Firefox & Thunderbird Add-on Converter for SeaMonkey

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Lemon Juice
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Firefox & Thunderbird Add-on Converter for SeaMonkey

Post by Lemon Juice »

I've been thinking about it for some time and finally I got myself do it - a tool that will automatically modify Firefox and Thunderbird extensions to work with SeaMonkey. This can be useful for people who are not technically savvy enough to understand how to change install.rdf and force this way an extension to work in SeaMonkey - but it can also be useful for those who know how to do it but would prefer an automated tool that will do it in an instant.

Moreover, this tool goes a little further beyond simply modifying install.rdf - it also identifies a few more other things in the code that are Firefox or Thunderbird specific and attempts to change them. Of course, not all extensions can be ported so easily to SeaMonkey since there's only so much an automated tool like that can do.

Here it is:

Add-on Converter for SeaMonkey

If you use this tool then it would be beneficial for all of us if you can post your results in this thread so we can expand the list of which extensions can be ported and which not. Also, if you know more about extension development then any ideas on how to improve the tool are welcome.

If an extension works well after conversion then it's a good idea to contact its author and ask for official support of SeaMonkey. If they see that it's so easy that even a dumb automatic converter can do it then they might be willing to accomodate your request. For example, the author of FLST (Firefox 4+) was kind enough to add support for SeaMonkey after I showed him this was such an easy thing.

Below is a list of extensions tested by me and other users. This was not always a thorough testing - they are expected to work but it's possible some more obscure features may not work as expected. I'll keep updating the list from time to time but some other extensions may be mentioned by other users in this thread.

Update:
This list below is no longer maintained and will be removed shortly. It has been moved to the converter site so please visit the new link:

http://addonconverter.fotokraina.com/compatibility/


Extension version numbers below only indicate which version was tested. In most cases newer versions will also work. The "Install" links will lead to conversion of the newest versions of extensions.

Firefox extensions that work after conversion:


Firefox extensions that DO NOT work after conversion:


Thunderbird extensions that work after conversion:

Thunderbird extensions that do not work after conversion:
Last edited by Lemon Juice on September 23rd, 2015, 3:09 pm, edited 101 times in total.
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rsx11m
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Re: Firefox & Thunderbird Add-on Converter for SeaMonkey

Post by rsx11m »

I didn't test it myself, but this definitely looks like a very useful tool! 8-)
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therube
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Re: Firefox & Thunderbird Add-on Converter for SeaMonkey

Post by therube »

Slick :-).
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Lemon Juice
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Re: Firefox & Thunderbird Add-on Converter for SeaMonkey

Post by Lemon Juice »

Thanks for making it sticky! Hopefully, it will work well :)
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DERoss
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Re: Firefox & Thunderbird Add-on Converter for SeaMonkey

Post by DERoss »

I just tried the converter on the Fontinfo 0.3.1 extension from https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/seamon ... /fontinfo/. The converted extension installed in SeaMonkey 2.26 without any problems and seems to be working okay.

Question: Do you plan to maintain and update the converter as Firefox, Thunderbird, and SeaMonkey evolve?
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Re: Firefox & Thunderbird Add-on Converter for SeaMonkey

Post by Anonymosity »

Disconnect, MR Tech Toolkit (I use the beta version - 6.0.4.9000), BetterPrivacy, Flashblock 1.5.17, Modify Headers, Kill Bright Backgrounds all work with SeaMonkey with a little tweaking done to chrome.manifest and install.rdf. Converted "URL 'n Extension Block" and "Force Content-Type" seem to work after conversion.
"Manually Sort Folders" does not work properly in SeaMonkey. The move up and move down buttons do not appear in the folders window.
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Re: Firefox & Thunderbird Add-on Converter for SeaMonkey

Post by patrickjdempsey »

Very cool! You should probably note somewhere that any extensions which modify the appearance of Firefox like Tab Mix Plus are pretty well much guaranteed to not work. TMP doesn't even play nice with non-default themes, so other applications are just not going to happen. This is pretty exciting stuff!
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Lemon Juice
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Re: Firefox & Thunderbird Add-on Converter for SeaMonkey

Post by Lemon Juice »

DERoss wrote:Question: Do you plan to maintain and update the converter as Firefox, Thunderbird, and SeaMonkey evolve?

