Import/export of exceptions list

[vanowm]

From vanowm on June 06, 2014 20:09:31

Feature request from email:

A thoughtful user creates and maintains a cookie exceptions list over time. Such a list can become quite large, increasingly difficult to reenter. Also, some more advanced users might appreciate the ability to have multiple cookie exception lists, perhaps client- or project-specific or for some other reason. And any user might simply wish to carry around and reuse a cookie exceptions list built over time.

Once upon a time, the old CookieSafe extension had a function that would export the cookie exceptions list—not the cookies, but the exceptions list, allow/session/block—to a file. I don’t recall the file type, but I imagine any type would do, though something humanly readable would have its advantages (e.g., html). I suppose one could have maintained multiple versions of the file by naming them variously.

CookieSafe had a second function that would import exceptions from such a saved file, either replacing or incrementing the existing Firefox cookie exceptions list.

The combination of these two functions provided several benefits above and beyond cookie management itself:

1. From Firefox 17 forward, whenever Firefox decides to wipe out the cookie exceptions list due to one or more related bugs, the list could be quickly and easily restored. (Apparently, there is a bug that can cause the exceptions list either never to be properly recorded in the SQLite database, or to be wiped, or both. I don’t fully understand the problem, only its effect.)
2. In all versions of Firefox, whenever a user wishes to create a new profile from scratch (not based on an existing profile) but include his/her existing cookie exceptions list, it could be done.
3. In all versions of Firefox, when a user wishes to create a new Firefox installation (as on a new machine, whether physical or virtual) and to include an existing cookie exceptions list, it could now be done.
4. As I mentioned above, if a user wishes to maintain multiple cookie exceptions lists for different purposes, it could now be done.
5. If a user accidentally wipes out his/her cookie exceptions list (uncommon, but possible, I suppose), it could now be restored quickly and easily. (Admittedly, this is not the main selling point for this idea. :)
6. IMO, this added functionality would make Cookies Manager+, already excellent, the unchallenged king of the cookie managers, as CookieSafe once was.

Original issue: http://code.google.com/p/firefoxanecp/issues/detail?id=39

[vanowm]

Once #63 is done, backup exceptions will be easier to implement.