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With all this push for Quantum, I wonder what the extension landscape is like. I’ve heard people complain about FF dropping support for old extension APIs (abso

With all this push for Quantum, I wonder what the extension landscape is like. I’ve heard people complain about FF dropping support for old extension APIs (absolutely no idea if this is true - just murmurs). As a Dev, would now technically be a good time to consider building an extension for Firefox?

libertyEQ 9y ago
From what I understand the Webextension API is somewhat standardized, and intended for the long haul. So, now would seem like the time.
kenning 9y ago
I switched to quantum and the only complaint is that I can't use Video Speed Controller on it. https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/video-speed-controller/nffaoalbilbmmfgbnbgppjihopabppdk https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/video-speed-contro... That application is so useful, everyone I know who has tried it gets used to it and can't live without it.
- clouddrover 9y ago
  Video Speed Controller is MIT licensed: https://github.com/igrigorik/videospeed https://github.com/igrigorik/videospeed So you could have a go at porting it to Firefox: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/Add-ons/WebExtensions/Porting_a_Google_Chrome_extension https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/Add-ons/WebExtensions/Po...
  - clouddrover 9y ago
    I correct myself. There's no need to port it because it has already been ported: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/videospeed/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/videospeed/
    - kenning 9y ago
      Doesn't work with quantum
      - clouddrover 9y ago
        Works for me. Tested on YouTube and Vimeo.
        kenning 9y ago
        whoa you're right, yahoo
fencepost 9y ago
I use a fair number of add-ons but there are now compatible versions for just about everything. Exceptions are things like Video Download Helper that's moved some functionality into the external format converter program it already had, but since I was rarely actually using it anyway it's not impacted me yet.
clouddrover 9y ago
Yes, Firefox has transitioned to the new WebExtensions API for add-ons. They first announced the transition over two years ago and Firefox 57 is the first release to disable the old add-ons API: https://blog.mozilla.org/addons/2015/08/21/the-future-of-developing-firefox-add-ons/ https://blog.mozilla.org/addons/2015/08/21/the-future-of-dev... Before Firefox Quantum's release there were around 21,000 add-ons available on https://addons.mozilla.org/ https://addons.mozilla.org/ and as of right now there are 7,002 add-ons compatible with Firefox Quantum. Almost all of the top 20 add-ons have made the switch to the new API. So I'd say now is a good time to build an extension for Firefox. The transition to the new API model is complete, there's lots of room for new add-ons compatible with the new API, and more APIs will be added with each new Firefox release to enable more features for WebExtensions: https://blog.mozilla.org/addons/2017/11/20/extensions-in-firefox-58/ https://blog.mozilla.org/addons/2017/11/20/extensions-in-fir...
vatotemking 9y ago
The extensions API is pretty stable. I've built my own add-on for it a few weeks ago [1]. If you want to get into add-ons, now is the perfect time. The tutorials are a bit sparse atm, but I found this treasure trove of examples straight from MDNs repo [2] [1] https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/ametrican/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/ametrican/ [2] https://github.com/mdn/webextensions-examples https://github.com/mdn/webextensions-examples
Sylos 9y ago
Personally, I don't think there's ever been a better time to start building an extension for Firefox. Some might disagree with me here. So, Mozilla did drop old extension APIs, but I think you're misunderstanding things here. They didn't just drop, I don't know, the tab renaming API or something like that, instead they dropped the entire extension API. So, the entirety of how you used to write extensions for Firefox does not work anymore. And they had two of those entire extension APIs (XUL/XPCOM extensions and Jetpack extensions), so yeah, they did drop extension APIs in the plural. But there's now a new way to write extensions for Firefox, a new entire extension API, called WebExtensions. It's based on Chrome's extension API, so most Chrome extensions can now be ported to Firefox without much hassle. This also means that offering your extension for both Chrome and Firefox is now essentially half the work as before. The new extension API is also just a lot simpler to work with and your extension will not anymore break with new Firefox releases, like they often used to in the past. The new extension API is more limited than the old one, which basically is necessary to achieve the two previously mentioned points, so that's why some people might think that it's worse and that it's now not anymore worth to write an extension for Firefox at all and whatnot. They're sometimes a tad overly dramatic there... Also, the new extension API isn't yet quite stable. The core of it, which was taken from Chrome, obviously is, but Mozilla is still working on more APIs to add to WebExtensions, so depending on what you're wanting to build, it might be a better to do that in a few months from now. But if you're just starting out with writing extensions, it's unlikely that you'll hit your head there right away. Lastly, because of this deprecation of old extensions, there is a demand now for new extensions. There's gonna be a good number of niches that one can build extensions for and have people actually use them. It's not like we're starting out from zero, many extensions have already been ported (either rewritten or from Chrome), but yeah, still plenty of room, too.

