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How do I download an XPI without Firefox trying to install it?

Web-Crawling_Stickler
Web-Crawling_Stickler

Mail Redirect, a TB addon, recently switched to Sourceforge because MozDev was shutting down or something. However, attempting to download the latest XPI from Sourceforge (http://downloads.sourceforge.net/project/mailredirect/mailredirect-0.7.7-sm%2Btb.xpi?r=http%3A%2F%2Fsourceforge.net%2Fprojects%2Fmailredirect%2F%3Fsource%3Ddirectory&ts=1370301869&use_mirror=iweb) fails, because Firefox assumes the download is supposed to be an install of a Firefox addon, and Mail Redirect's metadata is set to be incompatible with Firefox.

There is no way to override this and force an actual download; clicking "Direct Link" on the page does the same thing, and dragging either of the links to the Downloads window (Ctrl-J) downloads an HTML document with a .XPI extension, which is obviously useless. What's more, Thunderbird has no convenient way of opening arbitrary webpages.

I finally caved and used IE to download it. It took about 30 seconds.

Mail Redirect, a TB addon, recently switched to Sourceforge because MozDev was shutting down or something. However, attempting to download the latest XPI from Sourceforge (http://downloads.sourceforge.net/project/mailredirect/mailredirect-0.7.7-sm%2Btb.xpi?r=http%3A%2F%2Fsourceforge.net%2Fprojects%2Fmailredirect%2F%3Fsource%3Ddirectory&ts=1370301869&use_mirror=iweb) fails, because Firefox assumes the download is supposed to be an install of a Firefox addon, and Mail Redirect's metadata is set to be incompatible with Firefox. There is no way to override this and force an actual download; clicking "Direct Link" on the page does the same thing, and dragging either of the links to the Downloads window (Ctrl-J) downloads an HTML document with a .XPI extension, which is obviously useless. What's more, Thunderbird has no convenient way of opening arbitrary webpages. I finally caved and used IE to download it. It took about 30 seconds.

Chosen solution

You will have to right-click such a link to save the file (you now have such a link above).

Alternatively you can set the Boolean pref browser.altClickSave to true on the about:config page.
Then you can hold down the Alt key and left-click a link.

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All Replies (5)

cor-el
cor-el
  • Top 25 Contributor
  • Moderator

Chosen Solution

You will have to right-click such a link to save the file (you now have such a link above).

Alternatively you can set the Boolean pref browser.altClickSave to true on the about:config page.
Then you can hold down the Alt key and left-click a link.

James
James
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  • Top 10 Contributor

Right-click the direct link and Save Link As instead of Left-click.

Web-Crawling_Stickler
Web-Crawling_Stickler Question owner

Well, don't I just feel stupid. I should have tried that earlier, but somehow I didn't?

Ah well. Humility is good for the soul or something.

Onno Ekker
Onno Ekker

The procedure to download the file is right there on the bottom of the page http://sourceforge.net/projects/mailredirect/files/:

If you want to download a .xpi file using Firefox or SeaMonkey, follow these steps:

  • Click on the file you want to download. This will take you to the download page
  • Wait 5 seconds for the automatic download to kick in and abort the prompt to install the file
  • Right click on the text "direct link" and choose "Save Link As..." to download and save the file to your hard disk

Modified by Onno Ekker

Web-Crawling_Stickler
Web-Crawling_Stickler Question owner

Hmm. Sure enough; not sure why the README is inserted at the bottom, but I guess that's SF's fault.

Which makes it stranger, because I've been using SF for years, and never noticed that feature. :(