Interesting problem with extensions / addons

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kimi85
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Joined: December 1st, 2008, 2:55 am

Interesting problem with extensions / addons

Post by kimi85 »

Hi folks,
I have Firefox 52.5.3 (ESR) on my Vista SP2 machine. I wanted and did install AdBlock Plus Extension from official "addons.mozilla.org". It appears on Tools > Addons > Extensions list.

Problems are:
1) Eventhough the extension is installed, when i visit addon page (Adblock) through addons.mozilla.org, "add to firefox" appears again for the same addon and it's not recognized by official addon page.

2) I also installed Element Hiding Helper Addon for Adblock, the same happens for this addon, too, just like above, and although it appears to be installed fine, it also doesn't appear inside drop down menu of main Adblock Addon menu icon.

What could be the reasons?

Note: 52.6.0 (ESR) seems to be out as 52.5.3 was told to be the final for XP/Vista OSes, though, weird.
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Frank Lion
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Re: Interesting problem with extensions / addons

Post by Frank Lion »

You don't mention the version numbers of the extensions you have installed and those of the ones you were offered on the AMO site.

Without that information, this is a pretty uninteresting problem with extensions/addons.
"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil, is for good men to do nothing." - Edmund Burke (attrib.)
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kimi85
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Re: Interesting problem with extensions / addons

Post by kimi85 »

Frank Lion wrote:You don't mention the version numbers of the extensions you have installed and those of the ones you were offered on the AMO site.

Without that information, this is a pretty uninteresting problem with extensions/addons.
Hi Frank,
First I installed the latest Adblock, which seems 3.0.2 and latest Element Hiding Helper addon for Adblock, which was 1.4 as far as i remember. I read some reviews and downgraded Adblock to 2.91. Now it recognizes Element Hiding Helper addon fine. I resolved problem 2 mentioned in my original post.

But problem 1 still remains. Eventhough i installed and using addons, let's say latest Element Hiding Helper addon for AdBlock, when i visit their addon page here:
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefo ... er/?src=ss

...it still says "add to Firefox", instead of "Installed" which is new and interesting to me.

Why is this?

Thanks a lot!
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RobertJ
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Re: Interesting problem with extensions / addons

Post by RobertJ »

.
Your question does not make any sense. The "add to firefox" button is always there whether or not you have the extension installed as far as I know. AMO does not "scan" your installed extensions. The only thing it does is check to see if the version of FF you are using is compatible with the extension. That information is in the UA string of your HTML request.

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FF 92.0 - TB 78.13 - Mac OSX 10.13.6
kimi85
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Re: Interesting problem with extensions / addons

Post by kimi85 »

RobertJ wrote:.
Your question does not make any sense. The "add to firefox" button is always there whether or not you have the extension installed as far as I know. AMO does not "scan" your installed extensions. The only thing it does is check to see if the version of FF you are using is compatible with the extension. That information is in the UA string of your HTML request.

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Really? I quite and somehow remember that addon page is used to have a way to interact with Firefox browser, using a kind of Javascript or by XUL. Several months have passed that i last installed an addon and checked whether it's been installed and has no compatiblility issue with official release on official Mozilla addon page. Maybe i'm wrong.

You say, the addon page is always displaying "add to firefox" instead of "installed" regardless of a successfull addon installation?
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Frank Lion
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Re: Interesting problem with extensions / addons

Post by Frank Lion »

kimi85 wrote:You say, the addon page is always displaying "add to firefox" instead of "installed" regardless of a successfull addon installation?
Yep.
"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil, is for good men to do nothing." - Edmund Burke (attrib.)
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RobertJ
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Re: Interesting problem with extensions / addons

Post by RobertJ »

kimi85 wrote:You say, the addon page is always displaying "add to firefox" instead of "installed" regardless of a successfull addon installation?
Yes.

To determine if an add-on is installed AMO would need to scan your profile; that would be a big-time security issue.

.
FF 92.0 - TB 78.13 - Mac OSX 10.13.6
kimi85
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Re: Interesting problem with extensions / addons

Post by kimi85 »

RobertJ wrote:
kimi85 wrote:You say, the addon page is always displaying "add to firefox" instead of "installed" regardless of a successfull addon installation?
Yes.

To determine if an add-on is installed AMO would need to scan your profile; that would be a big-time security issue.

