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Jetpack for Learning

Thursday, November 19th, 2009

Help turn the open Web into a rich learning environment and explore new possibilities for using Firefox add-ons to support learning online, as part of the the Jetpack for Learning Design Challenge sponsored by the Mozilla Foundation with support from the MacArthur Foundation.

Designers, educators and software developers who want to turn their innovative ideas into working prototypes will learn to use the new Jetpack technology from Mozilla Labs to create Firefox add-ons to support learning on the open Web, using standard web technologies like HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.

The creators of the most promising add-ons will be invited to an intensive three-day Jetpack for Learning Design Camp (to be held in conjunction with SXSW Interactive in March 2010), where they’ll further refine their work and the best add-ons will be publicly recognized.

Learn more at the Jetpack for Learning website.

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Thanks for the compatibility reports!

Wednesday, November 18th, 2009

A few weeks ago, we launched the Add-on Compatibility Reporter, a way for Firefox users to let us know if their incompatible add-ons were working properly or having issues. As of tonight, we’ve received 25,000 reports on 2,000 add-ons for Firefox 3.6 betas alone!

We just dispatched emails to the developers of those add-ons as follows:

  • 105 add-ons that we think are compatible. These add-ons had more than 80% of reports saying the add-on worked fine. For these add-ons, we suggest that the developer test the add-on out themselves and then bump compatibility to Firefox 3.6.*.
  • 24 add-ons with compatibility issues. These add-ons had more than 80% of reports saying that the add-on was not functioning properly. We ask the developers of these add-ons to review the submitted reports and look into the issues mentioned before bumping compatibility.
  • 321 add-ons with mixed reports. These add-ons have received a number of reports, but we couldn’t make a guess as to the status. We encourage these developers to view the submitted reports and then test their add-ons before bumping compatibility.
  • 830 add-ons with at least one report, but not enough to determine anything. We’ve asked these developers to test their add-ons with Firefox 3.6 and bump compatibility if everything checks out.

The response to the Compatibility Reporter has been amazing, with almost 20,000 active users helping us out. Your reports will make a big difference in being able to ship Firefox 3.6 without add-on compatibility issues, so keep it up!

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Posted in compatibility, developers | 6 Comments »

AMO welcomes self-hosted add-ons and HTML

Friday, November 13th, 2009

One of the staples of the Mozilla add-ons platform is the choice developers have to host and distribute their add-ons on any website they’d like — not just addons.mozilla.org. Yet, as the largest gallery of add-ons, Mozilla Add-ons is where users come to search for and discover new add-ons, which leaves add-ons hosted on a personal or business website out of sight and usually out of mind.

With tonight’s release, we’ve launched a pilot program to allow self-hosted add-ons to be listed on AMO alongside our thousands of Mozilla-hosted add-ons. We want users to be able to find any add-on they’re looking for on AMO, whether it’s hosted there or not.

These self-hosted add-ons won’t have all of the site features that other add-ons do, but will appear in search and browse listings, collections, and can be reviewed and rated. However, unlike our thousands of publicly-listed add-ons, these add-ons are not reviewed by Mozilla. Because of this very important distinction, instead of a green install button, self-hosted add-ons see a cautionary notice and link to the add-on’s homepage for additional information and to install the add-on.

Screenshot of the warning

Developers interested in submitting their self-hosted add-on or changing the hosting of their existing add-on should first read through additional details of the program.

Additionally with tonight’s release, we’ve added support for a much-requested feature over the last few years: HTML in add-on descriptions!

Several HTML tags, including links and lists, can now be used in four fields across the site: add-on descriptions, developer comments, version release notes, and user profiles. These fields and several others will also automatically link plain text URLs.

Stay tuned for information on additional features included with this release tomorrow!

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Posted in developers, releases | 13 Comments »

Download source tracking now available on AMO

Thursday, November 12th, 2009

With the release of AMO 5.2 a few weeks ago, we made a tiny change to every add-on download button on the website that made a huge impact: we can now see what parts of the site add-ons are downloaded from.

This was previously a gaping hole in our metrics, and a subject of much contention among Nick and myself (see also: relevance of my add-on’s icon to its functionality).

With the help of Daniel Einspanjer on our metrics team, we’re now able to analyze whether an add-on download came from an AMO search results page, the add-on’s display page, the Firefox Add-ons Manager, or one of around 12 predefined sources we are tracking.

Some of the results were surprising, so without further ado, this is the breakdown of downloads for a single day on AMO (yesterday, in fact).

Pie chart of AMO's download sources

Keep in mind that this covers 1.7 million downloads, so even sources that only have 1% of the pie can be up to 17,000 downloads. We’ll be digging into where our unknown downloads are coming from, but right now we think they are mostly downloads coming from other websites.

We didn’t want to keep all this data to ourselves, so add-on developers will find a new view in their Statistics Dashboards called “Download Sources” where the sources for each individual add-on can be dissected.

But wait, there’s more!

Our source tracking system also allows developers to add their own tracking codes for external links to their add-on. By simply adding a src parameter to any add-on’s URL or download URL, that source will start being tracked and appear in the Statistics Dashboard.

