Hacking Firefox Extensions
Published Sunday, September 10, 2006 @ 4:42 pm • 6 Responses
Firefox extensions enable users to customize Firefox with additional features. Generally, Firefox extensions are free, open-source, and easily downloaded as .xpi files. This article explains how to hack Firefox extensions of the .xpi variety. There are many reasons why someone would want to hack a Firefox extension — examples include: editing code, debugging errors, and learning extensions. This hack method requires a web browser, zip utility, and text editor.
Step 1: Secure an extension
By default, the Firefox browser will cache and attempt to install any "extension.xpi" file it encounters. Once Firefox installs the plugin, it becomes much more complicated to hack. Therefore, it is best to save an offline copy of the extension. This is easily accomplished with a browser such as IE that does not automatically install the extension, but rather provides an option to save a copy. With IE, simply right-click the extension.xpi link and "Save Target As..". Regardless of the method, the point here is to secure a local copy of the extension.xpi file. Remember to make a backup copy.
Step 2: Initial extraction
Once you have a willing extension.xpi file, open it with a zip utility and extract the files into some directory, say, "/xpicontents/". Within the /xpicontents/ directory there should be at least a "chrome" folder, an "install.rdf" file, and a "licence.txt" file. Certain extensions may include additional and/or different files or folders. If anything looks too unfamiliar, extrapolate the method or find a different extension to use as you follow along.
Step 3: Editing the .rdf file
At this point, you have everything needed to edit the install.rdf file. Simply open the file in a text editor, make/save changes, zip the contents of /xpicontents/ into a new file, and change the file extension from .zip to .xpi. On the other hand, editing virtually any other aspect of the extension — JavaScript, CSS, (X)HTML — requires further digging.
Step 4: Hacking the .jar file
Located within the chrome folder, the "something.jar" file contains a variety of files, including JavaScript, CSS, (X)HTML, etc. Most extension editing will ultimately find its way to one of the files contained within the extension’s .jar file. So, to begin, rename the something.jar file to "something.jar.zip". Then, using a zip utility, open the something.jar.zip file and extract its contents into a unique directory, say, "/jarcontents/". Within the /jarcontents/ directory there should be at least two folders, "content" and "skin". Now, dive into the contents folder (or the skin folder, if needed) and edit, hack, and tweak the files to your heart’s content.
Step 5: Repacking the extension
After the necessary edits have been made, it is time to put humpty back together again. The first step is to replace the original contents of the something.jar.zip file with the freshly edited contents. To do this, select both content and skin folders (or whichever contains the edited material), right-click and add the selected folders to the something.jar.zip file located within the /jarcontents/ directory. Then, rename something.jar.zip back to something.jar.
At this point, you are ready to (re)package the chrome folder, install.rdf file, and license.txt file into a new .zip file, which we will call "hacked-extension.zip". To do this, simply select all three items and zip them into a new file named hacked-extension.zip. Finally, rename hacked-extension.zip to match exactly the name of the original extension, extension.xpi.
Step 6: Installation and testing
Once the necessary edits have been made, it is time to install the extension. Open Firefox, drag-and-drop the extension, and click OK to install. Restart Firefox, activate the extension, and check its functionality. Lather, rinse, repeat. It may be a good idea to test the hacked extension under a variety of different user conditions. Or not. Whatever. At this point, it’s entirely up to you. You may also want to save a copy of the original extension together with your hacked extension along with a few notes, just in case.
Well that’s it for now — thank you for your gracious attention. God bless.
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6 Responses Jump to comment form
April 15, 2008 at 5:55 pm
Sweet - this worked perfectly. I now have my DownloadManagerTweak running in Firefox 3.x beta. Thanks!
September 28, 2008 at 5:37 am
Thanks for the help. Been very useful! Had to tweak an add-on so it would install even on Firefox 3, as the maximum version was 2.0 that wouldn’t work obviously but I tweaked the file and voila, works just great.
1 • rutro
February 23, 2008 at 11:20 pm
This is helpful. Thank you.