468072 - Check add-on compatibility *BEFORE* running automatic updates

Status: RESOLVED WONTFIX

(Firefox :: Extension Compatibility, enhancement)

Description

[Bertrand Denoix]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8.1.13) Gecko/20080313 MultiZilla/1.8.3.4e SeaMonkey/1.1.9
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.0.4) Gecko/2008102920 Firefox/3.0.4

When using the automatic updates, there is no simple way to know what add-ons will be flagged as without any compatible version (installed or downloadable). The update confirmation dialog should list these so that the user can tell what is going to happen.

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1.Install add-on (say, Firebug)
2.Wait for auto-update
3.Discover Firebug has been disabled



Tell me: "This update will install Firefox 3.0.4. The following add-ons aren't compatible with this version of Firefox, and there is currently no upgrade version: Firebug 1.0.5, Copy Links 0.1.4. Proceed with install? Yes/Retry in 3 days/No"

Comment 2

[tct]

It is a necessary feature in the rapid development cycle Mozilla community now employs.

In Romania at least there are a lot of grumpy users because they find out only after update that their favourite add-ons don't work any more. 

Most of them don't know about ftp.mozilla.org to install the older version and all the links on mozilla.org point to the last version only (even pages about old releases - changelog).

Is there any plan to develop such a feature? Or any hint on where to start developing such a feature?

Comment 3

[Raul Nicolae Malea]

I agreed with Tibi. 

See:

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/874169

https://groups.google.com/a/googleproductforums.com/forum/#!category-topic/sites/report-a-problem/Wv564R_IoeU

http://input.mozilla.com/ro/?product=firefox&sentiment=sad&date_end=&date_start=&version=--&q=compatibility

Comment 4

[Roger Lynn]

As a data point, four of the eight extensions I currently have installed claim to be incompatible with the latest version of Seamonkey. This is pretty hopeless.

Comment 5

[tct]

At EU MozCamp, it's been revealed the plan is to automatically declare all add-ons compatible with latest versions of Firefox. At least, this was my understanding.

Then it will be a community effort to report incompatible add-ons. Is this right?

Comment 6

[Jorge Villalobos [:jorgev] (he/him)]

(In reply to Tiberiu C. Turbureanu from comment #5)
> At EU MozCamp, it's been revealed the plan is to automatically declare all
> add-ons compatible with latest versions of Firefox. At least, this was my
> understanding.
> 
> Then it will be a community effort to report incompatible add-ons. Is this
> right?

Pretty much, yes: https://wiki.mozilla.org/Features/Add-ons/Add-ons_Default_to_Compatible

Comment 7

[[:Aleksej]]

According to other bugs, incompatible add-ons are listed before updating Firefox.

For the other parts, see also:
* Bug 663506 - If a user has incompatible add-ons, increase the update nag time
* Bug 670302 - Provide some indication whether there are incompatible add-ons on the first page before clicking the update button
* Bug 708396 - Updates should not be offered if AMO is down and the user has incompatible add-ons
* Bug 715607 - Update the flow for users with incompatible add-ons (now that we are default to compatible)
* Bug 762586 - Firefox disabled GWT
* Bug 791485 - Allow marking add-ons "must have" to avoid incompatible updates
* Bug 814830 - Unable to cancel update when warned about an incompatible add-on

Comment 8

[Andy McKay]

This will rarely be valid with WebExtensions, so closing.

Comment 9

[Mark Clements]

Rarely, or never?