Should web-ext sign --channel=unlisted trigger review?

Add-ons Development
#1

https://extensionworkshop.com/documentation/develop/getting-started-with-web-ext/ says

web-ext sign --channel=listed --api-key=... --api-secret=...

This publishes and submits your extension for review

which sort of implies that

web-ext sign --channel=unlisted

should not submit it for review, which was always our experience and expectation until recently one of our test builds signed with unlisted suddenly got reviewed. If that is indeed the new policy (which makes signing for test very inconvenient), perhaps the page above should be updated.

#2

Hi @denishowe, thanks for flagging this – the documentation needs to be updated.

All add-ons – listed and unlisted – are subject to manual review following submission. I’ll make a note to update the documentation for web-ext to try to reduce the confusion around the review process.

Would you mind sharing the name of your add-on? I’d like to investigate why the unlisted version was selected for manual review, especially if your production version hasn’t been.

#3

Our add-on is https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/mendeley-web-importer/. We have released many (listed) production versions to the store.

We have signed many, many (unlisted) test builds but this is the first time one has been selected for review. I assumed it was just random bad luck.

We don’t want reviewers wasting their time reviewing our test builds. It’s much easier to test signed builds with the Release version of Firefox, for which up-to-date Selenium Docker images are available. I’m still trying to work out the easiest way to load an unsigned build in that environment.

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