Bring back Mozilla Archive Format (MAFF)

[endolith]

Mozilla Archive Format is a file type for saving complete web pages, with all related resources saved in a single zip file.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mozilla_Archive_Format

• It is superior to the current "Web page, complete" because it is a single file and can be moved and renamed without problems, and has no filesystem overhead.
• It is superior to PDF because it doesn't divide up the web page into arbitrary page boundaries, add headers and footers, distort the layout, etc.  It can be viewed on any screen in the original intended format.
• It is superior to MHT format because it keeps the original context of the web page as closely as possible and doesn't re-encode all the files into BASE64. They can be extracted from the archive with their original filenames and metadata, etc. or deleted from it to save space if they are inconsequential.  MAFF is a simpler, more future-proof format.

Firefox should natively save and open .maff files without a need for add-ons.  It's very frustrating that this format was created by Mozilla, we saved many web pages using it, and then Mozilla abandoned the format and removed the functionality from Firefox and made it impossible to provide through add-ons.

[Jon]

Thanks for submitting an idea to Mozilla Connect! Your post is now open to the community for votes (kudos) and comments 😀

[jscher2000]

For background, .maff support was provided through an extension (not built-in). That legacy extension required certain features not available to WebExtensions in Firefox 57+. Unless extension APIs are substantially enhanced, it's necessary that the feature be built-in.

[endolith]

@jscher2000

1. Extension APIs should be substantially enhanced.
2. The feature should be built-in.

[endolith]

MHT isn't even built-in!  There's no way to save a web page to a single file without an add-on.

[shanen]

Would you [the submitter or any of the people reading this discussion] be willing to donate 10 bucks to help implement this?

[jscher2000]

> MHT isn't even built-in! 

It doesn't seem that MHT is a web standard, so Mozilla does not have the usual guidance on the best way to implement it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MHTML I guess it should follow Chromium's implementation now that Microsoft has adopted it in Edge?

> There's no way to save a web page to a single file without an add-on.

For many users, "Save to PDF" (through Print) and Firefox Screenshot are enough, But if you want to preserve the interactivity of the page, you still need some way to reliably capture the HTML and scripts together.

[Kornholio]

Yes, I'd pay ten dollars for this feature in ANY form.

[endolith]

@shanenI'd pay $50 to get this implemented.  (There are a lot of other things I'd like, though, so I have to think about how much I'd be willing to pay total.  😄  But if I could get back to golden era Firefox functionality I would pay quite a bit.)

@jscher2000MAFF doesn't preserve interactivity of dynamic pages, but it does preserve the original content as much as possible, which is why it's a good archival format for pages that will experience bit rot.

[shanen]

Well, I'd reply directly if this system allowed it, but I don't see that option around here. The basic response to the offers is "But your $10 or $50 is not enough. What if Mozilla had a CSB (Charity Share Brokerage) mechanism to gather enough donations to pay for the feature?"

[endolith]

@shanen  I don't even know what CSB is. Mozilla is clearly making money to pay their developers; they're just developing the wrong things.

[Revenant]

Bug bounties when?

[Philip]

I agree, MAFF is clearly superior, and I miss it a lot.

As a workaround, I keep PaleMoon around, but it would be so much nicer to have it natively in FF!

[nose_gnome]

This would be so useful to have, I hope they add this at some point

[VaSNmax]

To keep this topic in mind: I also keep hoping that support for MAFF files will come back. I have a lot of files saved in this format, I love its multi-page capability and I don't see a worthy converter or competitive format

[Samaritans]

I've used a work around this M.A.F.F. not supported problem on Firefox versions after Version 39.
Download Version 39 from Fire Fox archives and install it. Thankfully it V39 yet runs perfectly on any 64bit

system. One must get hold of "maf-3.0.3.0-fx.x.p.i" which when added to Fire Fox V 39 provides the Opening of and

Saving to M.A.F.F. archive format of any web pages.

One can download "maf-3.0.3.0-fx.x.p.i" from the following URL: https://mirror.umd.edu/mozdev/maf/ , their index

page and search for the "maf-3.0.3.0-fx.x.p.i" add-on. Install it using the Fire Fox Native Add-on utility tab and

left click on the drop down GEAR wheel ICON at top left and choose "Install add-on from file" option. Direct

Fire Fox queries to the location folder of your downloaded "maf-3.0.3.0-fx.x.p.i" . V39 of Firefox will accept

the add-on with some 'dithering' and enable M.A.F.F. save and M.A.F.F. open.

YOU may have to close Fire Fox V39 and relaunch it. Check if " Save All Pages in Archive As" is available in the

FILE menu drop down.

Most often by Default the Fire Fox friendly Menu bar is not visible st the top of the window once you install any

Fire Fox version. To get back the friendly MENU BAR right click outside any part in the Firefox window not

occupied by a TAB and it will provide a drop down option. Click the left side of the word "Menu" (with the Left

Mouse Button) to enable the famous Top Menu bar.

Enjoy Fire Fox M.A.F.F Save and Open as I have done for the past 15 years after Mozilla Fire Fox Designers in their

farsighted wisdom discontinued support for the well loved "M A F F" archive format. I believe "M o z d e v" the original

provider of "M A F F" add-on "X P I" has like Mozilla become very user unfriendly. I could not use their "Search" utility

on my Firefox V39 browser. Why this enmity exists towards old Late 1970 software is incomprehensible.

Technological backward compatibility id the Innovation norm. TV still can be watched on OLD B/W CRT tubes. All

modern and old card use the same roads. Why has software on PC/Macs taken an untenable turn off the Highway of

Down Compatibility?
One warning though : Fire Fox V39 is very unfriendly towards Scripts used by the Newer HTML formats and may crash

you V39 Browser and Lock your PC. You may require a Power Off/ On reboot of Windows.