Hello,
In order to help add-on authors migrate to Firefox 3.1, the Mozilla evangelism team is working on documenting changes between Firefox 3.0 and Firefox 3.1 which could affect extensions.
Some of you have already updated your extensions to Firefox 3.1 beta, or are in the process of doing so, and we’re asking for your help by providing some useful feedback about the migration.
We are interested in any issues you’ve encountered including interface changes, unanticipated behaviour or any API updates. You can provide feedback as a comment to this post and any information will help, even something as simple as:
“I ran into problems with interface XYZ”
Your assistance will be invaluable in helping us identify migration issues and ensuring that Firefox 3.1 has high rate of add-on compatibility upon release.
Thanks a lot.
Tags: compatibility, firefox 3.5
With my extension I found that a function, canonizeURL, had moved from browser.js to urlbarBindings.xml and now returned a value. I assume this means that various other functions have been shifted from browser.js also.
I was trying to retrieve the site icon through the “nsIFaviconService”, “getFaviconImageForPage” method, and the code that worked for 3.0 will show always the default document icon for 3.1. I thought that it’s probably due to work in progress on the “places” component, but just in case, I thought it would be a good idea to list it here.
I found this:
https://developer.mozilla.org/en/Firefox_3.1_for_developers#Changes_to_interfaces
I think it can be a helpful reference.
We had no difficulty with any of the interfaces we used with Firefox 3.1 beta 1. Tests left things performing as they were before.
Firefox 3.0 sporadically breaks some functionality in my extension.
Firefox 3.1 totally breaks some functionality in my extension.
See here for a discussion about this:
http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/genmessage.php?board=565885&topic=46023039
btw, the problem is inherent in the behavior changes regarding sizeToContent.
JSON is now a property of the window object; no need to import JSON.jsm. ‘fromString’ method changed to ‘parse’ and ‘toString’ to ’stringify’.
I use the following to ensure compatibility with both 3.0 and 3.1:
if (typeof(JSON) == “undefined”)
{
Components.utils.import(”resource://gre/modules/JSON.jsm”);
JSON.parse = JSON.fromString;
JSON.stringify = JSON.toString;
}
“-moz-opacity” CSS property is apparently no longer supported, you have to use “opacity”. I simply forgot that I had that before I saw a warning about unrecognized CSS selector in the console.
I have a doubt about firefox 3.1
the below code work on firefox 3.0:
————-code firefox3.0 segment start—–
toggleSidebar(); // <— notice here
if(data.indexOf(”You have logged in successfully”) != -1)
{
this.loginFlag = true;
prefs.setBoolPref(”firetalk.loginstatus”,true);
var ftStatusBarIcon = document.getElementById(”ftStatusIcon”);
ftStatusBarIcon.src=”chrome://firetalk/content/icons/login.png”;
ftStatusBarIcon.setAttribute(”tooltiptext”,”GTalk login (Shift+T)”);
}
————code segment end———–
but in firefox 3.1 it dosen’t work
after “toggleSidebar();” the “prefs.setBoolPref(…)” was not executed.
so I change the code:
————-code segment start—–
if(data.indexOf(”You have logged in successfully”) != -1)
{
this.loginFlag = true;
prefs.setBoolPref(”firetalk.loginstatus”,true);
var ftStatusBarIcon = document.getElementById(”ftStatusIcon”);
ftStatusBarIcon.src=”chrome://firetalk/content/icons/login.png”;
ftStatusBarIcon.setAttribute(”tooltiptext”,”GTalk login (Shift+T)”);
}
toggleSidebar(); // <— notice here
————code segment end———–
Now it’s working. I think it ’s diffrent between firefox 3.0 and firefox3.1. Do you think so?
Direct access to the places.sqlite file is no longer possible because it is now locked by Firefox at all times.
Admittedly I probably shouldn’t have been directly accessing it anyway, but I was, and it was a bit of a surprise to find it had stopped working in 3.1.
For themers, the following forum has all the known changes to themes (including the opacity change remarked by Wladimir Palant):
http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=665138&start=15&st=0&sk=t&sd=a&sid=e14f919078790ed024419a8bf99b5ed5
Being a minor release, there are still a great number of large and smaller changes in the UI that themers need to take care off. Not all of theme are easy to accomodiate whilst keeping compatability with older versions of FF.
In terms of release management it would be VERY nice if the new version number is accepted on AMO before the actual product launch, so that extensions/themes can be updated before the actual upgrade, so that end-users won’t get an ‘incompatible’ message for all its addons when the upgrade to 3.1 is performed.
