880883 - Improve the "install addon from file" UX

Status: RESOLVED INACTIVE

(Toolkit :: Add-ons Manager, enhancement)

Description

[David Bruant]

This is a addon developer use case. (I'm not clear on the Product&Component. Feel free to change these)

Currently, to install an addon from an xpi, one has to do File -> Open (pick the xpi). First off, it is not discoverable. Second, it is not very intuitive.
Then, the user has to suffer from the "only install add-ons from people you trust" with compulsory 3sec wait. If the user did choose to open a .xpi, either they know what they're doing or they've already lost the control of their computer in a way or another.

In Chrome, to install addons to test them, one goes to Tools -> Extension, there is a "Developer Mode" checkbox, which when checked unfold a menu to install an extension from a directory (no need to package, Chrome apparently does it when discovery the manifest file in the directory which is a nice feature when iterating quickly between code and test)

I'd like to emphasis the importance of loading from a directory. When you have a code base that share some code between a Firefox addon and Chrome extension, you can't afford round trips with the addon builder, you have to work from files.

I would love to be able to (at least one of these) :
* drag and drop an xpi in the addon panel (or some area in it) to install an addon.
Firefox knows I'm D&D an xpi file, so no need to bother me about security
* load an addon from a directory (and have Firefox package it in an internal temporary xpi).

I'm filing this bug sort of as a meta bug as I'm not sure what the best/easy-to-implement UX.

Comment 1

[Wes Kocher (:KWierso) (Not reading bugmail; email directly if needed)]

I think this probably fits better in the Addon Manager, not the SDK.

Comment 2

[Dietrich Ayala (:dietrich)]

Talked in #devtools about this. Joe Walker suggested making some commands in the GCLI for this, instead of augmenting a UI not designed for this at all.

Also, you currently can drop XPI files on Firefox for install... but that doesn't really remove many barriers. Ideally the packaging step would be removed entirely.

Also, Optimizer posted some UI concepts for a fully integrated add-on development environment in a utopian future: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/zhpdcuwh2f1mz87/CVHwJWjW0C. (I'd love to see someone prototype this as an add-on.)

Comment 3

[Jordan Santell [:jsantell] [@jsantell]]

Unassigning myself from bugs I haven't gotten around to

Comment 4

[BMO Automation]

Per policy at https://wiki.mozilla.org/Bug_Triage/Projects/Bug_Handling/Bug_Husbandry#Inactive_Bugs. If this bug is not an enhancement request or a bug not present in a supported release of Firefox, then it may be reopened.