lazarus-recovery / lazarus_addon

the original lazarus-recovery firefox add-on with some slight modifications -mainly removing the Donation nag

Status

The "Lazarus: Form Recovery" extension is broken on Firefox newer than August 2017. There is work underway to rebuild the extension to work on current and future versions of Firefox.

The rebuilding project is currently coordinated by Adam Robertson, @sierracircle. If you would like to donate, send to Paypal at [email protected], with a note about what it's for. The funds gathered to date were used to hire a freelancer on UpWork. That contract is finished and now Lazarus can be installed and used, though not without problems. There is more to do before it's solid again. See Issues for current status.

See Releases for current testing versions. If you have any further questions or any issues, feel free to join the Discord Server

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Lazarus:Add Form Recovery

Recover lost forms with a single clickEver had one of those "oh $*#@" moments when you realize you've just lost half an hour of your life because something went wrong while you were entering stuff into a web form and there doesn't seem to be any way to recover it? If so, you need Lazarus. If not, install it anyway, before disaster strikes!

Lazarus securely saves forms as you type, allowing you to safely recover your lost work after server timeouts, network issues, browser crashes, power failures, and all the other things that can go wrong while you're entering forms, editing content, writing webmail, etc, etc, etc...

Lazarus works on ordinary web forms, WYSIWYG editors, and even AJAXified comment boxes, and will save you from pretty much any given server, browser, or connection problems that might otherwise cause you to lose your work, or that really pithy blog comment you struggled on for over an hour.

Lazarus 2.3 uses RSA and AES hybrid encryption, so your form history is more private and secure than ever! Lazarus also includes search functionality so you can recover text even if you can no longer find the original form you entered it into.

History

2017-Dec-16: first somewhat usable release from the rebooted development effort (see Releases)

2017-Feb-27: Forked from "v2.3.1-signed. Released August 4, 2011" to Github @lazarus-recovery on 2017-Feb-27.

Earlier versions from original authors Karl Dearden and Seth Wagoner are at https://addons.mozilla.org/en-us/firefox/addon/lazarus-form-recovery/versions/

Changelog prior to 2016: old-changelog.md

lazarus_addon's Issues

"Response is undefined"

I tried installing the add-on via "about:debugging". The icon in the adress-bar appeared, but clicking on it has no effect. The tool-tip for the Icon says "Lazarus: Form Recovery loading ..."

The webdeveloper's debug console shows this error:

	Lazarus.callBackground/< moz-extension://.../js/platform-chrome.js:137:1
	apply self-hosted:4357:5
	applySafeWithoutClone resource://gre/modules/ExtensionCommon.jsm:304:16
	wrapPromise/</< resource://gre/modules/ExtensionCommon.jsm:517:15
	withLastError resource://gre/modules/ExtensionCommon.jsm:441:14
	wrapPromise/<

Using Firefox 60 ESR

Status of this project?

I'm curious about the status of this project: What is the differnce between "chrome_patched" and "lazarus_addon"? Is one of these actually working in Firefox 60 ESR?

It would be great if you could update the Readme to reflect this. Thanks

Build targeting PaleMoon browser?

Hi there.
Lazarus is till one of my must have extensions, and one of the reasons I still prefer FF forked projects that continue to support XUL extensions.

Palemoon has very recently cut all official support for any extension that does not directly target it.
I believe the reasons are to try to motivate the community devs to maintain the old extensions and also to make a clean break from the FF brand.

If you are inclined to post an updated version of Lazarus 2.3.1 I (an many PM users) would be very grateful:
https://forum.palemoon.org/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=16785

Best regards

Show project Github activity in Discord channel

Destination: https://discordapp.com/channels/396063292910469121/396662578555781120

Utils should be in its own repository

The main repository should only have files for the actual add-on, and not extra utilities. It should also not be in a sub-folder. It is okay to have a Utilities repository if you think it is necessary, but please do not add it in to the main repository.

Rebase off of Lazarus 3.2?

https://web.archive.org/web/20150218051442/http://getlazarus.com:80/download

Update look and feel (logo, icons, etc.)

• Logo is still the original one? This should change!
• The windows XP style icons for the popups (e.g. when setting a password) are not nice :(

The logo at least is something that doesn't require software developer skills to do something about. Any artists out there want to contribute their designs?

cc: @Tormen

Remove calls to old servers and network resources

There are a number of places in the code where remote servers are defined and/or called that are not relevant to Lazarus now. These should be removed or at least defined as null or example.com.

This is a security issue as well just cleaning up old stuff. At any time those domains could be sold or taken over by someone not related to the extension and who knows information is being transferred. At the very least it will be browser version, some kind of identifier and ip address.

Examples:

https://github.com/lazarus-recovery/original_ff/blob/e2a2ae0d2cf81a15a23601fcbfc0ae9608f27b8e/src/js/lazarus.js#L14-L30

https://github.com/lazarus-recovery/original_ff/blob/e2a2ae0d2cf81a15a23601fcbfc0ae9608f27b8e/src/options.html#L37-L39

No longer works?

I have used this extension for years on Bitcointalk.org but it no longer works and I tried it on another site as well and it failed so is there a test site I can try this on? I am not sure what has changed as I do not update FF.

Any plans to actually work on this add-on? -general discussion about funding project

It no longer works in Firefox 53. Says: "I'm disabled".

Clarify license type and status

As evidenced in the funding thread, #2, there's confusion over what an Open Source license is, and thus also what kind of licenses are possible for this Lazarus Form Recovery: Resurrected project.

