Support for extensions using XUL/XPCOM or the Add-on SDK was removed in Firefox 57, released November 2017. As there is no supported version of Firefox enabling these technologies, this page will be removed by December 2020.

Add-ons using the techniques described in this document are considered a legacy technology in Firefox. Don't use these techniques to develop new add-ons. Use WebExtensions instead. If you maintain an add-on which uses the techniques described here, consider migrating it to use WebExtensions.

Starting from Firefox 53, no new legacy add-ons will be accepted on addons.mozilla.org (AMO) for desktop Firefox and Firefox for Android.

Starting from Firefox 57, only extensions developed using WebExtensions APIs will be supported on Desktop Firefox and Firefox for Android.

Even before Firefox 57, changes coming up in the Firefox platform will break many legacy extensions. These changes include multiprocess Firefox (e10s), sandboxing, and multiple content processes. Legacy extensions that are affected by these changes should migrate to use WebExtensions APIs if they can. See the "Compatibility Milestones" document for more information.

A wiki page containing resources, migration paths, office hours, and more, is available to help developers transition to the new technologies.

 

This is a quick list of useful code snippets (small code samples) available for developers of extensions for the various Mozilla applications. Many of these samples can also be used in XULRunner applications, as well as in actual Mozilla code itself.

These examples demonstrate how to accomplish basic tasks that might not be immediately obvious.

General

Examples and demos from MDN articles
A collection of examples and demos from articles.
Window code
Opening and manipulating windows
Toolbar
Toolbar related code
Sidebar
Sidebar related code
Forms
Forms related code
XML
Code used to parse, write, manipulate, etc. XML
File I/O
Code used to read, write and process files
Drag & Drop
Code used to setup and handle drag and drop events
Dialogs
Code used to display and process dialog boxes
Alerts and Notifications
Modal and non-modal ways to notify users
Preferences
Code used to read, write, and modify preferences
JS XPCOM
Code used to define and call XPCOM components in JavaScript
Running applications
Code used to run other applications
<canvas> related
WHAT WG Canvas-related code
Signing a XPI
How to sign an XPI with PKI
Delayed Execution
Performing background operations.
Miscellaneous
Miscellaneous useful code fragments
HTML to DOM
Using a hidden browser element to parse HTML to a window's DOM

JavaScript libraries

Here are some JavaScript libraries that may come in handy.

StringView
A library that implements a StringView view for JavaScript typed arrays. This lets you access data in typed arrays using C-like string functions.
Rosetta
By default, the only possible standardized scripting language for HTML is ECMAScript. Hence, if you are going to use another scripting language you might expect that most of the browsers will not recognize it. Nevertheless, the increasing computational power of modern browsers together with the introduction of typed arrays in ECMAScript allow us, in theory, to build full virtual machines in pure ECMAScript. Therefore, it is also possible, in theory, to use ECMAScript for a smaller task: parsing exotic programming languages (i.e., creating compilers). This snippets shows a possible way to start from.

Browser-oriented code

Tabbed browser code (Firefox/SeaMonkey)
Basic operations, such as page loading, with the tabbed browser, which is the heart of Mozilla's browser applications
Cookies
Reading, writing, modifying, and removing cookies
Page Loading
Code used to load pages, reload pages, and listen for page loads
Interaction between privileged and non-privileged code
How to communicate from extensions to websites and vice-versa.
Downloading Files
Code to download files, images, and to monitor download progress
Password Manager
Code used to read and write passwords to/from the integrated password manager
Bookmarks
Code used to read and write bookmarks
JavaScript Debugger Service
Code used to interact with the JavaScript Debugger Service

SVG

General
General information and utilities
SVG Animation
Animate SVG using JavaScript and SMIL
SVG Interacting with Script
Using JavaScript and DOM events to create interactive SVG
Embedding SVG in HTML and XUL
Using SVG to enhance HTML or XUL based markup

XUL Widgets

HTML in XUL for Rich Tooltips
Dynamically embed HTML into a XUL element to attain markup in a tooltip
Label and description
Special uses and line breaking examples
Tree
Setup and manipulation of trees using XUL and JS
Scrollbar
Changing style of scrollbars. Applies to scrollbars in browser and iframe as well.
Autocomplete
Code used to enable form autocomplete in a browser
Boxes
Tips and tricks when using boxes as containers
Tabbox
Removing and manipulating tabs in a tabbox

Windows-specific

Finding Window Handles (HWND) (Firefox)
How to use Windows API calls to find various kinds of Mozilla window handles. Window handles can be used for IPC and Accessibility purposes.
Using the Windows Registry with XPCOM
How to read, write, modify, delete, enumerate, and watch registry keys and values.

The content at MozillaZine Example Code is slowly being moved here, but you can still find useful examples there for now.