Filed under: Software, Tips and tricks, Internet Tools, Mods
On the Firefox 2.0 beta, extensions and compatibility
If you want to play with the Firefox betas, but don't want to break your existing extensions, there is an add-on available that can bring your existing extensions along for the 2.0 beta ride. Nightly Tester Tools is an add-on (extensions are being rebranded as 'add-ons' in the new Firefox) that brings a number of developer-related features to Firefox, but it does two fantastic things for regular end users like you and I: it can make *most* extensions/add-ons work with versions of Firefox they weren't necessarily meant to, even new ones you want to install.Long story short: the way I understand it, Firefox add-ons need to specify which version of Firefox they're compatible with, in case there is version-specific code they require to function. Most add-ons, however, don't have that version-specific code, so Nightly Tester Tools (basically speaking) futzes with add-on version lists so (ideally) more recent versions of Firefox - i.e. this shiny new 2.0 release - can use these add-ons just fine. The one catch I've personally run into is that it seems Nightly Tester Tools needs to be installed on a v1.5.x of Firefox in order to be able to work with v2.0 (ironic, isn't it?). I stumbled across this because I recently wiped my MacBook Pro and reinstalled Mac OS X (I needed to start from scratch to get that new version of Vista running on my MBP). Along with this fresh system, I tried installing Nightly Tester Tools into a Firefox 2.0 beta, and it wouldn't budge. Turns out I had to degrade to 1.5.x, install Nightly Tester Tools, then bump up to 2.0, but YMMV.
I need to give a shout out to Download Squad, as it is they who first found this add-on which makes playing with Firefox betas so much sweeter.
![TUAW [Cafepress]](http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.tuaw.com/media/tuaw-cafepress-promo.png)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
BillSaysThis said 8:58PM on 9-01-2006
No offense but this is not new for FF2, it's an issue that's been with us since before 1.0. Several other ad-ons, most prominently MR Tech Local Install, include the functionality to update max version.
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David Chartier said 9:03PM on 9-01-2006
#1: This post isn't exactly meant for the 1337 h4x0rs who've been tinkering with this stuff since the Firefox 0.1 pre-alpha days. It's geared towards a wider audience who might recently have become more interested in playing with what's new in Firefox, but didn't know how to transition easily.
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BillSaysThis said 9:54PM on 9-01-2006
My point is that this is not new, even for the average Firefox user. It's not something introduced by version 2 but has had to be dealt with by all Firefox users who have extensions installed.
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tim said 12:50AM on 9-02-2006
THIS IS AWESOME! now all my extension, well except tab mix plus, work with beta 2!!!
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Patrick Cheung said 4:10AM on 9-03-2006
I have backed up all the stuff before I wiped the system clean. I installed Firefox 2 the first time and install the tester tool and it can make the older addons compatible with no problem.
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Ray Marotta said 8:37AM on 9-02-2006
Just a quick comment, There is an extension called
Mr Tech's Local Install, which is much more powerful than what Nightly Tester Tools offers, I use it, as well as many other Firefox 2.0 users. I would suggest you check it out, it also incorporates a alot of extension saving features found in many other extensions you may have installed, It will inform you of this and offer to uninstall these other extensions which are no longer required.
Here's the site and install page:
http://www.mrtech.com/extensions/local_install/
Cheers!
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Brendan said 10:23AM on 9-02-2006
You wiped you HD to install Vista, I didn't.
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David Chartier said 11:00AM on 9-02-2006
#6: I obviously didn't really want to do a clean wipe just to get a Windows partition installed, but Boot Camp told me so. I've installed and uninstalled BC a couple times, and I've partitioned my drive once or twice poking around with trying to get previous Vista versions to install. This time around, BC told me I *had* to reinstall Mac OS X in order to be able to partition the drive, and since I was almost due for a cleanout - we install a lot of crap in the name of TUAW :) - I figured it was good a time as any.
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Ian said 11:35AM on 9-03-2006
Having Tab Mix Plus enabled on my installation broke the address bar so it wouldn't launch any URL I typed into it. I'm having to learn to live without it for the time being. It's hard to make it from day to day, but somehow I'll get by.
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