Archive for the ‘developers’ Category

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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.

Posted in developers | No Comments »

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 »

Burning down the Add-on Review Queues

Friday, November 13th, 2009

A long standing problem with AMO have been the add-on review queues and waiting times.

For those unaware, we have a review system that all new add-ons and add-on updates have to go through before they are available to the general public. The system is a combination of automatic code analysis and manual code and feature testing. The manual side is handled by a dedicated team of volunteers, known as AMO Editors. We’re a small group that has had to handle a massive amount of work, specially since the release of Firefox 3.5. We had spent the last year catching up with the numerous new submissions and updates, and the numbers will only grow once 3.6 is out.

Just 2 months ago, the new add-on review queue had over 600 pending add-ons, and the update queue had more than 250. Both had several months of waiting times, and add-on authors were increasingly unsatisfied, with good reason. Many trivial or important updates have had to wait a long time before seeing the public, causing users to complain and give add-ons bad reviews for the slow reaction of their authors.  That’s just unfair to add-on authors, and we needed a solution.

I joined Mozilla recently with a very clear objective: to reduce the review queues back to a manageable size. I have helped implement several solutions that would improve the state of affairs, like posting detailed weekly queue reports in the AMO forums, and temporarily hiring professional add-on developers to help with the burden. We estimate that our current volunteer team is large enough to keep up with the inflow, so now we just need to reduce queue size down to our ideal waiting expectations (2 weeks for nominations and 1 week for updates). After that I hope we will regain stability.

I’m happy to announce that our efforts have paid off. The latest queue report indicates that we’re down to 301 nominations, and 120 updates. That’s half of what we had 2 months ago! Just last month we reviewed over a thousand files, and our pace is increasing every week. About half of our pending reviews are within our ideal waiting time frames, and many of the ones that have been waiting for longer require an admin review for various reasons. Things are looking great.

There’s still lots to do in order to improve add-on author experience, and that is an ongoing effort. I’ve received quite a few suggestions on how to improve the reports, and I hope to implement those soon. If you’re a developer and you have anything else you’d like help with, don’t hesitate to contact me :)

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Posted in developers | 7 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 »

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 »

MozCamp Chile & Hispanic Add-on Development

Thursday, October 8th, 2009

I’ve just returned from Santiago Chile, where MozCamp Chile and JRSL Chile were held. It is the first Mozilla event I’ve attended, so it was a great learning experience. I specially enjoyed the fact that it was a Hispanic event so I got to meet many members of the hispanic Mozilla communities. The participant list should be enough proof that the participation was numerous and diverse. Kudos to the event organizers and all the communities, you did a fantastic job in bringing all of this together.

I made a presentation titled AMO, Add-on Developers and Editors (PDF version). It’s a very brief overview on who I am, what’s going on with AMO in terms of helping developers, and the editor community, with a call to action to anyone interested in joining the group. I was happy to realize that there were many developers in the audience, and some showed interest in becoming editors. For all of those interested, I’d look into the Add-on Policies docs and the Editors wiki page. There was also interest in localizing the Developer Hub content, which I think is an awesome idea. Having good documentation in our language is an important step we need to take if we want to increase developer adoption in our countries (I live in Costa Rica).

There was a lot of excitement around the idea of holding events that are more development-centric, like the Mozilla Add-on Workshops. There are already plans to hold one in Perú this year, and another one some time early next year. I’ll definitely be keeping an eye on those.

Thanks again to all of you who made MozCamp Chile possible!

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Posted in developers, events | 1 Comment »

Add-on Review Process Redesign

Thursday, October 1st, 2009

Hello.

My name is Jorge Villalobos, and I’m the new (first, really) Add-ons Developer Relations Lead at Mozilla. I’ll be working on bringing the add-on developer community and Mozilla closer together. I have been an add-on developer for over 2 years, working on around a dozen add-ons during that time. I’ve worked on a few independent projects as well, Fire.fm being the most successful one, and the one I’m most proud of.

