Native applications (or users) can install extensions into Firefox by simply copying them into certain folders, as described in this document. (I call this the hot folder method of extension installation.) In that document, it is stated that:
No automatic updates will be performed for extensions installed in this way. Since the extension’s files are installed by an native tool, the application expects the native tool to handle performing updates.
I just tested this and found differently, that automatic updates are performed for extensions installed in this way. Steps to reproduce (in macOS 10.12)
- Remove prior installations of my extensions. (They are WebExtensions.)
- Relaunch Firefox twice, to ensure it has completely forgotten them.
- Reinstall my two extensions using the hot folder method. Specifically, I copied the two signed
.xpi
files to:
~/Library/Application Support/Firefox/Profiles/xxxxxxxx.default/extensions/
- Relaunch Firefox and approve the two installations.
- Uploaded updates of these two extensions to my server and indicated them in the associated update manifest.
Expected Result (based on that document): Updates should not occur.
Actual Result: After a couple hours and more relaunches (it seems caches needed to clear), my two Firefox extensions were updated.
Can someone please confirm that this document and not the behavior is wrong? I really like the behavior the way it is. If my native tool did the updating, user would probably be asked to approve the installation of each update on the next Firefox relaunch, which would be annoying. Also, the other method of natively installing an extension (opening a .xpi
file), although obvious, is not documented anywhere that I know of, and sometimes doesn’t work because the popover which should ask the user’s approval does not always appear.
(By the way, until yesterday the quoted paragraph was in small Note. I moved it to a separate paragraph and marked it as Important because, if it were true, it would be quite important.)