1160851 - Make it easy for add-ons to add commands to GCLI

Status: RESOLVED INCOMPLETE

(DevTools Graveyard :: Graphic Commandline and Toolbar, defect)

Description

[Joe Walker [:jwalker]]

In and e10s world, post the addition of runAt support, adding commands to GCLI isn't trivial. We should make it as easy as we can.

A simple `gcli.addItems()` call isn't possible because commands (and converters) may need to be added to different processes. Commands that are runAt:server need to be added to a different process to commands that are runAt:client, while converters need to be added to the client process whatever their command is, and types need to be added to both.

The modules built into Firefox get added to both processes, and GCLI works out what to do automatically, so we should extend the same thing to extensions.

I think we should add code so that an extension can do:

extension-commands.js

    exports.items = [
      {
        item: 'command',
        runAt: 'client',
        name: 'thing',
        exec: function(args, context) {
          console.log('thing command executed');
        }
      }
    ];

extension-main.js

    const gcli = require('toolkit/devtools/gcli/index');
    gcli.addItemsByModule('path/to/extension-commands.js');

Comment 1

[Joe Walker [:jwalker]]

I know you've been thinking about this problem Irakli, and got hit by the runAt support. The description above explains the problem as I see it. I raised a new bug because there was discussion of this problem on IRC.

Comment 2

[Joe Walker [:jwalker]]

The solution as I see it:

commands-index (which we're moving to toolkit in bug 1160361) has a WeakMap containing the fronts that we need to talk to. We should make the _testonly_addAllItemsByModule function 'public' (by removing the _testonly_ thing) and thus we can add to both all known processes. Since several fronts can share a process, we might need some way to reduce useless chatter.

Comment 3

[Firefox Bug Husbandry Bot]

Per bug 1491875, this component has been closed, and the affected code is being removed from Firefox. Closing this bug as incomplete.