774065 - Replace bookmarklets with "user-script buttons"

Status: NEW

(Firefox :: General, enhancement)

Description

[Jesse Ruderman]

We should make "user-script buttons" be a type of add-on, replacing the concept of bookmarklets.

Treating "user-script buttons" as a type of bookmark is suboptimal for UX:

* Sites that offer bookmarklets have to explain what's going on.
* Wrong icons (bug 72374, bug 701109)
* Users can't easily view and edit the scripts (bug 565270, plus escaping issues)
* Users can't convert them into on-load scripts, and vice versa (cf bug 89016)

It's also problematic for security:

* Users don't realize they are adding a script (bug 249747, bug 371923)
* Since bookmarklets are hard to explain, many sites offer higher-privileged extensions than are necessary.

For supporting legacy bookmarklets, I'd suggest:

* Right-clicking a javascript: URL should show "Add Button to Firefox" instead of "Bookmark This Link".
* Dragging a javascript: URL should highlight a drop target for adding buttons.
* The default icon is the site's (e.g. the Pocket button gets the Pocket icon).

For feature parity with bookmarks, the new feature would have to:

* Let users assign URL keywords to add-on buttons
* Let users organize add-on buttons into menus
* Let users change the names of add-on buttons after they are added

(It would be nice if we could do these things for "normal" add-on buttons too! cf bug 364307)

Comment 1

[Justin Dolske [:Dolske]]

Hmm. My first (and probably most pragmatic) thought is that this is add-on material, akin to Greasemonkey.

OTOH, there's an interesting argument to be made for pulling-in / improving on popular add-ons like that, as well as an interesting "hack your browser" angle (call it a super-lightweight addon) that makes it really easy to do simple things and act as a stepping-stone to more complex jetpack/addon development.

Comment 2

[Blair McBride [:Unfocused] (UNAVAILABLE)]

(In reply to Justin Dolske [:Dolske] from comment #1)
> akin to Greasemonkey.

See also bug 89016.

I think having this as a separate add-on type is overkill - its not different enough from normal addons, jetpack-based addons, and Greasemonkey-style content scripts. But I can see it fitting in as a user-settable option (and/or API) for content scripts, if we ever go ahead with something like bug 89016.

Comment 3

[Erik Vold [:erikvold] (please needinfo? me)]

I can make a Jetpack do this.

Comment 4

[Erik Vold [:erikvold] (please needinfo? me)]

Attachment: Scriptlets Add-on Type

Comment 5

[Erik Vold [:erikvold] (please needinfo? me)]

Done.

https://github.com/erikvold/scriptlet-jetpack

Comment 6

[Jesse Ruderman]

(In reply to Justin Dolske [:Dolske] from comment #1)
> Hmm. My first (and probably most pragmatic) thought is that this is add-on
> material, akin to Greasemonkey.

Is support for javascript: URLs as bookmarks add-on material?