This is a staging forum for AgileBits, not an official support forum. Visit http://discussions.agilebits.com instead.

Many problems with new safari extension

Hello,



I'm using Mac OS X 10.6.8 (10K549), with Safari 5.1 and I just updated 1Password to v3.7.0 I have many problems with the new Safari extension :



1) 1Password 3.7.0 installs a beta version of the extension (3.7.b2)... I Guess that most of the issues I'm facing are due to the fact that the extension is in a beta version, so why is a beta version packaged with a final version of your product, and how to use 1Password with a non-beta extension ?



2) The first time I launch Safari, I get the safe-like prompt of the extension in order to login to my 1Password database. However, when I quit (not close, but really quit) Safari, then reopen it, I do not have to login anymore, and anybody (I mean, especially my children) can access my credit card information without having to login... it's unacceptable. I have the same behavior when quit'ing 1Password and all other browsers.



3) The 1Password extension's contextual menu (right click) is not available anymore with the safari extension... Why ? Common guys ! Now we have to click on the 1P button each time we want to use the extension...



4) Similar to point 3, with the new extension we have to do more clicks and/or mouse moves than before to access many functionality of the extension... For instance the "search and fill", now we have to : move to the 1P button, click on it, click on all logins, and then search, while with the old style extension, we could right-click > click go & fill.



5) the new safari extension is rather ugly : strange white spaces, everything is "too big" (buttons, spaces, size of text...), nothing is resizable... and the usability is kind of poor (yes the original simple contextual menu and prompts were ways more usable that this new UI)



I have to say that the extension still does its job (except for the bug n°2 above), however, it's not tailored for efficient browsing anymore... it became "bling bling" which may be what some of your clients want, but definitively not what I'm looking for.



I hope that those points will be fixed ASAP and that there will be a (optional) way to have a cleaner UI.



Best regards,



MP

Comments

  • khad
    khad Social Choreographer
    Welcome to the forums, Kraal!



    [quote]1) 1Password 3.7.0 installs a beta version of the extension (3.7.b2)... I Guess that most of the issues I'm facing are due to the fact that the extension is in a beta version, so why is a beta version packaged with a final version of your product, and how to use 1Password with a non-beta extension ?[/quote]

    You are correct. The new Safari 5.1 extension is still in beta. Since Lion and Safari 5.1 were only just released, there is not yet a "stable" version of the Safari 5.1 extension. That said, I am using it regularly on my production systems without any major issues. So are many of our other users.



    [quote]2) The first time I launch Safari, I get the safe-like prompt of the extension in order to login to my 1Password database. However, when I quit (not close, but really quit) Safari, then reopen it, I do not have to login anymore, and anybody (I mean, especially my children) can access my credit card information without having to login... it's unacceptable. I have the same behavior when quit'ing 1Password and all other browsers.[/quote]

    This is not new to the Safari 5.1 extension. This has always been the case if your security settings are set up to allow this ([b]1Password > Preferences > Security[/b]). You can always change this. For example:



    If "Disable automatic unlock for 1Password" is checked you will always be prompted to enter your master password when opening 1Password. This includes quitting the app and relaunching it.



    Likewise, if "Disable automatic unlock for all applications" is checked you will always be prompted to enter your master password when using one of the browser extensions after a fresh launch of your browser(s).



    So an easy way to keep prying eyes at bay is to leave both of the above settings enabled and quit 1Password and your browsers when you are done using them. Your data will be locked.



    Otherwise, you are relying on the auto-lock settings to secure your data which will either lock your data after X minutes of inactivity, when your Mac begins to sleep, or when the screen saver is activated whichever of the selected options comes first.



    The auto-lock timeout is measured by computer activity and not 1Password activity. In order for 1Password to automatically lock after X minutes, there must be no mouse or keyboard activity for the entire duration.



    To speed up the auto-lock process you might consider the following.



    1. Set an Active Screen Corner for you screen saver and activate the screen saver when stepping away from your Mac (System Preferences > Mission Control > Hot Corners).



