Extension not working in all browsers and Auto-type is not working

This discussion was created from comments split from: Support for router auth windows?.

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  • DoctorBrown
    DoctorBrown
    Community Member
    edited October 2018

    I was using 1P v4 for years and the modal windows function (with ctrl-\) stopped working in all browsers a few months ago. Since 1P v4 was out of support, I didn't think anything would be done to help me with the issue. So I bought the v7 version thinking it would work, but now I see in this post that that function is not available. The ctrl-\ function was working in v4 with Quicken's password vault, but v7 is NOT working with Quicken.

    I'm very disappointed with that. When do you think this function will be available? I'm not happy with the workaround, I could do a similar workaround with v4 version. I'm beginning to wish I hadn't updated. Is there anything that can be done to help me?

  • Hi @DoctorBrown,

    Thanks for writing in. I've split your post into its own thread.

    I was using 1P v4 for years and the modal windows function (with ctrl-) stopped working in all browsers a few months ago.

    Are you using Auto-Type without 1Password extensions in your web browsers? We didn't kill any support for the web browsers and AutoType in 1Password 4, it still works fine for us right now. We actually updated 1Password 4 to add Native Messaging, which is required for the latest 1Password extensions, so you could still use it longer. It is possible you didn't have this turned on, which would stop working in Firefox until you enable Native Messaging via Help Menu > Advanced > Use Native Messaging protocol.

    As for Quicken, it is possible Quicken was updated and uses a different window name, which means that you may have to re-select Quicken's window for your Login item in 1Password 4, did you try that ?

    . So I bought the v7 version thinking it would work, but now I see in this post that that function is not available.

    Correct, Auto-Type has not been implemented yet in 1Password 7. We don't have a timeframe on when it is coming. 1Password 7 is more of a separate program rather than an upgrade to 1Password 4 and it will take some time to implement all of the features that 1Password 4 had.

    However, there is a basic implementation in 1Password 7 that we are planning to evolve into Auto-Type in the future, we call it Type in Window for now. What you do is focus the field where you want 1Password to fill, bring up 1Password mini (Control + Alt + \), expand the username/password copy menus, there is a list of windows you can select to have 1Password type the username or password in. You'll have to repeat for the other field such as the password and/or other fields like 2FA token.

    We'll improve this implementation to let you link apps to items and 1Password can then automate both username/password typing based on the shortcut.

  • DoctorBrown
    DoctorBrown
    Community Member
    edited October 2018

    Thank you for replying so quickly.

    Are you using Auto-Type without 1Password extensions in your web browsers?

    All the browsers have the extensions installed. All other normal websites work normally. It was only the browser Authentication Windows that stopped working. I don't think I did anything that should have affected it.

    ....you may have to re-select Quicken's window for your Login item in 1Password 4, did you try that ?

    I did try and re-select the windows in the 1P login. That's what was strange about this. Quicken's popup was still working, but the web browser popup was not. One of the things I didn't try was to reinstall the browser add in or the app.

    I'm glad to hear that the function is planned. For me, this is a high priority fix because until then, this is a regression in functionality. I may try to reinstall the 1P v4 to see if I can get it to work, but I think I'm committed to the v7 version for now.

    In Firefox, when the Authentication window pops up and has focus, The Ctrl + Alt + \ is ignored until focus is off of the window. So you have to click on the desktop, enter the Ctrl + Alt + \ code, right-click the 1P entry, select: Username >> Authentication Required item. Then select the Auth window again and tab to password field. Then repeat for password. This is awkward, at best, a pain in the a** actually as a workaround.

    1Password 7 is more of a separate program rather than an upgrade to 1Password 4 and it will take some time to implement all of the features that 1Password 4 had.

    Is that part of the 'agile development model'? Where a product is released with missing functionality? I've never understood that model. I'm a old school software developer where a product wasn't released until it was complete. Releasing an 'Upgrade' to a product with serious regression in functionality seem to be a recipe to alienate your users.

  • Hi @DoctorBrown,

    I did try and re-select the windows in the 1P login. That's what was strange about this. Quicken's popup was still working, but the web browser popup was not.

    Hmm, I'll test but I did recall Chrome changed the style of the HTTP Authentication dialog, it could be that 1Password can't see it anymore and it is not a separate window.

    Is that part of the 'agile development model'? Where a product is released with missing functionality? I've never understood that model. I'm a old school software developer where a product wasn't released until it was complete.

    No, it was nothing to do with agile development or any models. It's the technologies that have changed over time and you have to rebuild from the ground up.

