Firefox 3.1 development is well under way. Nick Nguyen writes, “3.1 is coming! We know that many add-on developers have held off on testing for 3.1 compatibility because they’re waiting for a near-final release to test against. I’m happy to report that as of Firefox 3.1b2, no changes are planned which should affect add-on compatibility. Don’t hesitate! With each subsequent beta, more people make the switch and having 3.1 compatibility will ensure a seamless upgrade experience for your users.” For more information, see Nick’s original blog post at the Add-ons weblog. The Mozilla Developer Center also has an article about Updating extensions for Firefox 3.1.
Tara Shahian writes, “The Community Store garnered a lot of excitement when it launched, and a big part of its success can be attributed to the collection of great designs that were already on display in the gallery.” In addition to the artwork available when the store opened, some fantastic new designs have been added since. Also, if you like the illustration style of a particular artist, simply click on the artist name to view a portfolio of all their submitted work. You can submit your own designs, too — just head over to the Upload Tool to get started.
Mozilla Labs has announced the most recent release of Ubiquity, an experimental add-on that aims to make the Web easier to use through natural language. “We are proud to announce Ubiquity 0.1.5. Since the last major update, Ubiquity has gained a sleeker look and a smarter, more stable core.” Ubiquity can now also be skinned using simple CSS. If you already have Ubiquity, it will automatically update itself, or you can get the latest version at the project site. For more information about this release, see the original Labs blog post.
The Mozilla Labs team has released another video interview, this one about the Mozilla Labs’ Personas experiment. “Mozilla Labs’ Personas — although still in beta — is an extension that adds lightweight theming to your browser, allowing dynamic changes to how your Firefox looks. Suneel Gupta sat down to talk about what it means to have the browser’s look-and-feel reflect our personality, passions, and mood. And he’s looking for feedback.” You can download and try this experimental add-on through GetPersonas.com.
John J. Barton has blogged that the Firebug test cases are now online. “Often users will have a sequence of Firebug operations that fails for them, but we need a page to try the sequence. Now when a user has a bug report without a test case we can offer some example files for their test procedure.” For more information, see John’s blog post.
The mobile team is getting ready to deliver its first beta of Fennec (aka “Firefox Mobile”) next month, and the Mozilla Quality Assurance community is looking for help with testing this release. “This is exciting news as everybody who has seen Fennec has great things to say about it. If you haven’t had a chance to see Fennec first hand, I encourage you to download it and give it a try (it also works on your desktop). With mobile internet becoming a cornerstone for many of the new devices, there is a much greater need for Fennec. We just recently added Symbian as a supported OS which makes 3 following Maemo and Windows Mobile. The beta we will be delivering next month will be for Maemo only as that is the most stable platform.” There are lots of opportunities if you want to get involved with the Fennec testing project, and more information is available on the QMO weblog.
Mark Finkle recently posted about two XULRunner releases — one official, and one unofficial. “The newest official XULRunner has been released. XULRunner 1.9.0.5 matches the Firefox 3.0.5 release. For XULRunner developers, most of the changes in 1.9.0.5 are related to security fixes. You can also look at the full list of fixed bugs.” The unofficial builds are for XULRunner 1.9.1. “These are unofficial and may not be configured exactly the same as official builds. I was not able to get the Mac Universal build working. If you’re an extension, XUL app or plugin developer, these builds should help you move ahead with your Firefox 3.1 (Mozilla 1.9.1) development.” See Mark’s weblog for more information and comments.
For an up-to-date list of the coming week’s Mozilla project meetings and events, please see the Mozilla Community Calendar wiki page.