New Extension API - Docs Updated!

avih · Post by **avih** » May 5th, 2004, 8:12 pm

i again seriously suggest that 0.9 will be able to accept both old-style extensions and new-api ones.

jedbro · Post by **jedbro** » May 5th, 2004, 10:05 pm

alanjstr wrote:
bengoodger wrote:I'm going to remove the UI that we have now for extensions and themes (in Options)...

Am I reading that right? You're changing the way themes are installed, too?

Still need to hear from you about GUID.

I beleive he did. Quoted below..

If your looking for a windows version M$'s <a href="http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=94551F58-484F-4A8C-BB39-ADB270833AFC&displaylang=en">GUIDGen</a> is pretty good. And yes, it is basically garanteed that you will not be able to generate an already used GUID.

bengoodger wrote:
alanjstr wrote:Keep in mind that things are subject to change. We will need a way to distribute GUID so that it is indeed unique.

GUIDs are pretty much randomly generated numbers that are so large that they are almost guaranteed to be globally unique (much more so than author-selected names), providing you use one of the tools mentioned (GUIDGen, uuidgen, botbot uuid, or a random generator that one writes oneself (pretty easy to do in JavaScript)).

jedbro · Post by **jedbro** » May 5th, 2004, 10:51 pm

bengoodger wrote:........Sigh. I understand what you're trying to do, and you should be able to do it. You have however uncovered one of our stupider APIs. I don't know that I can make this work by .9 but I'll look at it for 1.0. Make sure a bug is filed on me.

Done <a href="http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=242757">Bug #242757</a>.
Thanks Ben.

elliptic · Post by **elliptic** » May 6th, 2004, 5:01 am

bengoodger wrote:You can of course create any other dirs you want in the .xpi file and use data there - the entire XPI is expanded into the extensions dir.

Ah, okay, I didn't realize that. Appreciate the reply, Ben.

kjordan · Post by **kjordan** » May 7th, 2004, 8:35 pm

In what context is extension.rdf parsed? Would chrome DTD imports (for example, chrome://global/locale/brand.dtd) be correctly parsed, or would this somehow be considered something of a security issue?

mozbugbox · Post by **mozbugbox** » May 9th, 2004, 8:16 am

Does that mean the components can be put into users profile now? I think currently, the components can only be installed system wide.

http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=45701

If extensions can only be put into profile, and components can only be installed system wide, how can an extension with component be installed by users other than the root? There are extensions with components (.so or .dll) out there.

Post by **BenBasson** » May 9th, 2004, 10:45 am

avih wrote:i again seriously suggest that 0.9 will be able to accept both old-style extensions and new-api ones.

Why bother with a transition period before 1.0? We need to get the extensions working under the new system, a transition will double the code required, increase chance of conflicts and bugs and reduce the incentive to convert extensions and themes before 0.9. I suspect that the rate they are fixed at will be much faster than the 0.7 -> 0.8 theme fixing, simply because there'll be a lot more people depending on it, and Ben is providing adequate documentation of the changes required.

Post by **alanjstr** » May 9th, 2004, 5:04 pm

mozbugbox wrote:Does that mean the components can be put into users profile now? I think currently, the components can only be installed system wide.

http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=45701

If extensions can only be put into profile, and components can only be installed system wide, how can an extension with component be installed by users other than the root? There are extensions with components (.so or .dll) out there.

Extensions can be installed system-wide via command line.

mozbugbox · Post by **mozbugbox** » May 9th, 2004, 10:43 pm

alanjstr wrote:Extensions can be installed system-wide via command line.

I was talking about mix for .jar and component files in a installer package. As shown in the new extension structure, you can have both a chrome and a components directory. So what happened to an installer if it has both a components and a chrome? How does the new install handle this?

It's not how I install it (i.e. using command line), it about how the new installer handles it.

bengoodger · Post by **bengoodger** » May 10th, 2004, 7:08 pm

OK folks

I hope to have all of the new code available for use by the end of this week. Just need a couple of code reviews. The only thing that won't work right away is profile components.

Closer to the milestone release date i am going to turn off the UI in Preferences for Extensions and Themes (Themes are impacted too - they don't need repackaging but also need to provide a manifest for the new manager UI).

Later this week when the code finally becomes available in the nightly builds I will update my documentation to reflect the current state of the API (there have been some changes since last time I posted) - I will also post some workarounds for common problems or information about how certain coding patterns in your extensions will have to change.

This is a heads up that the old UI will be removed before 0.9 and that you will need to update and repackage if you want your items to show up.

TheOneKEA · Post by **TheOneKEA** » May 11th, 2004, 4:27 am

So when the new manager goes active, no further extensions can be installed, and if the nightly is used to overwrite an existing profile, existing extensions will break too?

Post by **alanjstr** » May 11th, 2004, 12:27 pm

bengoodger wrote:Themes are impacted too - they don't need repackaging but also need to provide a manifest for the new manager UI

As what, a theme.rdf?

bengoodger · Post by **bengoodger** » May 11th, 2004, 4:06 pm

TheOneKEA wrote:So when the new manager goes active, no further extensions can be installed, and if the nightly is used to overwrite an existing profile, existing extensions will break too?

You will still be able to install old-style extensions, they just won't show up in a list anywhere. The first time 0.9 runs, it will also disable all your old-style extensions to prevent UI bustage like what happened last time.

Greg K Nicholson · Post by **Greg K Nicholson** » May 11th, 2004, 4:21 pm

Here's a crazy idea: could the old extension UI be provided as an (new-style) extension? So we old-timers can still see legacy extensions?

(I'm thoroughly enjoying the irony of this suggestion)

TheOneKEA · Post by **TheOneKEA** » May 12th, 2004, 9:26 am

bengoodger wrote:
TheOneKEA wrote:So when the new manager goes active, no further extensions can be installed, and if the nightly is used to overwrite an existing profile, existing extensions will break too?

You will still be able to install old-style extensions, they just won't show up in a list anywhere. The first time 0.9 runs, it will also disable all your old-style extensions to prevent UI bustage like what happened last time.

So how will they be reenabled then? Via the new UI?

New Extension API - Docs Updated!

Re: New Extension API

Re: New Extension API