Extensions in Firefox 62

Last week Firefox 62 moved into the Beta channel. This version has fewer additions and changes to the WebExtensions API than the last several releases. Part of that is due to the maturing nature of the API as we get farther away from the WebExtension API cutover back in release 57, now over seven months ago. Part of it was a focus on cleaning up some internal features — code changes that increase the maintainability of Firefox but are not visible to external developers. And, let’s be honest, part of it is the arrival of summer in the Northern hemisphere, resulting in happy people taking time to enjoy life outside of browser development.

User Interface Improvements

Extensions with a toolbar button (browser action) can now be managed directly from the context menu of the button.  This is very similar to the behavior with page actions – simply right click on the toolbar button for an extension and select Manage Extension from the context menu.  This will take you to the extension’s page in about:addons.

Manage Extension Context Menu

You can now manage hidden tabs, introduced in Firefox 61, via a down-arrow that is added to the end of the tab strip. When clicked, this icon will show all of your tabs, hidden and visible.  Firefox 62 introduces a new way get to that same menu via the History item on the menu bar. If you have hidden tabs and select the History menu, it will display a submenu item called “Hidden Tabs.”  Selecting that will take you to the normal hidden tabs menu panel.

Hidden Tabs Menu

API Improvements

A few enhancements to the WebExtensions API are now available in Firefox 62, including:

Theme Improvements

A couple of changes to the WebExtensions theme API landed in this release:

Tab Background Separator

Bug Fixes

A few noticeable bug fixes landed in Firefox release 62, including:

Thank You

A total of 48 features and improvements landed as part of Firefox 62. As always, a sincere thank you to every contributor for this release, especially our community volunteers including Tim Nguyen, Jörg Knobloch, Oriol Brufau, and Tomislav Jovanovic. It is only through the combined efforts of Mozilla and our amazing community that we can ensure continued access to the open web. If you are interested in contributing to the WebExtensions ecosystem, please take a look at our wiki.

 

21 responses

  1. Kees wrote on :

    Just wondering, where is the WebExtension API to perform TCP (and possibly UDP) connectivity? A number of classic add-ons are not feasible in WebExtension-land due to this missing API (FireFTP, Overbite)…

    Related to missing functionality, there is also the TileTabs extension which has a poor user experience due to missing API’s and the need to fake the tiles using windows (which is really not a nice solution if you ask me).

    In addition to these two, when will there be a plan published related to getting most of the functionality back (as far as still appicable) to ensure that the top 100 of the classic XPCOM/XUL based extensions are implementable [again] as a WebExtension???

    1. def00111 wrote on :

      OverbiteWX:
      https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/overbitewx/

  2. zakius wrote on :

    still no way to properly implement keyboard hotkeys, mouse gestures and create proper, native interface for extensions as we are forced to use only webtech

  3. KOLANICH wrote on :

    Here is a fresh example how to implement a new API and a draft of Scratchpad API https://gitlab.com/KOLANICH1/webext-experiment-scratchpad

    For UDP and TCP it may be possible to implement an API, but the devil is in how to design and implement it right. It should be plugged into WebRequest and be filterable by addons. Also it should be filtered. It requires modification of permissions system. Any flaw here will be a vulnr.

    So I suggest you to design the API and permission system. I guess any connection should be explicitly allowed by the “triple destination port : destination net : protocol” where protocol can be tcp, udp, icmp, and other protocols of higher level. And a protocols of higher levels should be implemented in separate extensions. So an extension using raw tcp should not pass the moderation into the store, it should be splitted into 2: a reusable protocol impl and an ext using this protocol.

  4. hako wrote on :

    Just got v62b6 in Ubuntu via normal update. No extensions anymore, all disabled.
    No any info how to recover.
    For me, the disabled extensions include Noscript, Ghostery, Epureader, and many more.
    No way to re-install them.
    How to get back to a working version (which one?)?

    1. Markus wrote on :

      Hi
      I have the same problem as hako. What are the plans/solutions?

      Thanks a lot,
      Markus

      1. Phillip Sear wrote on :

        I have same problem as Markus and Hako. Needs to be addressed urgently or I will have to leave Firefox. I rely on Roboform for passwords, and this is one of the blocked extensions!

      2. teranex wrote on :

        Same problem here…

    2. name wrote on :

      same
      seems like ff is shooting itself in a foot by disabling old addons. there’s no point to stick with it without those addons.

    3. Nev wrote on :

      I’m also having this problem. It includes Mozilla’s own Multi-Account Containers extension. When I try to install it from the site, it says “The add-on downloaded from this site could not be installed because it appears to be corrupt.”

    4. Kevin S wrote on :

      same here… amazing! that’s not going to help user acquisition! :/

    5. Kevin S wrote on :

      same here…
      poor man solution: switch to the stable repository :/

    6. Caitlin Neiman wrote on :

      Thanks for the heads up! The best thing to do is to follow along with this bug: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1474255

      It looks like a patch is currently being worked on.

  5. Markus wrote on :

    Hi
    I have the same problem. What are the solutions?

    Thanks a lot,
    Markus

    1. Caitlin Neiman wrote on :

      It looks like a patch is being worked on. The best thing to do is follow along with this bug: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1474255

  6. Ssp wrote on :

    For me extensions are privacy badger, no script, https everywhere, which I need to work for my job. I see them listed but no way to install or activate.

    1. Caitlin Neiman wrote on :

      Are you using 62b in Ubuntu? It looks like there’s a bug that temporarily disabled all extensions in that release; we’re working on a fix.

  7. Xavier G. wrote on :

    Hi, same here on Ubuntu 18.04 LTS with ppa Firefox Next (all extensions disabled after update), I filled a bug report :

    https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1474255

  8. Phillip Sear wrote on :

    Good news – the problem seems to have been fixed (for me at least) with the release today of version 62.0b7 (32-bit).

  9. subash wrote on :

    none of the addons worked from yesterday onwards. cannot even install ANY addons to the firefox 62 in ubuntu 16.04.

    Seems that it can be a major problem.

    The issue when tried to install is “addon download from this site appears to be corrupt”

    Why firefox suddenly sucks !!!

    1. Caitlin Neiman wrote on :

      Hi Subash, it looks like this was caused by a bug in Ubuntu. They just shipped a new build for FF 62 that should fix this problem.