1687756 - [meta] Action API consolidation

Status: NEW

(WebExtensions :: General, task)

Description

[Shane Caraveo (:mixedpuppy)]

MV3 will support only the browser action, renamed to action.

Comment 1

[Rob Wu [:robwu]]

We haven't decided to remove page_action, have we?

In manifest v3 they are consolidated because Chrome made the (controversial) decision to remove page_action. The rationale behind it is that they wanted an always-visible extension UI surface (i.e. the browserAction menu button).

In Firefox, we do currently not have an always-visible extension button, which means that the defining characteristic of page_action (it being only visible on certain tabs based on URLs and/or API calls) is still relevant to Firefox add-ons.

For compatibility, I think that it may be useful to replace browser_action with action in manifest v3, but still keep page_action (unless we actually decide to remove it).

Comment 2

[Oriol Brufau [:Oriol]]

I hope the Firefox additions (like windowId parameter or setBadgeTextColor()) will continue working in v3.

Comment 3

[Shane Caraveo (:mixedpuppy)]

(In reply to Rob Wu [:robwu] from comment #1)

In Firefox, we do currently not have an always-visible extension button, which means that the defining characteristic of page_action (it being only visible on certain tabs based on URLs and/or API calls) is still relevant to Firefox add-ons.

Those are not really related. In the short term we don't need to disable page action, in the longer term I think we'll be taking direction on this from the overall approach in firefox ux.

Comment 4

[Luca Greco [:rpl] [:luca] [:lgreco]]

Linking the "browserAction in overflow menu" meta (Bug 1459046) as a see also (as previously discussed those are issue we may want to consider as part of planning the transitions, the rationale is that by increasing the number of extension action buttons in the toolbar there is an higher chance for those actions to be pushed into the overflow menu automatically because they don't all fit in the toolbar).