    2. Close the lid of your Mac laptop to put your Mac to sleep.



    3. Activate the login window when stepping away from your Mac (System Preferences > Users & Groups > Login Options > "Show fast user switching menu as…")



    The above three options will also secure your entire OS X login if you have enabled "Require password … after sleep or screen saver begins" (System Preferences > Security > General).



    [quote]3) The 1Password extension's contextual menu (right click) is not available anymore with the safari extension... Why ? Common guys ! Now we have to click on the 1P button each time we want to use the extension...[/quote]

    [url="http://help.agilebits.com/1Password3/contextual_menu.html"]This is a known issue and we are working to restore some functionality to the contextual menu[/url], but there are limitations in Safari 5.1 that were not present in previous versions. That said, you don't need to mouse up to the toolbar if you don't want to. [url="http://help.agilebits.com/1Password3/keyboard_shortcuts.html"]The new extension can be controlled completely via the keyboard[/url]. For example, I just press Command-\ to log in to sites or Option-Command-\ to Go & Fill a different website Login. It's no contextual menu, but I hope it helps a bit until we can restore some functionality there.



    [quote]4) Similar to point 3, with the new extension we have to do more clicks and/or mouse moves than before to access many functionality of the extension... For instance the "search and fill", now we have to : move to the 1P button, click on it, click on all logins, and then search, while with the old style extension, we could right-click > click go & fill. [/quote]

    Option-Command-\ and then Return on the selected Login. You can type the first couple characters of the login to search for it and use the arrow keys to select. If you prefer the mouse: click 1P, click the All Logins section, and then click the Login you want to Go & Fill. This is not any more clicks than the previous: (1) right-click, (2) click 1Password, (3) click Go & Fill, (4) click a folder (or "All"), and then (5) click the Login. It is in a different spot, though. The contextual menu definitely has its advantages which is why we are working to bring it back under the new framework we are using now since Apple made some changes which prevented us from using the code we had been using for the past five years.



    [quote]5) the new safari extension is rather ugly : strange white spaces, everything is "too big" (buttons, spaces, size of text...), nothing is resizable... and the usability is kind of poor (yes the original simple contextual menu and prompts were ways more usable that this new UI)[/quote]

    Are you using the latest version? Does it look like [url="http://blog.agilebits.com/2011/07/its-here/"]the screen shots in our latest blog post[/url]? We just redesigned it from the first incarnation of the Safari 5.1 extension. I think you might like the update. As I just mentioned, we can no longer provide the extension in its previous form due to some changes Apple made, but we are working to make the new extension as good as and even better than the previous version.



    I don't think any of us are looking for bling. We use the extension ourselves more than anyone else I can imagine. We have a vested interested (on a couple different levels) in making it the best, most efficient extension ever.



    Please let me know what you think of the new version (1Password Safari extension 3.7.b7 or later).



    We always appreciate the feedback!
  • First of all, thank you for your quick reply.



    Concerning the final/beta mix, well as an end user in order to avoid such situations I prefer to have no extension at all being installed but a message during installation time explaining that the extension had to be completely rewritten due to major modifications in Safari 5.1 and that it will be released soon. People wanting to use the beta version could install it separately. It would make things crystal clear and would avoid having to enable "beta updates".



    Concerning my second point, well I don't completely understand your answer. I would like to underline the fact that I never had issues with 1P's extension and application lock/unlock/auto-lock before v3.7 i.e. beween last december when I bought 1P and until v 3.6.1 which I installed on the 3d of July I had not problems at all. Now since I installed the extension v3.7.b2 last night, I have such issues. Maybe I should explain better what is happening : My settings are set as follows : "disable automatic unlock for 1P" is checked, and "... for all applications" is unchecked, as far as I remember this is the way I configured the application in the past (I use macupdate to keep applications up to date and never had to reconfigure 1P after a update). I installed v3.7 (and thus the extension 3.7.b2) 1Password application prompted me for master password at each launch and after inactivity, which is the behavior I was expecting. However 1Password Safari extension's (v3.7.b2) prompted me a single time for a password then only after a complete logout from MacOS X, even if Safari was shut down and so was 1P. By the way, Firefox extension prompted me each time I relaunched it (quit-launch) which was not the same behavior than Safari's extension. Since my previous message, I installed v 3.7.1-BETA-2 with extension v3.7.b5, and now the extension prompts me for a password each time I relaunch Safari, but I did not change my settings : ""disable automatic unlock for all applications" is still unchecked. So the behavior changed between b2 and b5, and from my understanding, does not seem to match what you described in your message as since it is unchecked is should not prompt me for the password anyway :-/



    Concerning the ability to control 1P Safari extension through the keyboard, it's a good news, I'll try it. Thanks.