At the moment I can say that I do as long as I use SeaMonkey - and so far all the other browsers are trying hard to be not likeable by me :). However, I don't plan on spending too much time maintaining it since I don't expect any rapid changes in FF/TB/SM that will require much maintenance of this tool apart from some occasional fixes and small improvements. But it's a one-man project so you know - if I get wiped off this earth somehow then this tool will stop living - but yes, I plan to keep to tool going :)
Anonymosity wrote:"Manually Sort Folders" does not work properly in SeaMonkey. The move up and move down buttons do not appear in the folders window.

This would require manual code change since this extension references TB-specific folder display property that has no equivalent in SM. In this case the automatic tool has to give up.
patrickjdempsey wrote:Very cool! You should probably note somewhere that any extensions which modify the appearance of Firefox like Tab Mix Plus are pretty well much guaranteed to not work. TMP doesn't even play nice with non-default themes, so other applications are just not going to happen.

You are right but I find it hard to describe it universally which extensions are not guaranteed to work and I don't want to discourage people from playing with it - for example, "Color Transform" also modifies the appearance of Firefox, but in a different way, and works well in SM. You and I know this is a different case but not everyone will. However, I've added a link to this thread so people can learn more by reading these comments :)

This is pretty exciting stuff!

Yeah, however there's a growing number of FF extensions made with an addon SDK and I can't port them to SeaMonkey and I've read they cannot be - still, I haven't investigated this any deeper. I'm not happy of FF using some proprietary technologies since I would like those extensions to be SM-portable as well!
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Re: Firefox & Thunderbird Add-on Converter for SeaMonkey

Post by patrickjdempsey »

The Addons SDK was apparently necessary because Firefox Mobile does not use XUL, therefore XUL overlays don't work. By creating the SDK Mozilla could make claims about Firefox Mobile having the same great extension system as Firefox, which is something of a hollow claim.
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Re: Firefox & Thunderbird Add-on Converter for SeaMonkey

Post by Lemon Juice »

patrickjdempsey wrote:The Addons SDK was apparently necessary because Firefox Mobile does not use XUL, therefore XUL overlays don't work. By creating the SDK Mozilla could make claims about Firefox Mobile having the same great extension system as Firefox, which is something of a hollow claim.

Okay, but to me SDK means software development kit - a collection of tools used to develop software - not to use it. Whether I use an SDK or not it should still run on the supported platform. Is the SDK part of FF? If it is then it is not an SDK but a runtime environment...

As you can see, I haven't yet investigated the subject so I don't yet understand what this FF SDK really is and why add-ons created with it will not run in SM and TB.
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Re: Firefox & Thunderbird Add-on Converter for SeaMonkey

Post by patrickjdempsey »

It's a little confusing:

Jetpacks/Addons SDK is a runtime environment and a set of APIs that runs extensions which are very unlike Firefox extensions as they do not use XUL. Mozilla labels these as "Restartless" on AMO and they will only run on Firefox and Firefox Mobile which both have the SDK built-in.

Bootstrapped extensions are also labelled "Restartless" but they do not use the SDK. Instead, the author has to explicitly do all of the work of loading and unloading the extension, variables, and drawing the XUL through DOM manipulation. Bootstrapped extensions can run on SeaMonkey, with the same caveats as a normal XUL overlay extension. Although because of the complexity of the code, it may be more difficult to identify breaking-points in a Bootstrapped extension.

