Will FF 45 contain Electrolysis?

Add-ons Development
#1

We have a Firebug extension that runs well on top of Firebug 2.x. It is XUL/XPCOM based and is not multi-process compatible. In the link (https://wiki.mozilla.org/Electrolysis#Schedule), it is not clear to me whether FF 45 will contain the support of Electrolysis or not (it says “tbd”). If it contains it, would there be an option (like the one in Developer Edition - check box of “Enable multi-process Firefox Developer Edition”) to disable multi-process? Would the multi-process be enabled by default or disabled by default? What about FF 45 ESR?

As far as I understand, Firebug 2.x is not compatible with Electrolysis. If Eletrolysis can not be disabled on FF 45 ESR, Firebug 2.x will not be able to run, therefore our Firebug extension will not be able to run either.

#2

No, it won’t be in 45 or 45 ESR.

44 beta is currently shipping with a random 15% of builds running e10s to provide a large scale unbiased test pool. Crashes and hangs are unacceptable. 45 beta is planned to be split 50/50 on or off to continue the testing. Actually this isn’t entirely random because installations running accessibility features or addons don’t get e10s since it is known to not work well in those cases.

The official goal last I checked is to ship in 46.

Electrolysis can always be disabled, to the extent that you don’t have to have multiple processes. The infrastructure behind it is still running though, and in fact has largely been in place for several releases.

1 Like
#3

Thanks a lot for the information!

#4

It it possible download one of the Firefox 45 beta builds with Electrolysis?

#5

Wow this is awesome info, where you get this stuff from? I need to add those places to my readings list :slight_smile:

#6

Current beta builds have all the multiprocess code in, just disabled for many people. You should be able to enable it yourself by turning on the preference.

#7

You can find the current release schedule for Electrolysis, and instructions on how to enable it here: https://wiki.mozilla.org/Electrolysis

#8

Release 46 is without e10s enabled: https://wiki.mozilla.org/Electrolysis#Schedule
Probably as an extension developer it is better to expect e10s enabled by default before “ESR 52”

#9

I read this,
“By the end of 2017, we will transition to WebExtensions as the standard for creating add-ons. Over the same period of time, existing methods for add-on development such as XUL/XPCOM will be deprecated. Multi-process Firefox (aka Electrolysis, or e10s) is also rolling out, which means some add-on developers will have to update their add-ons more than once.” It sounds like “Multiprocess Firefox” will be enforced later than “the end of 2017”. Is it correct?
Also, by reading “https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1OFYrrvAFg8y1mZOEbuIR1axxtV8eul_be6ad9fe8JB0/edit#gid=1952061950”, ESR52 will be released sometime around April 2017?

Thanks in advance.

#10

No. Multiprocess Firefox is coming very soon (in the next few months). WebExtensions will be released around the same time (with Firefox 48), but the existing add-on APIs will continue to work at least until the end of 2017.

#11

Thank you!