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Web-ext

This is a command line tool to help build, run, and test WebExtensions.

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Ultimately, it aims to support browser extensions in a standard, portable, cross-platform way. Initially, it will provide a streamlined experience for developing Firefox Extensions.

Documentation

Here are the commands you can run. Click on each one for detailed documentation or use --help on the command line, such as web-ext build --help.

Installation

Using npm

First, make sure you are running the current LTS (long term support) version of NodeJS.

Global command

You can install this command onto your machine globally with:

npm install --global web-ext

For your project

Alternatively, you can install this command as one of the devDependencies of your project. This method can help you control the version of web-ext as used by your team.

npm install --save-dev web-ext

Next you can use the web-ext command in your project as an npm script. Here is an example where the --source-dir argument specifies where to find the source code for your extension.

package.json

"scripts": {
  "start:firefox": "web-ext run --source-dir ./extension-dist/",
}

You can always pass in additional commands to your npm scripts using the -- suffix. For example, the previous script could specify the Firefox version on the command line with this:

npm run start:firefox -- --firefox=nightly

Using Homebrew (unofficial)

The community maintains a web-ext formula.

brew install web-ext

Installation from source

You'll need:

Optionally, you may like:

If you had already installed web-ext from npm, you may need to uninstall it first:

npm uninstall --global web-ext

Change into the source and install all dependencies:

git clone https://github.com/mozilla/web-ext.git
cd web-ext
npm ci

Build the command:

npm run build

Link it to your node installation:

npm link

You can now run it from any directory:

web-ext --help

To get updates, just pull changes and rebuild the executable. You don't need to relink it.

cd /path/to/web-ext
git pull
npm run build

Using web-ext in NodeJS code

Note: web-ext is primarily a command line tool and there is limited support for direct use of its internal API. Backward incompatible changes may be introduced in minor and patch version updates to the web-ext npm package.

Aside from using web-ext on the command line, you may wish to execute web-ext in NodeJS code.

As of version 7.0.0, the web-ext npm package exports NodeJS native ES modules only. If you are using CommonJS, you will have to use dynamic imports.

Examples

You are able to execute command functions without any argument validation. If you want to execute web-ext run you would do so like this:

import webExt from 'web-ext';

webExt.cmd
  .run(
    {
      // These are command options derived from their CLI conterpart.
      // In this example, --source-dir is specified as sourceDir.
      firefox: '/path/to/Firefox-executable',
      sourceDir: '/path/to/your/extension/source/',
    },
    {
      // These are non CLI related options for each function.
      // You need to specify this one so that your NodeJS application
      // can continue running after web-ext is finished.
      shouldExitProgram: false,
    },
  )
  .then((extensionRunner) => {
    // The command has finished. Each command resolves its
    // promise with a different value.
    console.log(extensionRunner);
    // You can do a few things like:
    // extensionRunner.reloadAllExtensions();
    // extensionRunner.exit();
  });

If you would like to run an extension on Firefox for Android:

import * as adbUtils from "web-ext/util/adb";

// Path to adb binary (optional parameter, auto-detected if missing)
const adbBin = "/path/to/adb";
// Get an array of device ids (Array<string>)
const deviceIds = await adbUtils.listADBDevices(adbBin);
const adbDevice = ...
// Get an array of Firefox APKs (Array<string>)
const firefoxAPKs = await adbUtils.listADBFirefoxAPKs(
  deviceId, adbBin
);
const firefoxApk = ...

webExt.cmd.run({
  target: 'firefox-android',
  firefoxApk,
  adbDevice,
  sourceDir: ...
}).then((extensionRunner) => {...});

If you would like to control logging, you can access the logger object. Here is an example of turning on verbose logging:

import * as webExtLogger from 'web-ext/util/logger';

webExtLogger.consoleStream.makeVerbose();
webExt.cmd.run({ sourceDir: './src' }, { shouldExitProgram: false });

You can also disable the use of standard input:

webExt.cmd.run({ noInput: true }, { shouldExitProgram: false });

web-ext is designed for WebExtensions but you can try disabling manifest validation to work with legacy extensions. This is not officially supported.

webExt.cmd.run(
  { sourceDir: './src' },
  {
    getValidatedManifest: () => ({
      name: 'some-fake-name',
      version: '1.0.0',
    }),
    shouldExitProgram: false,
  },
);

You can also use webExt.cmd.sign() to request a signed xpi for a given extension source directory:

webExt.cmd.sign({
  // NOTE: Please set userAgentString to a custom one of your choice.
  userAgentString: 'YOUR-CUSTOM-USERAGENT',
  apiKey,
  apiSecret,
  amoBaseUrl: 'https://addons.mozilla.org/api/v5/',
  sourceDir: ...,
  channel: 'unlisted',
  ...
});

You can also access the internal signing module directly if you need to submit an xpi file without also building it. Note: submit-addon is internal web-ext module, using the webExt.cmd.sign() is the recommended API method.

import { signAddon } from 'web-ext/util/submit-addon';

signAddon({
  // NOTE: Please set userAgentString to a custom one of your choice.
  userAgentString: 'YOUR-CUSTOM-USERAGENT',
  apiKey,
  apiSecret,
  amoBaseUrl: 'https://addons.mozilla.org/api/v5/',
  id: 'extension-id@example.com',
  xpiPath: pathToExtension,
  savedUploadUuidPath: '.amo-upload-uuid',
  channel: 'unlisted',
});

Should I Use It?

Yes! The web-ext tool enables you to build and ship extensions for Firefox. This platform stabilized in Firefox 48 which was released in April of 2016.

Get Involved

Hi! This tool is under active development. To get involved you can watch the repo, file issues, create pull requests, or contact us to ask a question. Read the contributing section for how to develop new features.

Some Questions and Answers

Why do we need a command line tool?

This is a great question and one that we will ask ourselves for each new web-ext feature. Most WebExtension functionality is baked into the browsers themselves but a complimentary command line tool will still be helpful. Here is a partial list of examples: