Add-ons Update – 2017/08

Jorge Villalobos

14 responses

Here’s the monthly update of the state of the add-ons world.

The Review Queues

In the past month, our team reviewed 1,803 listed add-on submissions:

  • 1368 in fewer than 5 days (76%).
  • 147 between 5 and 10 days (8%).
  • 288 after more than 10 days (16%).

274 listed add-ons are awaiting review.

If you’re an add-on developer and are looking for contribution opportunities, please consider joining us. Visit our wiki page for more information.

Compatibility Update

We published the blog post for 56 and the bulk validation has been run. This is the last one of these we’ll do, since compatibility is a much smaller problem with the WebExtensions API.

Firefox 57 is now on the Nightly channel, and only accepting WebExtension add-ons by default. Here are some changes we’re implementing on AMO to ease the transition to 57.

We recommend that you test your add-ons on Beta. If you’re an add-ons user, you can install the Add-on Compatibility Reporter. It helps you identify and report any add-ons that aren’t working anymore.

Recognition

We would like to thank the following people for their recent contributions to the add-ons world:

  • Apoorva Pandey
  • Neha Tekriwal
  • Swapnesh Kumar Sahoo
  • rctgamer3
  • Tushar Saini
  • vishal-chitnis
  • Cameron Kaiser
  • zombie
  • Trishul Goel
  • Krzysztof Modras
  • Tushar Saini
  • Tim Nguyen
  • Richard Marti
  • Christophe Villeneuve
  • Jan Henning
  • Leni Mutungi
  • dw-dev
  • Dino Herbert

You can read more about their work in our recognition page.

14 responses

  1. Nodetics wrote on :

    Our add-on was first over a month in the review queue and then got rejected based on too old jQuery version and some manifest.json setting (issues weren’t detected by the automatic analysis tools). Now I guess it’s another month waiting for the review since the new version started at the end of the queue again.

    1. Jorge Villalobos wrote on :

      You can ask on the #addon-reviewers IRC channel for a quicker review, given your circumstances.

  2. DAve Shillito wrote on :

    What is the expectation of the percentage of plugins that will be converted before v57?

    Thanks to the legacy tag displayed in the addins manager in v55 I can now see 25 of the 29 addins I use (many on a daily basis) are now considered legacy.

    Since the plugins are what makes Firefox Firefox without those plugins, what reason will there be to remain with Firefox and not move to Chrome with everyone else?

    1. heubergen wrote on :

      There’s unfortunately no easy way to transfer your legacy add-ons to the new Webextensions. You need to know what features you need from this add-ons and then check on Firefox and on AMO (http://addons.mozilla.org/) if an alternative is available.

  3. Salar wrote on :

    SmartProxy is AutoProxy’s replacement based on WebExtensions

    https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/smartproxy/

    Version 0.2.1 is in the queue, God help me be patience!

    1. Salar wrote on :

      *patient

  4. Cla Sa wrote on :

    After last upgrade all extensions I am currently using in FF are marked as obsolete: Adblock Plus, All-in-One Sidebar, Auto-Sort bookmarks, Bookmark Duplicate Cleaner, Go Parent Folder,
    Greasemonkey, Hide Caption Titlebar Plus, Mozilla Archive Format, Tab Mix Plus, Tile Tabs, Tree Style Tab, Unified Sidebar
    Of course the only reason for which i am still using FF for my personal browsing is cause of its extensions.
    For customers, friends and developing i already switched to faster Chrome, Edge or IE.
    I have already disable FF auto update, but i am very much afraid 2017 will be the RIP year for FireFox.

    Thank you for all the work done in these past years, it was great while it lasted.

    1. Jorge Villalobos wrote on :

      Looks like you’re using Nightly. You can switch to Beta or Release and those add-ons should continue to work for a while. Developers are still working on porting their add-ons, and many will be ported in the coming weeks. Some won’t make the cut, though.

  5. deice wrote on :

    Seems several core addons that are irreplaceable are marked Legacy (well, in fact only Ghostery is not at this point), things like Tab Mix Plus, Adblock Plus and Xmarks. Considering November is coming soon, I find it doubtful all the mandatory addons will receive updates in time.

    Is there a way to opt out of Firefox 57, or should I just disable updates altogether?

    I find the way Mozilla likes to break Firefox addons annoying. Addons are the core selling point, they are the one reason to not upgrade to Chrome. Please don’t mess that up.

  6. Salar wrote on :

    New version of my addon was submitted on August 23, 2017 and today after more than a week its queue position is still 67 of 155.
    This is ridiculous!!
    https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/smartproxy/

  7. Beek wrote on :

    Change is HARD for a lot of folks. I’m sure the FireFox developers have thought long and hard about making the 57 upgrade. Increasing browser speed and security is important. I’m disappointed that I will lose the FireFTP add-on. However, I’ve already found a very similar free FTP client: ClassicFTP. I prefer a browser that respects my right to privacy, which is why I support and use FireFox. I hope the transition in November goes well and that the new FireFox is very successful!

  8. WitchyWoman wrote on :

    Can you PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE stop upgrading so much. I am really tired of having my add-on’s no longer working or there is hardly any add-on’s to even can even upgrade too. (I’m really tired of upgrading all of the time) Can you either wait until there is more to upgrade at once, make sure that the upgrade has been better tested before it goes up or have fixes not not complete upgrades.

    I was reminded of this again after just refreshing my Firefox and having to re-add all of my add-on’s again. i.e. Scrapbook- I have all of my info (which is a lot) and nothing to open them with or continue to have the ability to add more to it.

    I agree with with Dave, the reason that I stay with Firefox is because the ability to customize to your liking with the add-on’s, without those there is really no reason to stay, adding in the constant upgrades in your risking loosing some long time loyal users that you have, also deter some potential users.

  9. Juanka Hula wrote on :

    I cant find a place to ask this but since you wrote an article about moderation in the AMO page I’ll ask it here.

    I’ve been making a review for 7 times faster adblocker https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/7-times-faster/

    and my review has been deleted 2 times already (I re wrote it the second time in case was inappropriate or something).

    Could you tell me how can I know the reason of deletion and/or appeal it and if there is any punishment to the account if I keep getting reviews deleted?

    Here is the review I left for the adblocker

    Addon developer is deleting critiques that give low ratings to his/her app.

    This addon can’t do anything other adblockers can’t. It’s not even 7 times faster either. This addon is just an underwhelming generic adblocker that lacks configuration and many of the basic needed features other adblockers have. It comes with bundled non configurable filter lists. It promotes laziness and ignorance. People can achieve better and more consistent results if they take 2 minutes to learn about filter lists and basic features of most adblockers.

    1. Jorge Villalobos wrote on :

      “Addon developer is deleting critiques” might be enough, since that’s false. Reviews are looked at and moderated by an independent group. “It promotes laziness and ignorance” is also a bit much IMO. The rest looks like valid critique.