libertyEQ 9y ago

From what I understand the Webextension API is somewhat standardized, and intended for the long haul. So, now would seem like the time.

kenning 9y ago

I switched to quantum and the only complaint is that I can't use Video Speed Controller on it. https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/video-speed-controller/nffaoalbilbmmfgbnbgppjihopabppdk https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/video-speed-contro... That application is so useful, everyone I know who has tried it gets used to it and can't live without it.

clouddrover 9y ago
Video Speed Controller is MIT licensed: https://github.com/igrigorik/videospeed https://github.com/igrigorik/videospeed So you could have a go at porting it to Firefox: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/Add-ons/WebExtensions/Porting_a_Google_Chrome_extension https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/Add-ons/WebExtensions/Po...
- clouddrover 9y ago
  I correct myself. There's no need to port it because it has already been ported: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/videospeed/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/videospeed/
  - kenning 9y ago
    Doesn't work with quantum
    - clouddrover 9y ago
      Works for me. Tested on YouTube and Vimeo.
      - kenning 9y ago
        whoa you're right, yahoo

fencepost 9y ago

I use a fair number of add-ons but there are now compatible versions for just about everything. Exceptions are things like Video Download Helper that's moved some functionality into the external format converter program it already had, but since I was rarely actually using it anyway it's not impacted me yet.

clouddrover 9y ago

Yes, Firefox has transitioned to the new WebExtensions API for add-ons. They first announced the transition over two years ago and Firefox 57 is the first release to disable the old add-ons API: https://blog.mozilla.org/addons/2015/08/21/the-future-of-developing-firefox-add-ons/ https://blog.mozilla.org/addons/2015/08/21/the-future-of-dev... Before Firefox Quantum's release there were around 21,000 add-ons available on https://addons.mozilla.org/ https://addons.mozilla.org/ and as of right now there are 7,002 add-ons compatible with Firefox Quantum. Almost all of the top 20 add-ons have made the switch to the new API. So I'd say now is a good time to build an extension for Firefox. The transition to the new API model is complete, there's lots of room for new add-ons compatible with the new API, and more APIs will be added with each new Firefox release to enable more features for WebExtensions: https://blog.mozilla.org/addons/2017/11/20/extensions-in-firefox-58/ https://blog.mozilla.org/addons/2017/11/20/extensions-in-fir...

vatotemking 9y ago

The extensions API is pretty stable. I've built my own add-on for it a few weeks ago [1]. If you want to get into add-ons, now is the perfect time. The tutorials are a bit sparse atm, but I found this treasure trove of examples straight from MDNs repo [2] [1] https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/ametrican/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/ametrican/ [2] https://github.com/mdn/webextensions-examples https://github.com/mdn/webextensions-examples

Sylos 9y ago

Personally, I don't think there's ever been a better time to start building an extension for Firefox. Some might disagree with me here. So, Mozilla did drop old extension APIs, but I think you're misunderstanding things here. They didn't just drop, I don't know, the tab renaming API or something like that, instead they dropped the entire extension API. So, the entirety of how you used to write extensions for Firefox does not work anymore. And they had two of those entire extension APIs (XUL/XPCOM extensions and Jetpack extensions), so yeah, they did drop extension APIs in the plural. But there's now a new way to write extensions for Firefox, a new entire extension API, called WebExtensions. It's based on Chrome's extension API, so most Chrome extensions can now be ported to Firefox without much hassle. This also means that offering your extension for both Chrome and Firefox is now essentially half the work as before. The new extension API is also just a lot simpler to work with and your extension will not anymore break with new Firefox releases, like they often used to in the past. The new extension API is more limited than the old one, which basically is necessary to achieve the two previously mentioned points, so that's why some people might think that it's worse and that it's now not anymore worth to write an extension for Firefox at all and whatnot. They're sometimes a tad overly dramatic there... Also, the new extension API isn't yet quite stable. The core of it, which was taken from Chrome, obviously is, but Mozilla is still working on more APIs to add to WebExtensions, so depending on what you're wanting to build, it might be a better to do that in a few months from now. But if you're just starting out with writing extensions, it's unlikely that you'll hit your head there right away. Lastly, because of this deprecation of old extensions, there is a demand now for new extensions. There's gonna be a good number of niches that one can build extensions for and have people actually use them. It's not like we're starting out from zero, many extensions have already been ported (either rewritten or from Chrome), but yeah, still plenty of room, too.