Could a usability change to AMO increase the percentage of compatible add-ons?
I finally got around to updating my add-on that I created last year so it can be used in Firefox 3.5. After finishing the process, I was left asking myself, could a usability change to AMO increase the percentage of compatible add-ons ready for the next release of Firefox?
After going through the process, I’ll say that the https://addons.mozilla.org (AMO) team has done a bang-up job with the developer tools. Take a look if you haven’t already. I took most interest in the stats about downloads and daily usage of my add-on. Those figures have driven me to make my add-on better.
So, here is an opinion on the update experience. Without trying to be annoying, I found the compatibility update might have taken a few too many clicks into the developer tools page. Hoping to update quickly, I entered the developer tools section and then went to “Use New Tools” page pictured right below.
I actually clicked on each of the options that you see above to see how to update. Keep in mind that this is before I read the AMO documentation…someone happened to tell me I could do it through developer tools and I just went there to do it. Eventually, I was able to update the add-on by clicking on its version number (in my case it was 1.0.). From there, I changed the drop down option to 3.1b4pre. You can see that “Compatible Applications” interface below:
Now, It’s very likely that I am the problem here and not the usability of the site. Let’s not rule that out.
But, I got to thinking. It seems that updating compatibility of add-ons is an ongoing challenge that the AMO team faces during each release cycle. This MDC link shows how things have changed and users can log into AMO to update. And, here is a post that describes how addon compatibility will occur for the renaming of Firefox 3.1 to Firefox 3.5. More and more blog posts will come along about getting ready for Firefox 3.5. It’s an important goal for AMO.
But, because I had to click around so much, I started to wonder if we should feature the ability to update compatibility more prominently on the developer dashboard. Sometimes unsolicited advice can be a bit obnoxious, but I sketched a potential change to that developer tools front page. (I also filed this bug for AMO developers to consider.) The drawing is oh-so-simple, but take a look:
My theory is that if we featured this prominently up front, then a subset of add-on developers would update more quickly in advance of each new release. I don’t know how many have zero code changes from release to release, but it’s probably a sizable number. The ability to quickly update compatibility would allow add-on creators to get their users beta testing that much faster. And, perhaps our percentage of compatible add-ons at the time of release of Firefox would go up.
I realize this update took me a while. But, I procrastinated updating the <em:maxVersion [Firefox_Version_number]</em:maxVersion> found in the install.rdf file. Naively, I thought I would have to repeatedly upload an update of my add-on to AMO every time the version number changed for Firefox 3.1 (i.e. ff3.1b1pre, ff3.1b2pre, etc.). I guess I was reading outdated documentation from Firefox 3.0 days and I didn’t know that I could update the add-on straight from the developer tools inside AMO. Mea culpa.
I thought about all this over the weekend because it’s been bugging me that my add-on is out-of-date and incomplete. Then, I learned how to update. Sometime soon, I hope to make it more complete for the release of Firefox 3.5 by preparing it for localization, creating icons that look good on a Linux and Windows, and providing appropriately sized icons for those who use small icons in their browser UI.
For reference, here is the a post I wrote a year ago about writing my addon.
How about:
“Mark Add-on as compatible with Firefox 3.1b3.”