web-ext run should allow for starting with debugger enabled.

[sblask]

Feature request: it would be great if web-ext run would have a --debugging-enabled flag so I don't have to go to about:debugging and click on debug for my add-on on every start.

[kumar303]

Yes, this would be nice, especially since auto-reloading exits the debugger (at least it used to but I can no longer find the bug).

@rpl would we need a Firefox patch for this? Maybe to use a remote actor to turn this on? If so, perhaps we should file the bugs ASAP.

[rpl]

@sblask 👍

@kumar303 the WebExtensions Addon Debugger should survive auto-reloading (the old one didn't, but when I worked on the new one I took care of this scenario)

Nevertheless I totally agree that it would be helpful if we could "auto-open" the tool on the installed addon without the need to start it manually, I'm pretty sure that we need a patch for it, as an example we could define an additional {openAddonDebugger: true} parameter on the addons RDP actor installTemporaryAddon method, which will open the addon debugger as soon as the addon has been installed.

[kumar303]

@rpl yeah, I like installTemporaryAddon(path, {openAddonDebugger: true}) -- can you file a bug so it can get into triage?

[rpl]

@kumar303 sure thing 👍

[rpl]

@kumar303 Filed on bugzilla as Bug 1332299 - Optionally open the Addon Debugger automatically after an addon is installed using the RDP method addonsActor.installTemporaryAddons.

[yangwen2]

bump on this. Is web-ext still a focus given Mozilla's recent strategy pivot?

[rpl]

bump on this. Is web-ext still a focus given Mozilla's recent strategy pivot?

This tool is actively maintained 🙂
The priority of this particular issue is still ‘enhancement’ and not currently being worked on.

A reasonable path forward for this issue would be interest from a contributor to work on it
(we didn't mark it as a good first bug because implementing it will likely require a more experienced contributor).

[curtisbelt]

Feature request: it would be great if web-ext run would have a --debugging-enabled flag so I don't have to go to about:debugging and click on debug for my add-on on every start.

Here's a solution that is working very well for me.

I take the URL found when opening via about:debugging -> click on inspect and make this the starting page for web-ext via --start-url. This page should have developer tools open automatically. While I'm at it, I also use --pref to make sure that the Console tab is selected by default (the default tab is Inspector.

web-ext run \
  --target=firefox-desktop \
  --pref=devtools.toolbox.selectedTool=webconsole \
  --start-url "about:devtools-toolbox?id=EXTENSION_ID_HERE&type=extension"

Flags found here:

web-ext/src/program.js

Lines 643 to 658 in 19fdd3a

	'pref': {
	describe: 'Launch firefox with a custom preference ' +
	'(example: --pref=general.useragent.locale=fr-FR). ' +
	'You can repeat this option to set more than one ' +
	'preference.',
	demandOption: false,
	requiresArg: true,
	type: 'array',
	coerce: coerceCLICustomPreference,
	},
	'start-url': {
	alias: ['u', 'url'],
	describe: 'Launch firefox at specified page',
	demandOption: false,
	type: 'array',
	},

[willdurand]

Looks like this issue has been fixed by #2488