757872 - Receipts for free apps are superfluous

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(Marketplace Graveyard :: Payments/Refunds, defect, P2)

Description

[Ian Bicking (:ianbicking)]

There's no reason to create receipts for free apps, no one cares about them.  I think we should stop issuing them.

It also is slightly clarifying when someone decides to make their free app paid (or vice versa), as they won't have to distinguish between free and paid receipts.  

(Changing payment options for an app should probably have other techniques to see the differences in what was bought, but removing receipts for free apps seems like a clear first step.)

Comment 1

[Andy McKay]

The original requirement from the apps team was that all apps should be installed by a logged in user. I think, so that the app would be able to verify the user with browser ID.

Since the receipt no longer contains anything the app can check with browser ID, I believe this requirement is no longer valid.

If that's the case I'd be happy to drop receipts for free apps. I'd also then be happy to drop that installing free apps require a user to be logged into the marketplace. That would make our lives a lot easier and a better user experience.

But I think that's the apps team call, not mine.

Comment 2

[Andy McKay]

This bug covers a few parts:

- not doing receipts for free apps
- ensuring that without a receipt the app is still recorded for a logged in user
- allowing anonymous users to install apps
- make sure we still do the metrics ping on installing a free app

Would like to get this done sooner rather than later.

Comment 3

[Christopher Van Wiemeersch [:cvan]]

Attempting this so we can get unblock ourselves from bug 742944 and bug 744451 (which prevent us from logging in to BrowserID, PayPal, etc.).

This will let anonymous users install apps and will let us start testing the installation flow on B2G so the gaia team can get rolling.

Comment 4

[Andrew Williamson [:eviljeff]]

I don't have any opinion on the receipts stuff, but "- allowing anonymous users to install apps" was (iirc) about making sure users had a consistent experience.

If you don't need to log in to install then a significant majority won't.  This will mean their free app installs won't be available on their other devices (as was the intention) and once they do log in we'd have to decide how to show the apps installed before they were logged in.  This should be another bug really as its a significant change.

Comment 5

[Christopher Van Wiemeersch [:cvan]]

I forgot to preface this with ... this is an experiment and I will keep behind a waffle switch on -dev. I want to be able to get Marketplace+gaia devs and QA to start playing the install flow on B2G devices. (In particular there is a Gaia show+tell Monday, June 4 where I'd like to demonstrate what still needs to be worked on on the platform side of things.) To permanently lift this restriction, no doubt at all I'll need to get buy in from many parties.

Comment 6

[Andy McKay]

As far as I can tell, the apps on other devices will be done using ATIC and that doesn't need the user to be logged in to the marketplace. I think Anant is looking after that and he said its fine yesterday in IRC (but cc'ing just in case :).

The only real issue I can see is that my apps won't be listed in Account History and I do remember that being discussed as an issue.

Comment 7

[Potch [:potch]]

Initial work to get this done:

https://github.com/mozilla/zamboni/commit/6830d71

Comment 8

[Christopher Van Wiemeersch [:cvan]]

What if I download a free app and then later that app becomes a paid one and starts doing receipt checking? Am I SOL?

Comment 9

[Ian Bicking (:ianbicking)]

(In reply to Chris Van Wiemeersch [:cvan] from comment #8)
> What if I download a free app and then later that app becomes a paid one and
> starts doing receipt checking? Am I SOL?

If an app developer wanted to grandfather in the existing free install base, then yes, removing receipts means there's no provable evidence that you installed the app at a certain date.  But if the app developer is really moving to paid, then they wouldn't want to respect the free receipts anyway.

If the app developer starts to support both a free and paid/premium mode of an app, then nothing forces them to reject users that don't have any receipts.  The lack of a receipt is a state the app developer can check for and respond to however they want.

Comment 10

[Christopher Van Wiemeersch [:cvan]]

Andy, thoughts on the two comments above?

Comment 11

[Andy McKay]

I agree with what @ianb said. I was typing similar at the time but had a mid-air collision so didn't bother :)

Comment 12

[Christopher Van Wiemeersch [:cvan]]

We're doing this on marketplace-dev. Leaving open for people to decide what we want.

Comment 13

[Wil Clouser [:clouserw]]

(In reply to Andy McKay [:andym] from comment #2)
> - allowing anonymous users to install apps

This is contrary to the plan - to install apps you need to be logged in.

Comment 14

[Tom Lowenthal]

Wil, where's the bug documenting this decision?

Comment 15

[Wil Clouser [:clouserw]]

(In reply to Tom Lowenthal [:StrangeCharm] from comment #14)
> Wil, where's the bug documenting this decision?

My comment came after talking to Justin Scott.  I think the original spec said the same thing though.  No bug.

Comment 16

[Andy McKay]

I can install an app without logging in that has no receipt.