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Let Older Add-Ons Work With Firefox 3.0

Posted by kdawson on from the not-for-the-faint-of-heart dept.

mask.of.sanity informs us of a hack that allows old add-ons to work with Firefox 3.0. Short form: in about:config, create a new boolean and set extensions.checkCompatibility to false. "The fix, which requires a little boolean creativity, great for anyone not afraid of taking risks. The idea is to stop Firefox checking its version history, allowing defunct extensions to work... [Those who do] get the fix working will have to remove the code from the prefs.js file once the stable Firefox comes out, but will enjoy their [favorite extensions] in the meantime."

4 of 164 comments (clear)

  1. Do not do this by amake · · Score: 5, Informative
    Not only is this not news, but it's a bad idea. Straight from the horse's mouth:

    You can not make your extensions compatible by changing a Firefox preference. So don't do it unless you're fully prepared to deal with major breakage!
    1. Re:Do not do this by GigaplexNZ · · Score: 5, Informative

      Odd, IE Tab is working fine here on FF 3 RC 1 without any modifications. That said, I find a safer way to get your favourite extensions working is to edit the version number in install.rdf which is inside the .xpi file (xpi is just a renamed zip file). That way when the extension updates normally, the hack doesn't stick around ready to break something later.

  2. Nightly Tester Tools by DemonThing · · Score: 5, Informative

    This addon lets you selectively override addons' compatibility, among other things.

    This extension adds a few extras useful to those that regularly test nightly builds of Firefox, Thunderbird, Sunbird and Toolkit Seamonkey (Suiterunner).

    The following is a brief list of the extension's features, for the full set of features please visit the extension home page.

    • Extension compatibility fixing
    • Titlebar customisation
    • Build ID retrieval
    • Screenshots
    • Breakpad information
    • Restoring tabs from previous session
    • Leak log analysis
  3. Re:A bit less strict disabling rules, please by maxume · · Score: 5, Informative

    There is a goal inside of Mozilla not to break extension compatibility for minor releases, and the documentation on their website suggests using maxVersion of the form 2.0.0.* for Firefox 2:

    http://developer.mozilla.org/en/docs/Updating_extensions_for_Firefox_2#Step_1:_Update_the_install_manifest

    For Firefox 3, they suggest moving to the form 3.0.*:

    http://developer.mozilla.org/en/docs/Updating_extensions_for_Firefox_3#Step_1:_Update_the_install_manifest

    So no, devs aren't breaking any rules when they mark their extension as being forward compatible.

    --
    Nerd rage is the funniest rage.