Developer of New Tab Override needs help

Add-ons Development
#1

Hi,

I am the developer of New Tab Override and I need your help.

The add-ons seems to work fine for most of my users but there are several reports since the release of version 3.1 that the settings UI is broken and no options can be set. I still get reports with the current version 4.0.1. In version 3.1 I changed the settings UI to an about:-page (about:newtaboverride), so there could be the culprit. There were no such reports in versions before 3.1.

My biggest problem is: I can’t reproduce the issue. I tested it on macOS Sierra and on Windows 10, with Firefox Stable and with Firefox Nightly, in my productive Firefox profiles and with new profiles. I really have no idea what the problem could be. But I want to fix it…

Here you can see a screenshot of the broken settings UI (from the latest error report).

newtab.png1920×1080 174 KB

You can find the source code here or download the add-on from AMO.

Please, can someone look into my add-on code and help me to fix this annoying bug? :frowning:

Thanks!

1 Like
#2

The only way I can “reproduce” the bug is if I navigate to a data: which contains the content of view-source:about:newtaboverride.

Do understainf d this correctly that you have a “dead” about: html page which you script and style with SDK content scripts? It seems those content scripts fail to ally for some reason.

#3

I use about: pages for all my addon interfaces as well because the URL is so clean.

I reproduced it. It works fine if I open in normal window, but if you open a private window, then go to the page you get this broken-ness - http://i.imgur.com/tboNhSE.png

Also if your history is set to “never remember” it also reproduces the issue:

ZQp2IuA.png918×729

A side note - There is some shiming that happens with some about pages. This bugzilla topic might have some useful info for you - https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1257201

2 Likes
#4

Ah, nice. So to wrap this up:

  • you rely on content script to bring your about:-page to life
  • since you haven’t set the "private-browsing" flag in the "permissions"❏ of your package.json, the content scripts won’t apply to private contexts.

So it seems the fix is to opt in to "private-browsing", with all it’s consequences.

2 Likes
#5

Thank you very much, noitidart and NilkasG! I never thought that the private browsing mode could cause this issue… :open_mouth:

Now I was able to reproduce the issue and to fix it. :slight_smile:

1 Like