Firefox Extension Manager

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March 30, 2004

Looking at the recent checkins to the Firefox source tree, you can see that Ben Goodger has checked in the initial files for the upcoming Extension Manager (see bug 170006). The Extension Manager aims to provide for extension uninstallation (currently, you can only disable via the UI - you can, however, remove extensions manually), extension updating, and (hopefully) some level of standardization of extension installation UI screens.

Forcing extensions to have to provide a choice of whether to be installed to the profile folder or to the application folder is another thing I’d like to see (or at least warn the user that the extension will be installed to the profile folder). Probably wouldn’t matter too much when you can easily uninstall extensions with the Extension Manager.

Henrik Gemal reports on the same thing, and points out ASCII art mock screens and Ben Goodger’s writeup on the new take on extensions. Mozilla.org also has a section on Application extensions, where the Extension Manager is described (some pages are empty at the moment). Interesting reading all.

There are also plans for a Web Front End (see Ben’s new take on extensions), if you were wondering how updating extensions was to be done. The Web Front End will also be the central link and information repository for compatible and verified extensions (much like what Extension Room is now) - a partial solution to the malicious XPIs problem perhaps?

Posted by Chu Yeow at March 30, 2004 SGT |

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| Category: Mozilla

10 Comments & TrackBacks (Add yours)

The paper doll icon that precedes each comment is an idea conceived by Vanessa Tan.

The Extensions overhaul is removing the ability to install extensions to the application chrome folder entirely. All extensions will be profile-specific.

- Chris

Posted by: Chris C on March 30, 2004 10pm

Chris: I wasn’t aware of such a thing. This page seems to indicate that extensions will still be able to be installed into the application (i.e. Firefox) folder.

I do know that the extensions will no longer go into the firefox chrome folder, but rather would go into the /path/to/firefox/extensions//chrome, etc. folders.

Perhaps you could point me to the source?

Posted by: Cheah Chu Yeow on March 30, 2004 10pm

Ooosp - no, you’re right, I mis-remembered. For most users though they’re going to be profile-only now though, as the option to install in profile chrome is being hidden as an admin option.

- Chris

Posted by: Chris C on March 31, 2004 5am

Two questions:

1. The new extension manager seems an excellent feature for the upcoming stable branch (1.7) and for Netscape 7.2 (although the ASCII art UI seems confusing to me). Is there any chance it can still make it into Mozilla Suite 1.7?

1. Are there any plans to have the Firefox search engins (MyCroft) be installable into the profile directory. It is a major hasstle to have to reinstall all search “extensions” after every Firefox update (although the new installer seems to leave the search extensions in-place - I don’t know if this is a “good” was to update Foreforx though). I had asked this in the (chatty) MyCroft bug, but got no answer.

Posted by: Peter Lairo on March 31, 2004 6pm

Question on this blog comment system:

What is the difference between “Send me an email when there’s a new comment to this entry” and “Subscribe to comments to this entry“?

Posted by: Peter Lairo on March 31, 2004 6pm

I just found the bug to install the search plugins into the profile directory.

http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=123315

Unfortunately, it is assigned to “nobody”, marked as “helpwanted”, and is pretty inactive. It does have a lot of CC’s but only 11 votes.

Posted by: Peter Lairo on March 31, 2004 7pm

Peter: I don’t think there is any clear indication that the Extension Manager will be part of Mozilla/browser. I could very well be wrong though because I don’t follow developments on the trunk very much. I do know that Ben Goodger’s Extension Manager checkins didn’t make it to the trunk.

What is the difference between “Send me an email when there’s a new comment to this entry” and “Subscribe to comments to this entry”?

Hmmm… I can see how that could be confusing. The first one is a convenient way for commenters to subscribe to comments, whereas the second one allows people to subscribe without commenting. Would you suggest different messages to make this point clearer? Thanks.

Posted by: Cheah Chu Yeow on March 31, 2004 10pm

Extending extensions
If you’re still looking for another reason to make the switch, you don’t have much longer to wait.

Posted by: Minh’s Notes on April 1, 2004 11am

What is the difference between “Send me an email when there’s a new comment to this entry” and “Subscribe to comments to this entry”?

Hmmm… I can see how that could be confusing. The first one is a convenient way for commenters to subscribe to comments, whereas the second one allows people to subscribe without commenting. Would you suggest different messages to make this point clearer? Thanks.

Use only the second one (“Subscribe to comments to this entry”)!? So the user has to enter his e-mail twice. That’s no biggie, especially since Firefox has autcomplete, and the gained clarity and space-savings is well worth it, IMO.

Posted by: Peter Lairo on April 1, 2004 4pm