How can I make my Firefox extension toolbar button appear automatically?

Question

I've created a firefox extension that consists of a toolbar button. How can I set it up so that when my extension is installed, the button automatically appears in the main toolbar. I don't want my users to have to go to the customize toolbar menu and drag my button over.

Answer 1

See https://developer.mozilla.org/En/Code_snippets:Toolbar#Adding_button_by_default

Answer 2

May not be a good idea, the user may not want the extension to "congigure" his browser.

I really hate things messing with my presets.

Answer 3

We're using the following code....

function init() {

    // .... 

    var navbar = document.getElementById("nav-bar");
    if ((myExtensionShared.checkMyBtnInstalled() == false) &&
        (navbar != null && document.getElementById("myExtension-button") == null)) {
        var newset;
            if (navbar.getAttribute('currentset') && 
              navbar.getAttribute('currentset').indexOf('myExtension-button') == -1) {

                navbar.insertItem ('myExtension-button', null, null, false);
                newset = navbar.getAttribute('currentset') + ',myExtension-button';
                navbar.setAttribute('currentset', newset);
                document.persist('nav-bar', 'currentset');
            }
            else if (!navbar.getAttribute('currentset')) {

                navbar.insertItem ('myExtension-button', null, null, false);
                newset=navbar.getAttribute('defaultset') + ',myExtension-button';
                navbar.setAttribute('currentset', newset);
                document.persist('nav-bar', 'currentset');
            }

    }

    // .... 

}



myExtensionShared.prototype.checkMyBtnInstalled = function() {
    var prefs = Components.classes["@mozilla.org/preferences-service;1"]
                                    .getService(Components.interfaces.nsIPrefBranch);
    var btnInstalled = false;
    if (prefs.prefHasUserValue("extensions.myExtension.myBtnInstalled")) {
        btnInstalled = prefs.getBoolPref("extensions.myExtension.myBtnInstalled");
    }
    if (!btnInstalled) {
        prefs.setBoolPref("extensions.myExtension.myBtnInstalled", true);
    }
    return btnInstalled;
}

Answer 4

We are using the following code that will append the button (if already exist somewhere else in the bar).

//...
appendButtonInToolbar:function(buttonId, toolbarId) {
    var toolbar = document.getElementById(toolbarId);
    var button = document.getElementById(buttonId);
    if(button) {
        var parentBar = button.parentNode;        
        if(parentBar && parentBar != toolbar) {
            var newset = this.removeButtonFromToolbarCurrentSet(parentBar,buttonId);              
        }
        toolbar.appendChild(button);
    }else{          
        toolbar.insertItem(buttonId);
    }

    this.appendButtonInToolbarCurrentSet(toolbar,buttonId);
},

appendButtonInToolbarCurrentSet:function(toolbar, buttonId) {
    var oldset = toolbar.getAttribute("currentset");
    var newset = "";
    if(oldset && oldset!="") {
        newset = oldset + ",";
    }        
    newset += buttonId;        
    toolbar.setAttribute("currentset", newset);
    document.persist(toolbar.id,"currentset");
    return newset;
},


removeButtonFromToolbarCurrentSet:function(toolbar, buttonId) {
    var oldset = toolbar.getAttribute("currentset");
    if(!oldset || oldset=="" || oldset.indexOf(buttonId) == -1) return oldset;
    var reg = new RegExp(buttonId+",?", "gi");        
    var newset = oldset.replace(reg,"");
    if (newset.charAt(newset.length-1) == ",") {
       newset = newset.substring(0, newset.length - 1);
    }

    toolbar.setAttribute("currentset", newset);
    document.persist(toolbar.id,"currentset");
    return newset;
}, 
//...