Add-ons/developer/communication

Upcoming Changes in Add-on Development

There are a lot of changes coming up for add-on development. By the end of 2017, we will transition to WebExtensions as the standard for creating add-ons. Over the same period of time, existing methods for add-on development such as XUL/XPCOM will be deprecated. Multi-process Firefox (aka Electrolysis, or e10s) is also rolling out, which means some add-on developers will have to update their add-ons more than once.

This page contains timelines and resources to help ease the transition for add-on developers. If you're a new developer and would like create an add-on, please head over to MDN.

What's New

• Check out the new lookup tool, which you can use to see if you will be affected by the upcoming changes.
• Example add-ons created with WebExtensions APIs
• The WebExtensions survey is live! Please use this survey to tell us which APIs you need so we can better prioritize them.

Timeline of Changes

See a graph of upcoming changes, organized by Firefox release dates.

Developers who are affected by the changes

Please see the MDN article on "Working with multiprocess Firefox" for suggestions on adapting to multiple processes.

Managing the Impact

• Tell us which APIs you need - We are making the process of providing needed APIs as open as possible. Please use this survey to tell us which APIs you need in WebExtensions. This will help us prioritize and plan for what we need to support.

• WebExtensions Experiments (formerly Native.js) - We want to give developers a way to develop and experiment with APIs that go beyond what Chrome provides. To get involved, read about the project here and the corresponding criteria for evaluating new APIs.

• Transition API proposal - There is also a proposal to allow SDK add-ons to access WebExtension APIs in order to ease the transition. You can take a look and add comments here.

It is possible that not all add-ons will be able to migrate to WebExtensions without having to drop any features. But we want to work with you to get as many add-ons migrated as possible with the functionality you created intact. We invite you to contribute to its evolution, and we look forward to working with you.

Add-on Developer Communication Calendar

This calendar includes public meetings, scheduled blog posts, office hours, release milestones that affect add-on developers, and more. Links to add it to your own calendar: iCal | HTML

Blog Posts and Other Resources

• The Future of Developing Firefox Add-ons
• Compatibility Lookup Tool
• Example add-ons created with WebExtensions APIs

WebExtensions

• Mar 30, 2016: Tinkering with WebExtensions
• Mar 14, 2016: Advantages of WebExtensions for Developers
• Mar 11, 2016: WebExtensions in Firefox 47
• Feb 2, 2016: WebExtensions in Firefox 46
• Jan 9, 2016: WebExtensions First Impressions
• Dec 21, 2015: WebExtensions in Firefox 45

Multiprocess (e10s) Firefox Compatibility

• Nov 23, 2015: Test your add-ons for Multi-process Firefox compatibility
• MDN Article: Working with multiprocess Firefox

Migrating from XUL/XPCOM

• native.js prototype
• Transition API proposal

Get in Touch

• IRC:
  • #teamaddons: team chat
  • #addons: support for extensions, themes, plugins and addons.mozilla.org
  • #amo: addons.mozilla.org bugs and development
  • #amo-editors: add-on reviews and policy
  • #extdev: extension development
  • #themedev: theme development
  • #webextensions: web extensions

• Mailing List: dev-addons
• Blog: https://blog.mozilla.org/addons/
• Forum: https://discourse.mozilla-community.org/c/add-ons