Firefox Connnector Whitelisting - Group Policy

nickbot · March 26, 2020

Hi there,

I'm an IT administrator, and am currently trying to whitelist the Firefox Zotero Connector.
In Firefox, we have all extensions blocked by default using ExtensionSettings within the Firefox ADMX template. Desired applications are then unblocked using their extension ID and install URL.

My problem is I can't seem to get the right details which will allow Zotero to install. Does anyone know what the correct settings are?
Here's what I have tried:

Extension ID: zotero@chnm.gmu.edu (found in About:support)
Install URL: https://www.zotero.org/download/
Install URL 2nd attempt: https://download.zotero.org/
Install URL 3rd attempt: https://www.zotero.org/download/connector/dl?browser=firefox&version=5.0.61

And here's how it's formatted in the actual policy:
"zotero@chnm.gmu.edu": {
"installation_mode": "allowed",
"install_url": "https://download.zotero.org/"
}

Firefox ExtensionSettings documentation: https://github.com/mozilla/policy-templates/blob/master/README.md#extensionsettings

Any advice greatly appreciated!

Cheers,
Nick

dstillman · March 26, 2020

The XPI URL is going to start with https://download.zotero.org/. (You can see with curl -v or the Network pane of the devtools.)

I'm not clear on the difference between install_url and install_sources, but it looks like install_url needs the XPI URL and install_sources needs both.

nickbot · March 27, 2020

I believe install_sources is only for setting the 'default' extension behavior. In my case this is used to block all installs, except for whitelisted extensions.

To add exceptions, install_url is used and is populated with the XPI URL as you said.
I've now tried all of the following as the install_url:
https://download.zotero.org/connector/firefox/release/Zotero_Connector-5.0.61.xpi
https://download.zotero.org/extension/zotero-4.0.29.25.xpi
https://www.zotero.org/download/
https://download.zotero.org/

Still no luck. I even tried adding them all together.

Btw I'm using
Firefox 74.0(x64)
Firefox policy templates v1.14
Windows 10 (18363.657)

dstillman · March 27, 2020

Sorry, I don't have anything to suggest beyond that full 5.0.61.xpi URL. This would really be Firefox support territory. I assume you've checked the browser console? I would expect something to be logged when the installation was rejected.