Mantis Helper — Firefox, Chrome and Edge Extension

A browser extension for users of the Mantis bug tracker: select an issue number on any web page, right-click, and the issue opens in Mantis. One code base for Firefox, Chrome and Edge.

Status: current version v2.1.1 (changelog). More screenshots, in Firefox and Chrome: the gallery.

Get it from Firefox Add-ons, Microsoft Edge Add-ons or the Chrome Web Store.

Features

• Context Menu Integration: Select an issue number on any webpage, right-click, and choose Open “…” in Mantis. The menu shows the selected text.
• Opens Beside the Current Tab: the issue opens in a new tab next to the current one, in the same tab group (and in Firefox the same container).
• Finds the Number in the Selection: 1234, #1234, 0001234 and selections like Issue #1234: or 0001234: Fix login bug all open issue 1234.
  • Several numbers: a # number wins, then a zero-padded one like Mantis displays them.
  • Otherwise the selection is ambiguous and a hint page opens.
• Simple Configuration: Enter the address of your Mantis installation (e.g. https://mantis.example.com/) and view.php?id= is appended automatically.
  • Pasting a Mantis page or issue link works too.
  • URLs with a query string (e.g. https://mantis.example.com/view.php?id=) are used as they are.
  • The options page shows which address an issue number will open.

Permissions

The extension requires the following permissions:

• Context Menus — To add Open “…” in Mantis to the browser's right-click menu.
• Storage — To save the Mantis URL that you set in the options. If you use Firefox Sync for add-ons, or Chrome or Edge sync, it is synced too.

Data collection: none. Mantis Helper sends nothing to its developer or anyone else. When you choose Open “…” in Mantis, the selected number is opened as a link on the Mantis server you configured. See PRIVACY.md.

How to Use

1. Install the extension from Firefox Add-ons (Firefox 142 or later), Microsoft Edge Add-ons or the Chrome Web Store (Chrome or Edge 99 or later).

2. Configure your Mantis URL: open the extension's options (Firefox: Add-ons and themes, about:addons > Mantis Helper > Options; Chrome and Edge: Extensions > Mantis Helper > Extension options) and enter the address of your Mantis installation. If you use the menu entry before configuring it, the options open automatically.

   

3. Use it: Highlight an issue number (e.g. 1234 or #1234) on a webpage, right-click, and select Open “…” in Mantis. If the selection holds no single issue number, a hint page opens instead:

   

To use it in private windows, allow "Run in Private Windows" for Mantis Helper in about:addons (Firefox), or turn on "Allow in Incognito" (Chrome) or "Allow in InPrivate" (Edge) in the extension's details.

Development

One source tree for both browsers: data/ (the scripts call chrome.*, which Firefox offers too), icons/, and manifest.json with what both share plus manifest.chrome.json and manifest.firefox.json for the rest (background, options page, browser settings). scripts/build.mjs merges them into one unpacked extension per browser.

Run npm ci once (Node 26, as in CI), then:

• Build: npm run build writes dist/chrome/ and dist/firefox/ (unpacked) and the store packages dist/mantis-helper-chrome-<version>.zip (Chrome Web Store, Edge Add-ons) and dist/mantis-helper-firefox-<version>.zip (addons.mozilla.org). node scripts/build.mjs alone rebuilds the unpacked ones.
• Lint: npm run lint — ESLint (eslint.config.mjs), then web-ext lint on dist/firefox, the validator addons.mozilla.org runs on upload (warnings fail it, as in CI)
• Unit tests for the selection and URL parsing in data/mantis.js: npm test
• Try it out after a build: in Firefox open about:debugging#/runtime/this-firefox, click "Load Temporary Add-on…" and select dist/firefox/manifest.json (or run npx web-ext run -s dist/firefox); in Chrome or Edge open chrome://extensions or edge://extensions, turn on Developer mode, click "Load unpacked" and select dist/chrome.

A release bumps version in manifest.json (one version for both browsers) and adds its changelog entry, in a commit of its own (Release x.y.z: …).

CI (.github/workflows/ci.yml) runs the lint and unit tests, builds both packages (artifacts mantis-helper-chrome and mantis-helper-firefox), and runs the docs tours and the e2e suites in both browsers on every push to master and every pull request.

E2E

Two suites, one per browser, each against its built package (scripts/e2e.sh builds first). No server, no Docker.

