Fenix: FNX2-15395 ⁃ Support installation of extensions that haven't yet been officially recommended on nightly

Created on 17 Jul 2020 · 5Comments · Source: mozilla-mobile/fenix

What is the user problem or growth opportunity you want to see solved?

There are many webextensions that only depend on the webextension APIs that Mozilla has already implemented in Fenix, but they're currently unable able to be used because Mozilla hasn't chosen to bless them with the "Recommended" status yet.

Developers of extensions may also want to test their extensions to see what functionality is currently working.

How do you know that this problem exists today? Why is this important?

I am unable to install extensions with the Fenix app other than the handful that have been blessed by Mozilla.

I even tried following the needlessly complicated workaround of using USB debugging [1], but that just results in the addon being installed but disabled with the message "Not yet available".

Who will benefit from it?

Extension developers and app power users.

[1] https://github.com/mozilla-mobile/fenix/issues/5315#issuecomment-592082109

WebExtensions feature request 🌟 product

Source

robsmith11

👍5

Most helpful comment

There's a bit of discussion going on at the isssue: https://github.com/mozilla-mobile/fenix/issues/11308, unfortunately Mozilla is not letting us install add-ons even if the supported APIs are available on the stable channel. like for example I want to install Nano Adblocker but cannot even if it is still based on uBlock Origin which is already supported!

So we only have a choice to install whatever they want or nothing. That's the direction I think how it seems be going.

And here I'm wondering what about the Mozilla Manifesto Principles. :)

ghost on 17 Jul 2020

👍4

All 5 comments

So we only have a choice to install whatever they want or nothing. That's the direction I think how it seems be going.

And here I'm wondering what about the Mozilla Manifesto Principles. :)

ghost on 17 Jul 2020

👍4

This is probably the main problem with Firefox Nightly right now. The classic Firefox for Android supports such extensions. The other way how this problem can seen is that when you go to the extension store, it says "extension is not supported on firefox for android" but in fact it is supported on the classic version. Support of a wide range of extensions is the most important and rarely found feature on mobile browsers, Firefox should not lose its main advantage.

kamran-12 on 23 Jul 2020

👍3

Some more unfortunate context can be found in #5315. This has been requested multiple times and technically it is perfectly feasible to install other extensions as the development tools do allow to do so temporarily. So to me it seems to be a deliberate choice to not allow it at all. Combined with their responses in my linked issue I don't have high hopes as the best I could get was a "we are looking into it in some capacity".

Specifically this comment and the resulting discussion resulting in this statement. Basically it boils down to, what I said earlier that maybe at some point they'll allow it but they don't want to commit to it.

creesch on 29 Jul 2020

It really doesn't make any sense why an open source non-profit organization would prevent their users from doing something they want with no real downsides.

The only explanation of which I can think is some nefarious reason tied to Google's continued funding, but that seems like a stretch.

robsmith11 on 29 Jul 2020

👎1

Duping to #11308