AddonInstall

Add-ons using the techniques described in this document are considered a legacy technology in Firefox. Don't use these techniques to develop new add-ons. Use WebExtensions instead. If you maintain an add-on which uses the techniques described here, consider migrating it to use WebExtensions.

From Firefox 53 onwards, no new legacy add-ons will be accepted on addons.mozilla.org (AMO).

From Firefox 57 onwards, WebExtensions will be the only supported extension type, and Firefox will not load other types.

Even before Firefox 57, changes coming up in the Firefox platform will break many legacy extensions. These changes include multiprocess Firefox (e10s), sandboxing, and multiple content processes. Legacy extensions that are affected by these changes should migrate to WebExtensions if they can. See the "Compatibility Milestones" document for more.

A wiki page containing resources, migration paths, office hours, and more, is available to help developers transition to the new technologies.

An AddonInstall instance tracks download and installation process of an add-on. Instances can be created using the getInstallForFile() or getInstallForURL() methods on the AddonManager. Once you have an instance the install() method is used to start automatic download and installation. This can be canceled at any time with the cancel() method.

`Method Overview`

void install()

void cancel()

void addListener(in InstallListener listener)

void removeListener(in InstallListener listener)

`Properties`

`Attribute`	`Type`	`Description`
`name`	`string`	`The name of the add-on being installed.`
`version`	`string`	`The version of the add-on being installed.`
`iconURL`	`string`	`The icon of the add-on being installed.`
`releaseNotesURI`	`nsIURI`	`The URI of release notes for this install.`
`type`	`string`	`The type of the add-on being installed.`
`state`	`integer`	`The state of the installation.`
`error`	`integer`	`If an error has been encountered during the download or install this will hold the error code.`
`sourceURI`	`nsIURI`	`The URI that the add-on is being installed from.`
`file`	`nsIFile`	`The file that the add-on is being installed from. This may be null if the add-on is coming from the Internet and has yet to be downloaded.`
`progress`	`integer`	`The progress of any necessary downloads.`
`maxProgress`	`integer`	`The expected size of any necessary downloads or -1 if unknown.`
`certificate`	`nsIX509Cert`	`If the add-on to be installed is signed this is the certificate of the signer. Only available after downloading is complete.`
`certName`	`string`	`If the add-on to be installed is signed this is the simple display name of the signer.`
`existingAddon`	`Addon`	`The Addon that this install will update. May be null if it isn't updating anything installed. This is guaranteed to be correct after downloading is complete but may be set earlier.`
`addon`	`Addon`	`The full Addon that this install will install. Only available after downloading is complete.`

`Methods`

`install()`

Starts or continues the install process. The process will continue in the background until it fails, completes, one of the registered InstallListeners pauses it, or the process is canceled by a call to the cancel() method.

void install(
)

`cancel()`

Cancels the install process, it cannot be restarted after this.

void cancel(
)

`addListener()`

Adds a new InstallListener if the listener is not already registered to monitor this specific AddonInstall.

void addListener(
  in InstallListener listener
)

`Parameters`

listener: The InstallListener to add.

`removeListener()`

Removes an InstallListener if the listener is registered for monitoring this specific AddonInstall.

void removeListener(
  in InstallListener listener
)

`Parameters`

listener: The InstallListener to remove

Method Overview

Properties

Methods

install()

cancel()

addListener()

Parameters

removeListener()

Parameters

Document Tags and Contributors

`Method Overview`

`Properties`

`Methods`

`install()`

`cancel()`

`addListener()`

`Parameters`

`removeListener()`

`Parameters`