My initial focus in this role at Mozilla is to reduce the add-on review waiting times to a point where authors can have some certainty that their add-ons will be reviewed within a reasonable time frame. The current state of the queues is far from ideal, with the recent release of Firefox 3.5 being a big contributor to the rising tide of submissions. The queues are long, and add-on authors are not happy. I actually have a somewhat important update for Fire.fm waiting in the update queue, and I can’t help but feel a bit impatient about it.

To solve the queue situation, we are working on several solutions. We’re constantly looking for and introducing new editors to our team. We are working more closely with them to understand how they work and what their concerns are, and also to focus their efforts in the areas that have the greatest needs. We are attacking the queue problem from several different angles, some which will help us in the short term, and some which are more forward-looking, such as the one I’m introducing here.

We want to change how we handle add-on reviews, specially for updates. Our current system doesn’t handle well the fact that there are add-on authors that no longer need to have the constant scrutiny of the editor team, and don’t need to have their updates reviewed every single time. We think we need to introduce a trust factor into the process, that allows us to give more freedom of publication to authors that have proven themselves trustworthy. There are plenty of those, and I bet they are the most active authors on AMO. Reducing the amount of update reviews we give to trusted authors will give more time to our editors to focus on new add-on nominations and other updates, significantly reducing waiting times and making everybody happy.

I also cover some ideas for reviewing add-ons that are not extensions, which usually have longer waiting times when in reality they should be the easiest to check.

If you’re interested in the details, please read the proposal on Google Docs: Review Process Redesign Proposal. It’s very short, so it shouldn’t take more than a couple of minutes to read. You can take part in the discussion of the proposal in the mozilla.dev.amo newsgroup, or post a comment here. I’ll try to respond to all as time permits.

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Posted in developers, policy, releases | 12 Comments »

Add-on development just got easier

Tuesday, September 29th, 2009

We’re very excited to announce that we’ve just launched the Add-on Developer Hub (beta), the one-stop-shop for add-on developers to find out why they’d want to make an add-on, how to make an add-on, and manage their add-on listings.

Developer Hub Logo

Developer Hub

Back in May, we posted about our plans for a developer-focused website in response to feedback we received from add-on developers. The new Developer Hub has something for everyone — whether you’re just getting started or have already made twenty add-ons.

New documentation features of the Hub include:

  • Getting Started – an introduction to add-on development with links to important resources
  • How-to Library – tutorials, articles, videos, and walk-throughs on add-on development topics
  • API & Language Reference – official API and language references
  • Case Studies – stories of successful Firefox add-ons
  • Add-on Policies – all of our add-on policies in one up-to-date location
  • Search – search the best add-on development resources in one place: documentation, forums, newsgroups, reputable blog posts, and more

We’ve also introduced some new tools, with more planned for the coming months:

  • Add-on Builder – auto-generate add-on packaging by entering basic information and picking UI parts
  • Add-on Validator – add-ons can now be validated even if they’re not hosted on AMO

One of the most important goals of the new Hub is to bring the add-ons community closer together. With that in mind, the Hub features:

  • Add-ons Forum – interact with other add-on developers and get help
  • Newsletter – about:addons is our monthly newsletter
  • Developer News & Promos – relevant news and important information is now prominent throughout the Hub
  • Upcoming Events – find out when an add-on event is coming to your area

Developer Tools & News Feed

The tools developers use to submit and manage their add-ons on addons.mozilla.org are now part of the Developer Hub, and we’ve added a cool new way to stay up to date with what’s happening with your add-ons: the add-on news feed.

Any time something of note happens to an add-on, it is recorded in the news feed for the developer to see. This includes developer and editor actions like editing an add-on, submitting a new version, and approving a new version, but also includes user actions such as reviews and collections.

The news feed is available via RSS for one or all of your add-ons.

News feed screenshot

Search Revamp

As part of this release, we’ve also re-worked our AMO search engine from scratch to provide much more accurate results. This is a huge and much anticipated improvement, and will be covered in detail in a separate blog post.

A big thanks goes to everyone who made this release possible, from the developers, testers, and designers to those who helped review documentation and content.

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Posted in developers, documentation, releases | 10 Comments »

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