Our newest Friend of Add-ons is Juraj Mäsiar! Juraj is the developer of several extensions for Firefox, including Scroll Anywhere, which is part of our Recommended Extensions program. He is also a frequent contributor on our community forums, where he offers friendly advice and input for extension developers looking for help.

Juraj first started building extensions for Firefox in 2016 during a quiet weekend trip to his hometown. The transition to the WebExtensions API was less than a year away, and developers were starting to discuss their migration plans. After discovering many of his favorite extensions weren’t going to port to the new API, Juraj decided to try the migration process himself to give a few extensions a second life.  “I was surprised to see it’s just normal JavaScript, HTML and CSS — things I already knew,” he says. “I put some code together and just a few moments later I had a working prototype of my ScrollAnywhere add-on. It was amazing!”

Juraj immersed himself in exploring the WebExtensions API and developing extensions for Firefox. It wasn’t always a smooth process, and he’s eager to share some tips and tricks to make the development experience easier and more efficient. “Split your code to ES6 modules. Share common code between your add-ons — you can use `git submodule` for that. Automate whatever can be automated. If you don’t know how, spend the time learning how to automate it instead of doing it manually,” he advises. Developers can also save energy by not reinventing the wheel. “If you need a build script, use webpack. Don’t build your own DOM handling library. If you need complex UI, use existing libraries like Vue.js.”

Juraj recommends staying active, saying. “Doing enough sport every day will keep your mind fresh and ready for new challenges.” He stays active by playing VR games and rollerblading.

Currently, Juraj is experimenting with the CryptoAPI and testing it with a new extension that will encrypt user notes and synchronize them with Firefox Sync. The goal is to create a secure extension that can be used to store sensitive material, like a server configuration or a home wifi password.

On behalf of the Add-ons Team, thank you for all of your wonderful contributions to our community, Juraj!

If you are interested in getting involved with the add-ons community, please take a look at our current contribution opportunities.

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