Mozilla Jetpack Gets an Update

by Joe Brockmeier - Dec. 28, 2009Comments (1)

Mozilla Labs released Jetpack 0.7 just before Christmas with a special gift for add-on developers. The latest release comes with a brand-new API so add-on authors can give users some tips and info the first time that they run a new Jetpack. It also includes a number of enhancements, updates, and bugfixes. This release also re-enables Jetpack debugging with Firebug, making Jetpack development much easier.

What's a Jetpack? The Mozilla Project is trying to make it much easier to create add-ons for Firefox. Traditional add-ons require developers to know a fair amount about Firefox itself. This isn't so bad if the developers are committed to supporting Firefox and willing to dig into XUL and learn the ins and outs of Firefox. But it's not so good at enabling Web developers who want to stick with the tools they already know — namely CSS, HTML, and JavaScript.

So Jetpack allows developers to create add-ons using just CSS, HTML, and JavaScript. As an added bonus, since Jetpacks don't get "under the hood" with Firefox, Jetpacks don't require Firefox to be restarted on installation. So you can install a Jetpack and keep on browsing without having to take a break from your browsing session.

The 0.7 release is the first to feature the First Run API. This API lets developers provide content that users will see the first time that they run a new Jetpack. In addition to notifying users that the install was successful, it also allows developers to show some tips or tricks on using the add-on. This can be a page provided with the Jetpack or it can be a redirect to a Web page.

Hundreds of Jetpacks have been written so far, and the Jetpack Gallery features quite a few really useful add-ons. You will need to install the Jetpack extension for Firefox to take advantage of Jetpacks. While Jetpack may show up in mainline Firefox at some point, it's still an experimental project for now.

Developers looking to get up to speed with Jetpack should start with the discussion list and pages on the Mozilla Developer Center.

Joe 'Zonker' Brockmeier is a longtime FOSS advocate, and currently works for Novell as the community manager for openSUSE. Prior to joining Novell, Brockmeier worked as a technology journalist covering the open source beat for a number of publications, including Linux Magazine, Linux Weekly News, Linux.com, UnixReview.com, IBM developerWorks, and many others.