Add-on development just got easier

It is a great joy to announce that we have just launched the Add-on Developer Hub (beta) , a comprehensive collection of information where add-on developers can find out why they would like to make an add-on, and how they make additions, and manage the lists of their add-ons.

Developer Center

Back in May, we mentioned our site plans, which focused on the needs of developers, in response to appeals from developers of add-ons. In the new Developer Center , something will be found for everyone - both for beginners and for making a few dozen add-ons.

Valuable elements of documentation at the Center include:

• For beginners - an introduction to the development of add-ons, with links to important resources.
• Recipe library - manuals, articles, videos, step-by-step instructions on the development of supplements.
• API and language guides - official API and language guides.
• Learning by example - stories of successful additions to Firefox.
• Rules additions - all our norms, standards, rules of additions, fresh and collected together.
• Search — find the best resources for add-on developers at once: documentation, forums, newsgroups, trusted blog posts, and so on.

We also introduced several new tools (and we plan more of them in the coming months):

• Add - on Collector - automatically create an add-on package by typing basic information and selecting interface elements.
• Add - on Validator - add -ons can now be checked even if they are not placed on the AMO.

One of the most important goals of the new Center is to bring the add-on development community closer together. Assuming this goal, the Center contains:

• Add - ons Forum - interact with other add -on developers, get help.
• Newsletter - in our role we have about: addons.
• Developer and advertising news - relevant news and important information is now striking throughout the Center.
• Upcoming events - find out which add-on meetings will take place in the real world around you.

Developer tools and news feeds

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The tools that developers used to send and manage their addons to addons.mozilla.org have now become part of the Developer Center, and we have added a cool new way to keep up with what's happening with your add-ons: add-on news feed .

Whenever something noticeable happens with an add -on , it is recorded in the news feed for the developer to see. The records contain the actions of the developers and editors (like editing an add-on), sending new versions, approving the new version, but also contain user actions like writing reviews and enlarging collections.

The news feed is in RSS for one or all of your add-ons.

Overhaul search

As part of this release, we also reworked our AMO search engine from scratch to produce much more accurate results. This is a huge and long-awaited improvement, which we will describe in detail in a separate blog entry.

Many thanks to all, thanks to whom this release took place - to developers, testers, designers, and those who helped to review the documentation and content.