SeaMonkey 2.0 has been out for a while, and it’s time for add-on developers to give it some love. If your add-on already works on earlier versions of SeaMonkey, you should update your add-on’s compatibility as soon as you can. If not, this is a good time to consider adding SeaMonkey compatibility and increasing your usage numbers .

SeaMonkey 2 is a big improvement from previous releases in terms of add-on support, and Firefox extension developers will find that it’s easy, sometimes trivial, to add support for SeaMonkey in their extensions. It only took me a couple of hours to add SeaMonkey support to my own add-on (a new version in development at the moment), and this is a fairly complex extension I’m referring to. Well, that plus a few hours making an important contribution to make it possible to port it .

If you’re curious about SeaMonkey extension support, this article at MDC is the place to go to: https://developer.mozilla.org/en/Extensions_support_in_SeaMonkey_2

Happy coding!

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The add-on review queues are normally very busy during update times, so you should follow these guidelines to make sure your add-on stays up to date and doesn’t have to wait too long for a review:

1. Visit Firefox 3.6 for developers and read all about the changes that have been introduced in Firefox 3.6. Some additional information for theme authors is available in this forum topic.
2. Test your add-on with the final release of 3.6 and see if there are any compatibility problems. Most add-ons should be fine.
3. If the current version of your add-on doesn’t show any compatibility issues, you don’t need to upload a new version. Visit the Developer Hub: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/developers/ and change the “max version” value in the latest version of your add-on (it’s in the Versions and Files section). That’s all it takes. Make sure to set your max version to 3.6.*.
4. If you need to update your add-on for 3.6, submit your update as soon as possible. There will be an update rush happening soon, and it will probably take a while for the AMO editor team to catch up.

Also, if you have binary components, some important changes have been made to the C API which might affect your add-ons. Make sure you build your add-on against the newest SDK, which is version 1.9.2. The new SDK should be available in the Gecko SDK page.

If you have any questions or comments, don’t hesitate to post here, or at the new AMO forum.

Happy coding!

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Beta Channels

Our add-ons platform has been around for years, and there are quite a few add-ons which could be considered software products in and of themselves.  Naturally, this means that many users expect a high level of stability and polish from their add-ons, while others are willing to live life on the edge to get to the latest pre-release add-ons.  With Beta Channels, add-on developers can release beta or prerelease versions of their add-ons without pushing updates to their entire user base.  Unlike experimental add-ons, beta channels provide automatic updates to users who install a beta version.  Beta add-ons are unreviewed and can only comprise up to 20% of your total active user population.  For more on how to use this feature, visit our Documentation page on the Developer Hub.

Get Satisfaction

Providing support for your users is both important and not always easy.  Now, thanks to Get Satisfaction, you can integrate your support communities directly in AMO.  With a free Get Satisfaction account you can create a community where you can easily keep track of your user’s problems, get feedback, and empower your community to help each other for support problems.  Simply sign for a free account, create your community and enter the pertinent information in your Developer Control Panel.

Localized Browse

We’re working to make the AMO experience better for the many add-ons users who don’t speak English.  Towards this end, we’ve created a filter for the browse pages so that you can restrict the view to only add-ons with a localized description for the selected locale.  Check out our listings of add-ons with German descriptions to see how this works.  We’re going to expand this feature to work on larger parts of the site, and this is a first step towards making add-ons more accessible to the non English speaking world.

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Pledge Drives

Have you ever participated in a walkathon or donated to public radio?  If so, you’re familiar with the concept of a Pledge Drive, and we’re happy to report that developers can now post Pledge Drives for their add-ons.  Whether you’re trying to raise funds for a conference trip or want to turn off advertising in your add-on, you can set a pledge goal so users can have a hand in getting you there.  These pledge drives can be created from the Developer Control Panel and you can use your About Page to let your users know post-install.  Please note that you don’t have to use your About Page as a First Run page, and you can elect to show it only to users who have been using your add-on for a reasonable period.

