Please provide browser extension for Pale Moon (a.k.a. New Moon) browser

Frozen
Frozen
Community Member

Because of recent changes in Firefox that have made it far less usable and much slower, I installed PaleMoon Mac 26.0.0 (unofficial) from this site: https://forum.palemoon.org/viewtopic.php?f=41&t=10847&sid=8884ca5df7cb55adb954d304466f8e01

I do wish it were not labelled "unofficial" but apparently they only make "official" builds for Windows and Linux. Nevertheless it seems to work well, my only real issue is that the 1Passwork Firefox extension won't install. Apparently an extension has to be compatible with Firefox 24.9 or earlier, or it doesn't work. I'm sure you supported that older version of Firefox at one time; is there any chance you'd consider dusting off that older extension and making it available for Pale Moon (a.k.a. New Moon) users? Again, keep in mind there are official builds of Pale Moon for Windows and Linux, so even if you don't feel it's worth your time to support "unofficial" builds of browsers, I suspect that if you built an extension for the Mac version it would work on the Windows and Linux versions as well. Thank you.

Comments

  • littlebobbytables
    littlebobbytables
    1Password Alumni

    Hello @Frozen,

    Typically the major three browsers keep us plenty busy. When it comes to Firefox we make sure it works and is compatible with the latest version of Firefox and Firefox ESR. I know there have been a number of changes to ensure we stay compatible with where Firefox is going so I'm unsure how possible it would be to add support for older versions. In theory version 4.4.2 of the 1Password Extension should work in this Pale Moon browser but if it attempts to auto-update the extension and doesn't halt when it finds the next version's requirements have changed it could result in an unexpected state. I can also say that open and fill, where you click on the URL in the website field will no longer work as 1Password 6 for Mac requires version 4.5.2 or newer due to recent changes.

    I will ask about reducing the min version in the Firefox extension but I can't make any promises.

  • Frozen
    Frozen
    Community Member

    Sorry for the delayed reply, and thank you. I attempted to install version 4.4.2 and it did install without complaint but I cannot find the 1Password icon in the browser's toolbar. I also right clicked on the toolbar and selected "customize" to see if your icon was hiding out in there, but no luck, it seems to be completely MIA. However the addon itself shows as installed.

  • littlebobbytables
    littlebobbytables
    1Password Alumni

    Hi @Frozen,

    Let's see if it's that something is quite broken or if it's just the icon is missing. With Pale Moon open what happens if you use the keyboard shortcut ⌥⌘\? The very minimum that should happen is that 1Password mini opens. What I'm more curious about is if you can fill and interact with the browser. If filling happens then it means that while the icon is missing, the extension is active and working. It might be the loss of the icon isn't a massive loss but this will depend very much on your preferred workflow. I use the keyboard shortcuts a lot, favouring them over both the browser icon and the menu bar icon but everybody has their preference. If 1Password isn't filling it suggests that while the extension is installed something has gone wrong, possibly an incompatibility. I will be interested to hear about your findings.

  • Frozen
    Frozen
    Community Member
    edited February 2016

    What happens if I use that shortcut is that 1Password mini opens, but it does not seem to recognize the browser at all. It cannot detect the page I am currently on, and if I select Logins and then select the page I'm on from the list of logins, it will open it in the original Firefox, not in Pale Moon. In other words it behaves exactly the same as if I click the 1Password icon in OS X's top menu bar. The biggest problem is not detecting the page I'm on because over the years I have accumulated a large number of logins from various sites, most of which are used rarely or never but I don't delete them because I never know if I will be back at that site someday. So, not automatically finding the login(s) associated with the page I'm on is really the thing that makes the addon useless in Pale Moon, well that and that if I do search for it manually it opens it in the wrong browser. And in case it matters, Pale Moon is not my default browser, but then neither is Opera and yet the 1Password extension works fine in it.

  • Hi @Frozen,

    I'm sorry that our extension doesn't seem to work right with Pale Moon. There's many reasons for why this could be, but they aren't ones that we can easily address from our side. Adding support for older versions of Firefox isn't likely to happen, but it looks like it's not just that that we'd need to do... we'd need to specifically figure out why code that worked with older versions of Firefox doesn't work with Pale Moon. I think your best bet might be to ask the developers of Pale Moon what they've done to the Firefox codebase that would make extensions like ours not function correctly.

    Rick

  • ibrokemypie
    ibrokemypie
    Community Member

    Any update on this? Pale Moon and New Moon devs are open to 1password, but they run firefox v26 which is incompatible with the 1password extension. Please make compatible.

  • Hi @ibrokemypie

    Thanks for taking the time to express your interest in Pale Moon / New Moon + 1Password. Unfortunately I don't have any update at this time. We do appreciate the feedback though!

    Ben

  • ibrokemypie
    ibrokemypie
    Community Member

    @ben could you at least remove the version check or something? its just firefox, and the legacy version of the extension works, but doesnt connect to 1password 6.
    if this is not resolved may need to find another password manager, 1password is not worth losing hours of battery to chrome or all the features to safari.

  • Hi @ibrokemypie ,

    Sadly, It's a bit more complicated than just a version check. Unfortunately, Pale Moon is not just Firefox, but a fork from an older version of Firefox. Firefox' newer extension format makes some improvements regarding security and functionality, and thus, compatibility with the older version can no longer be maintained. This is why Rick suggested it'd be better to ask the Pale Moon developers to support the newer extension format.

    Regards,
    Kevin

  • ibrokemypie
    ibrokemypie
    Community Member

    @ag_kevin as a short term solution, would an unsupported version without the extra security be at all possible? I think it is less likely for my passwords to get keylogged than for someone to work out a password that I use for everything, and would fully accept that risk as my own.

  • Hi @ibrokemypie ,

    I truly am sorry do not have a solution for Pale Moon users, but unfortunately, we can not provide that. The architecture has changed to a point where it's not possible to simply provide an extension with the security "turned off." It is too tightly integrated into the communication process.

    Regards,
    Kevin

  • ibrokemypie
    ibrokemypie
    Community Member

    Is there never going to be any work on this?

  • AGAlumB
    AGAlumB
    1Password Alumni

    @ibrokemypie: Not right now. As mentioned previously, we're focused on supporting the major browsers. In many cases, 1Password is able to work with others as well, provided they offer compatibility with Chrome or Firefox's extension APIs — for example, Vivaldi and Waterfox. In the case of Brave, they built support for 1Password and other apps in themselves. So it can be done.

    But given that Pale Moon is based on an old version of Firefox that has been changed enough to break extension compatibility, that means 1Password can't work there as it's intended. If there's enough interest, it may be something we can support in the future. But ultimately with limited resources we need to focus on where we can do the most good for the greatest number of users.

  • soundsmitten
    soundsmitten
    Community Member
    edited May 2017

    Sorry to resurrect this thread, but I think the browser landscape is in the process of changing in regards to Firefox/Pale Moon.

    With Firefox dropping support for XUL and old add-ons in favor of Chrome-compatible Web Extensions, some power users may migrate to Pale Moon. Just something to keep in mind going forward if Pale Moon catches on.

  • AGAlumB
    AGAlumB
    1Password Alumni

    @soundsmitten: Thanks for sharing that perspective! I don't think it's likely we'll be supporting this, as our efforts are focused on supporting the major browsers (which are going through a transition, as you mentioned). But certainly it's something we can reevaluate if that shifts.

This discussion has been closed.