675108 - Require add-on developers to have instructions for using their product

Status: RESOLVED INVALID

(addons.mozilla.org Graveyard :: Policy, defect)

Description

[the-edmeister]

Attachment: Forecastfox.png

User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.2.20pre) Gecko/20110727 Namoroka/3.6.20pre
Build ID: 20110727033225

Steps to reproduce:

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/forecastfox-weather/reviews/
Forecastfox has no usable instructions for users to get started and is uses some methods and "conventions" that I have never seen before - 9 years using Firefox and many hundreds of extensions installed. IMO, you need to force developers to provide understandable instructions for setting up and using their add-ons on the doenload page, and provide an alert method for experienced users to "flag" add-ons as not meeting that criterion.


Actual results:

I had to figure out how this extension works for a user at SUMO
https://support.mozilla.com/en-US/questions/855525#answer-222104

I also question the "security" of a non-secure web page - http://www.getforecastfox.com/customize/16/ - having access to the Customize mode and internal configurations on Firefox.


Expected results:

https://support.mozilla.com/en-US/questions/855525#answer-222104

Comment 1

[Jorge Villalobos [:jorgev] (he/him)]

Unless you ran into installation problems, the UI is farily straightforward. I just tested it and got a toolbar displaying the weather. Hovering over the items displayed more details, as expected.

We require add-ons to be understandable to use already, and I think this particular add-on is well within those parameters.

The options page appears to behave securely, using events to communicate between privileged and unprivileged content.

Comment 2

[the-edmeister]

Thanks for response about the security involved, but I differ with how easily understandable this extension is to use. I'm not an experienced programmer, but I have been using Firefox since Phoenix 0.4 in 2002, and when I have difficulty figuring out how to configure and use an extension which is new to me, it's a sorry excuse for an extension or its lack of instructions.