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<p>Dear Magnus,</p>
<p>no there was an actual "beta channel" within the ADd-ons: if
you uploaded a Add-on with the string "b / a / beta / alpha /
pre" contained in the version number it would be marked as such
and not shown on the main page but listed in versions. If a user
installed that they would go on the "beta-trail" and be updated
with other betas. (As far as I remember). I think the
disadvantage was that new "release" versions would not
auto-update users on the beta-trail, so if you didn't release
newer betas, then beta users would eventually be "left behind".</p>
<p>Of course it is possible that I imagined the whole thing, but I
did have beta releases for QuickFolders for a while. It could
also have been a checkbox on the AMO submission form. Maybe
Jorge remembers.<br>
</p>
<p>regards,<br>
Axel<br>
</p>
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<div id="mySignature"> <b class="myName"><a
href="mailto:axel.grude@gmail.com">Axel Grude</a></b> <br>
Music Production and Composition <br>
Thunderbird Add-ons Developer <span class="AddonList">(<a
href="https://addons.mozilla.org/thunderbird/addon/quickfolders-tabbed-folders/">QuickFolders</a>,
<a
href="https://addons.mozilla.org/thunderbird/addon/quickfilters/">quickFilters</a>,
<a
href="https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/quickpasswords/">QuickPasswords</a>,
<a
href="https://addons.mozilla.org/thunderbird/addon/zombie-keys/">Zombie
Keys</a>, <a
href="https://addons.mozilla.org/thunderbird/addon/smarttemplate4/">SmartTemplate4</a>)</span>
<br>
Visit my <a href="https://www.youtube.com/c/thunderbirddaily">YouTube
Channel</a> for email productivity tips <img
style="margin-top: 1em; float: right; box-shadow: 1px 1px 2px
rgba(20, 20, 20, 0.4);" moz-do-not-send="false" class="myLogo"
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padding-bottom:20px !important;">
<div id="newHeaderAG1" style="font-size: x-small; padding:1em;
background-color:rgba(220,220,240,0.4); border-radius:3px;"> <b>Subject:</b>Re:
Extension development for beta<br>
<b>From:</b>Magnus Melin <a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:mkmelin+mozilla@iki.fi"><mkmelin+mozilla@iki.fi></a><br>
<b>To:</b><a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:tb-planning@mozilla.org"><tb-planning@mozilla.org></a> <br>
<b>Sent: </b>Monday, 10/29/2018 11:10 GMT ST +0000 [Week 44]<br>
</div>
</blockquote>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:a0f529c3-fe08-edf2-420a-cd3c0bfcaf34@iki.fi"
id="mid_a0f529c3_fe08_edf2_420a_cd3c0bfcaf34_iki_fi" class=" cite">
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<p>Seems I slightly misread this, but perhaps my misconception
could be an idea:</p>
<p>Play store has a Firefox for Android Beta. Perhaps extensions
should do the same, i.e. the Foobar extension should have a
separate FoobarBeta extension that is targeting the beta channel
users? <br>
</p>
<p> -Magnus<br>
</p>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 29-10-2018 12:04, Axel Grude
wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:c679a830-9e50-102b-7072-d080882d8c1e@gmail.com"
id="mid_c679a830_9e50_102b_7072_d080882d8c1e_gmail_com" class="
cite">
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<p>Dear Geoff,</p>
<p>please don't confuse ESR60 with Thunderbird beta. (tb63) -
the ESR (thunderbird 60.*) supports using install.rdf - so
you can keep using that unless you want to support beta
versions. <br>
</p>
<p>For testing beta versions I would suggest creating a
separate batch script for buildng. I haven't managed to get
mine fully compatible yet but it should be definitely
possible to start from the same sources without being forced
to "fork" code at this stage - let the batch script do the
rest. You will need to build 2 different versions but you
can use minver & maxver to control the behavior on ATN.
Nothing stops you from releasing both versions alternately -
they should be picked up by the update mechanism based on
minver / maxver.</p>
<p>As regards having a separate beta trail, I think this would
be the best option (we had this on AMO but I think it was
removed again). Is this something that ATN could
reintroduce?<br>
</p>
<p>Axel<br>
</p>
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<div id="mySignature"> <b class="myName"><a
href="mailto:axel.grude@gmail.com"
moz-do-not-send="true">Axel Grude</a></b> <br>
Music Production and Composition <br>
Thunderbird Add-ons Developer <span class="AddonList">(<a
href="https://addons.mozilla.org/thunderbird/addon/quickfolders-tabbed-folders/"
moz-do-not-send="true">QuickFolders</a>, <a
href="https://addons.mozilla.org/thunderbird/addon/quickfilters/"
moz-do-not-send="true">quickFilters</a>, <a
href="https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/quickpasswords/"
moz-do-not-send="true">QuickPasswords</a>, <a
href="https://addons.mozilla.org/thunderbird/addon/zombie-keys/"
moz-do-not-send="true">Zombie Keys</a>, <a
href="https://addons.mozilla.org/thunderbird/addon/smarttemplate4/"
moz-do-not-send="true">SmartTemplate4</a>)</span> <br>
Visit my <a
href="https://www.youtube.com/c/thunderbirddaily"
moz-do-not-send="true">YouTube Channel</a> for email
productivity tips <img style="margin-top: 1em; float:
right;
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0.4);" moz-do-not-send="false" class="myLogo"
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alt="Get

