Inconsistency: Remove chrome_style/browser_style from options_ui, browser_action, action

[erosman]

Purpose

A unified (all having or all removing) approach and implementation would be beneficial.
MV2-MV3 defaults would benefit from unification.

"options_ui"

• Firefox MV2-MV3: browser_style default true
• Chrome MV2: chrome_style default true false
• Chrome MV3: removed

"browser_action" , "action"

• Firefox MV2-MV3: browser_style default true
• Chrome MV2: chrome_style default true n/a
• Chrome MV3: removed

Notes

The chrome_style option cannot be used with manifest version 3.
See also: #108

[Rob--W]

• Chrome intentionally dropped support for chrome_style: https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=973157
• Safari did intentionally not implement it for the lack of use.
• While Firefox still has the property, the stylesheet associated with it is out of date and unmaintained - https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1458678

[erosman]

The purpose of the topic is to maintain consistency, by all implementing browser/chrome_style or all dropping it.

As all seem to be opposing it, then Firefox might also consider deprecating it and recommend users to include browser_style: false.

The issue is the default in Firefox which is true, therefore omitting browser_style in manifest.json is not enough.

[carlosjeurissen]

Since it seems most browsers do not prioritize maintaining this browser stylesheet concept. It seems this kind of functionality should, if available at all, be disabled by default.

Considering the browser style is disabled by default in Chrome and Safari, changing the default from browser_style to false for Mozilla Firefox seems preferred for compatibility and clarity. @Rob--W is this a viable path for Firefox? Potentially restricting the default change to mv3?

[oliverdunk]

Looping back from the last meeting as promised - as mentioned in the bug @Rob--W linked, the styles provided by this option were very outdated. The trouble with maintaining this property is ultimately why we decided to remove it - we could update the styles regularly, breaking extensions relying on them, or leave them alone providing more backwards compatibility but having them slowly get out of sync with the rest of Chrome. Neither seemed ideal.

The suggested approach going forward would be to copy the styles in to your extension if you need them: https://source.chromium.org/chromium/chromium/src/+/main:extensions/renderer/resources/extension.css

I think the suggestion @carlosjeurissen made to remove this in Firefox would be the fastest path to alignment.

[Rob--W]

We are going to remove it from Firefox. I filed bug https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1827910 to track this specific task.

[Rob--W]

I updated the title and positions, because the topic has moved from "support same style" to "drop chrome_style/browser_style".

[Rob--W]

Consensus achieved, the remaining task is dropping browser_style from Firefox, which is tracked at https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1827910

[carlosjeurissen]

@erosman for the record, seems options_ui.chrome_style was false by default, see:
https://web.archive.org/web/20150321054040/https://developer.chrome.com/extensions/optionsV2#chrome_style

As far as I know chrome_style has never existed for browser_action, page_action or action.

[erosman]

@carlosjeurissen I cant recall where I got that from. 🤷‍♂️
I will amend the original post, just for clarification.