Updating extensions in a XULRunner application

Question

Is it possible for extensions in XUL application to auto update to newer version when app starts? I'm trying to figure this out. If this is possible I would be very grateful if someone would point me to good documentation about this, because I can't find any good articles about this subject on the Internet.

How about this link: developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/XULRunner/Application_Update — linguini
Please don't ask your question in the title - the title is supposed to be a short summary. I've changed it the way I understood your question, feel free to change it again if I misunderstood. Also, a bit more detail wouldn't hurt - do you simply have problems getting extension updates working the way they work in Firefox or are you trying to implement some "special" mechanism (like "check for updates every time the application starts")? — Wladimir Palant
@WladimirPalant sorry about title :) Yeah I've would love to just check for new update when app is started and update it, without the need for user to click update. So called "silent update". I don't know if that is possible. — madeye

Wladimir Palant Wladimir Palant · Accepted Answer · 2012-08-21T16:14:28

XULRunner has the same extension update mechanism built in as Firefox - it will look for extension updates once daily when the application is running. If it finds an update then it will update restartless extensions immediately, other extensions are downloaded and updated on next application start. You have to make sure that the following preferences are defined for your application (copied from Firefox preferences):

pref("extensions.update.autoUpdateDefault", true);
pref("extensions.update.enabled", true);
pref("extensions.update.interval", 86400);
pref("extensions.update.url", "...");
pref("extensions.update.background.url", "...");

The tricky part are the update URLs. Of course you can use the same URLs as Firefox:

https://versioncheck.addons.mozilla.org/update/VersionCheck.php?reqVersion=%REQ_VERSION%&id=%ITEM_ID%&version=%ITEM_VERSION%&maxAppVersion=%ITEM_MAXAPPVERSION%&status=%ITEM_STATUS%&appID=%APP_ID%&appVersion=%APP_VERSION%&appOS=%APP_OS%&appABI=%APP_ABI%&locale=%APP_LOCALE%&currentAppVersion=%CURRENT_APP_VERSION%&updateType=%UPDATE_TYPE%&compatMode=%COMPATIBILITY_MODE%

https://versioncheck-bg.addons.mozilla.org/update/VersionCheck.php?reqVersion=%REQ_VERSION%&id=%ITEM_ID%&version=%ITEM_VERSION%&maxAppVersion=%ITEM_MAXAPPVERSION%&status=%ITEM_STATUS%&appID=%APP_ID%&appVersion=%APP_VERSION%&appOS=%APP_OS%&appABI=%APP_ABI%&locale=%APP_LOCALE%&currentAppVersion=%CURRENT_APP_VERSION%&updateType=%UPDATE_TYPE%&compatMode=%COMPATIBILITY_MODE%

This will work fine for extensions available on addons.mozilla.org. However, I suspect that the extensions for your application will not be available there. Then you have two options. You can enter some dummy URL here like data:text/xml,<nada/> to keep the add-on manager quiet and make sure that all extensions have a custom updateURL. Or you can run your own update server that will produce update manifests for all known extensions (basically what addons.mozilla.org is doing).

Updating extensions in a XULRunner application

1 Answers