        "url": "https://translate.google.com/#auto/en/$1",
        "description": "Translate to English a phrase '$1'"
      }
    ]
  }

Here:

• prefix field specifies which combination will trigger the rule
• suggestions field specifies one or more "suggestion lines" that will be produced in your browser once the rule triggered
• url field represents the target URL address to navigate to. Note $1 placeholder - it will be replaced by the text you've written after prefix in your browser.
• description field represents the text which will be shown in "suggestion line" produced by this rule. Note $1 placeholder - it will be replaced by the text you've written after prefix in your browser.

After this rule will be added, you can easily translate any phrase (Привет in this sample) to English just typing g teПривет in location bar.

Most Complex Rule Sample

  {
    "prefix": "j",
    "regexp": "([a-zA-Z]+-[0-9]+)",
    "options": {
      "changeCase": 1
    },
    "suggestions": [
      {
        "url": "https://sample.atlassian.net/browse/$1",
        "description": "Jira issue #$1 in Sample team",
        "comment": "For me - Default jira issue in Sample"
      },
      {
        "url": "https://sample2.atlassian.net/browse/$1",
        "description": "Yet another Jira issue #$1"
      }
    ]
  }

Here:

• optional prefix field specifies which combination will trigger the rule. If field regexp is not specified, all text entered in browser after the prefix will be used as a value of $1 during substitutions.
• optional regexp field specifies a regexp that will trigger the rule. All text entered in browser after the prefix and matching to the regexp will be used as a value of $1 during substitutions.
• optional options field could contain the following optional modificators: -- changeCase - if specified, could be either -1 or 1. Where -1 means lowercase value of $1, 1 means uppercase value of $1. -- escapeQuotes - if specified and set to true. In such case, the double quotes (") in value of $1 will be escaped with back-slash (\) symbol.
• suggestions field specifies one or more "suggestion line" groups that will be produced in your browser once the rule triggered: -- url field represents the target URL address to navigate to. Note $1 placeholder - it will be replaced by the text you've written after prefix in your browser. -- description field specifies the text shown in browser as a text of generated suggestion line. Note $1 placeholder - it will be replaced by the text matching to your regexp (if specified) or by text you've written after prefix in your browser. -- optional comment field you may use it to store any comments for yourself.

After this rule will be added, you can easily open Jira issue (DO-1 in this sample) in one of Jira teams just typing g jDO-1 or even g jDO-1 in location bar.

How to Build

At this moment, a build process is not automated and consists of the following manual steps:

1. Download necessary libraries into the "./libs" folder:

cd ./libs/ && rm -f *.js *.cs
http -d https://code.jquery.com/jquery-3.2.1.min.js --output jquery.min.js
http -d https://maxcdn.bootstrapcdn.com/bootstrap/3.3.7/css/bootstrap.min.css
http -d https://maxcdn.bootstrapcdn.com/bootstrap/3.3.7/js/bootstrap.min.js
http -d https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/bootbox.js/4.4.0/bootbox.min.js

2. Archive necessary files into a zip archive:

zip url-alias-assistant-plugin.zip *.js *.json logo96.png logo48.png *.html libs/*

3. Submit archive as a new version to Google Webstore and Mozilla Developer Hub.

Obtain Latest Version

Go to Firefox Add-ons Site or Chrome Web Store to check the latest version and related info.