1368747 - Ensure that we have the right APIs to make the "new tab override" possible

Status: RESOLVED DUPLICATE of bug 1234150

(WebExtensions :: General, enhancement)

Description

[Boris Zbarsky [:bzbarsky]]

Right now I believe it relies on poking the state of a JSM (via an explicit public API we have for the purpose), but that's clearly not something a web extension can do.  So presumably we need some other solution here...

Comment 1

[Andrew Swan [:aswan]]

Support for overriding newtab was added in bug 1234150.  It uses the aboutNewTabService (browser/components/newtab/aboutNewTabService.js) via xpcom.  It is unclear to me if this bug is meant to be about changing the internals of that implementation or if it is a duplicate of 1234150.

Comment 2

[Boris Zbarsky [:bzbarsky]]

Looks like it's a duplicate.  I guess this hasn't shipped yet, which is why the "New Tab Override" extension is not using this...

Comment 3

[Mike Kaply [:mkaply]]

> Looks like it's a duplicate.  I guess this hasn't shipped yet, which is why the "New Tab Override" extension is not using this...

Firefox 54 unfortunately.

Comment 4

[Sören Hentzschel]

(In reply to Boris Zbarsky [:bz] (work week until 5/26) (if a patch has no decent message, automatic r-) from comment #2)
> Looks like it's a duplicate.  I guess this hasn't shipped yet, which is why
> the "New Tab Override" extension is not using this...

Hi,

I am the developer of "New Tab Override". Bug 1234150 landed in Firefox 54 but it's not the only reason why there is not yet a WebExtension port of my add-on. A lot of functionality is missing for WebExtensions. For example, the fact that I can't open some about: pages in a new tab means that the WebExtension update will be a regression for a part of my users, also UX regressions like ugly URLs (I can't use about: URLs any more) are not great so it's best for my users to wait as long as possible…

Comment 5

[Mike Kaply [:mkaply]]

> I am the developer of "New Tab Override". Bug 1234150 landed in Firefox 54 but it's not the only reason why there is not yet a WebExtension port of my add-on. A lot of functionality is missing for WebExtensions. For example, the fact that I can't open some about: pages in a new tab means that the WebExtension update will be a regression for a part of my users, also UX regressions like ugly URLs (I can't use about: URLs any more) are not great so it's best for my users to wait as long as possible…

Can you please open specific bugs for your issues? Make them blocking bug 1234150.