Safari Extension support

Oneechan69 I do not know if it is possible, nobody in the world has done it ever. It would probably take hundreds of hours just to try.

We do have over 1,500 other issues on this site that we know what to do with, so if anyone figures this out we are happy to incorporate.

Also goes well with this issue as a side dish.

In order to currently import a Safari web extension, I need to:

1. Go into Finder
2. Go to my Applications folder
3. Find the app associated with the extension
4. Choose "Show Package Contents" in the right-click menu
5. Go to the "Contents" folder
6. Go to the "PlugIns" folder
7. Right-click the .appex file
8. Choose "Show Package Contents" in the right-click menu
9. Go to the "Contents" folder
10. Go to the "Resources" folder
11. Make sure there's a manifest.json file (validate that this is a web extension and not an app extension)
12. Get to Orion's extension manager screen
13. Choose "Add Extension"
14. Choose "Install from Disk..."
15. Drag-and-drop the manifest.json file into the pop-up menu
16. Choose "Open"
17. Choose "Add"

As you can see, it's kind of difficult to do this, and definitely annoying to do with every extension! It's not frustrating, just tedious. I can't just choose to add the .appex file - much less the .app file. I have to add the folder inside the .appex file. I'd really love for this to be automated instead of the manual mess it is right now; that is, you can choose .app and .appex files from the pop-up menu, and if there is a valid web extension to be found (or more than one in some cases), you can import it/them.

Of course.
This is definitely something very interesting that @Vlad would love to hear about.

Also, a few questions:

• Do the safari versions seem to work better than the chrome/firefox versions?
• Can you install certain safari-only extensions with no chrome/ff counterparts? My understanding was that they could be implemented in swift, which isn't compatible with the js-based extension api.
• What about the extensions require money upfront/have a subscription?

eirk @Vlad

To share the questions already asked in the Discord:

• What are Safari web extensions? From Apple: "A Safari web extension adds custom functionality to Safari using JavaScript APIs and common file formats from extensions for Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, and Microsoft Edge browsers. While Safari app extensions are useful for sharing code between your native macOS app and Safari, you build Safari web extensions primarily on JavaScript, HTML, and CSS, and can repackage them to work in other browsers."
• Does this mean all Safari extensions work? No. Safari app extensions are still proprietary and under lock and key - but funny enough, legacy Safari extensions work the same way as these web extensions do. You can extract the .safariextz file with something like Keka, and then load that folder into Orion.
• Doesn't Safari has a severe lack of web extension APIs? Yes. Yes. This does not change that.

To answer the questions asked here:

• Do the Safari versions seem to work better than the Chrome/Firefox versions? As they're web extensions, they're being interpreted in the same way that a Chrome or Firefox extension would be interpreted by Orion. No difference under the hood. It's up to you and per extension to see whether or not it would work better. (I hear Dark Reader works best in Safari!)
• What about the extensions that require money upfront / have a subscription? Not sure what this means. Regardless of if you mean a purchase in the Mac App Store before the app is downloaded, or if you mean a purchase made in the browser after the fact, I don't see why that wouldn't work. If you mean a purchase made in the Mac App Store after the app is downloaded, that's likely dependent on the extension.