    Concerning the UI. Indeed I was using the version packaged with the non-Beta release of 1P. The one packaged with 3.7.1-BETA-2 (i.e. extension 3.7.b5) matches your screen shots and is ways better than the previous one. Maybe one comment and wish : please use the same icons for the app's and for the extension's buttons (extension's "logins" icon is the one used for "accounts" in the app, "all logins" is a completely new icon and it is difficult to understand its meaning before clicking on it, other icons are similar but slightly different) and add tooltips or a status line displaying a message when the cursor hovers the icon. It will improve greatly the understandability.



    I trust you when you write that you want to make the extension as good or even better. I did not wrote it before, but my opinion about 1P, before this new beta extension, was that 1P is one of the few applications worth every single penny I paid for it. And your company deserves a warm "thank you" for this, as well as for the fact that you provide us with a new version of the extension for Safari 5.1 without increasing the release number to "4" (which my bank account appreciates).
  • Hi Kraal,



    Thanks for writing back,



    [quote] Concerning the final/beta mix, well as an end user in order to avoid such situations I prefer to have no extension at all being installed but a message during installation time explaining that the extension had to be completely rewritten due to major modifications in Safari 5.1 and that it will be released soon. People wanting to use the beta version could install it separately. It would make things crystal clear and would avoid having to enable "beta updates".[/quote]



    That's a very interesting idea, and in an ideal world it would work. What we've found though is that some users just don't read warnings like this and will then wonder why things aren't working the way they should be. Also, we really didn't want to leave folks without Safari 5.1 support, our thoughts were that a Beta was better than nothing.



    [quote]Since my previous message, I installed v 3.7.1-BETA-2 with extension v3.7.b5, and now the extension prompts me for a password each time I relaunch Safari, but I did not change my settings : ""disable automatic unlock for all applications" is still unchecked. So the behavior changed between b2 and b5, and from my understanding, does not seem to match what you described in your message as since it is unchecked is should not prompt me for the password anyway :-/[/quote]



    The latest Betas of the extension added an option under the 'Settings' tab in the extension, indicated by a gear icon, that allows you to control if the extensions should be auto-unlocked from 1Password. If this is enabled then you should see the behaviour Khad described.



    [quote]Concerning the UI. Indeed I was using the version packaged with the non-Beta release of 1P. The one packaged with 3.7.1-BETA-2 (i.e. extension 3.7.b5) matches your screen shots and is ways better than the previous one. Maybe one comment and wish : please use the same icons for the app's and for the extension's buttons (extension's "logins" icon is the one used for "accounts" in the app, "all logins" is a completely new icon and it is difficult to understand its meaning before clicking on it, other icons are similar but slightly different) and add tooltips or a status line displaying a message when the cursor hovers the icon. It will improve greatly the understandability.[/quote]



    I can certainly understand your point, the icons being different from the main application doesn't help, and I've mentioned to our developers the idea of adding tooltips to help. I can't promise if this is something we can add, but thanks for the suggestion.



    The plan for the long term is to bring this new look to all our supported browsers, which with Lion is currently Safari, Firefox and Chrome, and to work on a redesign of the 1Password application itself for a future update. Once the browser extensions are unified we can update our documentation and provide a one-stop guide for using 1Password in the browser.



    [quote]And your company deserves a warm "thank you" for this, as well as for the fact that you provide us with a new version of the extension for Safari 5.1 without increasing the release number to "4" (which my bank account appreciates).[/quote]



    And thank you for sticking by us during the transition. Don't worry, by the way, we have lots of very cool stuff planned for the future of 1Password... and that's all I can say for now.