• Discuss, debate, and get help in the discussion forum.
• Chat via IRC in #jetpack on irc.mozilla.org.
• Submit a bug report.
• Grab the source code and fix a bug or add a feature.

• Discuss, debate, and get help in the discussion forum.
• Chat via IRC in #jetpack on irc.mozilla.org.
• Submit a bug report.
• Grab the source code and fix a bug or add a feature.

In the first part of the presentation, Daisuke talked about the concept of Jetpack and the history shifting from Jetpack Prototype to Jetpack Reboot. His talk was focused on the points that Jetpack makes the install and development of extensions easier, and is a technology which has a potential to “make your browser by yourself”.

In the second part, Gomita demonstrated an agile extension development using the Jetpack SDK and Add-ons Builder. The demo consisted of the following three parts; setup SDK, creating the simplest ‘Hello, World!’ extension, and creating more functional one named ‘Copy Title + URL’ with some standard APIs and my own Clipboard API.

Although we had little time to being asked questions, we felt that the presentation was an effective way to describe the possibility of the Jetpack technology for both users and developers who belong to various open source communities.

Slides

Jetpack —make your browser by yourself—
Jetpack SDK 0.5 Demonstration

Examples

Download complete package of ‘Copy Title + URL’ for Jetpack SDK 0.5
View source of ‘Copy Title + URL’ on Add-ons Builder Preview

In this survey we asked current and potential Mozilla add-ons developers which APIs they felt were most important to them in their development efforts. The feedback the community gave was quite informative. Many of our assumptions about which APIs the community wanted were confirmed, but there were quite a few APIs which ranked higher than expected. The survey’s confidence level is 95% (+/- 8%) so these results should be fairly accurate – let’s dig in and take a look!

Panel – open a panel UI element – #3 most requested API

Page Mods – modify web page HTML, CSS, and JS – #1 most requested API

Localization – multi-language support

Places – bookmarks, history, etc

Audio – access to system audio capabilities

Gadget – ability to open an app in a chromeless window

Prism-like Abilities – create Prism-like apps

JS Libraries – jQuery, MooTools, Dojo, etc. – #2 most requested API

Awesome Bar – access to awesome bar data and events

Music – ability to interact with a user’s music data

Clipboard – access to the system clipboard – #4 most requested API

Video – deeper video integration

Third-party Data Services – Google, Twitter, Wikipedia, etc.

Inter-Add-on Communication – allowing add-ons to talk to each other

The Takeaway

It was no surprise that Page Mods was the most requested API of the pack, as it has been a highly debated and extensively discussed topic on the SDK Google Group. The surprises really occurred just below the top three APIs, where Clipboard, Localization, and Third-party Data Services (Twitter API, et al.) ranked highest, in that order. Over the next couple weeks, we will be asking for more detailed feedback on some of the less defined APIs you requested in the survey. After we have a handle on the specifics of what you want out of them, we can direct development efforts to accommodate.

- Daniel Buchner, on behalf of the Jetpack team

• Tabs API – Provides easy access to tabs and tab-related events.
• Request API – Lets you easily make network requests.
• Load/unload reasons – Add-ons can now find out when they are being loaded for the first time after being installed or enabled and unloaded because they are being uninstalled or disabled.
• Localization API – Provides simple localization functionality. It makes it possible to retrieve localized versions of the strings in your code. And it doesn’t require you to solicit localizations from localizers or bundle localizations with your code, as the module retrieves them automatically from a web service based on the strings your code is using.
• Selection API – Provides a means to get and set current text/HTML selections as well as observe new selections.
• And in case you have not been following the latest Jetpack developments, we also launched Page Worker, Widget, Simple Storage and Private Browsing APIs in previous releases. A complete list of APIs can be found in the core library reference.

• Discuss, debate, and get help in the discussion forum.
• Chat via IRC in #jetpack on irc.mozilla.org.
• Submit a bug report.
• Grab the source code and fix a bug or add a feature.

I certainly enjoyed meeting the people who attended this VanJS event; thanks goes out to Allen Pike for organizing the event and everyone who attended!

Slides

Examples

Example 1: View Page Source in Tab

• Source: http://github.com/erikvold/view-page-source-in-tab-jetpack
• Download: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/151809/

Example 2: Google Maps for Microformats

• Source: http://github.com/erikvold/googlemaps4microformats-jetpack
• Download: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/153353/

Questions

Will Jetpack modules work with Webkit?
Jetpack only supports Firefox currently.

