1582185 - [meta] Add GeckoView support for installing/uninstalling extensions

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(GeckoView :: Extensions, enhancement)

Description

[[ex-Mozilla] Agi Sferro | :agi]

In GeckoView we have registerWebExtension and unregisterWebExtension to run first-party extensions in apps.

For third-party extensions, we need to support installing and uninstalling an extension so that the following things can happen:

• We check signatures
• We remember settings and options for the extension
• the extension runs at startup (especially important for extensions that manipulate network requests)

We want to reuse code from the AddonManager as much as possible here, probably using the WebExtensionController for this.

This bug will likely turn into a meta-bug.

Comment 1

[[ex-Mozilla] Agi Sferro | :agi]

Mass moving bugs to the Extension component.

Comment 2

[Christian Sadilek [:csadilek]]

Based on the preliminary mock-ups for managing extensions (https://miro.com/app/board/o9J_kw8Lt8g=), we'd need to make sure that the returned extension object exposes the following meta data:

• The list of required permissions
• The link to the settings (options_ui) page
• The link to the default popup

The mock-ups also contains an option to configure whether or not the extension is allowed to run in private sessions. This can be done at a later stage though.

Comment 3

[Christian Sadilek [:csadilek]]

The mock-ups also show an additional step to have users confirm required permissions before completing installation. This will likely have an impact on the planned API as well and needs some more discussion.

Comment 4

[Christian Sadilek [:csadilek]]

The required permissions are being returned from the AMO (collection) endpoint. So the step to confirm permissions can also be handled by A-C / Fenix directly.

Comment 5

[Chris Peterson [:cpeterson]]

Agi plans to start in November, but expects to deliver in December. He might file separate bugs for November's design work and December's implementation.

Comment 6

[Chris Peterson [:cpeterson]]

Adding to GV's November sprint because Agi says Fenix would really like this in November.

He will get agreement on the API. Then we can split up installation and uninstallation to multiple developers. Extension updating can be follow up work.

Comment 8

[[ex-Mozilla] Agi Sferro | :agi]

Design doc: https://docs.google.com/document/d/10Za-_ZqjrDpq-7qTOZ05k5IGkj8R2ttj5zB_3l8nX1Q/edit

Comment 9

[[ex-Mozilla] Agi Sferro | :agi]

Unassigning since this is a meta now.

Comment 10

[[ex-Mozilla] Agi Sferro | :agi]

Attachment: Bug 1582185 - Allow null aBrowser in AddonManager.installAddonFromWebpage.

GeckoView will install extensions from the native UI so it doesn't have a
browser object to pass into this method.

Comment 11

[Phabricator Automation]

Comment on attachment 9113314 [details]
Bug 1582185 - Allow null aBrowser in AddonManager.installAddonFromWebpage.

Revision D55726 was moved to bug 1599580. Setting attachment 9113314 [details] to obsolete.