6117 - [FEATURE] Append CCK's custom string to browser's user agent string

Status: VERIFIED FIXED

(SeaMonkey :: UI Design, defect, P1)

Description

[robinf]

We want to be able to append the "Company Identifier" string that the CCK user
enters in the CCK Wizard to the browser's user agent string. Not sure what
Component category this bug belongs to, so I just took a guess.

Comment 1

[selmer (gone)]

*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of 806 ***

Comment 2

[Jay Patel [:jay]]

Verified Dup...see Bug 806 comments

Comment 3

[selmer (gone)]

I don't believe this was appropriate to dup to 806 since the fix for 806 didn't
include this feature.

In 4.x (according to the old winfe/nsapp.cpp) we keyed off the existence of a
configuration pref called "user_agent" and when it existed we would add
C-<user_agent_prev_value> to the user agent string.  See the routine
ResolveAppVersion for the exact code.

There appear to be other places where this logic existed since winfe/custom.cpp
did something almost but not quite identical.

Comment 4

[selmer (gone)]

Don, I'm sending this back to you with the info on how we did this in 4.x.

Comment 5

[leger]

Clearing Duplicate resolution due to ReOpen of this bug.

Comment 6

[don]

Move to M10 until I can figure out when we can do this ...

Comment 7

[don]

Move to M15.  Not a beta 1 requirement.

Comment 8

[Mike Shaver (:shaver emeritus)]

The mighty user agent service will slay this foul beast!



The pref in question is just "user_agent"?

Comment 9

[don]

Do we have to fix this for M14?

Comment 10

[robinf]

CC:'ing Bijal so he can answer Don's question. Is this a Beta 1 feature for CCK?

Comment 11

[bijals (gone)]

This is a beta 2 feature, especially since netscape.cfg is a beta 2 feature for 
Seamonkey.

Comment 12

[selmer (gone)]

Adding to CCK tracking bug.

Comment 13

[selmer (gone)]

*** Bug 20941 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 14

[selmer (gone)]

Don, it may be that this should be assigned to shaver.  I just marked 20941 as a 
dup of this because this one is older.  20941 was assigned to shaver and we had 
worked out how this was to be implemented.  Adding shaver to the cc list.

Comment 15

[don]

Move to M16 ...

Comment 16

[don]

M17 for mcafee ...

Comment 17

[leger]

Putting on [nsbeta2+][5/16] radar.  This is a feature MUST complete work by 
05/16 or we may pull this feature for PR2.

Comment 18

[Chris McAfee]

I have no idea what this bug is about.  Can someone shed some light here?

Comment 19

[varada]

This bug will give a better understanding of the problem. A pref is
 needed so that the user agent string gets the "C-" tag inserted and
 then the value of the pref gets added as well -> in the form of
 Netscape 5.0 [en] C- <foo>.We can choose to have a different tag for
 mozilla say "M-". The length of this value can be limited to say 10
 extra characters or so.
Adding myself to CC.

Comment 20

[don]

Move to M19 target milestone.

Comment 21

[bijals (gone)]

Don, this bug is a requirement for CCK's PR2 features.  PDT marked the bug 
nsbeta2+ so we are expecting this to be fixed.  Is there a change in the plans?

Comment 22

[leger]

Putting on [nsbeta2-] radar. Removing [5/16]. Will do for nsbeta3

Comment 23

[Chris McAfee]

user-agent, gagan

Comment 24

[Gagan]

I think valeski added the code for customizing the user-agent. So it might just 
be him explaining how to do it. 

Comment 25

[Judson Valeski]

use this attribte, 
http://lxr.mozilla.org/seamonkey/source/netwerk/protocol/http/public/nsIHTTPProt
ocolHandler.idl#152. First *get* the attribute, append your string to it, then 
set the whole string back in using that attribute.

Comment 26

[varada]

Re-opening bug.
We need a pref to do this change.

Comment 27

[varada]

Reassigning to XPapps to implement a preference that will customize the user 
agent string.

Comment 28

[bijals (gone)]

This is an extremely critical bug/feature for N6 Client Customization Kit.  The 
most basic customization is appending to the user agent string already in the 
browser.  CCK tool tags anyone who uses CCK to customize the browser with 
"-CCK".  Distributors can also add their own tag to the user agent string.  This 
tagged user agent string is used to measure indirect revenue from distributors.

Bill Law and I talked about this and we could easily append the CCK string to 
the vendor portion. 

In Communicator 4.x and CCK 4.x, the following javascript is in the netscape.cfg 
for the user agent string append command:

with (PrefConfig) {
config("user_agent", "CCK-MCD bij's browser");
}

Comment 29

[leger]

Putting on [nsbeta2-] since PR2 is outta here.

