Blog  /  2004  /  June  /  30  /  Firefox 0.9 Tip: Sage
Firefox 0.9 Tip: Sage
Sage is a lightweight RSS and ATOM feed aggregator extension for Firefox.
How to install and setup Sage:

In the browser menu, click on Tools then Extensions.
When the Extensions window opens, click on Get More Extensions.

Find Sage (In the News category) and install it.

After you have restarted Firefox. You will need to configure Sage.

First you need to add the Sage button to the toolbar.
Right click on the toolbar and select Customize.
Drag the Sage button to the toolbar.
Then click Done.

Clicking on the Sage button will display the Sage sidebar.
Click on Options then Settings.
Select which bookmark folder you wish to use for the feed bookmarks (links). I created a folder called "Feeds"

To add a feed to Sage, just right click on a feed’s link and select Bookmark This Link. Save it to the "Feeds" folder (or whatever you called it). That’s it.

Now all you have to do is click on the link in the Sage sidebar to read it.
Click Here to watch a these step by step instructions in action (Flash animation).

Quick Tip: Press F11 to view your browser in full screen. Press F11 again to go back to normal.

Advanced Tip: If you wish to customize the look of the Sage output you can modify it's CSS file. Save the sage.css file (chrome://Sage/content/res/sage.css) somewhere. Now all you need to do is modify that file. When you are done, open up the Sage settings again, and check Use custom CSS. Browse to your CSS file.

Get Firefox

{This is the 1st draft of this article. Sorry the flash animation is a little long, 2:53, if I can find time I'll redo it and improve this article - K.}
Comments 
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The plugin sounds like a great idea, and your instructions are very clear. None the less I can’t get it installed at all in Firefox 0.8 (that’s the Debian 8.8-12 build). It behaves as if it installed itselft, but when I restart Firefox, it doesn’t show up in the extensions panel.

This is not a complaint - I’m glad you’re doing all this work.
Really nice extension.
I really appreciate it.
Will this work in standard Mozilla as well?
I don’t think so. The extension page only shows Firefox listings.
Cool I’ve been posted on the Sage mozdev page

"Getting Started With Sage
Great animated [flash tutorial] and [installation instructions]."

http://wiki.mozdev.org:8080/cgi-bin/mozdev-wiki.pl?GettingStarted
Is there a quick way to set all feeds as read in the main feed list and the feed item list? This would be very helpful to catch up on feeds (like when you import OPML files).

The extension is great, btw.
Update: Sage 1.2.1 released 8-16-04

Sage 1.2 fixed some issues with OPML importing.

I just imported my OPML generated from Sharpreader.

It even imported the sub folders I created correctly. Cool.

Tris, I don’t think Sage was set up to flag items as read.
Search http://sage.mozdev.org/ for more information.

RE:
Select which bookmark folder you wish to use for the feed bookmarks (links). I created a folder called Feeds

When I instaleld sage, it created a bookmark folder Sage Feeds for me. No reason to change it so i haven’t.
Well done - its just a minor simplifciation to the process, but it automates the nstallation process a bit further, it reduces the interaction required, and reduces the opportunity for confusion.
Thanks for pointing that out. I’m glad it did that. This must be a feature of a newer version than what I did the demo with.
I’ve tried to install Sage, too, and I’ve had the same problems that the first commenter had: I click on the link, it looks like something has downloaded, but the tools/extensions window doesn’t show it. It’s like the thing just doesn’t exist for my machine.

Help! What can I do??? I’m running Firefox version 0.9 on Windows XP if it matters.
Note: I only did a demo of SAGE. Please visit http://sage.mozdev.org for any help.
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I've seen install extension problems before, most were from incompatible "older" extensions. You may want to make sure you have the latest Firefox installed, and make sure you are getting the extension from the correct download source.
As of 9/6/04, Sage 1.2.2 was released. Go to http://sage.mozdev.org/installation.html for latest install
Just tried it on 1.0 PR and while it works, the config menus and date formatting etc are all in French. There seems no way to change this.
Would like to be able to set up default settings for each feed’s notification schedule -- didn’t see a way to do this.

Richard
Any idea how Sage ’discovers’ feeds? I have a link on my document header and I have a link on the page, but the ’Discover Feeds’ feature doesn’t work. Can’t figure out what I’m doing wrong. The new RSS button in Firefox 0.10 release can find it, but Sage can’t.

Love Sage, by the way...great extension.
No way to change from french : Win98 SE + Firefox 1.0PR - it was fine on 0.9.
Same problem with SwitchProxy tool - all in french!
Note: Please visit http://sage.mozdev.org for any help.
HELP!! Sage installed just fine but I can’t get it to work. When I select a feed in the sidebar I get an error message in Sage- XML Parse Error. Anyone know how to fix this?

thanks,
Ed
i love it :) installed it on my main slackware system (firefox 0.8 + theme, few plugins & stuff), imported my rss links via bookmarks, made a very small css. view minutes later i installed sage on my vaio’s windows xp pro (sp2) system (firefox 0.9.2 + theme, few plugins & stuff), copied opml and css files from my linux box and deinstalled the latest Feedreader (1.5Mb + sucks badly ...), and i am quite happy about the smart rss thingy in my sidebar :) i must say after using it a few times i evenn like the ALT+S thing :) but what about the name ... it just reminds me any time of s***ty software + and a very lousy club in berlin ...
i forgot: the http connection is established via Privoxy 3.0.2 (on Slackware Linux) ... for me it works perfect :)
what are the some issue of witch?