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#1

The alternative add-on recommendations feature on addons.mozilla.org (AMO) is intended to help ease the transition to WebExtensions add-ons in Firefox 57. The feature will work by showing users recommended replacements for legacy add-ons that do not make the transition. This feature won’t launch until some point close to Firefox 57, because we want to give legacy developers enough time to transition before showing alternative choices.

We’ve already begun compiling new WebExtensions add-ons in this page and mapping them to legacy add-ons they might replace. There’s been interest in the community to help with this effort, so we invite anyone who knows of other great WebExtensions content to please feel free to note them here in this thread. Myself or another admin will add appropriate titles as we go. Thanks in advance!

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Firefox 57 - useful WebExtensions and Legacy extensions alternatives
Where to suggest a replacement add-on for an old add-on?
#2

“New tab to about:home” is a good replacement for the legacy “New Tab Override (browser.newtab.url replacement)”. I think the author wanted to port it to a WebExtension but I did not see any work in this direction yet.

EDIT: Also Mobile Wikipedia (WebExtension) for m-wiki, Toggle Pin Tab for Pin Unpin Tab, all the translation ones can be a replacement for S3 Translator

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#3

There’s already a Reddit thread on this.

Also, I don’t see Cookie AutoDelete in that thread, so I’ll give a shoutout to my own extension as an alternative to Self Destructing Cookies :slight_smile:

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/cookie-autodelete/

9 Likes
Concern about WebExtensions exclusive strategy from add-on authors and users
#4

Good work Scott … sounds like a very good idea to help the Mozilla community with the transition :thumbsup:

Thank you for listing

As a possible alternative option to:

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/copy-plain-text/

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/copy-plain-text-2/

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/copy-as-plain-text/

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/rich-text-to-plain-text/

6 Likes
#5

May I also mention …

As a possible alternative option to:

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/google-image-search-1/

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/googlesearch-by-image/

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/search-by-image-by-google/

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/google-image-reverse-search/

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/search-images-on-google/

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/google-similar-images/

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/google-images-1/

7 Likes
#6

https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/text-link/
to
https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/text-link-we/

https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/sort-tabs/
to
https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/tab_wrangler/

In addition, I very hope you provide an editable document or web form to submit the proposals. As well as allowing the community to recommend alternatives / similar on AMO site is the best (like “In collections”), instead of the non-open review team to manage redirects, it doesn’t comply with the Mozilla spirit. The last, I expect someone willing set up a Github project to gather the proposals, discussions and awesome lists for WebExtensions alternatives.

5 Likes
#7

Scott is out on vacation, so I’m noting these down in the spreadsheet in his absence! The reason why we’re doing it this way is because programming for the recommendations will be done manually. So compiling them from suggestions we’re getting from various sources into one document will help us organize them and not miss anything. We’ll see how it works in the next few weeks, and can make adjustments to the process if it doesn’t work well.

2 Likes
#8

I’m not a developer. Apologies if I’ve missed or misunderstood something.

Some developers may be in the process of porting their extensions. My understanding is that in order to port their addon’s data from legacy to webextension they will need to be hybrid for at least one version [of their addon].

Doesn’t this mean that in most legacy-to-webextension situations the developer is likely to hold off switching to a full webextension version until the last possible moment (the end of 56) to ensure that as many of their users are updated?

Perhaps it would be good to get a good poll of developers who intend to port for 57. Notably this would prevent us from recommending webextensions for them.
Or at least, deprioritize finding (or creating?) alternatives (in case they didn’t come through in time).

1 Like
#9

The process would be exactly the same if they did it in FF50

They dont have to wait for FF56 to change over. In fact it is better to do it sooner to iron out issues.
Unless, they are waiting for an API that is not currently available.

1 Like
#10

Add-ons that store custom data and need to migrate it are probably in the minority.

Some may do that, but they also need to balance it with their users complaining about a WebExtensions version, and the add-on potentially breaking because of the compatibility changes happening in 55 and 56. There’s a statistics dashboard where developers can see the popularity of different versions, which should give them a good idea of user migration.

We have a very good idea of who is or isn’t migrating, at least among the top add-ons. Since these lists are hand-curated, there’s only so much we can do for the long tail.

1 Like
#11

I’d like to recommend User Agent Switcher as an alternative to User Agent Overrider.
This also has the blessings of the original UAO devleoper.

Obviously I’m the developer of uaswitcher. :laughing:

1 Like
#12

Q: I’m also maintaining another extension which is not a complete WebExtension yet (b/c it contains a settings migration shim). Will AMO start suggestings “alternatives” for this until we upload a version without the shim?

@Caspy7: From a developers perspective I can tell you that, at least our users, were OK with us keeping the shim around however long we want, as long as we make sure that we push the update (without the shim) in time before 57 finds its way onto their devices. :slightly_smiling_face:

1 Like
#13

Recommended alternatives at addons.mozilla.org

– closed on 2017-07-13, verified fixed 2017-07-21.

@eviljeff please, when might we begin to see recommendations?

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#14

If SAML Message Decoder gets a review soon, it would be a very good replacement for SAML Tracker.

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#15

We’ll start adding recommendations soon. After that, it needs to be enabled in the Add-ons Manager, which is up to the Firefox team, but should also happen soon thereafter.

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#16

Thanks; cross reference https://blog.mozilla.org/addons/2017/08/10/upcoming-changes-compatibility/#comment-224134 under today’s Upcoming Changes in Compatibility Features | Mozilla Add-ons Blog

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#17

The WebExtension version will be released in a few days. So there is no need to suggest alternatives to New Tab Override because the WebExtension will be available very soon. :wink:

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#18

In a few days = today :smiley:

I uploaded the update to AMO a few minutes ago. Now waiting for review. :wink:

Here you can find more information:

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#19

Nice! I cannot see v7. You can provide an unlisted signed version with another UUID for power users like me that want to test it out :smiley: That is if it takes too long to review.

If I ever want a feature I will contribute to your extension instead of maintaining mine.

3 Likes
#20

You can find an unsigned version here:
https://github.com/cadeyrn/newtaboverride/raw/master/dist/new_tab_override-7.0.0.xpi

You have to use about:debugging to load it temporarily or you have to use a pre-release version of Firefox and to disable the signature to test it. I don’t want to create a unlisted version with another ID because I hope the review won’t take too much time. :wink:

It would be great to see contributions, I accept pull requests! :smiley:

2 Likes