We are happy to announce the release of Jetpack 0.6. Jetpack is a Mozilla Labs project which makes it possible for anyone who knows standard web skills (HTML, Javascript, CSS) to make Firefox add-ons.

Jetpack 0.6 adds two major APIs to the arsenal: a secure preferences system and the ability to add and modify menus. With these new APIs — and the numerous bug fixes since the last release — we hope to see even more innovative Jetpacks in addition to the hundreds already written.

An important part of many add-ons is creating menu items — both at a system level and for context menus. In Jetpack 0.6, we’ve tried to make this painless.

Jetpack Menu API Tutorial

For example, adding an item to the Tool’s menu requires just one line of code:

For a fully useful example, check out the Pixlr Image Editor Jetpack, which lets you edit any photo you find on the web with a right-click.

If you want to dive in, you can read the Menu API documentation.

Most Jetpacks require a couple of persistent settings, like user names, passwords, and p