Unified add-ons UI improvements

[kremlinbot]

The current menu, although being Mv3-compatible, is very basic and simply shows all active add-ons without any option to anyhow customize it. Furthermore, this update removed an option to pin add-ons in the overflow menu, effectively making it useless, which obviously will not be welcomed by the users.

So, what can be done?

• Re-add an option to pin add-ons in the list; all the add-ons that were pinned in the overflow list before will be re-pinned in the add-ons list after the update. It'd be also nice to have an option to change their order, although I'm not sure how this can be implemented (perhaps strip the overflow menu completely and replace it with the new one in the "Customize..." page?)
• The "Add-ons" button will only show the pinned add-ons list first, and require an additional click to expand it to see the full list. If none of the add-ons are pinned, the button will only show the full list (like it does right now)
• If some add-on needs new permissions, or requires permission to run on website, it will be shown on the top of the list in both of the lists, except if it was pinned by user before. It will also feature additional outline to draw the user's attention.

So, what do you think?

[DavidBE]

Well I've used about:config to revert to the previous overflow menu, but I'm afraid that it won't be long before that option is removed. This happened with Edge (following Chrome): a really good customisable toolbar overflow area replaced by an extensions button with a drop-down panel with a non-customisable list of every extension in alphabetical order. That completely killed any thought I had of maybe moving to Edge. I had thought that at least with Firefox not being tied to Chromium, and catering to people like me with 30+ extensions (clearly ignored by Google and Micrposoft), Mozilla would never do something so egregiously damaging to the UI for using 30+ extensions - then today I find this has happened. I get this feeling that program devs keep thinking they have to change things just so the program is seen as active and "up-to-date", while completely forgetting the very good reasons why some things were designed the way they were and oblivious to how they are wrecking the UI for many users.

For em there are two acceptable options:

(1) PERMANENTLY keep the option for users to keep the overflow drop-down with pinnable extensions as was, with or without an option to have whatever new Extensions button and drop-down as well/instead. For me this would be the best option. (I'd opt for keeping the overflow and disabling the extensions button.)

(2) If user chosen extensions absolutely can't be pinned to the overflow menu any more (though I really can't see why that would HAVE to be the case), then I have an absolute need to be able to change the order of extensions in the extensions drop-down as I wish (the ones that I do need to click on sometimes at the top in the order I want so I can find them quickly), preferably with extensions that have buttons in the toolbar not being shown at all.

I have - reluctantly - accepted other changes I don't like in Firefox over the years, but this one is a make-or-break. I'm going to start reviewing other browsers, and if I get a Firefox update that won't let me have the extensions I use that I don't have room for in the toolbar at the top of a menu in the order I want them, Firefox will be uninstalled on both my laptop and phone. For me this awful (and completely unnecessary) issue is that serious. I honestly cannot understand how the devs could have  come up with such a **bleep**-eyed and damaging change.

[DavidBE]

Well I've used about:config to revert to the previous overflow menu, but I'm afraid that it won't be long before that option is removed. This happened with Edge (following Chrome): a really good customisable toolbar overflow area replaced by an extensions button with a drop-down panel with a non-customisable list of every extension in alphabetical order. That completely killed any thought I had of maybe moving to Edge. I had thought that at least with Firefox not being tied to Chromium, and catering to people like me with 30+ extensions (clearly ignored by Google and Microsoft), Mozilla would never do something so egregiously damaging to the UI for using 30+ extensions - then today I find this has happened. I get this feeling that program devs keep thinking they have to change things just so the program is seen as active and "up-to-date", while completely forgetting the very good reasons why some things were designed the way they were and oblivious to how they are wrecking the UI for many users.

For me there are two acceptable options:

(1) PERMANENTLY keep the option for users to keep the overflow drop-down with pinnable extensions as was, with or without an option to have whatever new Extensions button and drop-down as well/instead. For me this would be the best option. (I'd opt for keeping the overflow and disabling the extensions button.)

