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| Tech companies are working together to improve browser extensions |
Browser extensions can be difficult to develop and maintain, especially those that want to support multiple browsers.
Firefox, Edge, Opera, and other companies have created their own APIs for Chrome.
But every browser adds its own changes and doesn't always implement new Google APIs.
All major browser manufacturers have now agreed in the WebExtensions community group that wants to standardize APIs and functionality for all browsers.
W3C announces in a blog post: We are pleased to announce the launch of the WebExtensions Community Group (WECG).
"Apple, Google, Microsoft and Mozilla are building this community group," she added. We invite other browser manufacturers, plug-in developers, and interested parties to participate in this work.
The goal of the group is to facilitate the development of extensions by creating a common center for functionality, APIs, and permissions.
Improving performance and security as well as preventing abuse and protecting data are other goals.
Browser optimization:
The standardization process follows the same pattern as developing web standards. But this does not force the browser to ignore proprietary functions or APIs.
Each browser manufacturer continues to operate its own add-on store completely independently. Review and amend technical guidelines.
Over the past few years, WebExtensions have been used as a generic term for the Chrome Extensions API.
Opera grabbed it when the browser switched to a Chromium base in 2013. Firefox migrated to the API in 2017.
However, the permissions and APIs available from different browsers vary widely. Hence, the setup process is significant news for developers.
When this works, plug-in developers can more easily create tools for all browsers. The effort uses the existing API as a basis, and more detailed information can be found in the charter.
"Our goal is not to identify all aspects of the current network expansion platform or application," the organization said. We hope that browsers will continue to innovate and release APIs that can be used as the basis for further improvements to the web extension platform.
Chrome-based browsers like Vivaldi and Edge largely follow Chrome, with almost no customization.