Subscriptions

We’ve added a new option to the existing Contributions flow, so users can now elect to provide a regular monthly contribution for 12 months.  They’ll be automatically presented with this option when clicking the “Contribute” button on the Add-on listing and Meet the Developer pages.  We’ve also added a comment box so developers can hear directly from their loyal users.

Finally, for those of you receiving contributions, please consider sending a thank you note to your donors to thank them for their help.  It’s a small thing but will go a long way towards helping your users know that they made a difference.

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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.

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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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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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.

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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Add-on Recommendations

Some things go great together: peanut butter and jelly, popcorn and movies, Firebug and YSlow. Starting today, when you’re looking at an add-on’s listing, you’ll see several other add-ons that are often used together. We base these recommendations on the add-ons our users have grouped together in collections.

Contributions

Last month we launched our Contributions pilot, a way for add-on authors to accept monetary donations from users of their add-ons. We’ve gotten great feedback from users and developers, and are now expanding the reach of contributions on AMO. Add-ons that have turned on Contributions will now have contribution boxes in search results and category browse listings, where many installations take place.

While these new boxes help surface the existence of contributions, some users aren’t likely to make a donation without first testing the add-on to ensure it’s useful to them. With this release, developers have a new way to accept donations after a user has tried the add-on by simply pointing users to their add-on’s new about page.

Collections

Since the launch of Collections in June, add-on fans have created almost 30,000 collections, resulting in more than 6.5 million add-on downloads. This release includes many new features to make Collections even more useful.

Logged-in users can now rate collections and sort by those ratings to help the best collections bubble to the top.

To help determine the popularity of a collection, authors can now access a collection statistics dashboard that shows information on the number of subscribers, ratings, and downloads over time.

We’ve also added a treat for users of browsers that support localStorage (including Firefox 3.5): recently viewed collections. When browsing through the collection directory, users can now easily get back to a collection they saw, without having to log in.

Public Stats

In early 2008, we gave add-on developers their first look at the shiny new Statistics Dashboard for each add-on hosted on AMO. Currently some dashboards are public and some are private, but we’ve never offered an in-depth look at the aggregate statistics for all add-ons hosted on AMO.
Today we’ve launched a detailed view of AMO as a whole, with data on add-ons, downloads, active users, users, reviews, and collections. Go on, check it out!

Add-on Validation

Earlier this month, we announced the arrival of the new add-on verification suite on AMO. At the time it was an optional tool developers could choose to run for their files. With this release, the tool will automatically be run when uploading a new file, and the results of the tests will affect the submission process. Editors will see the test results and any flags when reviewing the add-on. We hope to help developers catch common problems before an editor’s review.

We’d like to extend a huge thanks to the Web developers and testers who have contributed their time and talent to this release.

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Today’s release includes a pilot of a feature we’re calling “Contributions”. This pilot allows developers to request an optional dollar amount for their Firefox Add-on. Along with requesting this amount, we’re helping developers tell their stories with our new “About the Developer” pages, which explain to prospective contributors the motivations for creating an add-on and its future road map. Since contributions are completely optional, users will have ample time to evaluate an add-on to determine whether or not they want to help a developer.

Since this is the first time we’re presenting this opportunity, we’re treating this initial launch as a pilot. Our aim with this pilot is to help support a growing ecosystem by providing our users with the opportunity to support their favorite add-on developers. We’re asking for feedback from our community to drive the future of this pilot and we look forward to learning as much as we can. We’ll be working with PayPal on this pilot to provide a secure and international solution for facilitating payments.

We’re incredibly excited about the potential of Contributions and hope it makes a meaningful difference in the lives of developers and users alike. As always, we’ll be evaluating this pilot as we receive feedback and making changes based on that feedback. Please let us know via the AMO newsgroup if you have ideas or thoughts to share. We’ve also put together this brief FAQ on Contributions:

How will payments work?

We are working with PayPal on this pilot to provide a secure and international solution for facilitating payments. Developers can optionally create a PayPal ID for each of their Firefox Add-ons. Users will be presented with a “Contribute” button that gives them the option of paying the suggested amount or a different amount.