.
Thank you so much. Now got it. A bit off-topic, i'd like to know another thing. I read somewhere and i tested that MP4 files (AVC codec) aren't natively supported by Firefox unlike Google Chrome. It plays MP4 files if DirectShow or DTV codecs are properly installed on the system. It seems a kind of design decision as many of browsers do support it. Is it correct?
allande
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Re: Interesting problem with extensions / addons

Post by allande »

Firefox on XP can play mp4 videos, but it does depend on additions - having Flash installed can often do it, but that is discouraged. Here is a better method: https://msfn.org/board/topic/175591-ena ... out-flash/ The reason Firefox does not include it are several - on Windows 7 or 10, h.264 support comes from the os, so any solution would be extra work only for older, unsupported users. Also Firefox prefers to distribute open source software and the patents on h.264 make an open source player problematic. Even if one was made, legally a large fee would have to be paid to distribute it (because of the patents).
kimi85
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Re: Interesting problem with extensions / addons

Post by kimi85 »

allande wrote:Firefox on XP can play mp4 videos, but it does depend on additions - having Flash installed can often do it, but that is discouraged. Here is a better method: https://msfn.org/board/topic/175591-ena ... out-flash/ The reason Firefox does not include it are several - on Windows 7 or 10, h.264 support comes from the os, so any solution would be extra work only for older, unsupported users. Also Firefox prefers to distribute open source software and the patents on h.264 make an open source player problematic. Even if one was made, legally a large fee would have to be paid to distribute it (because of the patents).
Actually, I have proper DirectShow filters installed on my ancient Vista SP2 machine and i can play AVC (Mp4, h.264) content just fine (not XP) natively, however when i try playing the same or identical file using Firefox 52, i get:

"No video with supported format and mime type found" message, which makes no sense. With Chrome, it plays fine.

Can you detail a bit about the reasons? Although having proper codecs / filters on the system, why is Firefox still resisting not to play personal H.264 (mp4) video contents which do not have any DRM / copyright issues?
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therube
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Re: Interesting problem with extensions / addons

Post by therube »

Just because you happen to have particular codecs installed does not mean that FF knows of their existence or is even able to use them.
I don't really know Vista, nor where it fits into the scheme of things, but quit possible you are running into the same situation as XP users would, so can't hurt to follow the steps allande linked to at msfn.org.
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James
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Re: Interesting problem with extensions / addons

Post by James »

Microsoft only provides the media feature packs for Windows Vista and later and not for WinXP.
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/fi ... ox-windows

Chrome (and Chromium and Opera) has not supported Windows XP/Vista (and OSX 10.6,10.7,10.8) since April 2016. Chrome kinda cheats by coming with its own codecs.

The Firefox 52.9.0esr out on July 3rd is looking to be the last update for Firefox 52 ESR and last Firefox that will run on WinXP/Vista.
kimi85
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Re: Interesting problem with extensions / addons

Post by kimi85 »

RobertJ wrote:
kimi85 wrote:You say, the addon page is always displaying "add to firefox" instead of "installed" regardless of a successfull addon installation?
Yes.

To determine if an add-on is installed AMO would need to scan your profile; that would be a big-time security issue.

.
Hi, sorry for bumping my old thread after a few years later but I want to update about a change.

Today, when I tried to add an add-on using official Firefox add-on page, after installing the add-on, the add-on page has began to show "Remove" button which means Firefox add-on page is now recognizing installed add-ons on client browser right after successful add-on installation, unlike the original thread and the answer given before.

I tried this on a very old PCs (Vista SP2 / XP SP3 + Firefox 52.9.0 ESR and 52.5.3 ESR), so the original thread is still meant to be quite meaningful at this point.

It appears that something has been changed in add-ons page (AMO), maybe user's add-on scanning policy?

Thank you.
morat
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Re: Interesting problem with extensions / addons

Post by morat »

@kimi85

There is an "Enable" button if the addon is disabled and a "Remove" button if the addon is enabled.

I think users can block the feature with a hidden pref. (not tested)

Pref privacy.resistFingerprinting.block_mozAddonManager
http://wiki.mozilla.org/Security/Finger ... donManager
http://github.com/mozilla/addons-frontend/issues/9076
http://searchfox.org/mozilla-release/se ... donManager
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