Will you be able to use Jetpack with Google Chrome?
The security model for Google Chrome extensions and Jetpack are very different, so generally speaking you will not be able to use a Jetpack as, or in, a Google Chrome extension. However, I believe a small portion of basic extensions may be written to work across platforms if the code performs some environment detection.

Will the modules that a Jetpack uses be displayed to the user when they install an add-on from sites other than AMO?
This type of capability-based notification to users is a privacy and security goal for Jetpack, it will likely be addressed in future releases.

When will the restart-less add-ons feature be ready?
You can create restart-less Jetpack-based add-ons as of the Jetpack SDK 0.4 release, but the restart-less feature will only work with the nightly versions of Firefox at the moment.

What kind of content will you be able to add to Panels?
As far as I know all HTML content can be used in a panel.

What does cfx stand for?
cfx means Cuddle Fish executable I believe, ‘Cuddle Fish’ is a bit of a code name, and cfx will be replaced by jpx in the future.

How do Jetpack-based add-ons keep track of the menu items to be removed when they are uninstalled?
I believe a unique Jetpack ID is used to track anything that needs to be removed when the uninstall command is issue to a given add-on.

In trying to understand the make-up of our developer community it is important to know about the tools folks use, the developer platforms they work with, and the areas developers need more help. In this survey we dug a bit deeper into development platforms you prefer and your thoughts on the communities that drive them. Enough banter, let’s get to the results -

Which platforms do you currently develop applications for?

Client-side web languages really shined here, followed by Windows-focused platforms and Java.

Which platforms do you find are the best in terms of community, documentation, and ease of use?

The ease-of-use results were very close to the developer platform usage results from the first survey question. When comparing developer platform usage results to ease-of-use responses, the platforms that ranked the highest were Open Social, Facebook, OS X, and Flash, the lowest ranked platforms were XUL, iPhone, and Chrome Extensions.

What do we need to focus on?

Qualitatively, the concerns that topped the list for what could be improved with the development platforms mentioned in the survey closely paralleled the responses for the question “What else can we do to encourage and nurture new add-on developers?”. Developers felt that the following areas (ordered from most important to least) needed greater attention: A good IDE, adherence to standards, better documentation, overall ease-of-use, and API coverage. This is largely in keeping with a similar question from our last survey and is something we will consider as we plan future phases of the Jetpack project.

A Firefox Add-ons Marketplace?

The idea of Mozilla creating an add-ons marketplace was generally well received, nearly 75% of respondents ranged from Somewhat Interested to Very Interested in participating in such a program.

The Takeaway

Though responses were generally positive, there were many areas that community members feel need improvement. Stay tuned for the Jetpack Project’s upcoming Add-ons Builder SDK 0.5 release, it extends the API coverage of the platform and comes with better, more comprehensive documentation.

- Daniel Buchner, on behalf of the Jetpack team

You’ve got mail!

To show off the Jetpack SDK 0.4 release, I’ve constructed an add-on that checks Gmail and Yahoo Mail for unread inbox messages. It also lets you open tabs to both email services in a single click, and has some snazzy UI to boot!

How it’s made

First you want to create a new Widget instance – the Widget API allows you to easily add UI to Firefox in a way friendly to the user – here’s what the code looks like:

var mpWidget = require('widget').Widget({
    label:'MailPing',
    content: '...HTML content goes here...',
    onReady: function(){
	// onReady gives you access to your Widget when it's ready for manipulation

        // My code was more extensive for this example so please view the source
        // via the download link further down the page
    },
    onClick: function(){
        // This is one of the events you can use to perform actions based on user input,
        // see the documentation for the full list
    }
});

require('widget').add(mpWidget);

I also used the Page Worker API to check the message counts, here is what an instantiation of a Page Worker instance looks like:

var gmail = require('page-worker').Page({
    content: mpProviders.gmail.content,
    onReady: function(){  // The onReady function is fired each time the content option is set
        parse.run('gmail', gmail);
        gmail.onReady = function(){}
    }
});

require('page-worker').add(gmail);

Get the source files

Download this test extension package and unpack it to the packages/ subdirectory in your Jetpack SDK directory. Make sure the SDK is activated per the instructions in the docs. Then enter the mailping/ subdirectory and execute the command cfx -a firefox run to try it out.

Install the extension

To use the extension, you can install the MailPing test extension from addons.mozilla.org.

- Daniel Buchner, on behalf of the Jetpack team