(2) If user chosen extensions absolutely can't be pinned to the overflow menu any more (though I really can't see why that would HAVE to be the case), then I have an absolute need to be able to change the order of extensions in the extensions drop-down as I wish (the ones that I do need to click on sometimes at the top in the order I want so I can find them quickly), preferably with extensions that have buttons in the toolbar not being shown in the drop-down at all.

I have - reluctantly - accepted other changes I don't like in Firefox over the years, but this one is a make-or-break. I'm going to start reviewing other browsers, and if I get a Firefox update that won't let me have the extensions I use that I don't have room for in the toolbar at the top of a menu in the order I want them, Firefox will be uninstalled on both my laptop and phone. For me this awful (and completely unnecessary) issue is that serious. I honestly cannot understand how the devs could have  come up with such a **bleep**-eyed and damaging change.

[Jenee]

All I can say is they did it again. What's the purpose of the overflow menu now? Those functions that can be put into the overflow menu now are all available in the burger menu. And the hamburger menu has been fixed on the toolbar for a long while. What's after this? The next step is to remove the overflow menu?

I didn't want to mention Waterfox in this forum, but the customizability of Waterfox looks incredibly attractive now. Isn't that hilarious?

[Jenee]

All I can say is they did it again. What's the purpose of the overflow menu now? Those functions that can be put into the overflow menu now are all available in the burger menu. And the hamburger menu has been fixed on the toolbar for a long while. What's after this? The next step is to remove the overflow menu?

I didn't want to mention Waterfox in this forum, but the customizability of Waterfox looks incredibly attractive right now. Isn't that hilarious?

[Husenberg]

Great design by OP! I was really annoyed with the new UI, so wanted to do something like this myself, but decided to look through the forums first. And I am happy to say - this is pretty much as good as this manifestV3 menu can get. The post is rather old, so I really hope that the Mozilla team actually implements this, now that it's on the main branch.

This keeps the functionality of the new button, but allows users who used to rely on the overflow menu to keep their organization too. For now I will have to resort to toggling the new feature off in advanced config though.

Reordering of pinned add-ons is also a must have, but I think there needs to be a clear indication if there is a permission that needs to be granted, that is obscured by the current pinned extensions. Maybe an arrow or something point you to scroll down.

[Kingsidorak]

When I disable the feature I find that all the addons go to the overflow stack. All of the addons are just there. Making this entire new feature seem kind of pointless, because the overstack menu is doing exactly the same thing this feature is trying to do, except you can only unpin items from the overstack menu instead of pinning them to the bar. I think unpinning things, is okay to keep, but add pin to bar.

The Overstack menu is already compatible with the Customize Toolbar page, whereas the new feature is not, and the new panel keeps closing every time I pin an item, so that with the fact that it's sorted by date the addon was added instead of by name, makes this new feature extremely annoying to use when setting up firefox for those of us who have 30-50 addons, and only about 10 of them need to be seen all the time

[MK2]

FFS Mozilla - please STOP adding useless features to my UI that cannot be hidden/disabled outside of "about:config". No I do not want some stupid drop-down arrow that shows all my tabs, and no I do not want this stupid menu showing all of my extensions. I do not want or need the ability to control site permissions for each add-on individually - let them continue to access all websites and get rid this stupid button.

WTF is the point of the "Customize Toolbar" option if it doesn't let you customize your toolbar?

[lehtju]

It is honestly mind-boggling and sad how browser which is "made for people" has all the time updates which contain non-customizable features such as this. Mozilla - stop spoon-feeding us these new features without ability to turn them off.

[jasonlovesmoz]

Came here to downvote the new extensions UI. It's not well thought out at all. It's less functional, less customizable, and less friendly than what I had previously. The UI is mine--MINE--and I want control over it. Do you understand this about your users?

You have plenty of other ways to let users manage per-page extension permissions. This could have been done in the security badge, or in the mini icons next to reader and favorites in the address bar, or left in the main menu with an alert badge that tells me when an extension needs me for something.

This extensions button is just sloppy. This is kind of thing I would expect from Google, not Firefox.