• Firefox (e2e/firefox/, inventory COVERAGE.md): dist/firefox is installed as a temporary add-on over Firefox's remote debugging protocol (as web-ext run does). The suite calls the menu's click handler with a real page's selection and tab, and checks what opens where. The options page is driven as a file with a stubbed chrome API.
• Chrome (e2e/chrome/, inventory COVERAGE.md): dist/chrome is loaded unpacked into a fresh headless Chromium profile per test, which drives the options page, the hint page and the context menu's click handler (the menu itself is browser UI).

cd e2e && npm ci && npx playwright install --with-deps firefox chromium && cd ..
scripts/e2e.sh firefox                 # extra arguments go to Playwright, e.g. tests/menu.spec.ts
scripts/e2e.sh chrome                  # e.g. -g options

Screenshots

The images in docs/screenshots/ (firefox/ and chrome/) are taken by the docs tours in e2e/firefox/docs/ and e2e/chrome/docs/. Playwright cannot load an extension into Firefox, so the Firefox tour opens the pages of dist/firefox as files and stubs the chrome API they use; the Chrome tour loads dist/chrome into headless Chromium. They need no server and no Docker:

cd e2e && npm ci && npx playwright install --with-deps firefox chromium && cd ..   # --with-deps: also the system libraries (sudo)
scripts/docs-screenshots.sh            # writes docs/screenshots/<browser>/*.png; pass a directory (and a browser) to write elsewhere

The Docs screenshots workflow (manual) runs the same script and uploads the PNGs as the docs-screenshots artifact; it never commits. Chromium shows the extension's own pages in the host's UI font where they set no font (the invalid-selection page), so a local run can differ there from the committed PNGs, which come from that workflow.

Changelog

Up to v2.1.1 (Firefox) and v2.0.3 (Chrome and Edge) the two browsers had their own repositories and versions; the next release is one version for both.

Firefox

v2.1.1

Fixed:

• Text typed into the options page right after it opened could be wiped when the saved URL finished loading, and Save then did nothing.

v2.1.0

Fixed:

• The options page could not be scrolled to its top when the window was lower than the form (e.g. zoomed in).
• The Save button's text and the URL field's border had too little contrast.

Changed:

• Requires Firefox 142 or later, the first version with the built-in data consent on every platform (Firefox ESR 140 reached its end of life in September 2026).

v2.0.1

Fixed:

• The "Open in Mantis" menu entry disappeared after every Firefox restart.
• Selecting a #-prefixed issue number (e.g. #123) opened the error page.
• Values such as 1e3, 0x1A, -5 or 1.5 were accepted as issue numbers.
• Unusable Mantis URLs (e.g. without https://) opened broken tabs; the options page now rejects them, and an unconfigured extension opens its options instead of example.com.

Changed:

• Migrated to Manifest V3; requires Firefox 140 or later.
• Declares in the manifest that no data is collected (Firefox's built-in data consent).
• The Mantis URL can be the base address of the installation; URLs without a query string are now treated as such, and view.php?id= is appended.
• The issue number is found within the selected text, and the menu shows the selection.
• New tabs open next to the current tab, in its container and tab group.
• The options page previews the resulting address and confirms saving inline instead of with a pop-up.

Version 2.0.0 was an unreleased build.

v1.2.0.0

• Opens an error page when the selection is not a number.
• Removed the toolbar button.

v1.1.0.0

• Reorganized the files, added icon sizes, README and license.

v1.0.0.0

• Initial release (Manifest V2).

Chrome and Edge

v2.0.3

Fixed:

• The Save button's text and the URL field's border had too little contrast.
• Text typed into the options page right after it opened could be wiped when the saved URL finished loading, and Save then did nothing.

v2.0.2

Fixed:

• The options page could not be scrolled to its top when the window was lower than the form (e.g. zoomed in).

v2.0.1

Fixed:

• Selecting a #-prefixed issue number (e.g. #123) opened the error page.
• Values such as 1e3, 0x1A, -5 or 1.5 were accepted as issue numbers.
• Unusable Mantis URLs (e.g. without https://) opened broken tabs; the options page now rejects them, and an unconfigured extension opens its options instead of example.com.

Changed:

• Requires Chrome or Edge 99 or later.
• The Mantis URL can be the base address of the installation; URLs without a query string are now treated as such, and view.php?id= is appended.
• The issue number is found within the selected text, and the menu shows the selection.
• New tabs open next to the current tab, in its tab group.
• The options page previews the resulting address and confirms saving inline instead of with a pop-up.

Version 2.0.0 was an unreleased build.

v1.2.0.0

• Opens an error page when the selection is not a number.
• Reorganized the files and added icon sizes.

v1.0.0.0

• Initial release (Manifest V3).

License

See License.md.