To add to the confusion, people sometimes call Bootstrapped extensions Jetpacks or SDK... probably because of the "Restartless" label on AMO. This thread has a few examples of attempts to get the old Jetpack Prototype extension to run in SeaMonkey, as well as Philip getting a (I believe) Bootstrapped extension to run: viewtopic.php?p=8404515#p8404515
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Re: Firefox & Thunderbird Add-on Converter for SeaMonkey

Post by Scarlettrunner20 »

This tool makes it very simple to modify Fx extensions to hopefully work in SeaMonkey. Thanks! :)

I had very little hope that the one extension I really need to work in SeaMonkey (so that I could use SM as my default browser) would work. But I thought I would try it. It was originally developed for Mozilla Suite many years ago but then the author moved it later to Fx around Fx 1.0. It has gone through some changes over the years and is now known as Tree Style Tabs. It installed just fine using this convenient addons converter. But when I restarted SeaMonkey the tabs( that were restored by Session Manager which works with Tree Style Tabs on Fx) were still on top instead of down the left side. Plus, the navigation bar was missing (although View/show-hide said it was showing). I had to use Customize to get it back and the navigation buttons were missing also and had to be retrieved from Customize.

Disconnect DOES work (which is great as currently Ghostery is again not updating on SM). It is located on the left side of the back button on the navigation bar. It doesn't have the icon that I see on Fx down on my Extended Status bar. It is just a tiny squiggle and a tiny down arrow. I thought it was not going to work on SM until I stumbled on the squiggle and tiny arrow by accident.

Textarea cache DOES work! I had to restart SeaMonkey twice before it worked correctly.

Unhide passwords DOES work!

Context Search does NOT work. It should work. It places a blank space where search engines besides Google should appear.

Multicolumn bookmarks does NOT work.

These are the Fx extensions I have tried so far.
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Re: Firefox & Thunderbird Add-on Converter for SeaMonkey

Post by Lemon Juice »

patrickjdempsey wrote:It's a little confusing:

Thanks for explaining, it's a little more clear. So in effect the addon SDK is built into Fx and is indeed a runtime environment and has not been made to work in SM. I wonder why it can't work in SM - is it too difficult to adapt or is it just that there are no volunteer programmers who would be willing to do it?

Scarlettrunner20 wrote:It has gone through some changes over the years and is now known as Tree Style Tabs.

It's really interesting that you were able to get Tree Style Tabs to work somehow in SM because it doesn't work for me - apart from making the tabs higher and the icons distorted nothing else is happening, no buttons to customize and quite a few errors in console :shock:

Context Search does NOT work. It should work. It places a blank space where search engines besides Google should appear.

SM appears to use a different function for getting selected text - try it again, I've updated the converter to cover such cases so Context Search should work fine now!
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Re: Firefox & Thunderbird Add-on Converter for SeaMonkey

Post by Lemon Juice »

Scarlettrunner20 wrote:Multicolumn bookmarks does NOT work.

Ha, this was a case where too many modifications spoiled everything! The Mozilla page about differences in extensions between SM, Fx and TB seems to be wrong about bookmarksMenuPopup - it turns out it doesn't need to be changed at all. I removed it from the converter so Multicolumn Bookmarks should work fine now!
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Re: Firefox & Thunderbird Add-on Converter for SeaMonkey

Post by smsmith »

I was able to covert the Change Quote and Reply Header and Quote and Compose Manager extensions. The only problem I have noticed was that the Change Quote and Reply Header extension did something weird to the reply button, which I was able to get rid of with a little CSS tweak. This button appears to have several different states that vary depending on the type of mail you are going to respond to (it a popupmenu button or something or other). I only really need the reply button to be a _reply_ button, so losing this extra function doesn't bother me.

Original extensions are available here:
https://freeshell.de/~kaosmos/index-en.html

And my little code block:

Code: Select all

#button-reply menupopup,
#button-reply .toolbarbutton-menubutton-dropmarker {
  visibility: collapse !important;
}


And thanks for a wonderful tool! Last thing I was missing to make mailnews bearable for me!
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