[Samare]

The add-ons button doesn't show the status of add-ons unlike the overflow menu, instead it shows the site specific permissions and the add-on status is only shown in a tooltip.

So I thought the purpose of the add-ons button was to show these site specific permissions. But since it doesn't show all installed add-ons but instead only those not in the toolbar, it also fails at that.

So I would suggest this:

• Show ALL add-ons in the add-ons button menu
• Allow the user to pin them
• Allow the user to move the pinned add-ons
• Display the site specific permissions with an icon instead of text
• Show the add-on status text (like in the overflow menu)

[TechnoSwiss]

I will literally go months between restarts on PCs and FF, because every time I do I get to launch FF and ask "oh hell, what new 'feature' have they added?". So I guess I'm a little late to the Unified Extension button game, but come on folks, you don't have to try to copy everything Chrome does, we like you just the way you are. (well maybe not JUST, I'd be happy to have your memory footprint go down a bit, I mean I know I keep a lot of tabs open but when my browser is eating 8GB of RAM... major oof. also if you want to copy Chrome features, why not give us switchable profiles like Chrome does? That's a super nice feature for those of us who are admins for various things and have to switch between multiple accounts all the time...) Honestly though, if I wanted a browser like Chrome, I'd just use Chrome, there's a reason I've been with FF since day one, but man it seems like every couple months something changes and makes me wonder why I stick around.

Seriously though, just adding my vote here, drop the Unified Extensions, the Overflow menu worked great for letting us organize and clean things up the way we wanted. Please don't tell me this was for the old folks who get confused like the whole temp download folder thing, I'm getting to be one of those old folks, and anybody older than me using FF is because somebody like me installed it on their PC for them. You lose us, you lose all of them too.

[TechHorse]

Hello. I agree with a lot of what has been said. please allow an option to either remove specific entries from the extensions button, or alternatively to move specific entries to the overflow menu.

As a keyboard user I notice the extra arrow presses needed to negotiate past the unwanted items in a menu to get to the wanted items.

I am aware that I can pin items to the toolbar, but pinning several extensions here takes up a lot of horizontal space, leaving less room for the edit boxes I have on the sane line.

So neither having everything on the same menu, nor specific item toolbar-pinning, is as useful as what I had before: a single menu that contained only what I wanted it to.

Allowing users to more easily customise the order of items in the extensions menu would be a big help.

But placing the most used items at the top of the menu would not be a complete solution for keyboard users.

Normally with menus if the item you want is near the bottome of the list, then after opening the menu you can press the up arrow or end key to get to the bottom, and arrow up from there. But if the bottom of the list contains several unneeded items then you still have extra work to do to get to the bottom of the wanted items section. This shortcut is lost, if you see what I meam.

Much easier and less cluttered when you can have a menu with only the specific items that are useful for you.

[no2]

I have extensions where I need the icons visible, and easy to access they are fine where they were before. Putting them inside an icon menu means I can't see them and it creates extra clicks and a lot of hassle. I have disabled it, I'm sure some may want the option to pick which extensions to show/hide, but personally I would prefer to disable the unified view entirely. I don't use it and it takes up space.

[KurikoMoe]

The new "unified extension menu" makes it much more harder to pin the extensions.

I used to use the "custom toolbar" to drag the extension out of the overflow menu, but now I need to click the "unified extension menu" icon, click the gear button of the extension, and click "pin xxx", after which the "unified extension menu" auto close itself, so I need to click the menu again. If I install firefox on a new computer and after setting up account syncing, I need to do at least 3 clicks for each of my extensions.

So I just disable the feature and use the overflow menu instead.

[KurikoMoe]

The new "unified extension menu" makes it much more harder to pin the extensions.

I used to use the "custom toolbar" to drag the extension out of the overflow menu, but now I need to click the "unified extension menu" icon, click the gear button of the extension, and click "pin xxx", after which the "unified extension menu" auto close itself, so I need to click the menu again. If I install firefox on a new computer and after setting up account syncing, I need to do at least 3 clicks for each of my extensions.

So I just disable the feature and use the overflow menu instead.