New add-ons manager in Firefox 4

Add-on-Con 2010

Dave Townsend (Mossop)

Firefox Developer, Mozilla Corporation

Rewritten add-ons manager

• Easier to improve in the future
• Faster to start Firefox
• No more dependency support

New ways to develop

• Restartless extensions
• Add-ons SDK

Simpler component registration

• Less boilerplate
• Only execute JS when necessary
• Platform APIs work immediately

XPIs remain unextracted

• Smaller footprint
• Better performance
• Should be turned off in some cases:
  • Binary components/libraries
  • Install locations
  • Search plugins
  • Dictionaries

Remotely updating metadata

• Downloaded daily
• Includes descriptions, icons, contributors
• Contribution support baked into the browser
• Add-ons can opt-out

Remotely updating metadata

Better API for accessing add-ons

• Access any data that is visible in the UI
• Asynchronous access

Embedding your own items

Put a screenshot here

Other improvements

• Changing add-on ID
• Larger icons
• Automatic updates

Potential future work

More communication

New appearance UI

Embedded preferences

Find a mockup