14 DAY TRIAL // Mozilla has announced the release of the third iteration of its nascent Jetpack Software Development Kit. With Jetpack SDK 0.3, the project gets a couple of new APIs that should prove pretty important if not crucial for add-on developers, the “context menu” and the “self” APIs. The platform is still in the early stages, but things are progressing, so it may be integrated into Firefox in the not-so-distant future.
“This version includes the first two high-level APIs we’re building to enable simple and powerful add-on development,” the announcement read.
“The ‘context-menu’ API lets add-ons add items to the context menu for web pages, so add-ons can give users additional options when they context-click on elements in pages (links, images, etc.) or the pages themselves. For example, an add-on might add an ‘Edit in Pixastic’ item to the context menu for images,” it explained.
“The ‘self’ API enables add-ons to access resources (web pages, images, etc.) that are bundled with the add-on package. For example, an add-on might bundle an icon that it displays in the browser’s status bar.”
These aren’t the only changes in Jetpack SDK 0.3, a number of bug fixes have been implemented and other features have been introduced as well. The first SDK was launched less than two months ago and the plan is to have a new version every month or so. This fast development cycle means that the Jetpack SDK should be on par with the Jetpack Prototype platform in a few months’ time and possibly on par with the Firefox add-on platform several months after that.
Several new features are planned for Jetpack SDK 0.4, about ten new APIs and other changes. Among them are things like the Page Worker API, the Private Browsing API or Simple Storage API, which should expand on the functionality available to developers. The Single UI Element API will also be introduced, in early form. The plans for the Jetpack SDK 0.5 are still being fleshed out.
Mozilla Labs Jetpack SDK 0.3 is available for download here.