Validation failed because of manifest difference between firefox and chrome

[nucktrooper]

Hi.
I have been developping addons for a long time, and I always tried to have a code compatible with each browser.

Today, I tried to upload a new version of one of my addons and it was refused because of an error in the manifest file.

This error occured because of this line : “optional_permissions”: [ “background” ]. It never happened before.

According to [https://developer.mozilla.org/fr/Add-ons/WebExtensions/manifest.json/optional_permissions], the background permissions is not supported by firefox. I think a permission check was added, and as “background” is not supported, it is not in a permissions array and the validation fails.

It forces me to compress my addon with different versions of its manifest file. Wouldn’t it be better if not supported permissions generate a warning rather than a validation fail? And then, if the developer decide to upload his addon with not supported permissions, firefox can simply ignore them?

Thank you.

[jorgev]

I think it’s important that manifest validation is strict so that developers aren’t mislead into thinking that some manifest flag they included will work when it won’t. I believe Chrome has a similar behavior where it won’t accept certain Firefox-specific flags. Unfortunately it’s one pain point cross-browser developers have to deal with now. We’re working on ways to make development easier, and this is probably an area of improvement for the future.