Comment 30

[Bill Law]

Does:
with (PrefConfig) {
config("user_agent", "CCK-MCD bij's browser");
}
put an entry in prefs.js or somewhere else (e.g., netscape.cfg or equivalent)?

I guess what I need to know is how to get this value *out* (from wherever it 
goes).

Comment 31

[bijals (gone)]

Not sure it puts a value at all.  Basically, the code I supplied is in the
netscape.cfg which is a hashed preference file in Communicator.  Everytime you
launch Communicator, this file is read and it appends to the user agent string
dynamically.  Therefore, this javascript does not change the actual user agent
string in Communicator code.

Comment 32

[Bill Law]

OK, I think I've found what I need.  The 4.x code calls PREF_CopyConfigString
to get this customized user agent string.  I'll use the same API (it's in the 
6.0 version of prefapi).

Yo, Varada; does that sound right? 

Comment 33

[varada]

with (PrefConfig) {
config("user_agent", "CCK-MCD bij's browser");
}
is present in the prefs.js which is the input to create the netscape.cfg.
This will change the value of the pref IFF the pref exists and not otherwise and 
so in reply to your question.
Yes you are right :-)

Comment 34

[Mike Shaver (:shaver emeritus)]

Use of the non-XPCOM pref API makes me wince.  Is it really necessary?

Comment 35

[Bill Law]

I guess that's what I'm asking.  I don't understand this netscapt.cfg magic.  If 
I just read the "user_agent" pref using the conventional means would I get what 
I need?  Varada, does that question make sense?  If so, what's the answer?

Comment 36

[sairuh (rarely reading bugmail)]

over to paw for qa triage.

Comment 37

[bijals (gone)]

I believe so.  The preferenes are read during launch of Seamonkey.  When an end 
user changes his/her preferences through the edit dialog, they are changed in 
memory, but not on disk.  When the browser is closed (quit), the preferences are 
saved.  

This user agent preference is read on launch and there is no way to change it 
from the client. 

Comment 38

[Bill Law]

Marking [nsbeta3+] per discussion with Bijal.  Note that this bug depends on 
5132.

Comment 39

[Alec Flett]

yes, don't worry about libpref's unique way of defining prefs, just use 
CopyCharPref where appropriate

Comment 40

[bijals (gone)]

Please make it so that we can put this special "user agent" string in any prefs 
file such as foo.js.  Therefore, you do not need to have netscape.cfg to have 
this preference working.

Comment 41

[Bill Law]

I found out that our http protocol handler is already using the content of 
various pref settings to determine the user agent string.  See 
http://lxr.mozilla.org/seamonkey/source/netwerk/protocol/http/src/nsHTTPHandler.
cpp#615.

This means that if CCK arranged to set, say, "general.useragent.vendorComment" 
then that would automatically appear in the user agent string.  I think that 
might be better than adding additional code on top of what's there already.

For example, you could put this in your prefs.js right now:
   user_pref("general.useragent.vendorComment", "CCK-MCD bij's browser");

The only drawback would be if CCK is only capable of setting the "user_agent" 
pref, rather than "general.useragent.vendorComment" (or some other 
general.useragent pref).

Can CCK use the existing pref?  Or, do I need to add the code that extracts the 
"user_agent" pref and inserts it into the vendor comment field?

Comment 42

[Bill Law]

We think CCK can manage this by simply setting the 
general.useragent.vendorComment pref (rather than the user_agent pref).

So, I'm reassigning to Varada to prompt him (or somebody) to tweak CCK to do 
that.  Leaving [nsebeta3+]; hope that's OK.

Comment 43

[Phil Peterson]

PDT agrees P1

Comment 44

[varada]

accepting 

Comment 45

[leger]

Adding [pdtp1] in status summary.

Comment 46

[varada]

The user agent which is an aggregate of 8 different pref values including the
vendor comment. The vendor comment is given the value of the customized string
thru CCK. This then gets inserted in the pref file and is read by the browser
and is used while creating the overall value for the navigator.userAgent.

Comment 47

[robinf]

Varada, please add to this bug examples of the following:

*user agent string customized by CCK user (for example, MyISP)
*user agent string default (not customized by CCK user)

Thanks.

Comment 48

[Paul Wyskoczka]

Updating QA Contact

Comment 49

[bmartin]

updating QA Contact to [e-mail]

Comment 50

[Barrett Lindstrom]

qa to me since blee is on sabatical.  Verified on CCK build 2001-09-24-07