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.
The Add-on Repository is responsible for finding available add-ons; it provides an interface for interacting with the addons.mozilla.org (AMO) site. Its API provides URLs that can be visited to browse the repository's add-ons. The API also offers two ways to search for and retrieve an array of Addon instances: retrieveRecommendedAddons(), which returns a list of recommended add-ons, and searchAddons(), which performs a search of the repository.
These searches are asynchronous; results are passed to the provided SearchCallback object when the search is completed. Results passed to the SearchCallback object only include add-ons that are compatible with the current application and are not already installed or in the process of being installed. AddonRepository can only process one search at a time. A new search will immediately fail if the AddonRepository is already handling another search request.
To import the Add-on Repository code module, use:
Components.utils.import("resource://gre/modules/AddonRepository.jsm");
Method overview
string getRecommendedURL() |
string getSearchURL(in string searchTerms) |
void cancelSearch() |
void retrieveRecommendedAddons(in integer maxResults, in SearchCallback callback) |
void searchAddons(in string searchTerms, in integer maxResults, in SearchCallback callback) |
Properties
| Property | Type | Description |
homepageURL |
string |
The URL of the repository site's home page. |
isSearching |
boolean |
true if a search is currently in progress; otherwise false. |
Methods
getRecommendedURL()
Returns the URL that can be visited to see recommended add-ons.
string getRecommendedURL();
Parameters
None.
Return value
An URL indicating the repository's page of recommended add-ons.
getSearchURL()
Returns an URL of a web page that can be visited to see search results for the specified search terms.
string getSearchURL( in string searchTerms );
Parameters
searchTerms- Search terms used to search the repository.
Return value
The URL of the search results page for the specified search terms.
cancelSearch()
Cancels the search in progress. Does nothing if there is no search in progress.
void cancelSearch();
Parameters
None.
retrieveRecommendedAddons()
Begins a search for recommended add-ons in the repository. The list of recommended add-ons frequently changes. Results will be passed to the given SearchCallback callback.
void retrieveRecommendedAddons( in integer maxResults, in SearchCallback callback );
Parameters
maxResults- The maximum number of results to return.
callback- The
SearchCallbackcallback to which results will be delivered.
searchAddons()
Begins a search for add-ons in this repository. Results will be passed to the given callback.
string searchAddons( in string searchTerms, in integer maxResults, in SearchCallback callback );
Parameters
searchTerms- The search terms to pass to AMO. The results will match what you would get if you typed this string in the search box on the AMO web site.
maxResults- The maximum number of results to return.
callback- The
SearchCallbackcallback to pass results to.