Developing add-ons for Firefox Mobile is still an experimental feature of the SDK. Although the SDK modules used are stable, the setup instructions and cfx commands are likely to change.
To follow this tutorial you'll need to have installed the SDK and learned the basics of cfx
.
Firefox for Android implements its UI using native Android widgets instead of XUL. With the add-on SDK you can develop add-ons that run on this new version of Firefox Mobile as well as on the desktop version of Firefox.
You can use the same code to target both desktop Firefox and Firefox Mobile, and just specify some extra options to cfx run
, cfx test
, and cfx xpi
when targeting Firefox Mobile.
Right now not all modules are fully functional, but we're working on adding support for more modules. The tables at the end of this guide list the modules that are currently supported on Firefox Mobile.
This tutorial explains how to run SDK add-ons on an Android device connected via USB to your development machine. We'll use the Android Debug Bridge (adb) to communicate between the Add-on SDK and the device.
It's possible to use the Android emulator to develop add-ons for Android without access to a device, but it's slow, so for the time being it's much easier to use the technique described below.
Setting up the Environment
First you'll need an Android device capable of running the native version of Firefox Mobile. Then:
- install the Nightly build of the native version of Firefox Mobile on the device.
- enable USB debugging on the device (step 3 of this link only)
On the development machine:
- install version 1.5 or higher of the Add-on SDK
- install the correct version of the Android SDK for your device
- using the Android SDK, install the Android Platform Tools
Next, attach the device to the development machine via USB.
Now open up a command shell. Android Platform Tools will have installed adb
in the "platform-tools" directory under the directory in which you installed the Android SDK. Make sure the "platform-tools" directory is in your path. Then type:
adb devices
You should see some output like:
List of devices attached 51800F220F01564 device
(The long hex string will be different.)
If you do, then adb
has found your device and you can get started.
Running Add-ons on Android
You can develop your add-on as normal, as long as you restrict yourself to the supported modules.
When you need to run the add-on, first ensure that Firefox is not running on the device. Then execute cfx run
with some extra options:
cfx run -a fennec-on-device -b /path/to/adb --mobile-app fennec --force-mobile
See "cfx Options for Mobile Development" for the details of this command.
In the command shell, you should see something like:
Launching mobile application with intent name org.mozilla.fennec Pushing the addon to your device Starting: Intent { act=android.activity.MAIN cmp=org.mozilla.fennec/.App (has extras) } --------- beginning of /dev/log/main --------- beginning of /dev/log/system Could not read chrome manifest 'file:///data/data/org.mozilla.fennec/chrome.manifest'. info: starting info: starting zerdatime 1329258528988 - browser chrome startup finished.
This will be followed by lots of debug output.
On the device, you should see Firefox launch with your add-on installed.
console.log()
output from your add-on is written to the command shell, just as it is in desktop development. However, because there's a lot of other debug output in the shell, it's not easy to follow. The command adb logcat
prints adb
's log, so you can filter the debug output after running the add-on. For example, on Mac OS X or Linux you can use a command like the below to filter only the lines of console output:
adb logcat | grep console
You can experiment with different filter strings on adb logcat
to focus in on the lines relevant to you.
Running cfx test
is identical:
cfx test -a fennec-on-device -b /path/to/adb --mobile-app fennec --force-mobile
cfx Options for Mobile Development
As you see in the quote above, cfx run
and cfx test
need four options to work on Android devices.
-a fennec-on-device |
This tells the Add-on SDK which application will host the add-on, and should be set to "fennec-on-device" when running an add-on on Firefox Mobile on a device. |
-b /path/to/adb |
As we've seen, You need to supply the full path to the |
--mobile-app |
This is the name of the Android intent. Its value depends on the version of Firefox Mobile that you're running on the device:
If you're not sure, run a command like this (on OS X/Linux, or the equivalent on Windows): adb shell pm list packages | grep mozilla You should see "package" followed by "org.mozilla." followed by a string. The final string is the name you need to use. For example, if you see: package:org.mozilla.fennec ...then you need to specify: --mobile-app fennec This option is not required if you have only one Firefox application installed on the device. |
--force-mobile |
This is used to force compatibility with Firefox Mobile, and should always be used when running on Firefox Mobile. |
Packaging Mobile Add-ons
To package a mobile add-on as an XPI, use the command:
cfx xpi --force-mobile
Actually installing the XPI on the device is a little tricky. The easiest way is probably to copy the XPI somewhere on the device:
adb push my-addon.xpi /mnt/sdcard/
Then open Firefox Mobile and type this into the address bar:
file:///mnt/sdcard/my-addon.xpi
The browser should open the XPI and ask if you want to install it.
Afterwards you can delete it using adb
as follows:
adb shell cd /mnt/sdcard rm my-addon.xpi
Module Compatibility
Modules not supported in Firefox Mobile are marked in the tables below.
High-Level APIs
addon-page | Not supported |
base64 | Supported |
clipboard | Not supported |
context-menu | Not supported |
hotkeys | Supported |
indexed-db | Supported |
l10n | Supported |
notifications | Supported |
page-mod | Supported |
page-worker | Supported |
panel | Not supported |
passwords | Supported |
private-browsing | Not supported |
querystring | Supported |
request | Supported |
selection | Not supported |
self | Supported |
simple-prefs | Supported |
simple-storage | Supported |
system | Supported |
tabs | Supported |
timers | Supported |
ui | Not supported |
url | Supported |
widget | Not supported |
windows | Supported |
Low-Level APIs
loader | Supported |
chrome | Supported |
console/plain-text | Supported |
console/traceback | Supported |
content/content | Supported |
content/loader | Supported |
content/mod | Supported |
content/worker | Supported |
core/heritage | Supported |
core/namespace | Supported |
core/promise | Supported |
event/core | Supported |
event/target | Supported |
frame/hidden-frame | Supported |
frame/utils | Supported |
io/byte-streams | Supported |
io/file | Supported |
io/text-streams | Supported |
lang/functional | Supported |
lang/type | Supported |
loader/cuddlefish | Supported |
loader/sandbox | Supported |
net/url | Supported |
net/xhr | Supported |
places/bookmarks | Not supported |
places/favicon | Not supported |
places/history | Not supported |
platform/xpcom | Supported |
preferences/service | Supported |
stylesheet/style | Supported |
stylesheet/utils | Supported |
system/environment | Supported |
system/events | Supported |
system/globals | Supported |
system/runtime | Supported |
system/unload | Supported |
system/xul-app | Supported |
tabs/utils | Supported |
test/assert | Supported |
test/harness | Supported |
test/httpd | Supported |
test/runner | Supported |
test/utils | Supported |
ui/button/action | Not supported |
ui/button/toggle | Not supported |
ui/frame | Not supported |
ui/id | Supported |
ui/sidebar | Not supported |
ui/toolbar | Not supported |
util/array | Supported |
util/collection | Supported |
util/deprecate | Supported |
util/list | Supported |
util/match-pattern | Supported |
util/object | Supported |
util/uuid | Supported |
window/utils | Supported |