Does Mozilla earn a percentage from Contributions?

For this pilot, Mozilla will not earn a percentage of any contributions made by users. Developers will receive all the proceeds from contributions minus the PayPal transaction fee.

How do I set this up for my Add-on?

In the Developer Tools for your add-on, you will see two new sections for setting up Contributions and your Developer Profile.

I plan on requesting a small amount, what can I do about the transaction fees?

PayPal supports a micropayments fee structure which reduces the transaction fees for payments under $12. You can create a separate PayPal account for any add-ons where the requested amount is under $12. For more, visit PayPal’s Micropayments site.

Are Contributions optional?

Contributions are always optional. Developers have a variety of ways to present the contribution, some of which do include an interstitial page before downloading, but at no point are payments required for a download.

Why did you create multiple options for presenting the “Contribute” button?

Based on feedback from our developer community, we wanted to use this pilot to give developers a choice of ways to present this option to their users. Based on what we learn, we may change or remove some options.

Why did you call this “Contributions” and not “Donations”?

At Mozilla, we use the word “Contributor” for community members who contribute time and energy to our mission of promoting choice and innovation on the Internet. Our goal is that users who contribute money to developers are supporting the future of a particular add-on, as opposed to donating for something already received.

For the pilot, all contribution amounts will be specified in USD. However, users worldwide will be able to contribute in local currency via PayPal.

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Today, we’re excited to introduce a new feature to our website that will expose the niche add-ons that can be hard to find, and gives users a more active role in helping outstanding add-ons bubble to the top. One thing we’ve learned as add-ons have grown in popularity over the years is that once a user finds an add-on they love, they become a fan for life. We see this all the time as people recommend add-ons to their friends and write great reviews. And we’re very happy to see so many bloggers writing about lists of their favorite add-ons.

We’ve created a short video demonstration to introduce this new feature:

Add-on Collections

In November, we launched Fashion Your Firefox, which was a collection of add-ons that we felt were great for a novice user just getting started with customizing their browser. Now, we’d like to take it a step further and let anyone create their own collection of add-ons that can be shared with their friends, posted on blogs, and featured on the Firefox Add-ons website.

Starting today, visitors to the add-ons website will see a brand new look with collections of add-ons front and center. We’ve integrated collections throughout the site, and created a Collection Directory that showcases all of the add-on lists created by our users. There are a number of Mozilla-created collections that are featured throughout the site, but we hope to replace these with useful community-created collections in the near future. If you find a collection you like, logged-in users can mark it as a favorite to easily get back to it later.

Creating a collection of your own is as easy as giving it a name, like “Ken’s Favorite Data Analysis Extensions” or “Halloween Themes”, and choosing what add-ons you’d like in the collection. It will then show up in the directory, and can be sent to your friends or linked in your blog. The more people add it as a favorite, the higher it will be ranked.

Staying up-to-date

There are a lot of add-ons out there, so finding a collection related to a topic you’re interested in will be a huge time-saver. But what if you want to subscribe to that collection so that you find out when new add-ons are published to it? You can subscribe to a collection via RSS, or you can install the Add-on Collector extension for Firefox. The Collector turns your favorite collections into subscriptions in your browser, where you’ll be notified as soon as new add-ons are published to one of your collections. The extension has a number of other features, including the ability to share an add-on you have installed with a friend by e-mail, publish an add-on to one of your collections, and set up a collection that is automatically kept up to date with your installed add-ons.

We’ve made video demos of creating a collection and setting up an auto-publisher collection to show how easy it is dive in to collections.

We hope that collections will make add-ons more social and encourage add-on users to be involved in the community. So, head on over to the Collection Directory to get started with collections and fashion Firefox the way you want it.

Note: There are currently some issues with logging in via the Add-on Collector extension. We hope to have these fixed Wednesday morning. Update: The Collector is now fixed and login should be working properly in version 1.0.2 of the extension.

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