Add-on Review Questions

Add-ons addons.mozilla.org
#118

Hi, there,

I received “Your add-on contains minified, concatenated or otherwise machine-generated code.” from reviewer, who also offered to delete the versions if there is no reply within 14 days.

I’ve been aware of this problem and re-updated my CI process to attach the source code for each subsequent release, but it’s been over a week and none of the new releases have gotten a response, and in In the typical process before, my extension was usually approved within 10 minutes. Is there anything I can do please? Thanks.

My extension URL: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/immersive-translate/

UUID: {5efceaa7-f3a2-4e59-a54b-85319448e305}

#119

Like other recent posters here our recent extension submission was flagged as not providing source code despite doing so and providing full instructions on generating the production code. We’ve sent numerous replies to our reviewer explaining this, but our extension has now inexplicably been downgraded to a three year old version, despite having numerous reviewed/approved versions since then. We can’t get our reviewer to follow basic instructions or to reply to our several messages. If we can’t get basic support for new submissions we will obviously need to cease Firefox support. Please advise.

#120

The Mozilla add-on review process used to be my favorite out of the big three browsers (Chrome, Edge, Firefox), as it was always the first to approve my updated releases. However, recently I have not had a single update approved in a timely manner, and now the Firefox version is behind the Chrome and Edge versions by SIX releases. This sloth-like review process is unacceptable for add-ons that get frequent updates. I don’t know whether the Mozilla team is just lacking resources, had a recent change in policy, or something else, but the review process is now by far my least favorite.

My extension is not new either – it has been published since 2010 and has a good track record with a sizable and established user base. Hopefully Mozilla can improve the efficiency of their review process.

2 Likes
#121

Like many other people here before me I created an extension hoping that I could just have it as an unlisted private extension that my work colleagues could use on an internal system. Now it’s impossible for them to add unsigned firefox extensions so I have to go through the approval process. Honestly after seeing what other people are going through here I think I should just give up on this idea entirely.

Anyone know if the other browsers are better about this?

#122

@lacye Probably the easiest thing to do is zip up your extension and send it to your colleagues (or better yet, put it on a shared drive), then instruct them how to install “unpacked” extensions locally.

#123

Apparently they are either monitoring this thread or they have speeded up the signing process. The signing was approved and subsequent versions were approved after 5 minutes so thankfully I get to stick to using firefox :slight_smile:

#124

Umm…probably a coincidence. My next version is still “awaiting review” status and I submitted the update on Feb 19. Both Chrome and Edge versions were approved same day. I’m about to release an update, so the Firefox version is about to be SEVEN versions behind. This is turning into a comedy.

#125

I have a question regarding the Add-on Policy:
In the section for “Development Practices” the policy states:
“Add-ons must be self-contained and not load remote code for execution.”
my add-on loads code if the user wants it to:

  1. The user presses a button/downloads a file that could be used.
  2. The user must confirm() the execution.
  3. The contents of the file are executed.
    Does this violate the Add-on Policy?
    I need to know, because if it does, i can stop working on my add-on right away.
#126

@10basetom My plugin is quite simple so maybe the process is faster if you require less permissions but yeah that’s pretty bad.

#127

1Password’s update 2.7.0 has been submitted February 9th. Why haven’t this been approved yet? It takes forever every time they submit an update.

#128

This wasn’t always the case – Firefox used to be the fastest to get approved and published. It appears something might have changed for the speed to drop so drastically.

#129

Yes, and it’s really annoying.

#130

You must mean the https://duckduckgo.com/?q=mozilla+layoffs

#131

EDIT: Reolved, yay! My “self-signed” add-on got Approved (automatic validation) in under 40 hours. Keeping the post here as a record for others. I’d still like to hear what’s the proper way to use tensorflow.js in our add-ons.

I see I’m having the same issue as others here. I’ve made my first small add-on that I just wanted to self-sign and use but it’s been stuck “Awaiting Review” for roughly a day. The web-ext tool mentioned I should have received an email by now but I didn’t.

In my add-on I’m using minified tensorflow.js (I’ve mentioned that in review notes and linked cdn @ speciffic version as source since I did not find the compiled version on github.) and it’s causing warnings for function constructor being eval.

Questions:

  1. Is it OK to link the CDN as source in this case?
  2. Are the warnings causing the holdup? (unfortunately there’s no way for me to solve them)
  3. Is it OK to include pretrained model/weights file? (can be considered machine generated code)
#132

Oh, that could explain it then. Update: my extension was finally reviewed and approved five days after submission.

#133

We have submitted add-on for review and has been automatically flagged for admin review.
It’s been more than 14 days and current status is showing ‘Awaiting Review’. We have also provided credentials to test an add-on required by Mozilla team.

Our marketing campaign is waiting for the process to complete, on other stores i.e Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge the process was pretty smooth and extensions get approved in 1-2 days.

How long it will take more ?

#134

1Password add-on is now two versions old on Firefox and hasn’t been updated since the beginning of February. Why is nothing happening on this?

1 Like
#135

Hi Mozilla,
We have same problem here: our extension (Wanteeed) was submitted on April 13th and we have no feedback for the review. We don’t know how to facilitate the work of the review team.
Meanwhile we have delivered 2 other new versions on Chrome store.
Can you give us any feedback ?

#136

hi, is there a problem with the review process? my unlisted add-on which normally only takes 10-15 minutes to pass review, has now been in the review queue for 3 days. very little has changed since the last release, so something is not right here, i see there are also many other people complaining of unusual delays in the approval system, is it a bug in the approvals/review system or just a lack of manpower to look through the automated reports?

1 Like
#137

Well i received an email from mozilla saying they have changed their review policy with regards to extensions with significantly large numbers of users, they say they are going to manually review all updates for the most popular extensions from now on.

oh great, lets step back to the medieval ages, when everyone else is living in the ever accelerating AI age…

They say this change may result in “minor delays”, but come on, the exact same extension and exact same code submitted to the chrome webstore gets approved immediately, (the only difference being i updated the chrome version to MV3) I would consider a minor delay 10 or 15minutes, not 3 or 4 days… The other thing is the chrome version has over 100 times more users than the firefox version of the extension. So how come google can review and approve minor extension updates instantaneously but firefox must take 4-5 days…?

The full text of their email is below for anyone who is interested:

Hello Firefox extension developers,

We wanted to make you aware of a recent change to AMO’s review process, as it may impact new submissions of your extension. All extension submissions with a significantly large number of users are now subject to human review by the add-ons review team before approval. This may, occasionally, result in minor delays publishing new versions of your extension on AMO. We’ve made this change to provide Firefox users with even greater security assurances for some of AMO’s most popular extensions, such as yours.

As always, we greatly appreciate your contributions to the Firefox extension ecosystem. Cheers!

Firefox Add-ons staff