I think maybe the confusion here is how an xpi is installed by firefox.
If so just an overview:
- When firefox installs an xpi(extension) it gets unpaked into the user
profile ./extensions directory, on windows this is something like
c:\Documents and Settings\Admin|\Application
Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\XXXNNNXXN.default\extensions\ExtensionName.
Firefox does not use the windows registry to find/use extensions in a
normal scenario as far as I know.
- For firefox you need to install an xpi from a https server or the xpi
must be signed otherwise the install will fail. These things supposedly
make extensions safer to install.
- On firefox startup the users extensions directory is scanned for
extensions and those found get registered/used if the extension is
compatible.
- The xpinstall docs are hard to follow/find and put together to get a
good sense of how it all works. It just takes a lot of poking around.
Hope that helps
can wrote:
Neil wrote:
Yes, but once you agree to the install it then goes and unpacks it
into your extensions folder so that it can actually use it.
Please forgive me if I'm missing something, but I don't see the point
you are making. What I had in mind was that Firefox could do this
very same thing when it sees a new .xpi to load in the registry.
Perhaps the Mozilla people see there is some security worry with this
approach, but I don't see it. They could add the same warning that is
there in the File->Open interface. (Though I'm not certain this is
absolutely necessary since the Windows Registry can't get modified
without user approval anyway.) Besides, this is how Java handles .jar
files. In fact, since my last response to this thread, I realized
that the reason I ran into confusion in the first place probably has
to do with expectations set from using Java. (This is no excuse for
misreading instructions of course, just an observation.)
Maybe the root problem here is that I don't fully understand the
Mozilla vision of the install process. So if don't mind, I'd like to
take a step back and ask an even more basic question.
<???>
What is the "best" way to distribute and install Firefox extension
from a third-party server? I looked around for this, and the best
instructions I found were on that "Install from Registry" page I
cited. Can you point me to a better source?
</???>
I know that it is possible to distribute a third-party extension
through the Mozilla site (Tools -> Add Ons...) Maybe some day I'll
want to do this. But for now, (a) I don't know how one goes about
putting one's extension up on
the Mozilla download site, and (b) even if I did, I probably would
still want to be able to distribute the extension from a
third-party server.
I also have read that one can distribute an installer that copies
files to Firefox extensions directory. In principle, this is
clean and straightforward, but one has to worry about getting registry
strings right for cases where Firefox was not installed to the default
path. It seems more desirable to use an install mechanism that is
managed entirely by Firefox itself.
I actually have a guess about this now that I know about the
File->Open... install method. (I am going to give it a try unless
someone on this list tells me it won't work.) Maybe all I have to do
is get the mime type right on the server and then the extension will
be installed if the user selects "Open" during the download.
Please remember I am new to all this. I get the feeling that there is
some overview document that I have failed to find. If anyone knows of
such a thing, please feel free to point me to it.
Thanks,
can
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