257

Brief Summary
Introduce a feature to force an update check for installed extensions and apply the updates as necessary

Details:
Right now the only way I know of to update extensions in Orion is to periodically check the Chrome/Firefox pages for your extensions and remove and readd them to get the updates.

This could be significantly improved by adding an updater to the extension manager window. This may allow you to check for extension updates for just one or all of them at a time and automatically download and apply the updates.

Perhaps a setting can also be added to automatically check for extension updates on a specified timeframe. Options could be daily, weekly, bi-weekly or manually

Merged 2 posts from Extension updater suggestion.

    I can update an extension by just reinstalling it, no need to remove. Auto-update would be nice (if it could be enabled / disabled per extension), but just having a button to update an extension from the Tools -> Extensions -> Manage dialog would be fine. My issue with having to install an updated extension over the top of the currently installed version is that I have to re-set any site specific permissions for that extension.

    a month later
    23 days later

    In the Extensions Panel there are Reload, Settings and Uninstall buttons. There needs to be a "Check for Update" button as well, that becomes a "Update to Version x.xx" button if a new version of the extension is detected.

    Additionally, clicking on the name of an extension in the Extension panel should open that extension's page in a new tab.

    Currently the only way to update extensions is to list the Chrome or Firefox page, see if there's an update, uninstall and reinstall if there is. This is cumbersome and worst of all, you have to redo all your settings for that extension.

    This is a problem for Orion because it discourages users from updating their extensions and therefore experiencing extension-related bugs – which people will likely blame on Orion. I've had this happen to me several times: I thought I'd discovered bugs in Orion but it turned out they were the fault of outdated extensions.

    There is already a suggestion for auto-updates of extensions, however updating them automatically can also cause problems. That's why I'm making this seperate suggestion for easier manual checks and updates.

      Merged 2 posts from Add button to *manually* update extensions from Extension Panel.
        a month later

        is there any update to fix this issue and have autoupdate for extensions?

        9 days later

        any update here? i've noticed repeated promises from orion team about this update being imminent, but the problem still persists. orion team estimated this fix would be made in summer 2022. much time has passed since then. is there some difficulty with making this update that orion users have not been made aware of? if this update is impossible, or extremely difficult, or is simply going to continue to be put off indefinitely, i will likely cease to use the browser. so, if there is a distinct possibility that this update will not happen in the near-term future, please respond honestly and directly. this is a major issue for me and given orion team's track record of repeatedly promising this fix and then failing to deliver, i don't think it is unreasonable for me (or anyone) to seek greater clarity re: the status of this update. thank you. EDIT: i just checked the most upvoted "bug" fixes, and a significant % of them seem to be about issues users are having with browser extensions. i wonder if all/most of them are connected to the root issue identified by the folks in this thread? makes it all the more necessary for orion team to provide much more information/clarity to users regarding the status of this update, imo. thank you.

        • Vlad replied to this.

          paul_quixote This is not a problem but a missing feature. There are a lot missing features in Orion because Orion is not a Chromium clone, but a browser built from scratch.

          We prioritize bug fixes to new feature development. The problem is that there are close to 2000 open issues on this forum which prevents us from developing new features which will likely have more bugs, which is why is this getting posponed. The real problem is the size of the team - only 3 devs. Despite that we ship more features in each monthly release than most browsers do in a year. We are all ears to hear how we should manage the priorities of the project differently given this context.

          • Xyth replied to this.

              Vlad I would argue that this isn't a missing feature so much as a bug/flaw in an already implement feature: extension support. One that will lead to more and more unnecessary bug reports the longer it's left unaddressed. Or worse, people not reporting and just giving up on Orion.

              When out of date extensions cause issues on websites the casual user will likely blame Orion because they have no way of knowing that their extensions aren't getting updated, whether they need updating, and have no obvious way to update them if they did know.

                  Xyth Auto updating extensions will likely lead to more bug reports as newer versions tend to include stuff we do not support yet. This is why some of the extensions in "Popular extensions" refer older versions of the extension (eg Metamask and Grammarly) as those work, but newer do not.

                  But that is irrelevant and not a factor in our decision making, I was merely trying to explain our thought process. Since updating extensions is already possible (just not in automated way) and there were so many actual bugs we prioritized the bugs. We will be looking into this soon.

                  • Xyth replied to this.

                      Vlad Auto updating extensions will likely lead to more bug reports as newer versions tend to include stuff we do not support yet. This is why some of the extensions in "Popular extensions" refer older versions of the extension (eg Metamask and Grammarly) as those work, but newer do not.

                      That's why Orion needs to add functionality and UI elements for manual updates, not auto updates. I made a seperate ticket about this but it just got merged into this one.

                      Vlad Since updating extensions is already possible (just not in automated way) and there were so many actual bugs we prioritized the bugs.

                      As far as I can tell updating extensions is only possible by uninstalling and reinstalling. This is terrible because you lose all your settings in the process. For example, I use Dark Reader in whitelist mode. Every time I update it I lose my list of whitelisted sites. I also use extensions like Scratch Addons and FB Purity which have literally hundreds of settings. All lost when uninstalling and reinstalling. And an add-on like FB Purity has to be kept up to date because Facebook is constantly changing.

                      Here's what I requested in my original post (merged into this thread), which is not the same as auto-updates:

                      Xyth In the Extensions Panel there are Reload, Settings and Uninstall buttons. There needs to be a "Check for Update" button as well, that becomes a "Update to Version x.xx" button if a new version of the extension is detected.

                      Additionally, clicking on the name of an extension in the Extension panel should open that extension's page in a new tab.

                              23 days later

                              "updating extensions is already possible (just not in automated way)" ... this is false. Uninstalling and reinstalling is NOT updating, it is a shabby workaround. It appears that in the newest RC it is still impossible to update extensions. Is there a specific timeline for when this issue will be addressed? Or is this issue still being postponed indefinitely?

                              • Vlad replied to this.
                                6 days later

                                paul_quixote Targettting 127. Nothing is postponed indefinetely, it is a matter of demand (this is high) and difficulity (this one is very hard). So we priorirtise fixing 50 bugs instead and it has been going for a few releases now.

                                    6 days later

                                    @Vlad What are the engineering challenges faced with implementing auto-updating extensions? Would it be possible to look at Chromium/Firefox to see how they implement it? I know that Orion uses a different browser engine so that may be an unfair comparison.

                                    • Vlad replied to this.

                                      Anatomy5803 The engineering challange is that the most issues on this forum, and there are over 2,000 open ones, are bugs. There is huge pressure to fix those bugs, which you might get a sense of if you just read the first 50 posts when you open the home page (I dare you do that! 🙂.

                                      So between fixing many small bugs and spending considerable time to introduce a new feature (which will probably bring more bugs) we simply prioritize fixing many bugs, at least as long the backlog contains 2000+ open issues.

                                          19 days later

                                          I just updated all extensions in the dev build. This is landing in the RC this week and in beta in a couple of weeks.

                                          Vlad Thats understandable. So till "autoupdate extension" feature is not implemented, I would suggest updating extensions in the dev build everytime a new version of Orion is released.

                                          In this way, while the extension may not always be the latest, they would also not be very far from it.

                                              Presenting automatic extension updates. Landing in RC tomorrow.