[tbb-dev] Fwd: Tor Browser Settings | WebExtensions

[Nathan Freitas]

Forwarding this email from August related to the renewed tor browser mobile work

----- Original message -----
From: Thomas Rientjes <thomas at synz.io>
Subject: Tor Browser Settings | WebExtensions
Date: Mon, 14 Aug 2017 09:40:32 -0400

Hi everyone!

I have been closely following the developments around the
new WebExtensions APIs, and believe said interfaces are finally
capable of powering new versions of Tor Browser Settings.

Firefox (and Firefox for Android) 56 will be supporting a new
[browserSettings API](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/Add-ons/WebExtensions/API/browserSettings) that will allow us to modify browser settings,
which is the most essential feature as far as I'm concerned.

Also, if you now define a "browser_action" for your extension,
Firefox for Android will automatically create a menu entry and a
main menu button tap listener that runs a custom function.

I'm still not completely sure if there's a way for our extension to
get access to local config data of other extensions (e.g. NoScript),
since settings are no longer saved as globally available values.

If it turns out to be impossible, we might want to take the route
of directly interacting with such extensions. This will likely require
work on the side of developers of the other extensions as well.

Note that the settings storage issue only applies to preferences
of non-legacy extensions. So, this is not directly related to porting
Tor Browser Settings, which will only put us in a better spot.

This means that we can either use the browserSettings API to
read and modify the settings of legacy extensions, or (once they
switch to WebExtensions) have all the latest tools to interact.

Please let me know what you guys think :)

Cheers!
Tom