For example, when we launched the Add-on Compatibility Reporter a couple weeks ago, we had tracking codes in all of the most important places: the announcement blog post, the Firefox 3.6 beta first-run page and release notes, the hacks.mozilla.org post, etc. You can see the results of our efforts below:

Screenshot of the Add-on Compatibility Reporter's Download Sources

There are some caveats to external source tracking, so be sure to read the full instructions by going to your Download Sources dashboard and clicking “learn how to track external sources”.

Have fun with the data, and if your research sparks an idea for how we can improve download conversions on a particular AMO page or another great idea, let us know!

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Posted in developers | 5 Comments »

Add-on-Con 2009

Friday, November 6th, 2009

Last year, Mozilla participated in the first ever Add-on-Con conference for add-on developers and enthusiasts, and it was a huge success. When we were told there would be another Add-on-Con this year, we were excited to get involved again.

This year, Add-on-Con will be on December 11 at the same location, the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California. A number of Mozilla folks will be in attendance and leading sessions, including:

  • Taking Flight with Jetpack: Next Gen Add-ons for Firefox – Aza Raskin
  • Mobile Firefox Add-on Development – Mark Finkle
  • The Future of the Add-on Ecosystem – Nick Nguyen and Justin Scott

We’ll also be participating in the closing keynote panel, Future of the Browser. Expect more details on these sessions in the near future, as the schedule gets finalized.

Registration is now open, so if you’re interested in browser add-ons, whether from the technical or business side, it’s a great place to learn about what’s coming, what’s already being done, and networking with browser vendors and other add-on developers.

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Posted in developers, events | No Comments »

October Add-ons Meetup Recap

Friday, October 30th, 2009

Tuesday night was our first Bay Area Add-ons Meetup since starting the group, and we had a great turn out (around 40 people) with lots of interest from both existing add-on developers and folks interested in add-ons. Based on feedback from our meetups across the country over the last few months, we decided to try out an informal style of a panel of Nick Nguyen and myself talking about what’s currently happening with add-ons and AMO, followed by Q&A on any topic.

Before and after, there was plenty of time for socialization with the attendees and the feedback so far has been that the panel and Q&A was very informative, and we enjoyed our opportunities to talk with add-on developers one-on-one and listen to their concerns. We’re hoping to start having these meetups every other month, so make sure to join our group to be the first to know about the next one.

Picture from the event

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Reminder: Bay Area Add-ons Meetup tomorrow

Monday, October 26th, 2009

As a quick reminder, our rescheduled Bay Area Add-ons Meetup is tomorrow night at 7pm at Mozilla HQ in Mountain View, California. Stop by to talk about add-ons (and get free sushi!). Please RSVP if you plan on coming.

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Announcing the Add-on Compatibility Reporter

Thursday, October 22nd, 2009

Weeks before every Firefox release comes a huge effort from Mozilla encouraging add-on developers to make sure their extensions and themes are updated to work with the upcoming version. This often results in a last-minute rush of submissions right when the new version of Firefox and Thunderbird are released.

As an experiment in ways to get users and developers involved with this process sooner, we’ve created the Add-on Compatibility Reporter, an add-on for Firefox and Thunderbird that allows testers to report compatibility information to Mozilla.

After installing the add-on, users will be able to use any incompatible add-ons they have installed and report back to us on whether the add-ons still work like they did in previous versions or are having some issues.

Screenshot of the Add-on Compatibility Reporter

Add-on developers can then browse the reports submitted for their add-ons, even if the add-on isn’t hosted on Mozilla Add-ons. We’ll also be monitoring the report submissions and emailing developers when we have information as to whether their add-on might be compatible or incompatible with an upcoming Firefox release.

So, if you’re an alpha or beta tester of Firefox or Thunderbird and want to help make sure your add-ons are compatible for the final release, grab the Add-on Compatibility Reporter now!

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Posted in compatibility, developers | 18 Comments »

Bay Area Add-ons Meetup next Tuesday

Monday, October 19th, 2009

We canceled last week’s Add-ons Meetup due to bad weather in the area, but have rescheduled it for next Tuesday, October 27. If you’ll be in the Mountain View area next Tuesday, please RSVP and stop by for free food and add-ons discussion!

For more information on the event, see our meetup page.

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Bay Area Add-ons Meetup Group

Friday, October 2nd, 2009

Our last San Francisco Bay Area meetup in May was very successful, with great turnout and positive feedback afterwards. Since then, we’ve had a number of meetups across the United States and learned a lot about what developers are interested in talking about.

Based on that, we thought a recurring meetup group here in the Bay Area where add-on developers and enthusiasts can talk about the issues they face and get answers to their questions would be extremely helpful. We’ve started up the Bay Area Add-ons Meetup Group and will have regular gatherings.

The first of these is coming up on October 13 at Mozilla’s new office in Mountain View. Rather than the previous meetup style of presentations, these meetups will be very informal, with lots of time for networking, Q & A, and discussions. We may have one very short presentation at the beginning to kick things off, but after that the attendees will set the agenda for what happens.

If you’re interested in coming, please RSVP at meetup.com. If you’re in the Bay Area and are interested in add-ons but can’t make this one, you can join the group to be notified when we plan the next one. We’re looking forward to seeing everyone in less than two weeks!

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