 Thunderbird!" width="94" height="15"> </div>
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!important;
 padding-bottom:20px !important;"
id="Cite_2279109" class=" cite">
<div id="newHeaderAG1" style="font-size: x-small;

padding:1em;

background-color:rgba(220,220,240,0.4);

border-radius:3px;"> <b>Subject:</b>Extension development
for beta<br>
<b>From:</b>Geoff Lankow <a
class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated"
href="mailto:geoff@thunderbird.net"
moz-do-not-send="true">geoff@thunderbird.net</a><br>
<b>To:</b><a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E"
href="mailto:tb-planning@mozilla.org"
moz-do-not-send="true"><tb-planning@mozilla.org></a>
<br>
<b>Sent: </b>Monday, 10/29/2018 08:37 GMT ST +0000 [Week
44]<br>
</div>
</blockquote>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:76a9de72-c407-8f8a-efd4-f961659a8f52@thunderbird.net"
id="mid_76a9de72_c407_8f8a_efd4_f961659a8f52_thunderbird_net"
class=" cite">
<p>We have a problem. Actually, a series of problems.</p>
<p>Firstly. For an extension to run on ESR60, it must be:</p>
<ol type="A">
<li>an overlay extension with an install.rdf manifest, or</li>
<li>a bootstrapped extension with an install.rdf manifest,
or<br>
</li>
<li>a WebExtension with a manifest.json</li>
</ol>
<p>C is very rare, because ESR60 supports so few of the
WebExtension APIs. B isn't an issue yet but will become one
soon, so I'm ignoring it for this conversation.</p>
<p>For A to run on beta, it must have a manifest.json and <i>NOT</i>
have an install.rdf manifest. (At this point it's
technically a WebExtension and we're just lying to the
extensions back-end about what it's actually doing.)</p>
<p>This leads to the second problem: it's impossible to have
an extension that both has an install.rdf and doesn't have
an install.rdf. Therefore an extension developer cannot make
an extension that can run on both ESR60 and beta.</p>
<p>(Side note: I've been trying to make a backport for ESR
that can run an updated legacy extension, but I'm
uncomfortable with the size of the changes.)</p>
<p>The extension developer <i>could</i> make a separate
version of their extension which is only for beta. Given the
other big changes in the platform, that's probably the best
option anyway, but that takes us to problem three: they
can't host the beta version of their extension on ATN,
because ATN no longer has support for development channel
extensions. I <i>think</i> there's an ugly workaround
involving uploading versions out-of-order such that the ESR
version is the one displayed, but I really don't think
developers should have to deal with that, or would bother.
They could also self-host the extension but I think most
wouldn't want to do that.</p>
<p>We're left with a bunch of not-very-nice options, as well
as all the other issues facing extension developers, which I
think is just going to put a lot of developers off
altogether, and we'll lose a large fraction of our
extensions.</p>
<p>GL<br>
</p>
<br>
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