This quickfix is deprecated

FF3 works good with IE Tab 1.5.20080618 - no install hack required anymore ;-)

The IE Tab extension for Firefox embeds the Internet Explorer in tabs of Firefox/Mozilla. This comes very handy, when you want to work with Firefox, but are forced to use web pages only usable within IE (e.g. because of rendering or certificates handling)

With the new Firefox 3.0, some of you too might have experienced a problem when installing the IE Tab extension: "IE Tab 1.5.20080310 could not be installed because it is not compatible with Firefox 3.0."

Kong Thipor has found the reason and a workaround, that he'd like to share with you:

The reason

The version check for Firefox extensions is based on fetching compatibility information from an URL configured with the "extensions.update.url" setting in the "about:config" screen

• The configured URL is:

 https://versioncheck.addons.mozilla.org/update/VersionCheck.php?reqVersion=%REQ_VERSION%
 &id=%ITEM_ID%&version=%ITEM_VERSION%&maxAppVersion=%ITEM_MAXAPPVERSION%
 &status=%ITEM_STATUS%&appID=%APP_ID%&appVersion=%APP_VERSION%
 &appOS=%APP_OS%&appABI=%APP_ABI%&locale=%APP_LOCALE%

• And for IE Tab this URL is customized to:

 https://versioncheck.addons.mozilla.org/update/VersionCheck.php?reqVersion=1
 &id={77b819fa-95ad-4f2c-ac7c-486b356188a9}&version=1.5.20080310
 &maxAppVersion=3.0b5pre&status=userEnabled,incompatible
 &appID={ec8030f7-c20a-464f-9b0e-13a3a9e97384}&appVersion=3.0
 &appOS=WINNT&appABI=x86-msvc&locale=en-US

Right now, the XML file delivered for the IE Tab seems to be misconfigured or FF doesn't do the comparisons of version numbers right, leading to the mentioned version mismatch message

The workaround

• Take the attached patched version file and copy it to some location in your filesystems (e.g. C:/Temp/version.xml)
• Call up the Firefox configuration screen using the about:config URI and configure the "extensions.update.url" to point to the chosen location (e.g. file://C:/Temp/version.xml)
• Now try again to install the IE tab extension
• Go back to the configuration screen and reset the "extensions.update.url" settings using the menu on the right mouse button

Have fun with IE "enabled" web pages and never leave Firefox again!

(Copy-paste of Thipor's Mail)