The latest version of KeeFox (0.4) is now ready. The source code is now contained within a public subversion (SVN) code repository at https://keefox.svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/keefox/
You could start by downloading the binary version (Windows only). I can’t promise it will work and I’m sure it’s not necessary for me to suggest early and regular backups of any important data on your machine so I won’t. It is in the form of a Firefox add-on but please only install it on a development Firefox user profile because it’s not been tested alongside many other add-ons and data loss is a possibility. I have done limited testing as an administrator on a 32bit Win XP machine with .NET, KeePass 2.06 and Firefox 3.0.5 already installed. I recommend reading the information on this KeeFox project page first. Please let me know if you do try it out and say how successful it was and what environment you were working in.
There were two main groups of tasks I wanted to finish by version 0.4: an installation process via a firefox add-on and a very basic UI to allow passwords to be saved and filled in. These have been pretty much finished although there are a number of little tweaks still to be made and there will no doubt be gradual improvements to both of these aspects for many months to come.
There are a number of main tasks I want to get finished before the release of 0.5:
- Handle multiple KeePass databases (or at the very least, don’t crash in their presence!)
- Develop the UI far enough that using and saving passwords is pretty intuitive
- Create an options panel to allow the user to manage some configurable add-on options
- Create a UI for the user to choose to load a site and auto-login (in the form of a drop down menu)
- Extend (4) to integrate with the user’s bookmarks (and history) probably via a customised firefox places view with annotations
The last three tasks can be separated from the other parts of the code easily enough so I think that they are ideal candidates for other people to help with. They will be written using mainly javascript and XUL, with CSS being required at a later date too (although this can be added by me or someone else if you prefer). If you’re interested in knowing more about what’s involved, leave a comment below or contact me.
I’m not updating the road-map for this release because I feel that the above list is more useful in the short term; in the long term I’m aiming to start using a public task tracker for version 0.6 onwards. The rough ideas in the road-map still apply, although I think it’s unlikely I’ll catch up the extra month it took to reach the 0.4 stage so it may be more realistic to expect a final release in late summer 2009. Of course, if I get a lot of help, this could be brought forward a bit!
If I get no offers of help for the three items mentioned above by the end of January 2009, I’ll start work on them myself and I roughly estimate that 0.5 would be released in mid-March. If others can help out then it could happen around a month earlier.
The version 0.4 code may be useful for:
- developers that are keen to learn more about how KeeFox will be architected
- developers that would like to help develop KeeFox, maybe through one of the tasks described above
Developers that are interested in seeing how a Firefox C++ XPCOM extension can be built using Visual Studio 2008, have a particular interest in seeing an ICE IPC example or are looking for ideas about how to integrate third party software with Firefox could also find it useful although version 0.2 may be a better place to start since it is less specific to the eventual aims of this project.
Compilation requirements and guidelines are on the sourceforge KeeFox project site