Is there any other way to install add-on by external applications(side loading)

Add-ons Development
#1

Before the version of Firefox 73, we develop our add-on which is installed by our own application. We add the path “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Wow6432Node\Mozilla\Firefox\Extensions” in Registry to let our add-on installed automatically without customer’s manual operation.
But from the Firefox 73+, Firefox no longer support this method. So I wonder if there is other method to automatically install our add-on?
By the way, I know that Chrome support the similar method to install add-on, and the addon could be downloaded(not installed) automatically by adding the path to registry. I wonder if Firefox support this method.Otherwise, we could only let our customer manually install our add-on in Firefox 74.

Thank you very much for helping me.

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#2

Hi @samgsc. We removed this option because we want users to explicitly take action to install an extension. We recommend that you make a new flow for users to install the .xpi from your website.

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#3

Hi @caitlin. Thank you very much for your help. I still have 2 questions about install addon.

  1. I saw “a new flow for users to install the .xpi from your website” from your reply. Did you mean that we could let our customers download xpi file from our website and installed manually by themselves? Is there any method to automatically download and install our addon together from our website?
  2. If we submit our addon on AMO, is there any method to let our customer download the addon automatically or install the addon automatically ? If not , does it mean that our customer could only download and install our addon manually from AMO?
#4

Did you mean that we could let our customers download xpi file from our website and installed manually by themselves? Is there any method to automatically download and install our addon together from our website?

Yes, you can self-distribute the extension from your website for users to download and install. There is no way to automatically initiate the download/install for a user from your website, but you can certainly highlight calls to action to encourage users to install the extension. (My favorite extension, New X-Kit, has a pretty simple but effective setup on their website. Grammarly is another great example.)

  1. AMO doesn’t allow automatic installs. Users will have to go to the page on AMO and click the “Add to Firefox” button to install the extension. Here’s an example:

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#5

Hi @caitlin
Thank you for your kindly help. It is helpful for us to do some adjust to new Firefox. I still have some question about installing xpi file on the local disk.
When I try to install a addon by double-clicking xpi file or clicking in add-on setting page, e.g. I load c://firefox.xpi in Firefox. Then I replace it by a new xpi file in the same name. Will the addon be updated when I open Firefox next time?
I wonder if we could update the addon automatically by replacing the xpi file in local disk or we have to let our customer manually install the xpi again while updating.