Bringing Sexy Back to AMO

Mike Morgan

12 responses

Yep — “sexy” and “AMO” in the same sentence.  Our festively plump 3.2 target milestone added many features and refreshes that you can read about in a great post on Basil’s Bodacious blog.

In the same time period we’ve also:

  • Upgraded CakePHP’s core software from 1.18.x to 1.19.x
  • Added support for weighted database slaves
  • Migrated AMO to PHP5 off of the now end-of-life’d PHP4
  • Replaced Scriptaculous/Prototype with jQuery
  • Improved IE6/IE7 compatibility
  • Improved accessibility features

And really, when it comes to sexy, the real magic starts with our volunteers.  Our editors have worked hard to review new and updated add-ons as we move towards Firefox 3 this year and our localizers translated roughly 200 new strings in AMO templates in a little over three weeks for 24 locales (wow).

Thanks to everyone for pitching in to make this release happen.

Categories: AMO

12 responses

  1. Alfred Kayser wrote on :

    The ‘download/install’ buttons that show whether an addon is compatible are great.

    But some nits:
    1. Please provide a way to select/display only those addons that ARE compatible. E.g. my theme Walnut is on the second page of themes, but is actually the 6th theme that is compatible, and should therefor belong on the first page.
    2. Themes are now hidden in ‘Themes & Appearances’, so all focus to Themes is now gone… Themes are really something else than all other Addons.

  2. Ngamer01 wrote on :

    I must say props on the successful overhaul to all of those involved in the redesign.

    And kudos for reducing the number of AMO RSS feeds that I subscribe to from 8 in the last version to 2 in this version!

  3. Stefan Scholl wrote on :

    I’m missing one important information: Which versions of Firefox are supported for a given add-on?

    Really bad timing. I wanted to check my favorite add-ons to see how far they are and if I can switch to FF3 as soon as it is released.

  4. Jesse Andrews wrote on :

    When you search for extensions, showing “experimental” extensions that have no releases doesn’t help any one.

    Example: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/search?q=taboo&cat=all

  5. Ngamer01 wrote on :

    @ Stefan: The Version Support has been automated.

    Though I see why you want that info back. It is annoying not to be able to see min and max versions anymore.

    Perhaps somebody should file an enhancement request at Bugzilla? Like to make that info appear on mouseover if you hover your mouse over the Add to Firefox button of the add-on you’re looking at?

  6. web pixy wrote on :

    Thanks a lot for this information, congratulations for the cool new features and the great redesign!

  7. Georgi Gochev wrote on :

    Hi, I have registered and logged in to download an experimental extension. But it was not possible, instead Mikogo Add-on, it downloads a html file with this content:

    The add-on you’re looking for is in the sandbox, which you do not have enabled in your user preferences.

    The add-on you’re looking for is in the sandbox, which you do not have enabled in your user preferences.
    This is a bug, because there is no checkbox “Show Sandbox” in My Account. Please fix

  8. Ronn wrote on :

    Why do we have to register on the new site? Do you get money from advertisers to collect email-adresses or something? I hate sites where you have to register just to download something.

  9. Ngamer01 wrote on :

    @ Ronn: This is because Mozilla doesn’t want to be held liable in case you download something that damages your system (including Firefox).

    By logging in to get Sandbox add-ons, you tell Mozilla that you are using these add-ons at your own risk and they will not be held liable for any add-ons that damage your system.

    If you don’t want an account at AMO, then you can wait for people to verify various Sandbox add-ons with good reviews to push those add-ons out of the Sandbox.

    Also getting an account at AMO will let you review Add-ons. If you want to make your voice heard on a particular add-on, get an account. Of course if reviewing isn’t your thing, then you don’t have to get an account.

    To summarizes, accounts will let you:
    1) Download Sandbox add-ons.
    2) Review any and all add-ons you want to review.

  10. Steven Lloyd wrote on :

    “I’m missing one important information: Which versions of Firefox are supported for a given add-on?

    Really bad timing. I wanted to check my favorite add-ons to see how far they are and if I can switch to FF3 as soon as it is released.”

    EXACTLY. I know why this change was made, but please, please, please can we just add this little piece of information back. I, like Stefan, check to see if my major extensions are ready before I upgrade. Please, Please, Please bring this back.

  11. Arthur W wrote on :

    I have tried to search addons and themes at their site to figure out if I want to upgrade to the next beta version. Besides the “search” not being reliable as it can’t find the darn thing when I know the name (great for a search engine) it then won’t let me log in to download the darn thing… I get login after I’m logged in and it just puts me in an endless do loop… why the heck do I need to log in anyway… try posting to their forum, same loop.

    It is unbelievable that the two most fundamental pieces of information that anyone would want to know; Version Number & Date, are two tiers down… But, it looks good.

    With the recent issues with AMO, and the lack of reliability of the new FF versions, the apparent bureaucracy creep, and segregation from their users community I spent the weekend setting up Opera. If Opera gets a decent AdBlock or I figure it out better… I’m gone.

    Sad to see an organization succumb to the very attributes of the competitors that allowed it be born.

    Regards

  12. seks wrote on :

    thanx man