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Extensions in Firefox 71

4 responses

Firefox 71 is a light release in terms of extension changes. I’d like to tell you about a few interesting improvements nevertheless.

Thanks to Nils Maier, there have been various improvements to the downloads API, specifically in handling download failures. In addition to previously reported failures, the browser.downloads.download API will now report an error in case of various 4xx error codes. Similarly, HTTP 204 (No Content) and HTTP 205 (Reset Content) are now treated as bad content errors. This makes the API more compatible with Chrome and gives developers a way to handle these errors in their code. With the new allowHttpErrors parameter, extensions may also ignore some http errors when downloading. This will allow them to download the contents of server error pages.

Please also note, the lowercase isarticle filter for the tabs.onUpdated listener has been removed in Firefox 71. Developers should instead use the camelCase isArticle filter.

A few more minor updates are available as well:

  • Popup windows now include the extension name instead of its moz-extension:// url when using the windows.create API.
  • Clearer messaging when encountering unexpected values in manifest.json (they are often warnings, not errors)
  • Extension-registered devtools panels now interact better with screen readers

Thank you contributors Nils and Myeongjun Go for the improvements, as well as our WebExtensions team for fixing various tests and backend related issues. If you’d like to help make this list longer for the next releases, please take a look at our wiki on how to contribute. I’m looking forward to seeing what Firefox 72 will bring!

4 comments on “Extensions in Firefox 71”

  1. zakius wrote on

    I wonder when we will be able to install proper extensions again

    1. Jonas wrote on

      If by “proper extensions” you mean XUL extensions, then (unfortunately) I think the answer is “never.”

      Mozilla has refused to accept the reality — that, in recent years, they’re a niche browser for power users. Instead they’re still chasing the fantasy of being a mainstream browser, and their market share continues to drop, but they refuse to acknowledge what’s happening.

  2. Raccoon wrote on

    I still like the old about:addons page. The new one is just harder to use. I especially like the inline changelogs of the old one.

    1. Luis wrote on

      There is a link to “Show All” in the new about:config page.