Popular:
 Building Resilient Systems on AWS: Learn how to design and implement a resilient, highly available, fault-tolerant infrastructure on AWS.

Firefox Extension Template

By  on  

Creating a Firefox extension can be difficult if you don't know the files involved and how to structure your extension folder. Fear not -- I have created a very basic Firefox extension template file/folder structure for you to get your first plugin going.

Download ZIP

File & Folder Structure

  • MyExtension/
    • chrome/
      • content/ - contains the extensions XUL and JavaScript files.
        • myExtension.xul - The XML that creates the layout of the extension.
        • options.xul - The XML that creates proviedes extension options. Empty for this template.
        • myExtension.js - The JavaScript that manages the action of each extension object.
      • locale/ - contains language files. None included in this template. Assume English.
      • skin/ - contains images and CSS to control extension object layout.
        • myExtension.css - a CSS file controling presentation, just like a website.
        • logo.png - a sample image. All images go in this folder as well.
    • chrome.manifest - maps out the file/structure layout of the extension for Firefox.
    • install.rdf - provides information about the extension.
    • update.rdf - gets pinged to check for extension updates.

Note that this structure isn't required but is a very commonly used structure. Also, make sure to check out my David Walsh Blog Toolbar post to see an example of my file contents.

Download ZIP

Stay tuned for my post on creating the XPI file that packages the extension!

Request Metrics real user monitoring
Request Metrics real user monitoring
Request Metrics real user monitoring
Request Metrics real user monitoring

Recent Features

  • By
    Write Better JavaScript with Promises

    You've probably heard the talk around the water cooler about how promises are the future. All of the cool kids are using them, but you don't see what makes them so special. Can't you just use a callback? What's the big deal? In this article, we'll...

  • By
    An Interview with Eric Meyer

    Your early CSS books were instrumental in pushing my love for front end technologies. What was it about CSS that you fell in love with and drove you to write about it? At first blush, it was the simplicity of it as compared to the table-and-spacer...

Incredible Demos

  • By
    Image Reflections with CSS

    Image reflection is a great way to subtly spice up an image.  The first method of creating these reflections was baking them right into the images themselves.  Within the past few years, we've introduced JavaScript strategies and CANVAS alternatives to achieve image reflections without...

  • By
    Firefox Marketplace Animated Buttons

    The Firefox Marketplace is an incredibly attractive, easy to use hub that promises to make finding and promoting awesome HTML5-powered web applications easy and convenient. While I don't work directly on the Marketplace, I am privy to the codebase (and so...

Discussion

  1. Lim Chee Aun

    I guess both of us think alike :) http://github.com/cheeaun/example-fx

  2. David Walsh

    @Lim Chee Aun: As always! :) This setup is pretty common.

  3. Foobar

    u mis-typed the word “chrome”…

  4. David Walsh

    @Foobar: Updated.

  5. Tyler Diaz

    Thanks a bunch David, I’ve always wanted to try my hand at creating my own Firefox tool bar but never really knew how to start. Thanks for the jump start. ;)

  6. Skakunov Alexander

    You can use an Extension Wizard for that purpose.

  7. Scott Morris

    I have been tasked to create an add on and through all the searching and examples yours was the best. Thank you.

  8. andrew

    I have defind a new action that to call other program In my myExtension.js ,
    Am i input the program with myExtension.js in content too ?

  9. Home

    I always to the star to make my Firefox toolbar, but knew how to really wanted to try my hand but never.
    ——————————–
    ruthallen

Wrap your code in <pre class="{language}"></pre> tags, link to a GitHub gist, JSFiddle fiddle, or CodePen pen to embed!