Firefox Beta channel

[typhoon71]

I would like to have the betas of webtoepub available on the relevant Mozilla addon channel (beta); since they are not scrutinized by Mozilla as the release ones, it's possible to release them more frequently.
It should be useful for testing and stuff.

[dteviot]

@typhoon71
Provide me with links on how to do this, and I'll do my best.
A quick Google didn't tell me how to do this.

[typhoon71]

I think the fastest way would be asking the dev of an addon that does that too (stable+betas).
I suppose someone that would probably point you in the right direction could be the dev of uBlockOrigin (Gorhill); if you check that addon page on Mozilla addon site, you'll notice that at the end there's the beta for the addon. It gets auto updated too, much more than the stable.
I do remember him talking about the betas as something "new", so he should know what's needed.

[dteviot]

@typhoon71.

According to Mozilla.

The beta channel is activated for fully approved add-ons only.

[typhoon71]

Isn't WebToEbub already fully reviewed and approved? I suppose you're reading this:

"https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/Add-ons/Distribution"

If I get it right you should just need to create a beta channel?
Isn't the "fully approved" status already met?

[dteviot]

@typhoon71.

No, it hasn't been fully reviewed. From Mozilla.

Your add-on, WebToEpub For Baka-Tsuki, 0.0.0.7, has been preliminarily reviewed and is now available for download in our gallery at https://addons.mozilla.org/addon/webtoepub-for-baka-tsuki/

Reviewer:
Andreas Wagner

Comments:
Thank you for your contribution.

Note that old versions of JSZip have known issues which might make extract zip files created with it impossible. Before requesting full review, please upgrade to the latest version.

[typhoon71]

Oh, so they do "preliminarily" reviews? Talk about making stuff unecessarily complicated.
I tough it was a review, point, done.

Now, what can Firefox users like me do to "push" for WebToEpub to be "fully" reviewed? I'll help if I can.

[dteviot]

@typhoon71

I don't think there's anything you need to do.
I need to ask them to do a full review. Note, Mozilla has requested that I replace one of the libraries before I do that.

I'd also like to get more features implemented before I get Mozilla to go to all the effort of a full review. I would prefer they didn't have to do multiple reviews. Side note, at moment, I'm pushing out new versions at the rate of 1 to 2 per week.

Also, for testing, the extension doesn't need to be available from the Mozilla store. You can manually load an extension (even with Firefox version 47) using these steps https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/Add-ons/WebExtensions/Temporary_Installation_in_Firefox

As the FireFox extension is currently exactly the same as the Chrome extension, you can test the latest version without needing to download it from Mozilla. You can just download it from the Chrome store, rename it to an xpi and load into Firefox. Or you can download the latest dev source from GitHub. Note, the image on the Chrome store is just a zip of the plugin directory from GitHub.

Finally, as the extension only works passably well with FireFox build 49, there doesn't seem to be a huge benefit to get it in the store now.

Aside, Currently my focus is to get the rest of the features implemented, Then I'll see what I can do to get it working well on Firefox.

[typhoon71]

OK, I understand the rationale, makes sense.
Shall we keep this issue open for the future?

I will check that way of temporary installing the extension.
I used to be able to install a self made xpi (like it's explained on WebToEpub) page but switching to newer Firefox took away that possibility (no more "evading" the signing of addons uh).

[dteviot]

@typhoon71

Shall we keep this issue open for the future?

Yes. I think we should.

[toshiya44]

@typhoon71 You can disable signature checks. See here for details.

[typhoon71]

I know that I can disable signature checks, and I actually did that for a couple of addons.
The problem is that that override is to be removed on newer Firefox (49 already has it disabled).
The only way is to use Developer edition to test unsigned addons).

[gamebeaker]

I think it is now simpler to create beta releases that get automatic updates for firefox.
Source: https://extensionworkshop.com/documentation/publish/distribute-pre-release-versions/
Problem: Versioning is at the moment not "granulary" enough. If a new parser is added in experimental the number doesn't change -> no auto update.

[dteviot]

@gamebeaker

If a new parser is added in experimental the number doesn't change -> no auto update.

That's not a big deal. Just need to change versioning process. Which is manual anyway, and I really should move to a proper semantic versioning.

At minimum, I should admit it's a a 1.x version. Not a 0.0.0.x
So, should formalize what the versioning process is, and ideally automate it.

[gamebeaker]

@dteviot
I just saw this:

I thought you could self sign it :/
If you have to submit it to firefox i hope it doesn't take as long as a normal update to the addons-store.

[dteviot]

@gamebeaker
Actually, Mozilla is good. Usually approve within 30 minutes. It's Google that can take weeks.