Mozilla Add-ons Blog » mobile

How would you extend the APIs for Firefox on Android?

Jorge Villalobos — Tue, 23 Oct 2012 17:59:18 +0000

How would you extend the APIs for Firefox on Android? A few days ago, stak posted this question on his blog. If you have created add-ons for Firefox on Android, or are considering to, I recommend that you give you him some feedback about what you would like to see available. As a reference for… Continue reading

Firefox for Mobile Bumping Its Version

Justin Scott (fligtar) — Tue, 28 Sep 2010 19:56:26 +0000

Firefox for mobile (Fennec) is bumping its version numbering to more closely match desktop releases of Firefox. This means “Firefox 2.0b1 for Android & Maemo” is becoming “Firefox 4.0b1 for Android & Maemo” and will be released as “Firefox 4.0 for Android & Maemo”. We are aligning mobile Firefox and desktop Firefox since the web rendering engines used in both browsers are the same. Treating them as the same version seemed like the right thing to do.

Any add-ons hosted on addons.mozilla.org (AMO) that are marked as compatible for Fennec 2.0b1pre have automatically been bumped to support Fennec 4.0b1pre. If your add-on worked in Fennec 2.0b1pre, it will work fine in Fennec 4.0b1pre.

Mobile Add-on Developers: Update Your Mobile Add-on to 2.0a1

Justin Scott (fligtar) — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 00:23:06 +0000

The following is a re-post of Caitlin Looney’s blog post from yesterday.

Update Your Add-on to Support 2.0a1

We’re nearing the release of Firefox 2.0 for Android and Nokia N900 alpha. There is huge interest from users who want to try Firefox on their device, but more importantly, these users want to install their favorite add-ons right away. Please ensure your add-on’s max version is updated to support 2.0a1 by Friday, August 13, so that it’s compatible with our Alpha release build.

NOTE: Firefox 2.0 for mobile devices will move the Electrolysis platform. This means that chrome windows (the main application window) and content windows (web content in browser tabs) will be in separate processes. This impacts application and add-on code in a few ways. See the 2.0 extensions wiki page to learn more.

Early Bird Gets the Worm

We’ve received huge interest around Firefox for Android. If you’ve got a good idea for a mobile add-on, get in early and develop it! We’re keeping our eyes peeled to feature and recommend some game-changing add-ons to our Android and Nokia N900 users as we ramp up to our beta and final release.

Get early exposure by getting your add-on in front of early adopters, get mentioned in our blog posts, appear in our interviews with press, and be mentioned on our Web pages and promotional materials.

Get Help!

We are around and happy to help answer any questions. Find us on IRC #mobile and Mark (mfinkle) can answer your questions. Mark and other developers that can help you are on this channel daily and are there to help. Don’t be a stranger. Lastly, check out this useful Web page to help you develop your add-on for Firefox on mobile devices.

Add-ons Review Update – Week of 2010/05/25

Jorge Villalobos — Tue, 25 May 2010 23:57:19 +0000

Summary

These bi-weekly posts explain the current state of add-on reviews and other information relevant to add-on developers. There’s a lengthy overview of the Add-on Review Process posted in this blog that should be read as a general guide about the review process.
Most nominations are being reviewed within 2 weeks. Our goal is have them all under 1 week by July.
Almost every update is being reviewed within 7 days. We want to reduce this in the future, but nominations are the current priority.

The Review Queues

The stats are taken from the latest queue report from last Friday.
77 new nominations that week. 119 nominations in the queue awaiting review.
52 updates that week. 57 updates in the queue awaiting review.
627 reviews performed by AMO Editors this month. There were 15 editors performing reviews last week.

See the Add-on Review Process and You for information on how to check your add-on status.

Notes for Developers

New Proposal for Review Process and Delightful Add-ons. This is a new and different approach to resolve the issue of add-on safety in the sandbox and code reviews. All add-on developers should read this and give feedback. It’s been a long process to try to find the right balance of the many elements involved, and we think this is it.
I made a proposal for the Google Summer of Code which has been accepted as a project. The idea consists in simplifying and refreshing the way add-ons are packaged and installed locally, including a completely new manifest file. In the past couple of weeks I have been blogging the spec proposal: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3. I’m now working on the wiki page that will be the actual specification for the project, that incorporates much of the feedback received so far. As the blog posts explain, this is not something that is intended to be included on Firefox. It’s an experiment on how we can do things differently, and hopefully (part of) it will be integrated into the product after more community feedback and polish.
AMO is currently being migrated to a new code base, some of which is already live in production. If you notice any strange behavior on AMO, please make sure to file a bug (see note below about AMO bug reporting).
Fennec (Firefox Mobile) is quickly approaching its 1.1 release, and add-on authors should make sure their Fennec add-ons are up to date in compatibility. 1.1.* is now a valid max version string for Fennec add-ons. Remember you can change your max version on AMO without having to upload a new file!
Useful Information for Add-on Authors. How to improve review times for your add-on, information about the review process, etc.
Bugzilla information for editors. How to file AMO bugs, how to flag bugs relevant for editors, and information on current and future AMO version releases. Let me know if you want to help fixing AMO bugs.

Jorge Villalobos

Add-ons Developer Relations Lead, Mozilla

Add-ons Review Update – Week of 2010/04/27

Jorge Villalobos — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 00:34:44 +0000