Add-ons/Reviewers/Admins

How to add an add-on to the Language Tools page

This should only be done for language packs and dictionaries. The developers will usually email amo-admins request this.

1. Go to the add-on management page (for example).
2. Scroll down, locate the Admin Settings box, and click on the Edit button.
3. In the Target Locate textbox, enter the 2 or 5-digit locale code. You can find it in the code of the add-on.
4. If there's another add-on of the same type already listed for that locale in the Language Tools page, you should use the Additional Locale Info to differentiate them. Try asking the developer why their add-on is different. While it's okay to have dupes, they should be very rare.

How to change the blocklist

The Blocklist Admin page explains the process. Only full admins (currently, Jorge and Andy) can do this at the moment. There's a plan to move the administration of the blocklist to a more flexible tool.

How to remove an ID from the blacklist

Only full admins (currently, Jorge and Andy) can do this at the moment. This bug tracks creating a proper tool that support this for all admin reviewers.

1. First, make sure the developer requesting this actually owns the ID.
2. Go to the blacklist management page.
3. Look for the ID and click on it. If the ID was deleted long ago, it might be easier to look it up on the DB first to find the blacklist entry ID.
4. Delete

Shortcuts to Admin Queues

The following are links to the queues, but showing admin only.

1. New Submissions Queue
2. Updated Queue

Managing featured add-ons on AMO

• Set promos in the carousel and the order they appear in (the main graphic at the top of the AMO homepage)
• Set the Pick-of-the-Month in the carousel
• Set featured add-ons (cycles through the Featured Extensions box on the homepage and appears when the Featured filter is applied]

Re-reviewing an Add-on

This section requires use of the "Admin" page. This add-on page looks easy but is very complicated. It allows you select and submit invalid choice combinations without telling you. You cannot know which ones are valid without being very familiar with the code internals. Therefore, if you are not familiar with the code or valid combinations, do not do this. Instead reach out to seniors.

This is a workaround for a current bug. In order to change a review, do not go to the admin page and change the review, but go to the admin page and set it to "Awaiting Review". (example of Admin page). Then return to the review page (example of review page) then submit your new review.

Reviewing XPTs

When you see a .xpt in a file do not worry about it, it is just definitions. What you need to review, is the javascript in the file backing those function definitions.

Reviewing Add-ons with Binary Components

Unlike with add-ons with minified/obfuscated code, we do not request the reproduction steps, and then reproduce it. We simply review the attached files, and then run all the binary files through a virus scan on the Virus Total Website. If you are prompted, "a previous scan exists", make sure to do a new scan, as the old one probably is no longer applicable.

Canned Emails

• How to make my unlisted add-on - listed?

 Hi there,
 Unlisted add-ons are automatically approved without review, therefore we do not allow a quick way to jump to listed status.
 
 To go from unlisted to listed. You have two options:
 1) Change the add-on id in install.rdf and create a brand new listing from https://addons.mozilla.org/developers/addon/submit/agreement
 2) Keep the same add-on id, but delete the listing, then email an admin (amo-admins@mozilla.org) to delete that id from the database, then create new listing
 
 The benefit of option 1, you can link in the "notes for reviewers" to the old listing so the reviewer can do a diff of the code. Otherwise they will do a brand new review which can take time.
 
 Here is some more information on the subject - https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/Add-ons/Distribution
 
 Thank you

• How to update users of my unlisted add-on?

 Hi,
 Please see https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/Add-ons/Install_Manifests#updateURL and https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Extension_Versioning,_Update_and_Compatibility
 
 Thank you

• No need for sources attachment

 Hi,
 This is a note. Please do not attach source files unless it is the human readable version of your minified/obfuscated/binary code. Third party libraries do not needed source attachments, you just need to provide us the URL to the location of its repository/commit/version/zip.
 
 I have removed your add-on from the admin queue so it does not unnecessarily go through this extended process.
 
 Thank you

• How to provide sources for minimized/obfuscated 3rd party libraries

 Dear Author,
 Please provide links to each of the minimized/obfuscated 3rd party library contained in your add-on. For example if you included "jquery_slipbhover.min.js" you would link us to the exact commit, of the version you use. This commit should contain a bit exact version of the minified version in your add-on, and also the human readable version. If no repository exists, then you would link us to the zip file, or etc.
 
 Another example: If you include jQuery UI custom build, you would tell me go here - http://jqueryui.com/download/ - and then you would tell me what options to use to build that.
 
 Please update this information in the "Notes for Reviewers" section (which is version specific), or in the "Whiteboard" section, and then let me know by replying to this email so I may continue.
 
 Thank you

• If they threaten to ditch Firefox, you should make clear to them we aren't acting due to that comment

 Hi,
 
 [reply to their non-threat parts of their email]
 
 I am not very happy about the threat that you want to ask your users to switch browsers. Not because of the browser switch itself, but because you are using this as an argument to persuade me into accepting the review. The add-on review process is not guided by business decisions or number of active users, we want to make sure users are safe and look at the code to decide on this. I would appreciate if you could refrain from making such statements in the future.
 
 Thank you

Install Methods for Popular Techniques

• Closure Compiler

 # Do not use binary if they supply it, ask them for the version, and then get the original/unmodified version from here Github :: google - closure-compiler - Binary Downloads

• YUI Compressor

 # Do not use binary if they supply it, ask them for version, and get original/unmodified from Github :: yui - Yuicompressor Releases

• Installing Grunt

 # Install node (comes with npm)
 # From command line run `npm install -g grunt` then run `npm install -g grunt-cli`

• Installing Gulp

 # Install node (comes with npm)
 # From command line run `npm install -g grunt` then run `npm install -g gulp`

• Changing Node/NPM Version

 * Windows - Use nvm-windows or nodist npm packages
 * Unix Based - Use nvm npm package

Reviewing Add-on with Node/NPM Based Build Tools

1. Sometimes the version of node and the version of npm make a difference. Make sure they provide that.
2. Review the package.json, ensure that the scripts pointed too (usually on npm website or github repositories) are safe. Most are popular stuff
3. `cd` into the directory containing the `package.json`
4. Type `npm install`. You may need `sudo` on Unix based, or on Windows you should have right clicked, and ran Command Prompt as Administrator
5. Then the developer should provide you with what to run, you can tell by looking at their script, usually typing "grunt" or "gulp" does the trick