FAQ - Frequently Asked Questions

CLEO (pronounced [klee-oh]) Compact Library Extension Organizer is an extension for Firefox that allows you to combine several extensions and/or themes into a single, installable, xpi file.  The "xpi" format is what Firefox uses to install extensions.  CLEO will organize a library (or collection) of extensions by compacting them into a single xpi.  You might ask, "Why would I want to do that?".  Well, first of all, it keeps a bunch of extensions and themes all together in one place and can be installed all at once.  Secondly, it makes it easy to share your favorite extensions and themes with co-workers, family, and friends.  Simple email the Cleopack to them, or post it somewhere on the web.

You'll need Firefox 1.5.0 or above and the FEBE extension.  FEBE and CLEO are released in pairs that are compatable with each other.  At the time of this writing, CLEO 3.3 needs FEBE 5.3 or above.

There are at least two ways to get to the CLEO options window.  The easiest way is from the CLEO toolbar icon:
You can also access it from the Tools menu:




Let's follow along with a screenshot of the CLEO options window:

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(1) Overwrite options box.  When creating a Cleopack with a name that is already on file in destination directory,  CLEO will (depending on which radio button is selected) either completely overwrite the file, simply add items to the file, or abort with an alert box message.  Note that when using the append option, CLEO does not check to see if any items will be duplicated in the Cleopack.  It is possible, therefore, to add the same extension or theme more than once.  I'm not sure why you would want to do this, but I'm just letting you know ...

(2) Help box.  CLEO (and FEBE, for that matter) offers built-in help files.  When this option is not checked, a help icon will appear next to many option tags.  This icon is a small blue question mark that turns red when you hover over it.  Clicking this icon will pop-up a help window describing what that particular option does.  These icons can take away any aesthetic value of the window so this option will hide them from view.


The "Directory" pane is where you tell CLEO where you would like the Cleopacks to be stored.



You may use the "Browse" button to open a file picker to navigate to the appropriate folder.

Creating a Cleopack is relatively straight-forward.  Basically, you simply select the desired extensions and themes from a list, give the package a name, and click OK.  You may also enter a package description or let CLEO create one for you.


Let's go through the steps:

First, type in a name for the package.  Here I called it "My Cleopack".



Next, click the "Select items to package" button to get to a file picker window.



Here I navigated to the folder "FEBE Backups:" where I keep my backed up extensions and themes.  All these items were created with FEBE, but they could have been any xpi or jar file located anywhere else on my computer.

You'll notice that I selected a number of items to be packaged.  To select more that one item, you may use one of two methods.  The first is the "Shift-Click" method.  First, I click on any one item.  Then I press and hold the Shift key and click another item.  This will select all the items between the first and the second. click.  The other method is "Ctrl-Click".  Press and hold the Ctrl key and click on an item.  This will either select or de-select that item.  (Note: A quick way to select all items in the window is to press Ctrl-A.)   You may use a combination of these two methods to select as many items as needed.  I should also point out that you may return to this window any time during a single CLEO session to add more items to the list.  They do not have to be located in the same folder.  Just click the "Open" button to return to CLEO.

Next, I'll let CLEO create a description of the package by  clicking the "Auto-generate" button.  The window now looks like this:



If I wanted to, I could edit the description to include any special instructions or notations.  But I like it just the way it is, so I'll just click the "OK" button.



Viola!  My Cleopack has been created and is ready to send to my friends or install in a new Firefox profile.

Viewing a Cleopack's  details are as simple as selecting a Cleopack and clicking a button.  First, select the "View package details" menu item to get this window:



Select a package name by clicking "Select a CLEO package" button and navigate to a Cleopack with the file picker.  Then click "Get package info" and the description will appear in the window.

Well, actually, you can't.  I've seen this rumor spread on podcasts and forums, but the truth is that CLEO will only package extensions and themes.  Firefox does not offer a method to install mixed items in one shot.  A full profile FEBE backup does backup and restore these items (and a lot more) but that is a completely different process.  There is a new extension called OPIE that can import/export your individual extension preferences

CLEO can only package extensions (.xpi) and themes (.jar).  When you run a full profile backup, you end up with a single archive (.fbu) that contains everything all zipped up together.  You could unzip this archive somewhere where CLEO could find it, but it would be much easier to just run a regular FEBE backup.  This leaves all your extensions and themes in a format that CLEO can read.  (See the next item)

The file profile.fbu is the results of a full profile FEBE backup. It contains all of your extensions, themes, cookies, etc. in a compact (zip) format. CLEO can only package extensions and themes. Extensions end with ".xpi" and themes with ".jar". If you run a selective FEBE backup, all your extensions and themes will be created in a format CLEO can use.

The file FEBE.xpi is the extra copy of FEBE that gets created when you check "Include a copy of FEBE with backup" in FEBE options. It, in itself, is an extension CLEO would recognize (but packaging a single extension would not make much sense).

Go to Tools > FEBE > FEBE Options > Backup type and click "Selective". Make sure that "Backup extensions" and "Backup themes" are also checked. Perform a backup. Your backup destination directory will now contain the files CLEO can work with.

Cleopacks install just like any other extension.  Probably the easiest way is to simply open it with Firefox.  File > Open File... and navigate to the cleopack.

I'll add more to this FAQ as I think of more questions that might come up.  In the meantime, you can visit my support forum and post your question there.  Who knows, maybe somebody had the same question answered there.