Oh, and there is another warning in the console now as well: “Timed textboxes are deprecated. Consider using type=”search” instead.” But of course type=”search” isn’t supported in Firefox 3.0, so extension developers have to wait something like a year before switching to it. Only solution seems to be setting the type parameter dynamically – not exactly a great solution especially given that there is no good way to test whether type=”search” is available. So I will either just accept the warning or reimplement the functionality of type=”timed” with a regular textbox.
Im not sure about this qualifying for a bug, but here it goes anyway: When i try to load a mail from mi Windows Live Hotmail inbox (the newest version) it says loading, but it never does, just keeps the same banner and never show me the message i wish to see
Here is the list of add-ons that show on 3.1 beta that are not compatible:
Amazing Media Brower 0.27
Bible Refalizer 0.1.3
CountdownClork 1.4.4.1
Download Embedded 0.5
DownTemAll! 2.0.3
Evernote Web Clipper 3.0.0.125
External Application Buttons mod 0.7.3.4
Forecastfox 0.9.7.7
FoxClock 2.4.97
FoxLingo 2.3.1
Foxmarks Bookmark Synchronizer 2.5.3
Google Toolbar for Firefox 3.1.20080730W
GUtil! 2.3.3
Hakia ScoopBar 1.0.3a
HP Smark Web Printing 4.0 (doesn’t work with 3.0 period)
Media Pirate – The video downloader 2.3.1
mid 0.9.0.2
pdf-google-finder 1.0
RealPlayer Browser Record Plugin 1.0 (doesn’t work with 3.0 either)
Toolbar Buttons 0.6.0.4
Undo Closed Tabs Button 3.0.3
WebMail Notifier 1.1.5
Wizz RSS News Reader 3.0.0.2
Hola…queria avisar q el complemento DownloadHelper 3.4 no funciona asi como VideoDownloader y el Diccionario de Español/España 1.1
These are the extensions installed…
- 2 Pane Bookmarks (0.7.5.5)
- Adblock Plus (0.7.5.5)
- Adblock Plus: Element Hiding Helper (1.0.5)
- Dictionnaire Hunspell en Français (réforme 1990) (2.0)
- Dizionario Italiano (3.1)
- Flashblock (1.5.7)
- Locationbar^2 (1.0.3)
- NoScript (1.8.4.1)
- OpenBook (2.0.1.1)
- Stylish (0.5.7) (with many looking and functioning tweaking “Styles”)
- Ubuntu Forums Menu (0.59)
- Ubuntu-it Menu (1.0.6.2)
- United States English Dictionary (3.0.3)
- Wörterbuch “Deutsch (de_DE)” für die Rechtschreibprüfung in Mozilla-Produkten (20081023)
…for some of them I edited the “.rdf”… ev’rything works good.
lplayerI ran into problems with interface Realplayer browser record plugin
as a real geek, i didn’t get maybe exactly the question, just, in my 31b1 version i have pklenty of old add ons not working at all:
allinone sidebar 0 76,
alot toolbar 1.24
cleo 4.0
colorzilla 2.0
conviva streaming control 1.8…
crawler toolbar 1.3
downthemall 1.0.3
EROnline 1.1
evernote web clipper 3.0.0.125
fast dial 2.11
febe 6.0.3
firefox showcase 0.9.4.9
IE8 activities for FF 1.3.3
kwout on ff 0.1.4….
pc sync 2 sych extension 1.0..0.658
PDF download 2.0.0.0
Realplayer Browser record plugin ( neither in 3.0 ! )1.0
russian spell dictionary with IO support 0.2.1
Sage 1.4.2
Shazou 2.1
Tiny Tiny Rss notifier 2.0.4
Wisestamp 1.1
and now ask me why i didn’t pass to Chrome
Download Squad is telling folks to post their broken extensions here, hopefully they’re not directing people to the wrong place. So I just installed 3.1, and here’s my list of non-working extensions:
Basics
CookieCuller
Extended Copy Menu
FireFTP
ForecastFox
Googlebar Lite
Microsoft .NET Framework Assistant
Research Word
Stealther
StumbleUpon
TinyUrl Creator
Unfortunately some of those are deal-breakers so I’m going to have to roll back to 3.0.4, but I thought I’d post that info before I do.
