1332408 - (IETab) Add support for the IE Tab Chrome WebExtension

Status: RESOLVED WONTFIX

(WebExtensions :: Frontend, defect)

Description

[Chris Peterson [:cpeterson]]

We would like to support the IE Tab Chrome WebExtension (https://www.ietab.net/) in the Firefox China Repack.

Here are Botong's notes from his tests running the IE Tab Chrome extension in Firefox:

* With hand tweaked native host manifest and registry keys, the extension can be loaded into Firefox

* A few APIs used by the extension are still missing from Firefox, but they don't appear to be in any critical path:
    * chrome.permissions [bug 1197420]
    * chrome.runtime.onMessageExternal (the web facing part, not the
inter-extension one) [bug 1319168]
    * chrome.webRequest.onAuthRequired [bug 1190689]

* With either 32-bit or 64-bit Firefox, the extension can talk to the corresponding binary successfully

* The URL bar for IE rendering in the moz-extension page is visible, while the main content is blank

* I briefly suspected the missing of "--parent-window" in the invoked command line [bug 1270359], but when tested in Chrome, the value is just "0" instead of any Windows HANDLE

* Navigating with the IE URL bar, the correct page title can be received from the binary, suggesting the embedded IE component is partially working in the background

Comment 1

[:shell escalante]

Hi Kev, can you help with this.

Comment 2

[Hector Zhao [:hectorz]]

We're going to pursue an alternative solution.