Mozilla Add-ons Community Blog
Categories: compatibility developers documentation

Add-on Compatibility for Firefox 15

26 responses

Firefox 15 will be released tomorrow (sorry for the late post!). Here’s a list of changes that went into Firefox 15 that can affect add-on compatibility. There is more information available in Firefox 15 for Developers, so you should read that too.

General

XPCOM

New!

Major Change Coming up in Firefox 16

  • Remove support for “java” DOM object. If you use Java in your extension, you’ll probably need to change the approach you use to get to the global java object. You should also consider moving away from Java if possible, given that Java is not well supported for add-ons, and your extension can suffer because of Java plugin blocklisting.

Please let me know in the comments if there’s anything missing or incorrect on these lists. If your add-on breaks on Firefox 15, I’d like to know.

The automatic compatibility validation and upgrade for add-ons on AMO happened last week, so check your email and let me know if you weren’t notified.

26 comments on “Add-on Compatibility for Firefox 15”

  1. Kohei Yoshino wrote on

    The Japanese translation is here:
    https://dev.mozilla.jp/2012/08/firefox-15-addon-compatibility/

  2. Graeme Hanson wrote on

    I don’t know where to submit this error, so please accept my apologies in advance.

    I just upgraded to thunderbird 15.0 and my calendars no longer work.

    I am using the following addons:
    Exchange 2007/2010 Calendar and Tasks Provider 1.8.5
    Provider for Google calendar 0.13
    Lightning 1.7

    Maybe there is an incompatibility b/w lightning and the other addons?

    The error I got was:

    An error was encountered preparing the calendar located at https://auto/a8921e4b-d360-8d44-8b2b-08e00da05879 for use. It will not be available.

    Error Code: 0x80570015

    Description:

    [Exception… “Component returned failure code: 0x80570015 (NS_ERROR_XPC_CI_RETURNED_FAILURE) [nsIJSCID.createInstance]” nsresult: “0x80570015 (NS_ERROR_XPC_CI_RETURNED_FAILURE)” location: “JS frame :: resource://calendar/modules/calUtils.jsm -> file:///Users/graeme/Library/Thunderbird/Profiles/aj45vhqn.default/extensions/%7Be2fda1a4-762b-4020-b5ad-a41df1933103%7D/calendar-js/calCalendarManager.js :: cmgr_createCalendar :: line 577” data: no]

    1. kjk wrote on

      I really wonder how well Mozilla understands that Lightning “being broken by an upgrade” is hurting them. It really doesn’t matter whose fault this is, it will be perceived as Mozilla’s fault. Maybe what we have here is a failure to communicate between Mozilla, the Lightning devs, and the Exchange (and other) providers–but ultimately the problem was a failure by Mozilla to flag the “upgrade” as being damaging to the user’s workflows. Calendars are something people in the business world CANNOT afford to have suddenly become unavailable.

      Those of us who rely on being able to connect to Exchange (or Gmail, or who knows what else) have just been shafted, our workflows have been completely disrupted, and not all of us have the option of just backing out the upgrade. Even if we had the time… And, of course, anyone we have convinced to try Thunderbird has now relegated us to the idiot bin.

      I now have to log into the web client, deal with the continuous stream of meeting invites, leave the login up and hope I’ll get the reminders (coding will make you lose your sense of time–the reminders are crucial)… Thunderbird is superfluous now. I’m forced to use an Outlook client, on a proprietary box that I can’t carry with me.

      All of which could have been avoided if I had checked for compatibility issues–but the very smooth (so far) rapid-release cycle, where the RECOMMENDED BY MOZILLA upgrade just installed, got the newer add-ons, and worked–had me completely lulled.

      Successful FOSS seems to lose respect for its users. Look, for example, at Gnome-3, a tablet desktop manager with no way to disable most of it’s “features” and turn it back into a desktop. The attitude at Gnome seemed to be “the users don’t understand how good this is, they just complain.” Looks like Mozilla is headed that same way.

  3. Diego wrote on

    Fuck, pentadactyl broke again with FF 15.0.

  4. joe wrote on

    alguien podria explicar el fenomeno de firefox,cada rato una nueva actualizacion y un monton de problemas surgen,desaparecen marcadores ,los complementos ya no son compatibles y muchos errores mas,¿a esto le llaman adelanto?,un verdadero y lamentable erro cada actualizacion,ni es mas rapido ,ni apasrece algo nuevo que valga la pena estoy muy decpcionado con esta clase de conductas muy molestas.-gracias jose orlando brizzi.

  5. Aries wrote on

    I am sorry.can you let me know why everytime I start or restart firefox 15.0, it will scan for ad-ons compatability then it will open the browser.This thing happened to me ever since I upgrade to FF15.0. For the time being I had to used FF14.01 because it does not happen the same problem.Thank you

    1. Jorge Villalobos wrote on

      Hmm, it sounds like Firefox isn’t shutting down or starting up correctly. Do you see a crash window when you close Firefox, or do you need to force close the application? That could be the root of the problem. I recommend that you visit our support site for this.

  6. Al Willy wrote on

    Is there a way to enable the later versions of Java 6 (31-34) en mass? We use two core applications that we cannot migrate to Java 7, yet we are trying to keep Firefox up to date, which leads to the problem of disabled Java plugins and a bunch of calls to the Help Desk. Is there a way to enable the plug in without having each user fix the issue themselves? Any help you can offer would be greatly appreciated.

    1. Jorge Villalobos wrote on

      I recommend that you ask in the Enterprise mailing list.

