Chrome extensions soon on Firefox
Mozilla announced the new APIs for Firefox extensions, quite similar to those used on Chrome and Microsoft Edge. This means that carry out its port will be extremely simple.
Mozilla Firefox is expected ” big changes ” in the near future, and to announce it is the same company. The company is replacing the API extensions for the browser with a new version called WebExtensions, a lot more similar to the system used on Chrome and Opera. The goal is to ensure the interoperability of different extensions between multiple browsers.
In practice, we can quickly use Firefox on the many Chrome extensions, and vice versa. The big change will of course be accompanied by additional work required, at least initially, to developers of extensions for Firefox, which will have to adapt their existing jobs to new API WebExtensions. This also in view of the debut of Electrolysis, the new version faster and more secure than Firefox.
With Electrolys, browser activity will be divided into multiple jobs, with the aim of reducing the system’s exposure to possible malware and malicious downloads. Developers will need to make the changes and ensure that these are in line with the directives of Mozilla, and as of September 22 with the release of Firefox 41, all extensions will be evaluated and certified by the same company.
In the past, Mozilla has used a kind of blacklist to prevent the installation of malware disguised as extensions, but the system has been repeatedly ineffective. And that’s why it was decided to process more drastic, with contents that must first pass the scrutiny of the company in order to be accepted and published.
The new APIs WebExtensions are compatible with Blink, so it will be easy to port between the various popular browsers (Chrome, Opera, Firefox and Microsoft Edge). The company announced the news well in advance to give developers the opportunity and time to make the necessary modifications, since the WebExtensions will not be built before December.
Firefox 43 will the version of the browser to implement the new API. His debut is scheduled for December 15, with extensions do not change they will continue to work only for the next six months. Out of the term, the company will make them incompatible, eliminating any support. The big news establish the permanent abandonment of XUL and XPCOM technologies used on Firefox, with their support that will end within the next 12 to 18 months.
