uBlock Origin Development Add-on for Firefox

Raymond Hill (Gorhill), the developer of uBlock Origin, released the Firefox add-on uBlock Origin dev build to Mozilla's Firefox Add-ons website recently.

Active uBlock Origin Beta users on Firefox may wonder why the development build version was released as a new add-on and not on the beta channel of the primary uBlock Origin add-on listing.

The release notes on the project's Github page provide an explanation for that. According to the posted information, Mozilla will disable the option to publish beta versions of extensions using the beta channel on AMO next week.

"I've received an email from Mozilla informing me that starting February 22nd, 2018, the beta channel on AMO will no longer be available for developers to publish beta versions of their extensions."

uBlock Origin Development Add-on for Firefox

The decision means that developers cannot publish release and beta versions of add-ons using a single add-on listing anymore. Developers who maintain development and release channels of their extensions for Firefox need to create multiple add-on listings now to continue that practice.

Existing beta version users of uBlock Origin will be moved to the latest release version of the extension automatically once the stable version reaches a version that is greater than that of the beta version.

"As per email, those using the beta version of uBO will be automatically moved to the latest release version of uBO when the release version become greater than the last version available in the beta channel."

Firefox users who want to use the development build version of uBlock Origin need to install uBlock Origin Dev Build, a new add-on, to do so. This version works just like the old beta version but is maintained now on a separate channel.

Since the extension is not linked in any way to the stable version (or vice versa), all settings and subscriptions will be set to default upon installation. Users who want to retain the settings need to use the extension's settings backup and restore functionality to address the limitation.

Here is how that is done:

1. Load about:addons in the Firefox address bar.
2. Activate the uBlock Origin options.
3. Select the "back up to file"option under Settings, and save the text document to the local system.
4. Remove the stable version of uBlock Origin from Firefox.
5. Install the development version of uBlock Origin instead.
6. Select "restore from file" in the uBlock Origin settings, and then the previously saved text file to import the settings again.

Closing Words

We don't know how many add-ons are affected by the change but it will change things around quite a bit: Mozilla AMO will list multiple versions of the add-on now instead of just one, users who run beta editions need to switch to development builds (if offered) to continue using these, and the separate listing of development add-ons may lead to the installation of these add-ons by users who wanted to install the stable version.