Mozilla has just launched their new Firefox Add-ons site that shows off a sparkling and freshly revamped interface. Back in February we took a glimpse at what a preview of the new add-ons site had to offer, and overall I would say that it is a really nice improvement over the prior version.
The thing that I like the most is that the add-ons in the Sandbox are actually shown with the search results regardless of whether you are logged in. They are labeled as “experimental” add-ons if they are in the Sandbox, and if you want to install them you’ll still need to login. At least users will know that the add-ons exist which was a big complaint of the extension developers that I had talked to before. It was almost discouraging for developers to create extensions since they weren’t widely available to the public right away.
There are two things that I don’t like though. The first is that there is still no way to customize the sort order of your search results. I’m sure this has to do with performance issues, but I hate not being able to see my search results according to popularity or most recently released.
The second thing that I don’t like, and this is quite a doozy for me, is that the site now checks what version of Firefox you’re running. And guess what, it won’t let you install an extension that doesn’t meet the version requirements specified by the developer. If an extension is compatible with your Firefox you’ll see the typical button on the pictured on the left side below, otherwise it will be replaced with the button on the right:
I looked around and I saw no place where I could change this setting, and seeing that I’m the type of person who likes to test out pre-release versions of Firefox this can cause a lot of headaches. I’m currently running Firefox 3 Beta 4, and many of the extensions are disabled for me since the developers haven’t gotten around to updating them. Sure this is nice so that people don’t think an extension will work with their version of Firefox, but what about people who want to try them anyway?
Check it out and let us know what you think about the new site.
Firefox Add-ons Homepage
Thanks to Yansky for the tip!
I don’t think I will like the new add-on center if they don’t do something like allowing you to login so that you can manually download add-ons even if they are for your particular version. Also, I noticed it seems they did away with being able to see the history. A lot of times being able to try older versions would allow you to fix problems. As pretty as it is and the layout is pretty nice I think it needs a lot of work.
I like how the images are on the download page…and I like the ratings and reviews.
But I do agree about the compatibility issue that you brought up. Mozilla is probably trying to be more user-friendly…but a workaround needs to be made for power users.
I was wrong, I finally found the Previous Versions link, it was just harder to find due to the layout changes. I hope they find a way to make it stand out a little more in the future.
I don’t like it really. It won’t let me download “incompatible” addons AT ALL now, unless I manually change my useragent. Should be a way around that for people who know what they’re doing (example being I KNOW that addon works in latest Minefield nightly and I know how to use it, but can’t download it now). Doesn’t tell you what the compatible versions are anymore either so I just have to take a wild guess as to what to change my useragent to.
Just for the record, I very much dislike the new site format for themes and add-ons. While it looks cute and cool it takes a goodly number of paging to get anywhere. It also no longer has the two features that I use to use the most. (1) What is newest; and (2) What has been most recently updated. I hate it when I lose capabilities and I hope Monzilla is not taking the currently populist form over function route.
I take that back. I did find a link for one extension, but it was a broken link. It seems they have taken away the link for previous versions. I’m really starting to dislike this new add-ons site.
Looks very good and the search is fast.
Ouch, search not improved, newest/most recently updated gone, possibility to download be it not for the version you’re currently running taken out.. that doesn’t sound like an improvement to me. Looks can make a nice first impression and help with the initial marketing, but what about after?
Besides, weren’t users supposed to start searching for add-ons from within Firefox now? Why not let powerusers use the site in advanced ways?
Sounds like it’s mostly a new skin while they needed a backend refresh.. disappointing really.
Looks as though most of you agree with me that Mozilla should not be disabling the download of add-ons for everyone. I think what they should do is offer this as an option that you can disable in the settings for a particular user account, or they could make it a setting that is stored in the browser’s cookies.
Maybe I’ll look into making a bookmarklet that will re-enable the download links.
Yikes, disabling the downloading of incompatible add-ons could make a huge difference in how I setup Firefox 3 Beta 5 when it comes out. Bad move Mozilla.
