Ever since I got 1Password, I have been hoping Apple would allow them to put an extension in Safari similar to the extension on desktop Safari. I don't see it happening anytime soon, but just wanted to know what everyone's feelings on extensions in mobile Safari are.
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Anyone wish Apple would allow extensions in Safari?
- Thread starter WesCole
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1Password is really the only thing I would want for Safari. I'd be concerned about stability and speed adding anything else.
Not a perfect solution by any means, but from reading their blog, it sounds like the guys over at Agile Bits are building a more browser-like experience for 1Password.
Not a perfect solution by any means, but from reading their blog, it sounds like the guys over at Agile Bits are building a more browser-like experience for 1Password.
It wouldn't bother me if they only allowed 1Password and no one else.
I like their browser, but since we can't even change the default browser without jail breaking, it is useless for links I get in emails and text messages.
If there's one thing i've learned from extensions, it's that they slow down browsers considerably. With Firefox, I often open it and it takes so long to open that I forget I was even waiting.
If i'm in dire need of an extension, the jailbreak community has me covered, but I never keep more than 1 installed at a time in fear of slowing safari down to a turtle.
If i'm in dire need of an extension, the jailbreak community has me covered, but I never keep more than 1 installed at a time in fear of slowing safari down to a turtle.
I agree, and this is hardly the solution, but for now, creating a bookmarklet can help.
Code:
javascript:window.location='onepassword://'+window.location.href.substring(window.location.href.indexOf('//')+2)If you are selective of what you run, extensions shouldnt slow down the browser. Firefox is quicker than Safari on my machine at home, despite running more extensions, but I use things like NoScript and RequestPolicy, which can speed up page loads considerably, negating the loss of speed from running extensions.
On a mobile device though, were still very power limited and dont really have the overhead for most extensions. Perhaps if Apple had very strict requirements on what an extension could do, it might work.
I dont think something like 1Password would affect browser speed at all, due to it only being required for logins. I dont know how it would work with all the sandboxing iOS does though.
Great discussion, folks.
We've experimented with bookmarklets in the past, but as Beta Particle points out, this is not a very reliable method of "integrating" with Mobile Safari. There is not currently a supported method, though onepassword3:// is the current custom URL scheme in iOS and will at least open the app when launched. Searching via the URL scheme is theoretically possible, but it is unsupported since it is not reliable.
You can be sure that we will exhaust every possible avenue if Apple ever changes their policies about setting a default browser or Mobile Safari extensions.
Haha! I want to say that I wouldn't mind that, but I think we would make a lot of enemies.
Yeah, I think the integration in Mobile Safari would be less of an issue if Apple allowed users to set a different default browser.
We've experimented with bookmarklets in the past, but as Beta Particle points out, this is not a very reliable method of "integrating" with Mobile Safari.
There is not currently a supported method, though onepassword3:// is the current custom URL scheme in iOS and will at least open the app when launched. Searching via the URL scheme is theoretically possible, but it is unsupported since it is not reliable.You can be sure that we will exhaust every possible avenue if Apple ever changes their policies about setting a default browser or Mobile Safari extensions.