1301609 - Cyclical reference to unsafeWindow in PageMod content script when installing extension via mozAddonManager.

Status: RESOLVED INVALID

(Toolkit :: Add-ons Manager, defect)

Description

[Chuck Harmston [:chuck]]

Cyclical reference to unsafeWindow in PageMod content script when installing extension via mozAddonManager.

Test Pilot uses a PageMod [1] with a content script [2] to add a property to existing windows that let the website [3] know that the add-on has been successfully installed. This works brilliantly when using normal extension installation methods, but fails when installing via mozAddonManager.

Some debugging shows that an attempt to `console.log(unsafeWindow)` in the content script errors with `TypeError: cyclic object value`, which seems to silently prevent those properties from being set. Installation succeeds otherwise (enable code run, etc).

Code can be browsed here: https://github.com/chuckharmston/testpilot/tree/1223-mozaddonmanager
The new code to call mozAddonManager is here: https://github.com/chuckharmston/testpilot/blob/1223-mozaddonmanager/frontend/src/app/lib/install-addon.js#L13-L21

Stack trace:

onEvent@
resource://gre/modules/commonjs/toolkit/loader.js ->
resource://gre/modules/commonjs/sdk/loader/sandbox.js ->
resource://gre/modules/commonjs/sdk/content/content-worker.js:76:17@resource://gre/modules/commonjs/toolkit/loader.js ->
resource://gre/modules/commonjs/sdk/loader/sandbox.js ->
resource://testpilot-addon/data/set-installed-flag.js:11:1

[1] https://github.com/mozilla/testpilot/blob/94eb542ebeec0342eecbbea45be07dbdeb09f963/addon/lib/app.js#L43
[2] https://github.com/mozilla/testpilot/blob/9c06d9293d6655721a0a4cf53262ecf7b92c8954/addon/data/set-installed-flag.js
[3] https://github.com/mozilla/testpilot/blob/6bd599eb1c3396883a7a98acaf6671dd49e03132/frontend/src/app/lib/install-addon.js#L23-L25

Comment 1

[Chuck Harmston [:chuck]]

So my diagnosis is a bit misleading; :John-Galt pointed out that all windows are cyclical object references, and this error indicates that it can't be serialized to JSON.

The symptom still remains, though: the properties in the content script are not set when the extension is installed via mozAddonManager, though they are when installed using traditional means.

Comment 2

[Chuck Harmston [:chuck]]

This was my mistake, totally unrelated. Sorry for the noise!