1. Open Source - is a license certified by the Open Source Initiative as complying with the open source definition. It includes the well known names of Apache, GPL, MIT, X11, and so on. Read more: https://opensource.org/licenses

2. Lazarus Form Recovery - the extension our project is based on is not open source in the OSI sense. In the Mozilla Legacy AddOns catalog it is classed as License: Custom (freeware). at least as far back as v2.0. Earlier versions may have been open source, but the point is moot, we started with 2.3.1 which is not open by the OSI definition.

3. Changing the project's name, logo, user interaction style, and so on do not make our effort sufficiently different to be able to apply our own copyright and thereby our own license.

4. We do have the source code for Lazarus and that is the platform we stood on to to reboot it for the new Firefox WebExtensions plugin API, but availability of the code on it's own is not enough. The author Seth wagoner retains copyright and he could choose to re-assert that right at anytime, and we would have no choice but to pull down everything we've built.

My personal position: In my mind Seth has abandoned Lazarus and has no interest in what happens with it now. Several people including myself have tried repeatedly for years to contact him about Lazarus. I'm happy to continue contribute to the project with the understanding this could change at anytime at that my work may suddenly become unavailable to share. Not everyone will be comfortable with this, so this is their departure point - Live long and prosper. ;-)

I am not a lawyer and this could be all wrong etc. etc. I have however followed the open source movement for decades and read a lot of material on licensing. I believe the above is correct in the main, though perhaps not in the details -- though if I'm wrong, please speak up! I'd love to be not right here.

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Ok, so what will it take to close this issue?

A simple clear statement or paragraph that can be posted in License.txt at the root of this repository. It should cover the above, and whatever other salient points others bring up. I've no doubt missed a thing or two.

Data expiry limit is too tight

Data expiry of 14 days is much too short. There are plenty of forms that I need to access only once a year but still need to re-use previous entries.

The current limit is in place in order to workaround "performance problems and javascript timeouts, particularly during version upgrades, and while searching encrypted data", which are indeed problems. But lets solve those a different way, or let us knowingly choose which suffering we're willing to put up with.

cc: @Tormen

Knowledge needed to successfully revive Lazarus

The below continues a conversation started in another channel. For those just dropping in now, @xenomonkey was instrumental in the original Lazarus extension. Due to historical promises made he will not contribute code, but he is happy to help with high level advice, reasons for what they did, and encouragement. That said with a lot of other stuff going on in his life his involvement will be reasonably passive.

So even high level comments offering only advice are still of great benefit.

Advice can be easier in response to questions.

What foundational knowledge, programming paradigms, and/or patterns do you consider essential or at least highly beneficial in re-building Lazarus?
What problems would you assign a junior developer to tackle to get them prepared for being successful?
What "attack order" would you suggest?

Although I've opened this "issue" with questions directed specifically to xenomonkey, if you have something significant to add, as answer or question, please jump in. It's a conversation

Rename the code repository

original_ff isn't a very good name for this repository. We should change it to something more descriptive and natural. I'm thinking just plain ol' lazarus. Any other suggestions?

According to the Github docs the change will be almost completely transparent to anyone using the old name: https://help.github.com/articles/renaming-a-repository/

Not actually functioning (Windows 7; Firefox)

No sure whether this is the right way of addressing this (my knowledge of GitHub mores is non-existent, not being a coder, I am a financial contributor though to the original reboot last year)
Issue: while I am able to add the extension to Firefox based on the latest (beta) release, it doesn't actually seem to do anything. There is no entry in the context menu, nor is there any 'restore' option (found this on a regular free text web form I needed my previous entries from).

Can't be published to firefox addons

Hey,
I wanted to publish this addon to firefox addons page, so it could go viral, however it seems to say its not supported by firefox quantum:

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/lazarus_addon/

Can we fix this and have a release process? It would be a shame if all our funding and effort does not reach the addon store in the end.

Multiple installs: Lazarus should offer upgrade instead

At present the Lazarus releases don't recognize previous installs of itself, each time installing as if it where a completely different program. At least it should warn of previous install and give advice to remove the old one, at best it should offer to upgrade and migrate the old database.

What a shame this is still broken

I've come here to learn what happened to Lazarus for form recovery. The dates mentioned in the README file leave me with little hope this will ever be recovered. That's too bad - it was apparently a great tool - and badly needed... I just lost two hours of work on a Stack Exchange piece I was working on in Firefox.

Firefox - No context menu

To disable Lazarus on a website, use the Lazarus Context Menu. Sites can be re-enabled later by returning here.

No actual entry in context menu

Classic addon libary

UPDATE .. just tried again clicking on the link ,lazarus-recovery/lazarus_addon release and this time Waterfox installed it.. go figure.
This version from Classic addon libary is the one on offer via the install ( green button) and never finishes the "encryption phase should only take 30sec" , yet never finishes
Version 2.3.1-signed.1-signed Released August 5, 2011 254.2 KiB from Classic addon library

The latest lazarus-recovery/lazarus_addon release I downloaded to use in Waterfox using "install from file" function for the .xpi file, nothing was installed Waterfox did nothing.

was using Cyberfox but has reached end of life :(

Full retrival database with time and date stamps

There is saved text in the current version. But it is only present while I am entering text. If I delete the text in the text entry box, say by accident, it also deletes the text in the Lazarus database.

So selecting ALL after I have typed this and pressing delete leaves nothing in the database to be able to retrieve.

I'd like to see it operate the way Lazarus used to operate: It recorded everything time and date stamped. And kept it all in the database. No time limit.

If I edited something, it kept both versions. Retrieval was via cut and paste.,