Revive this project

[cfoellmann]

What do we need to revive this project?

I would love to contribute some time to this if we get some people together. My biggest problem is getting started. I am a PHP dev and know my way around open source tools and collaboration but getting into FF addon development never worked for me in the past. I couldnt find any good "Getting Started" tutorials and finding out everything by myself seemed to be too time consuming.

Some suggestions:

• [ ] get a dev team
• [ ] wiki/docs
  • [ ] how to start contributing
  • [ ] setting up a development environment for the addon
  • [ ] collection of tutorials, articles about the current FF APIs
• [ ] automated workflow (easy setup for local development)
• [ ] automated code testing (e.g. Travis CI, Scrutinizer CI)

Any more ideas? Anyone up to contributing?

[Instantfox]

to set up development environment

• clone this repository
• download firefox unbranded build from https://wiki.mozilla.org/Add-ons/Extension_Signing#Unbranded_Builds
• open firefox with new profile
• open about:config and set xpinstall.signatures.required to false and devtools.chrome.enabled to true
• open about:support, find Profile Folder, and click on show folder next to it
• open extensions folder in profile folder, create a text file named searchy@searchy and put path to the extension folder in it.
• e.g. if you have cloned repository in D:\ffaddons\Instantfox put D:\ffaddons\Instantfox\firefox
• Install statusbar restoring addon for access to development menu e.g. https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/the-addon-bar/

restart firefox

now you should be able to work on instanatfox, and build release xpi using build menu item in instantfox popup from statusbar. Use tools>web developer>browser toolbox to open devtools for the browser.

[Instantfox]

Firefox apis used by instantfox have changed a lot, so updating is doable but not trivial, and will consist mostly of hunting for info in firefox source code. Unfortunately firefox is planning to disable xul based addons in the near future, so it is not clear if investment in fixing the issues here will be justified or not.

[FeBe95]

Hi, I'd love to contribute as I mentioned before. The current problem is that as far I understood the add on docs correctly there is and won't be an official solution for modifying the UI in the next Firefox versions. The new API focuses on changing the content of a webpage rather than allowing deep access into Firefox functions. The only thing we could do is to collectively request a feature to inject custom suggestions (or even custom UI elements again) from the Mozilla dev team. They are actually asking us to suggest new features for the new API: "We're also intending to extend the APIs to support the needs of add-on developers, so if you have ideas, we'd love to hear them. You can reach us on the dev-addons mailing list or #webextensions on IRC." - (https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/Add-ons/WebExtensions) I don't know if this is even possible with WebExtensions or if they have to implement an entirely new type of API again...

[Joluwe]

I have referenced this issue on top of the add-on description right here: https://addons.mozilla.org/en/firefox/addon/instantfox/

it would be great if Mozilla likes to add the relevant API's for a future version.

[My1]

"there is and won't be an official solution for modifying the UI in the next Firefox versions" wait WHAT? "The new API focuses on changing the content of a webpage rather than allowing deep access into Firefox functions" omfg this is getting worse and worse, seriously what are they doing?

one of the best points of firefox is that addons can go so deep, I mean I have stylish on restyling my firefox completely together with classic theme restorer, among enough other addons. if FF really plans to go through with that they can go FAR, FAR away.

they already lost enough points for other "fun" in the past (titlebar on w10, removing the addonbar and the fact that they removed the extra encryption key from sync and put it all on the account [funfact, chrome and opera did the opposite.]) but killing off a lot of addons I really love and use day by day (especially instantfox) is not funny.

I am already 2-timing with opera (mostly just because of the intresting feature like the "VPN" or in-browser adblocker) but if this continues and I cannot fix it I may just switch over...

but I assume there isnt a similar addon for chrome/opera or is there actually one? __ sorry for my uneducated opinion and useless talk but sadly there isnt much aside from mental support that I cant provide since firefox addon writing isnt really something I have ever done.

Best Regards, My1

[FatOrangutan]

Relevant: https://blog.mozilla.org/addons/2016/11/18/webextensions-in-firefox-52/:

The omnibox API was added to Firefox. Although in Firefox the omnibox is called the Awesome Bar, we’ve kept the naming the same so that extensions can easily port between Chrome and Firefox. The API allows extensions to register a unique keyword for providing their own suggestions to the Awesome Bar. The extension will be able to provide suggestions whenever its registered keyword is typed into the Awesome Bar. <Screenshot of an extension which registered the keyword ‘dxr’ for searching the Firefox source code.>

[My1]

now this sounds nice, although your quote looks like it only works with key words and sadly cant override the default.

[FatOrangutan]

Relevant: Bug 1257550 - Awesomebar result providers should be able to add document fragments or iframes.

Some upcoming prototypes need to display rich markup in the awesomebar results. Instead of forcing people to become intimately familiar with the awesomebar internals (XUL, XBL, oh my!) we could provide them with the ability to add a document fragment or even an iframe as a result.