Firefox add-on auto-update settings

This article is from: https://developer.mozilla.org/zh-CN/Add-ons/Updates

Provided by my own translation.

 

Firefox supports automatic upgrades of extensions using a JSON upgrade manifest description file. Extensions deployed on  AMO  can be automatically updated to the latest version, other extensions must specify the location of their upgrade description files.

A typical upgrade description file is as follows:

{
  "addons": {
    "[email protected]": {
      "updates": [
        { "version": "0.1",
          "update_link": "https://example.com/addon-0.1.xpi" },
        { "version": "0.2",
          "update_link": "http://example.com/addon-0.2.xpi",
          "update_hash": "sha256:fe93c2156f05f20621df1723b0f39c8ab28cdbeec342efa95535d3abff932096" },
        { "version": "0.3",
          "update_link": "https://example.com/addon-0.3.xpi",
          "applications": {
            "gecko": { "strict_min_version": "44" } } }
      ]
    }
  }
}

Extension upgrade

If your add-on is not deployed on AMO , you must explicitly state the location of your add-on's upgrade manifest file. For  WebExtensions , add the following to your manifest file:

"applications": {
  "gecko": {
    "update_url": "https://example.com/updates.json"
  }
}

For XUL extensions, add the following to the install.rdf file's <Description about="urn:mozilla:install-manifest">  element:

<em:updateURL>https://example.com/updates.json</em:updateURL>

Manifest structure

manifest is a JSON file that uses top-level objects. This object contains the following possible properties:

Property Type Description

addons	object	An object containing an entity for the add-on to upgrade. The key of each entity must be the ID of the adder, and its value must be an  addon object  and its updates.

Addon objects

addons[*]

The properties of each addons object must contain a collection of description objects for the upgrade add-on. This object has the following properties:

Property Type Description

updates	Array optional	A data contains  update description objects for 0 or more appenders  .

Update objects

addons[*].updates[*]

Upgrade description objects must be collections of objects, which can have the following properties:

Property Type Description

version	string	The version number of the add-on. This version number must exist if an upgrade address is specified. If any compatibility information is specified, it will overwrite the version number in the special information with this version number.
update_link	string optional	A link address to the appender XPI file, it must be an HTTPS address, otherwise the update_hash must be included in order to verify it.
update_hash	string optional	A update_link指向的文件的Hash编码。 must contain this value if update_link is not an HTTPS address. If present, it must be a hash encoded with  sha256: or  sha512:开头的字符串followed by the hexadecimal value of the corresponding type.
update_info_url	string optional	The address of an HTML file containing upgrade instructions.
multiprocess_compatible	bool optional (default:true)	If false, this add-on must be required to run in a  multi-process Firefox  environment.
applications	object optional	An object containing application-specific compatibility information. Each attribute must contain an  application object , which is described below. Including Firefox and other applications built on the same runtime environment, 当前都只支持一个值： gecko. If this property is omitted, Gecko is supported. Also, if this attribute is defined, it must contain a gecko attribute, otherwise the upgrade entity will be ignored.

Application objects

addons[*].updates[*].applications.gecko

The Application object specifies the appropriate description information for a particular application. They must be a collection of objects, which can contain the following properties:

Property Type Description

strict_min_version	string optional (default:42.0a1)	The minimum version number that the appender can run.
strict_max_version	string optional (default: *)	The maximum version number that the appender can run.
advisory_max_version	string optional (default: *)	The maximum version number at which the appender runs optimally. This property is mostly ignored.