Talk:Profile folder

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Revision as of 16:27, 30 January 2006 by Wintogreen (talk | contribs) (→‎Proposed hierarchy: files in folders)
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The content of this article was migrated manually from Profile Folder. For previous article Talk and Talk History, see Talk:Profile Folder and [1], respectively. For previous article History, see [2]. --wintogreen 16:19, 26 December 2005 (UTC)


"Profile files" Category

What do you think of making a category that would contain an article for each file in the profile? We could describe what the file does, the consequences of deleting it, etc. Another thing we could do us have Category: Profile files (Firefox) and Category: Profile files (Thunderbird), etc. so each application's users can have a list that applies to them without seeing the cruft.--Np 18:25, 29 January 2006 (UTC)

I am strongly in favour of this idea. There is plenty to be said about each of the files in the Profile folder. --Mozcerize 11:04, 30 January 2006 (UTC)
Great idea. Another tidbit that would be useful is whether the file can moved directly from one profile to another (without having to worry about absolute paths, etc.). --wintogreen 13:22, 30 January 2006 (UTC)
I agree, and I would suggest that the new category be a subcategory under Profiles and that it include both files and folders (Cache, bookmarkbackups, searchplugins, etc). I was noticing myself that certain files such as localstore.rdf, mimeTypes.rdf and downloads.rdf get corrupted and deleting them is often suggested as a fix. I've posted some links to forum topics for those three files on the Issues with Firefox page but a kb article link would be much better. I would just suggest that any guidelines for a new "Profile Contents (Firefox)" subcategory (or whatever) be linked from a location where editors can find it as I mentioned on the Knowledge_Base_changes page regarding the Category_talk:Preferences guidelines. Alice Wyman 14:12, 30 January 2006 (UTC)

Proposed hierarchy

Profiles
|-Profile contents (Firefox)
  |-bookmarks.html
  |-localstore.rdf
  |-chrome/userChrome.css
  |-(...)
|-Profile contents (Thunderbird)
  |-localstore.rdf
  |-abook.mab
  |-chrome/userChrome.css
  |-(...)

(What to do with folders?)

How about simpy adding "folder" to the end -- e.g., "extensions folder", "Mail folder", etc. (cf. "user.js file" and "prefs.js file"). That would distinguish the folders from the files in the category view, and it would keep people from landing in the extensions folder article when doing a search. --wintogreen 15:53, 30 January 2006 (UTC)
I was thinking more along the lines of "what to do with files in a folder?" Do we put it in as "chrome/userChrome.css", or do we make chrome a category with its files under it, or what?--Np 16:11, 30 January 2006 (UTC)
I see. I would list the filename by itself (e.g., "userChrome.css") and note in the article that it appears in a folder, and that's it. That way it'd be easy for people to find the file via a quick visual scan of the category. --wintogreen 16:27, 30 January 2006 (UTC)

Information included (brainstorming)

  • Name
  • Purpose
  • Whether it requires other files to work (like the password file)
  • The consequences of deleting it
  • Whether it's possible/advisable/how to move it to another profile
  • Versions that it appears in
  • Previous names/locations that did the same thing
  • Whether it exists by default
^ np, I would suggest that people start writing more articles about files (or folders) in the profile, for example, "downloads.rdf" and categorize them in whatever way is currently relevant, for now, since articles already exist about files in the profile (prefs.js and user.js, for example). Once a number of these articles are written, they can be categorized in a new "Profile Content" category once it exists. If you want to develop guidelines for future articles or rewrite current ones I would look for common issues among all of the existing "files" articles, to see what if any general "guidelines" should be followed. Also, is the "wrongtitle" template really needed for all file articles, such as User.js ("The correct title of this article is user.js file. It appears incorrectly here due to technical limitations in the wiki software.")? Alice Wyman 16:01, 30 January 2006 (UTC)
Yeah, people should feel free to write whatever articles they want. I just like to have guidelines before I dive in. As for the wrongtitle template, we wouldn't want people to name their files wrong... Maybe we can do a modified version like we do we the prefs articles?--Np 16:14, 30 January 2006 (UTC)
I particularly like the idea of discussing dependencies and the consequences of deletion. I would also like to discuss whether a give file is the only place where certain data is stored. For example, is "downloads.rdf" the only place that tracks download history, or does this info also get stored elsewhere, eg as temporary or persistant prefs. Ditto for cookies, history, passwords etc. --Mozcerize 16:25, 30 January 2006 (UTC)

Files outside the "Profiles" folder

I removed the entry for mailnews.js ("Mozilla Suite, Thunderbird" "Sets the default values for most preferences. Its in the defaults\pref directory in the thunderbird program directory") because I don't think that files or folders outside of the "Profiles" path should be listed here. Alice Wyman 15:12, 30 January 2006 (UTC)

I agree with this decision. --Mozcerize 16:21, 30 January 2006 (UTC)