    1Password 1-4 was built back in the era of Windows XP time and was built in Delphi. 1Password 7 is built with Windows 10 + future in mind, built in C#, .NET (WPF), and increasingly in Rust and Go. With Go, we can actually have some cross-platform tooling such as 1Password Brain that we reuse across all platforms.

    We couldn't extend or adopt the old codebase to support newer features like 1Password.com support which requires a database model structure like SQLite, JSON, etc. We were reaching the limitations that we could not work around and we were spending more time working on workarounds than adding new features; so we had to make the difficult decision to start with a new codebase. This is only on Windows, the other apps were updated without any serious regressions as their platforms were more aligned by the OS vendors compared to Microsoft that seems to change how to develop apps every few years.

    Releasing an 'Upgrade' to a product with serious regression in functionality seem to be a recipe to alienate your users.

    That's why we did not offer 1Password 7 as an upgrade nor update option within 1Password 4 in the first place. As 1Password 4 did not support 1Passwords.com, 1Password 6/7 was mostly marketed for 1Password.com customers that did want it.

    As of right now, Auto-Type is not even the top 25 requests for 1Password 7. We'll get it implemented as fast as we can.

  • DoctorBrown
    DoctorBrown
    Community Member
    edited October 2018

    I just re-installed 1P4 on a VM. Firefox started working when I enabled multiple URLs and used the CTRL- Add App function to add the Authentication window. The ctrl-\ worked. Did the same with Chrome. The Add App did add an entry called Chrome_WidgetWin_1. No joy, the ctrl-\ didn't work to fill in the Authentication window.

    No, it was nothing to do with agile development or any models. It's the technologies that have changed over time and you have to rebuild from the ground up.

    What I meant by agile development was many products seem to be rushed to be released when there are serious missing functions and defects. And the line is "Oh we'll fix that or add that in the 'next' release." And sometimes it never gets fixed. When I was a developer that would never be allowed. But it's a different world now. People seem to tolerate a lot of poor quality software.

    I did get from your previous post that 1P7 is a complete rewrite. The issue is to me this looks and acts like an upgrade to existing users. And when functionality I depended on is missing it feels like a regression. In this case 1P doesn't work as well with apps and I really miss that.

  • Hi @DoctorBrown,

    I absolutely agree with you, we more than anything want to release a solid/polished complete product. However, that would mean we wouldn't have 1Password 7 out with 1Password.com membership support until 2020 or later.

    What I meant by agile development was many products seem to be rushed to be released when there are serious missing functions and defects.... When I was a developer that would never be allowed. But it's a different world now. People seem to tolerate a lot of poor quality software.

    Yep, it's a completely different world, 90s/2000s were the time where mature polished software releases occurs in years. Majority of the people were not willing to wait that long and since then, immature but quicker pace of software releases has become the norm and people are happier. Yes, bugs happen but getting new features quicker is worth it in the long run.

    One thing is that getting new features sooner means we can iterate the feature faster as well. People do change how the long term evolution works on a feature, killing useless features faster which save time and features that don't work the way we expect, we can stop and rebuild it in the earlier stage of the development, which also saves time. This leads to the conception called agile model but that's not really what we're doing here, we're just building and shipping smaller series of updates that restore "established" features from other platforms.

    Now, shipping with defects is not intentional but quick updates do have a higher risk of more bugs. It also means the definition of the stable release has changed over years to mean usable update, rather than mission-critical ready to use.

    In addition, thanks to the "racing to low prices/free" competition of the App Stores, majority of small studios will not be able to survive without any revenues for 2-3 years on a software release. It is just not feasible for a lot without high investment costs upfront.

    Even Apple, Microsoft, and Google couldn't sustain the multi-year OS releases, and if they can't, it is very hard to ask smaller companies to do the same without great financial risks. The OS and apps nowadays are far more complex with a lot of security hardening that has to be done, which is required but has a lot of costs.

    Of course, that also means that competition can sweep in quickly if they do take the time to release high quality software after many years in stealth mode.

  • DoctorBrown
    DoctorBrown
    Community Member

    I agree with pretty much all that you have said. I appreciate your thorough comments on the state of the software industry.
    I am really impressed that you, and other I've interacted with on this forum, are willing and able to take the time to answer my questions in such detail. It shows me that AgileBits and 1Password is an exceptional company that cares about it's users. That, too, is a rare commodity these days.

    Thank you,
    John

  • You're absolutely welcome!

    It is our customers we're doing this for and we're 1Password customers first as well; everyone's a part of our big family. It's corny I know but we love our customers and will always be happy to answer any questions as our customers is what pushes 1Password and us forward.

    Agreed on the rare commodity, we always tell our team that we must treat our customers on how we'd want to be treated by other companies.

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