adblock filterset. G updater,
All in one sidebar,
Down them all,
Firebug
These are my exyensions that don’t work
Better Gmail
” gReader
” youtube
bugMeNot
ColorZilia
Delicious Bookmarks 2
DownThemAll
Firebug
Google Gears
Greasemonkey
html validator
look up in dictionary 0.2
NewTabUrl
Pmog
Safari View
Style
Web Developer
YSlow
Hi found problems in this Extension:
AdBlock Filterset G.Updater 0.3.1.3
Better Gmail 2.0.7
Better Privacy 1.22
DownThemAll! 1.0.3
Elementary Theme 1.3
Fast Dial 2.11
GCal Popup 1.0
GreaseMonkey 0.8.2008609.0
iFox Metal 3.0.3
Neptune 3.0
User-Agent Switcher 0.6.11
not compatible:
FireFTP 1.0.2
Hide Unvisited 3
Moji 0.9.4
Moji-En 0.6.20080306
Moji-Kanji-En 0.5.20071013
Web Developer 1.1.6
here’s a list of my addons installed on 3.1Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.0; it; rv:1.9.1b1) Gecko/20081007 Firefox/3.1b1 ID:20081007144708
some forced with nightly tester tools
Adblock 0.5.3.043 forced ok
Adblock Filterset.G Updater 0.3.1.3 forced ok
All-in-One Gestures 0.19.1 forced ok
All-in-One Sidebar 0.7.6 forced ok
ColorfulTabs 3.7 works without force
Download Embedded 0.5 [DISABLED]
Download Statusbar 0.9.6.3 works without force
DownThemAll! 1.0.3 forced ok
Fast Dial 2.11 forced ok
FEBE 6.0.3 [DISABLED]
Fire.fm 1.1.3 works without force
Flashblock 1.5.7 works without force
Forecastfox 0.9.7.7 forced ok
Gmail Manager 0.5.5 forced ok
GooglePreview 3.15 works without force
IE Tab 1.5.20080823 forced ok
Nightly Tester Tools 2.0.2
NoScript 1.8.4.1 works without force
PDF Download 2.0.0.0 forced ok
Sage 1.4.2 forced ok
Split Browser 0.5.2008101801 forced ok
Tabs Open Relative 0.3.3 forced ok
Wow. That’s really too many things. Don’t you find your browser runs slow?
When I installed Firefox 3.1 beta 2, I found it to be the same speed as Firefox 3.05 but I had a more serious problem, when I uninstalled 3.1 beta 2, it asked me if I wanted to remove the bookmarks ( I assumed that it meant the bookmarks for 3.1 beta 2 ) so I proceeded to remove those, and then when I started 3.05(I did not uninstall it before installing 3.1 beta 2) MY BOOKMARKS WERE GONE!! You should really update this system of testing so that it does not interfere with any current installations and especially the bookmarks.
I can’t open my mails in hotmail using Mozilla Firefox 3.1 Beta 2
@Hani G
It’s up to you to take care of your profile.
Hold on! the thing is that the ‘Firefox’ gets updated without any intimation and after the last update my firefox gives out crash report once on daily basis. I do have many plugins in that. So what is the best possible thing i need to do as i get stucked with such things.
thanks for taking effort to post and ask the problems.
I have the same problem Zisca with opening hotmail. I have found that if I create a bookmark with the URL assigned http://www.hotmail.com it works. Must be something to do with the forwarding address.
Firefox add on issues are solved in its new release 3.5. We are using firefox 3.5 and have not experienced any problem till the date. we ahve tried about 30% of all add on.
After every FF update, there are sometimes issues…especially if you are running a lot of plugins like I am…
I still need to figure out What the heck “Chrome” is anyway- is that related to Google or is it just the same name?
I’m so confused!
hi Thanks for the tip Derek – it’s a great little tool. I was just preparing a post on blogging and casual learning and found your blog via Goggle. I’m not an educator (I’m an editor)so you’ve given me a great deal to absorb. I’ll definitely be back to look around properly. I suspect I have a great deal to learn myself!
Hımm…..
Yes:
FireFTP 1.0.2
Hide Unvisited 3
Moji 0.9.4
Moji-En 0.6.20080306
Moji-Kanji-En 0.5.20071013
Web Developer 1.1.6
Thanks for the info i am shifting back to the older version it is fine.
how about 3.5.x? still compatible?
Anyone already using 3.5.x?I’m also considering upgrading into it soon
Hii Thanks for the tip it’s a great little tool. Direct access to the places.sqlite file is no longer possible because it is now locked by Firefox at all times.
latest version 3.5.x is working fine.I find it faster than the older version.