extensions.gnome.org - Public Alpha Now Available

[news 28]

We're happy to announce that extensions.gnome.org is now in

public alpha testing at:

 

https://extensions.gnome.org

 

If you have GNOME Shell 3.2 on your system, you should be able to

install extensions from the website via your browser. This uses the

"GNOME Shell Integration" browser plugin which is likely already

installed on your system if you have GNOME 3.2. The plugin only works

with Firefox currently - see "Known Bugs" below.

 

We've seeded the site with a small set of extensions, including

the extensions from gnome-shell-extensions. If you are the author

of an extension that has been uploaded, and you want to take over

uploading future releases, please contact us, and we'll get you

access.

 

The set of extensions on the site is still small compared to the total

number of extensions available. We expect more extensions to be

available over the next few weeks as authors upload them and they

are reviewed.

 

About GNOME Shell Extensions

============================

 

GNOME Shell extensions are small pieces of code written by third party

developers that modify the way GNOME works. (If you are familiar with

Chrome Extensions or Firefox Addons, GNOME Shell extensions are

similar to them.)

 

Since extensions are created outside of the normal GNOME design and

development process, they are are supported by their authors, rather

than by the GNOME community.

 

Extensions provide a way to prototype out new possible features for

future versions of GNOME, and for advanced users to make

customizations in ways that aren't necessarily compatible with the

overall design vision of GNOME, but are still cool and useful to

a subset of users.

 

Since extensions become part of the core operating system, they need

to be checked for potential security problems. Extensions uploaded

to extensions.gnome.org go through code review before they are

made available for download. More information can be found at

https://extensions.gnome.org/about/.

 

Known Bugs and Problems

=======================

 

* There are some bugs that currently cause the browser plugin to

not work correctly in WebKit-based browsers like Epiphany

or Chrome. We will fix these bugs in subsequent releases of

GNOME Shell, but for now using Firefox to access

extensions.gnome.org is advised.

 

* Extensions that use GSettings to store user settings cannot be

currently installed as a user; this limitation will be fixed

for GNOME 3.4. In the mean time, extension authors should

avoid the use of GSettings if they want to make their extension

available via extensions.gnome.org.

 

* Due to a bug in GNOME Shell 3.2.1 code, the uninstall button

will not work for some extensions. Disabling extensions still

works, but if you want to remove an extension entirely, you'll

need to manually delete it from ~/.local/share/gnome-shell/extensions.

 

Reporting Problems

==================

 

If you find problems with the site, please file them in

bugzilla.gnome.org against the 'extensions.gnome.org' component

of the website product.

 

Problems with individual extensions should be reported using

the "Help! It didn't work!" link on the extension's page.

 

Thanks to everybody that made this happen!

 

--

  Jasper St. Pierre

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