Presumably, the way to get around the blocking of “incompatible” add ons is to access the site with a different browser, download the add on to your desktop, and then drag and drop it into your extensions menu. Ironic and pretty ridiculous that you have to use something like Internet Explorer to circumvent the over-nannying of the FF site.
The other thing is that this nannying is pointless anyway as:
- If you try to install an extension that is not compatible with your version of FF, it will tell you and refuse to install it.
- You can edit the install file to change the compatibility permissions so that your version of FF *thinks* the extension is compatible. (This is particularly useful with extensions that are no longer in development and, for example, might only claim to be compatible with versions up to 1.5.0.*, but can actually quite happily run on your FF2 with a little help of this nature.)
This comment was left on my blog by Basil Hashem from Mozilla
Extension Guru,
Try visiting the “Advanced Details” section and take a look at the Complete Version History link – it includes all available versions and doesn’t do the smart detection so that testers, developers and others can download any version of an add-on (for whatever OS platform and edition of Firefox) you want without the hassle.
I suppose that makes sense, to put it in the advanced details, but it’s 2 extra clicks to download an extension then
Their sort doesn’t really work well on the overview pages, perhaps that’s why it’s not available on the search results pages? (while going from page to page, sorted by rating, very often I would see the same extension listed again and again – it seems as if they’re almost shown randomly
)
I think the new site looks pretty and fresh but I’m disappointed that they decided to hide much of the info advanced users need. Disabling JavaScript fixed most of my problems but I wish they hadn’t removed the discussions. I can understand the reasoning that most extension authors have their own support forums or use Mozillazine but for me the discussions were very useful and easy way to see whether there were any problems with the extension.
Also the new ratings system isn’t very good in my localization, people don’t use the word love very casually in Finnish language and definitely not in relation to a computer program.
Thanks for the hint on Advanced Details > Expand, that worked great. Now I can at least be content for the moment that this is a workable solution for most of the things I don’t like about the new setup.
Manually changing the user agent is a pretty complicated thing and most people would not like to do that. Mozilla seems to be making a move towards making the extension site more friendly towards newbies, while keeping the pro users in a lurch. i think they should launch two versions of their site, just like yahoo did with their webmail.
That may work, but it definitely isn’t “without the hassle.” I’ve talked to a lot of my friends about this, and I think I’ve come to the conclusion that they shouldn’t be checking pre-release versions against extension compatibility. If people are running final versions of the browser then that’s okay, but almost anyone running pre-release versions will be running into this problem.
I noticed that too, but I shouldn’t have to disable JavaScript to bypass the checking. This is removing the “user friendly” element of the site.
I agree. They need to realize that trying to attract newbies to the site is understandable, but there are a lot of power users that have helped make the browser what it is today. And now it’s almost as if they are leaving us in the dark? It’s actually rather discouraging.
Ryan, you should look at The Guru’s comment closer and try it yourself. I checked it this morning and you can access the files like before using this method. It is more of a hassle, but it will work. The history you get includes the latest version all the way back to the earliest versions in their archive. Don’t get me wrong, I’m no fan of the new site, but using the “Advanced Details” does work.
I’m really confused by the people saying that clicking the “Complete Version History” link is such a hardship. The site is clearly optimized for people who won’t need this and power-users and nightly build users should be able to get exactly what they need by clicking an extra link (or two). Just doesn’t seem like hardship to me.
Just found another issue: I usually check the changelog of extensions when a new version has been released, which used to be “open add-on page, read”. Now it’s “open add-on page, scroll, find button to click and click it to open the details, read”. I wish it would remember your preferences for stuff like this.
It is hardship when you do that every day (on average)..
It definitely does work, but I just don’t think it’s very user friendly for Beta testers like myself. I would like to be able to install the extensions from the listing page like other users would be able to. All I would like them to do is include a setting in each user’s profile page that can disable this.