  7. Steve Bauer wrote on

    The Norton add-on is not working with v15. Was that planned? I use it exclusively to track my userid/pw’s. Frustrating to have to wait for Norton to catch up.

  8. David Abrahams wrote on

    I have lost the use of Add Ons in Firefox 15 and the calender functions in Thunderbird 15.
    If I access the Add Ons from the Tool menu they still appear to be present and enabled but if I click on options for an add on then Firefox freezes.

    I am running XP SP3.

  9. David Abrahams wrote on

    Update to previous post.

    I have recovered my missing add-ons by removing and re-installing them.

    This may be a problem with Mozbackup. I have just re-installed FF and Thunderbird after a system rebuild. The settings were then recovered using Mozbackup but the LastPass add-on did not work afterwards. I was probably running FF 14 when I saved the backup and then restored them to FF 15.

  10. heinz pauls wrote on

    my problems are, I have the wrong system, 14.02, this alowe me not longer to use the “add on” from my Translator from GOOGLE my translate 0.2.3.
    How can I receive the “add-on” my translator (Google Translate) 0.2.3 back for further use,.
    This Translator is real Ideal for my belongs.

    1. Jorge Villalobos wrote on

      It looks like that add-on isn’t maintained anymore. I recommend that you look for alternatives on AMO.

  11. heinz pauls wrote on

    I can not work without the my translator (Google Translate) 0.2.3 how can I install them back ??

  12. denns wrote on

    Why do the latest versions of firefox not have compatibility with video downloader. This is very important for me, if not rectified I may have to go back ti internet explorer.

    Firefox is supposed to be superior n many ways to other browsers, but when it comes to picking up audio and video from web pages to download, these latest updates are ,well, crap!

  13. Drew Stoddard wrote on

    We discovered a problem with Firefox 15 and our add-on this afternoon. The auto-update mechanism that used to work seems to have broken. We host the add-on on our own servers, and we have implemented the Mozilla recommended method of using an ‘update.rdf’ file which contains version information and a pointer to the latest .xpi.

    Since the release of Firefox 15, requests have continued to come in to the server to check the .rdf file but the newer version .xpi never gets downloaded to the client. From the client perspective, inside the Add-on Manager the update can be seen, and the version number of our add-on even changes temporarily, but the new add-on never downloads and the extension always reverts back to the older version number eventually.

    We are able to load the add-on directly from the browser by typing the full URL into the address box: i.e. https://capturetocloud.com/extensions/ff/capturetocloud.xpi. When loaded that way the add-on downloads and operates perfectly. Only the auto-update mechanism seems to be having a problem.

    Is this something that has been reported elsewhere, and do you have any idea what might be causing it?

    Drew Stoddard.

    1. Jorge Villalobos wrote on

      This is the only report we have of this problem so far (that I know of). If you can reproduce it consistently, I recommend that you file a bug here. You can CC me on the bug (:jorgev) and I’ll help it get some attention.

      1. Drew Stoddard wrote on

        As we have investigated this further the problem seems to be isolated to only those who are attempting to upgrade from one specific version of our add-on to the current version (i.e. 1.1.11 -> 1.1.15). No other combination of versions seems to be affected, and no other add-ons are affected as far as we know.

        Why this is happening is a mystery to us, but we have a workaround for those relatively few cases where 1.1.11 is the version that is trying to upgrade. So even though it does appear that a change in FF15 caused this, it does not seem that there is a repeatable, generalized bug in FF 15 to report. If that changes I will file a bug as you suggested.

        Drew Stoddard

        1. Jorge Villalobos wrote on

          Are you sure those are the exact version numbers? Sometimes developers will use version numbers like 1.1.110 or 1.1.011 that can produce unexpected version comparison results.

          1. Drew Stoddard wrote on

            I’ve checked and our version strings are pretty straightforward: “1.1.11” and “1.1.20”.

            We also can see from the server logs that most of the update sequence is happening correctly. The “update.rdf” file is being requested and checked, then a request is made by the client for v. 1.1.20 of the .xpi, and it is transferred and shows an http completion code of 200.

            Something strange happens at the client, and for some reason FF15 apparently rejects the new .xpi. Yet it will load it fine if you load by direct URL download. Very confounding problem to debug.

          2. Jorge Villalobos wrote on

            You could try setting ‘extensions.logging.enabled’ to true and see if anything shows up in extensions.log when you reproduce the problem.

  14. Flavio wrote on

    Firebug is no longer working for me since I updated to 15.0.1 , a small problem also for RDS Bar, hope to work soon with the latest vesion. I’m using Ubuntu by the way.

  15. steve donato wrote on

    installed firefox 15.0.1 does not work at all. entire screen blank including buttons etc. Can only run in safe-mode. No proxy set, but your install sets it. I reset it in safe-mode but no change in normal restart. You guys (Mozilla developers) never say why the problem is happening only to try this try that. What did you do to break it? Have to go back to 3.6.3 to get a working version. I will have to move to a stable browser, ie. Opera or Chrome. You guys really F’$%^&*d up a great product. I wasted 2 weeks. You never say what caused problem, only try this try that.
    When nothing changes except firefox, it’s firefox that screwed it up.

    1. Jorge Villalobos wrote on

      If Firefox 15 loads in Safe Mode, it means that some add-on you have installed is causing the problem. Try disabling your add-ons to see if the problem is corrected. If it is, you can enable your add-ons one by one to figure out which one is causing the problem.

  16. disgruntled user wrote on

    firefox just keeps getting worse and worse with every update, loved using it for years but until they can get there heads outta there backsides i will be going to chrome which works better and runs a hell of a lot faster without all the problems of firefox