678556 - Add the add-on's version to self

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(Add-on SDK Graveyard :: General, defect, P2)

Description

[Jeff Griffiths (:canuckistani) (:⚡︎)]

It would be handy to be able to get the current version of the addon easily, eg:

var version = require("self").version;

The use case suggested today in IRC was so that code can be run when a user upgrades to a newer version of the add-on. This code might need to be sufficiently fine-grained when dealing with data schemas / formats. There are probably other use cases.

Comment 1

[Jeff Griffiths (:canuckistani) (:⚡︎)]

I poked around looking at a low-level way to get access to the version, the could would look something like this:

https://builder.addons.mozilla.org/addon/1013461/revision/19/

In builder there is no way to find the current add-on based on self.id, I think due to the way add-ons are run in the builder environment. This is true also of cfx run, making this approach pretty hard to test without building first.

Comment 2

[Jeff Griffiths (:canuckistani) (:⚡︎)]

Update: building an xpi does reveal the correct id and version through AddonManager:

https://builder.addons.mozilla.org/addon/1013461/revision/21/

Comment 3

[Wes Kocher (:KWierso) (Not reading bugmail; email directly if needed)]

console.log(packaging.options.metadata[packaging.options.name].version); 

This works for me in Builder, though I agree that there should be a shorter way to get this information...

Comment 4

[Wes Kocher (:KWierso) (Not reading bugmail; email directly if needed)]

Plus, bug 596077 will take away the packaging global...

Comment 5

[Jeff Griffiths (:canuckistani) (:⚡︎)]

The builder example is updated, but yes, once bug 596077 is fixed this'll all fail.

Comment 6

[Brian Warner [:warner :bwarner]]

require("self").version is the right way to do this. I'll throw together a patch. Any thoughts on whether ".version" is the right name, or if we should use ".addOnVersion" or something? (i.e. are there versions of anything else that we might want to provide through require("self") which might compete for this name?)

Comment 7

[Wes Kocher (:KWierso) (Not reading bugmail; email directly if needed)]

Would the SDK version number be useful to have available?

Comment 8

[Jeff Griffiths (:canuckistani) (:⚡︎)]

Following on from the previous 2 comments:

self.addOnVersion
self.sdkVersion

Wes: do you have a use case for needing the current SDK version in code? And is there no way the reported SDK version would change in some way that would break an add-on if it did things conditionally based on a specific sdk version?

Comment 9

[Wes Kocher (:KWierso) (Not reading bugmail; email directly if needed)]

(In reply to Jeff Griffiths from comment #8)
> Following on from the previous 2 comments:
> 
> self.addOnVersion
> self.sdkVersion
> 
> Wes: do you have a use case for needing the current SDK version in code? And
> is there no way the reported SDK version would change in some way that would
> break an add-on if it did things conditionally based on a specific sdk
> version?

I can't think of one personally. Was just going off of the "what else could we provide that would compete for this name" bit. SDK's the only other versioned thing I can think of that's exposed through there...

Comment 10

[Jeff Griffiths (:canuckistani) (:⚡︎)]

After chatting with Warner on IRC, it seems that we have future plans to potentially 'repack' add-ons in-place on AMO, meaning that if this is done, these add-ons would have a different skd version. Quothe Brian:

warner: I'm uncertain about providing self.sdkVersion .. I can only imagine bad ways to use it.

Given that, I'm not opposed to:

self.version

...as it is semantically correct *and* intuitive, IMO.

Comment 11

[Brian Warner [:warner :bwarner]]

Attachment: add 'name', 'version', and 'sdkVersion' to require("self")

this adds all three new properties. I wouldn't mind being talked out of including 'sdkVersion' :).

Comment 12

[Myk Melez [:myk] [@mykmelez]]

Comment on attachment 553944 [details] [diff] [review]
add 'name', 'version', and 'sdkVersion' to require("self")

r+ on self.version and self.name; r- on self.sdkVersion, given the current ratio of good/bad things anyone can think of using it for.  We can always add it later if the ratio changes.  Thus r=myk without self.sdkVersion.

Comment 13

[Brian Warner [:warner :bwarner]]

Landed, in https://github.com/mozilla/addon-sdk/commit/034255e38b845283f59aa3de959b5674b9210e21 , without self.sdkVersion