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?

[Jon]

Thanks for submitting an idea to the Mozilla Connect community! Your idea is now open to votes (aka kudos) and comments.

[kremlinbot]

Maybe also force the height of add-on activity description to only be 1 line, as right now it is allowed to be multi-line, which makes the menu look much bigger in some locales:

1. Unified Extensions menu in Russian locale with 10 add-ons installed; pay attention to how much height it takes because of multi-line description
2. Exactly the same menu with English locale
3. Russian locale menu with multi-line description disabled (uses much less vertical space)

[Hidetoshi6721]

Exactly. I also upvote this.

[BelFox]

Excellent suggestions and mock-ups @kremlinbot! 👍 Upvoted.

One thing: the unified extensions button is in 109 beta now. I see it is possible now to pin add-ons to the task bar. Unpinning them moves them to the extensions panel. So that's a little progress :-).

But more UI refinements are needed in next versions.

[BelFox]

Found the Bugzilla ticket for reordering extensions:

https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1805924

I have posted a link to this proposal there @kremlinbot .

PS. Bugzilla is not meant for discussions, but feel free to vote for the bug.

[treesap]

Yes, please!

I actually like having the ability to see disabled extensions because I have a few I only enable when I'm actively using them, as they have ridiculous permissions. BUT, I also have lots of disabled specialty/niche extensions I use once a year or less. Displaying those is a waste of screen real estate and makes finding the right one tougher.

Reordering would be a good first step, though being able to also remove some would also be fantastic, since opening it now takes up my whole screen (vertically.)

[mooms]

Why extensions without UI/buttons are appearing here ?

Why we can't hide any extension ?

Why we cant reorder the extension ?

Why the menu is so big compared to the old one ?

See the problem here:

https://www.reddit.com/r/firefox/comments/10eqml6/who_was_thinking_the_new_extension_menu_is_a_good/

[drcheap]

And now the feature is live.

I really like the fact that it shows the current/effective permissions each addon has for the active tab!

However, because the list does not contain pinned extensions at all, there is no way to see that useful tidbit of information. 

I pin several extensions that offer dynamic functionality in their toolbar icon (e.g. counters/status) and/or need frequent visits to the browser_action popup menu.  Just because it's pinned for these reasons does not mean I would not want to still know about the permissions it has!

This seems like a horrible oversight, and looking through all the related Bugzilla enhancement/defect/task entries I could find, there seems to be no mention about this aspect.  The ideas that @kremlinbot put in the first post definitely address this concern.

[Cameron]

Coming here from the Reddit tread mentioned in the reply above.

Please add a toggle-able setting, not in the about:config menu, to allow us to disable "unified addons" for all future updates it's included. If it is going to stay the default for some atrocious reason, I would add another drop-down at the bottom in the customize toolbar page labeled "Addon Menu Style" with options for "Unified Addons" or "Overflow Menu" or something similar that allows us to choose which style we prefer.

The "Unified Addon" UI seems bloated with too much space and text; I don't see any need to add permission information to the UI, as it just adds more clutter I have to skim over to find the extension I'm looking for. The menu should be an overflow menu for addons I don't use often enough to keep on the toolbar, but don't want to entirely remove. I don't see why this update was warranted, it's just objectively worse.

[CocoTheMii]

These suggestions are all great ideas, and I've upvoted your post; however, I'd also appreciate if there were a more straightforward way to disable the new UI altogether.

I'm sure the new extensions interface is fine for some people, but I simply can't stand to use it. Everything is absolutely massive— WAY bigger than it needs to be. I can't even rearrange or hide my extensions from the menu anymore!

This update is the opposite of unified. The nice thing about the old design is that it makes your extensions feel like a native part of the browser; the overflow menu can hold extensions and native controls. Why are we moving away from that?

By segregating the extensions into their own little menu, it just breaks apart the experience. Pair that with the fact that it's currently less functional than the feature it aims to replace, and this creates a frustrating experience for your users.

[Genebris]

My suggestion is you just remove this "exciting" new feature and let us customize out toolbar and overflow menu again, thank you.

[trinaldi]

I agree with @Genebris 

[Eelectric]

Good mock-up design! Now that we can manage and remove extensions right from the menu instead of needing the add-on manager, I think they should also allow enabling and disabling extensions directly from the menu. Being able to pin specific extensions would be very handy for this. If this was implemented, a further default-collapsed section at the bottom would make sense, so in your design it would go needs permissions > pinned > other addons (collapsed) > disabled addons (collapsed, possibly separately).

[armadillo-dream]

While I don't like all of your ideas, they are FAR FAR FAR better than the unremovable, unmovable Extensions button and how I cannot easily use/interact with my extensions. My Firefox update with this pushed out today, causing me to be unprepared for a meeting because my extensions do NOT work even AS simply as they did when I shoved them all into my Overflow Menu.

[armadillo-dream]

I wish I was in the headspace to fully appreciate all the thought you've put into your ideas.

Unfortunately, I'm here from a redirect in a 7+ tab chain all regarding how Firefox updated for me today, implementing a horrible Extensions button I cannot move whatsoever. All I needed was for my password extension to work so I could access something for school. However, it got trapped into the Extensions button which the Mozilla blog claims "makes things easier." Having to spend half an hour troubleshooting to prepare for a meeting is NOT easier. Having to click several additional buttons is NOT easier.

All I want is the ability to shove my extensions back into the Overflow Menu and for them to just work.

If I cannot do that, I want to shove that ugly little Extensions button in there, be able to access all my extensions in the Overflow Menu, and within TWO CLICKS MAXIMUM use my extensions.

Anyway nice work, not complaining to you, hoping to just boost your post so Mozilla sees there's options that aren't throttling all functionality of a web browser. If I didn't need my computer or the web for school, I would honestly trash it over this. Firefox has been the best web browser for my needs and specs across laptops since 2016. If it can't work, nothing can.