为Firefox 3升级扩展

英文原文取自于 https://developer.mozilla.org/en/docs/Extensions 这篇文章将对于那些想把他们的扩展在Firefox 3中正常运行的开发者提供一些有用的信息。

在进入主题之前，首先要提示一下：如果你的扩展所需要的唯一改变只是安装文件中的maxVersion信息，并且你的扩展所在的主机是addons.mozilla.org，事实上你不需要上传你的新的版本的扩展！只需要在AMO中使用开发者控制面板调整maxVersion。通过这种方式你可以避免你的扩展被再次审核。

第一步: 升级安装文件

第一步，当然，对于大多数的扩展也仅需要这一步——更新安装文件install.rdf，声明扩展兼容Firefox 3。

找到声明兼容的最大版本号的那一行（对于Firefox2，如下）：

 <em:maxVersion>2.0.*</em:maxVersion>

对于Firefox 3，如下:

 <em:maxVersion>3.0.*</em:maxVersion>

然后重新安装扩展。

注意，在Firefox3的本版号中没有额外的“.0”，所以请使用“3.0.*”，而非“3.0.0.*”。

There have been (and will continue to be) a number of API changes that will likely break some extensions. We're still working on compiling a complete list of these changes.

Add localizations to the install manifest

Firefox 3 supports new properties in the install manifest to specify localized descriptions. The old methods still work however the new allow Firefox to pick up the localizations even when the add-on is disabled and pending install. See Localizing extension descriptions for more details.

Step 2: 确保提供安全的更新

If you are hosting addons yourself and not on a secure add-on hosting provider like addons.mozilla.org then you must provide a secure method of updating your add-on. This will either involve hosting your updates on an SSL website, or using cryptographic keys to sign the update information. Read Securing Updates for more information.

Step 3: Deal with changed APIs

Several APIs have been changed in significant ways. The most significant of these, which will likely affect a large number of extensions, are:

DOM

将外部文档的节点插入当前文档之前,你必须使用 document.importNode() 从外部文档导入源节点,或者使用 document.adoptNode()导入源节点, 想要了解更多的 Node.ownerDocument 问题,请参考 W3C DOM FAQ.

即使你不执行导入动作,就执行插入外部文档中的节点.Firefox目前也不会报错(如果严格按标准执行,很多已有的网站都无法正常运行). 我们鼓励开发者严格按标准修改自己已有的不符合上述标准的代码.

Bookmarks & History

If your extension accesses bookmark or history data in any way, it will need substantial work to be compatible with Firefox 3. The old APIs for accessing this information have been replaced by the new Places architecture. See the Places migration guide for details on updating your existing extension to use the Places API.

Download Manager

The Download Manager API has changed slightly due to the transition from an RDF data store to using the Storage API. This should be a pretty easy transition to make. In addition, the API for monitoring download progress has changed to support multiple download manager listeners. See nsIDownloadManager, nsIDownloadProgressListener, and Monitoring downloads for more information.

Password Manager

If your extension accesses user login information using the Password Manager, it will need to be updated to use the new Login Manager API.

• The article Using nsILoginManager includes examples, including a demonstration of how to write your extension to work with both the Password Manager and the Login Manager, so it will work with both Firefox 3 and earlier versions.
• nsILoginInfo
• nsILoginManager

You can also override the built-in password manager storage if you want to provide your own password storage implementation in your extensions. See Creating a Login Manager storage module for details.

Popups (Menus, Context Menus, Tooltips and Panels)

The XUL Popup system was heavily modified in Firefox 3. The Popup system includes main menus, context menus and popup panels. A guide to using Popups has been created, detailing how the system works. One thing to note is that popup.showPopup has been deprecated in favor of new popup.openPopup and popup.openPopupAtScreen.

Autocomplete

The nsIAutoCompleteController interface's handleEnter() method has been changed to accept an argument that indicates whether the text was selected from the autocomplete popup or by the user pressing enter after typing text.

DOMParser

• When a DOMParser is instantiated, it inherits the calling code's principal and the documentURI and baseURI of the window the constructor came from.
• If the caller has UniversalXPConnect privileges, it can pass parameters to new DOMParser(). If fewer than three parameters are passed, the remaining parameters will default to null.
  • The first parameter is the principal to use; this overrides the default principal normally inherited.
  • The second parameter is the documentURI to use.
  • The third parameter is the baseURI to use.
• If you initialize a DOMParser using a contract, such as by calling createInstance(), and you don't call the DOMParser's init() method, attempting to initiate a parsing operation will automatically create and initialize the DOMParser with a null principal and null pointers for documentURI and baseURI.

Removed interfaces

The following interfaces were removed from Gecko 1.9, which drives Firefox 3. If your extension makes use of any of these, you'll need to update your code:

• nsIDOMPaintListener
• nsIDOMScrollListener
• nsIDOMMutationListener
• nsIDOMPageTransitionListener
• nsICloseAllWindows (see bug 386200)

Step 4: Check for relevant chrome changes

There has been a minor change to the chrome that may require changes in your code. A new vbox has been added, called "browser-bottombox", which encloses the find bar and status bar at the bottom of the browser window. Although this doesn't affect the appearance of the display, it may affect your extension if it overlays chrome relative to these elements.

For example, if you previously overlaid some chrome before the status bar, like this:

<window id="main-window">
  <something insertbefore="status-bar" />
</window>

You should now overlay it like this:

<vbox id="browser-bottombox">
  <something insertbefore="status-bar" />
</vbox>

Or use the following technique to make your overlay work on both Firefox 2 and Firefox 3:

<window id="main-window">
  <vbox id="browser-bottombox" insertbefore="status-bar">
    <something insertbefore="status-bar" />
  </vbox>
</window>

其他方面的修改

Add simple changes you had to make while updating your extension to work with Firefox 3 here.

• chrome://browser/base/utilityOverlay.js is no longer supported for security reasons. If you were previously using this, you should switch to chrome://browser/content/utilityOverlay.js.
• nsIAboutModule implementations are now required to support the getURIFlags method. See nsIAboutModule.idl for documentation. This affects extensions that provide new about: URIs. (bug 337746)
• The tabbrowser element is no longer part of "toolkit" (bug 339964). This means this element is no longer available to XUL applications and extensions. It continues to be used in the main Firefox window (browser.xul).
• Changes to nsISupports proxies and possibly to threading-related interfaces need to be documented.
• If you use XML processing instructions, such as <?xml-stylesheet ?> in your XUL files, be aware of the changes made in bug 319654:
  1. XML PIs are now added to a XUL document's DOM. This means document.firstChild is no longer guaranteed to be the root element. If you need to get the root document in your script, use document.documentElement instead.
  2. <?xml-stylesheet ?> and <?xul-overlay ?> processing instructions now have no effect outside the document prolog.
• window.addEventListener("load", myFunc, true) is not fired when loading web content (browser page loads). This is due to bug 296639 which changes the way inner and outer windows communicate. The simple fix here is to use gBrowser.addEventListener("load", myFunc, true) as described here and works in Firefox 2 as well.
• content.window.getSelection() gives an object (which can be converted to a string by toString()), unlike the now deprecated content.document.getSelection() which returns a string
• event.preventBubble() was deprecated in Firefox 2 and has been removed in Firefox 3. Use event.stopPropagation(), which works in Firefox 2 as well.
• Timers that are initiated using setTimeout() are now blocked by modal windows due to the fix made for bug 52209. You may use nsITimer instead.
• If your extension needs to allow an untrusted source (e.g., a web site) to access the extension's chrome, then you must use the new contentaccessible flag.