As I was wading through a myriad of clients asking why their browser was still slow after they signed up. Well obviously that wasn't right, XeroBank network is the fastest by far. They were still user the Tor network and had not logged into their account to download their software. It struck me: There must be a better way.
I was speaking with Ricardo about our checkout process, and it occurs to me that we should make some changes. What I want is to push the update directly to the user's xB Browser as soon as they finish checkout. Of course, they need to log in just to get their transaction ID, which is only two click from getting their browser already. Yeah, yeah, it is indeed pretty simple already. But, that doesn't mean there is a legitimate reason that it should be any more complicated than it already is. Another issue which stops this from happening is that completing checkout doesn't mean their credit card has been verified yet. So what to do? Well 1) Use the recovery-email-address to send the user a notification of "what now?", and 2) Something a little more.
I was having dinner tonight, about to drop into a transcendental state, when it hit me. Why can't we let users upgrade the browser, right from the browser? I rushed back to the XeroBank dojo.
I began pouring over the ancient scrolls of Master Xero. There is a legendary technique for extracting the config files from the ethereal core. I know that with the proper training, I can achieve the skill and apply it to the browser.So I've devised a way that the users can upgrade the browser, if they haven't logged in to download the other. A lot of methods to reach the same goal. And I've been thinking about making it somehow even easier.
I must tell you, there is no more complex task than making the technical and difficult appear simple and easy.
UPDATE: The skill has been achieved. The only issue now is making the technique respect the balance of local proxy configuration, if the client has one.
6 comments:
Hmm, I was looking the last topic from this blog and thinking about this update subject, which you have said you're looking for some way (or tool) to transfer all previous XB configs to another version, when a new version is available.
For example, last week I remove my XB 2.0.0.5 and installed 2.0.0.6b. All I have to do was save my bookmarks to a single file (bookmarks.html) and export them. But my logins/passwords, form fields and Firefox/Xerobank configurations were not saved.
I have to fill everything, always when a new version is available (which takes a good time to do).
I don't know how Firefox can be recompiled, but if there's a way to remove these update options from the browser (Help menu and internal options), that will be nice, unless a Firefox modified without these buttons or functions could not work properly.
This modification could be understand this way:
You see the image-code below of the text field of this blog? The text field = the place where you type your comments.
Let's think it's not necessary to fill this form (image-code-letters) to post a message here on this blog. Steve can remove this image-code, but if his blog can't work this way?
I know updates are not working on XB 2.0.0.6a for security reasons (and like you said, unless is a critical update, they can break the browser sometimes) but some misinformed users may try anyway, and believe there's something wrong with the browser.
What you are talking about is a different configuration, the profile settings. The problem with the passwords is that you have to actually move quite a few strange files. You have to move the key3.db, sec.db, signons, etc files which have encrypted your Master Password and logons. A big deal, actually.
I think it should be possible.
So you think we should provide a popup to tell users that updates are disabled? Hmm. I wonder if FF can do that without a recompile.
Take a look at the FEBE and CLEO plugins for firefox. They back up the whole profile! Even selectively...
I didn't know about the password thing, since Firefox seems to be the only browser which shows ALL YOUR PASSWORDS from the internal options of without they have been encrypted (replace letters for ****).
IE needs external software to reveal what's inside of **** passwords.
That being said, any person who opens your browser is able to see all your passwords. You have said once that a master password is encrypted on Firefox, I didn't check this option, I use many different and strong passwords, but from what I understand first, all passwords were not encrypted, really.
You see, Internet Explorer can't show you all passwords the way Firefox does. That's why softwares like KeePass are welcome (I didn't use him because I have to fill all the password fields, since the auto-login/form fields function is not working for my websites).
The profile setings is not the real problem, since takes one minute to be filled. The login/password configs takes more time, if you are a member of 20 boards, for example. It's not a big deal, but if a new version is released each 15 days, it will take some time to set things straight.
About the update subject, my opinion: maybe it's not a good idea to show a pop-up warning. Instead, if it's possible, can't you remove all these options from the browser?
I mean, if you check Firefox internal options to auto-updates, a pop-up can't be showed, right? You're forgetting the fact that we have three different places where updates can be triggered.
"Internal options - Update automatically"
Help menu - Check upgrades
Check for upgrades - add-ons screen
And if a single update activated from the browser (and not made manually, the way you explained to me) can harm the browser, these options should be removed completely. If it's not possible to remove (and break the compatibility of the browser, I don't know what could be the side effects), a pop-up warning is a choice, since newbie users will blame Xerobank for not making any updates automatically.
Joe,
The problem with backup up "the whole profile" is that is something we don't want to do because is grabs settings that are specific to a xerobank version. I'll take a look at those plugins and see what exactly they do. They may not be a bad idea at all.
Of course, a better system would be some versioning thingy that only downloads the updated files and keeps on moving, but that is a project beyond beyond beyond.
Anonymous,
Regarding the master password, you have to set one so that your passwords aren't stored in plaintext (base64). Once the master password is typed in for the browser session, it will remember it and autofill it for all the other websites. So then you don't need to remember 20 website passwords, just one, but it should be a very strong password, and changed once every month or so.
Time sure does fly. :-)
Love reading your blog and look forward to more! -TOV
Post a Comment