1047395 - Add "What's new?" menuitem to the about dialog

Status: VERIFIED FIXED

(Firefox :: Menus, defect)

Description

[Sylvestre Ledru [:Sylvestre]]

Attachment: link-to-release-notes-from-fx.diff

We are currently working on a new version of the release notes pages ( https://wiki.mozilla.org/Release_Management/Release_notes_2.0 for a rough draft ) 
They have already a lot of views and we believe they should be easily available from the help menu.

The attached patch implements this change.
Since there is no release notes for nightly, the item is disabled in nightly.

Don't hesitate if you want me to update the wording if you are not happy with my proposal.

Comment 1

[:Gavin Sharp [email: [e-mail]]]

We should probably use the existing (but no longer used in Firefox since bug 876037) app.releaseNotesURL pref for this if we're going to add it back. It's probably also useful to review bug 607234 where we removed this item for Firefox 4.

Comment 2

[Sylvestre Ledru [:Sylvestre]]

(In reply to :Gavin Sharp [email: [e-mail]] from comment #1)
> We should probably use the existing (but no longer used in Firefox since bug
> 876037) app.releaseNotesURL pref for this if we're going to add it back.
Right, I will update my patch.

> It's probably also useful to review bug 607234 where we removed this item
> for Firefox 4.
I am not sure I agree with the arguments in this bug... Before joining Mozilla, I w

Comment 3

[Sylvestre Ledru [:Sylvestre]]

Continuing...

I am not sure I agree with the arguments in this bug... Before joining Mozilla, each time I updated Firefox, the first thing that I was to do is to read the release notes...

Some people also complain that it is quite hard to find the release notes on our website. Cf bug 973335 comment #1

This bug is also in the context of an overall improvement of the release notes.

Comment 4

[Justin Dolske [:Dolske]]

(In reply to Sylvestre Ledru [:sylvestre] from comment #3)

> I am not sure I agree with the arguments in this bug... Before joining
> Mozilla, each time I updated Firefox, the first thing that I was to do is to
> read the release notes...

A basic usability principle is to remember that "you are not your users."  Seems appropriate here. :) Release notes are interesting to a handful of users, but I'm dubious of the value for the general user base [Maaaybe it would have broader value to our Aurora and maybe Beta audience; Nightly too, if daily release notes were practical]. Also, clutter makes UI harder to use, and we're already looking at _reducing_ the amount of cruft in the Help menu (bug 915908).

One thing that's changed since bug 607234 is that we switched to rapid-release... One could argue that release notes had lower usage overall before, because there were very long stretches of time where the only changes were uninteresting security/stability updates. OTOH, with rapid release I think we've tried to de-emphasize updates (see: "update fatigue"), and there is less to report compared to the megaupdates of old.

If we had to, I'd agree with bug 607234 comment 3 that the About dialog could be a more suitable place. (Although it too already has a lot of content...)

> Some people also complain that it is quite hard to find the release notes on
> our website. Cf bug 973335 comment #1

Given that the top Google and Bing results for "firefox release notes" are relevant, I don't think this is a very compelling issue. There are some other good suggestions in the bug though, and we could probably do more to make the top results more directly relevant. (Eg, the top Google result has a somewhat unclear description, and is just a page of version numbers.)

Comment 5

[(Currently slow to respond) Philipp Sackl [:phlsa] (Firefox UX) please use needinfo]

Comment on attachment 8466189 [details] [diff] [review]
link-to-release-notes-from-fx.diff

The problem is that the release notes in their current form are only useful to a very small set of users. If you look at https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/31.0/releasenotes for example, only the first item in that long list is comprehensible to the layperson (and even that requires some knowledge about what the new tab page is).

Therefore we would probably do more harm than good by adding an item to the help menu (as dolske mentioned, this menu should be cleaned up in order to be more usable when people actually need *Help*).

We can be more effective if we promote features that people can understand separately (but more aggressively). UX and marketing are working together to come up with some plans here.

That being said, putting this into the about-dialog and/or improving our organic search results for release notes are good ideas.

Comment 6

[Lawrence Mandel [:lmandel] (use needinfo)]

(In reply to Philipp Sackl [:phlsa] from comment #5)
> The problem is that the release notes in their current form are only useful
> to a very small set of users. If you look at
> https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/31.0/releasenotes for example, only
> the first item in that long list is comprehensible to the layperson (and
> even that requires some knowledge about what the new tab page is).

I agree with this statement. As Sylvestre mentioned, we are looking at improving the notes and making them more accessible to our user base. I think we should revisit this request once we have a newer version of the notes that we can share for review.

Comment 8

[john]

See Bug 1062230, which is perhaps too subtly different -- thanks Justin, for taking a look at this.

The perspective of this Bug 1047395 is not the same as 1062230.   I am -not- suggesting a menu item under the help button, that points to a what's new URL

Rather, I am suggesting the URL be accessible at the direct point of need, that is: where the "Update Now" [?] button is on the dialog box (within which one finds the offers to check for updates).

I'm considering the distinction between a URL at the point and time need (adjacent to the update button) to be different from creating a generally available menu item under help (which is not present at the point/time of need).

If this bug, here, ends up crafting the URL I'm looking for, adjacent to the update now button, then 1062230 is a duplicate.

Comment 9

[Sylvestre Ledru [:Sylvestre]]

Attachment: release-notes-link-from-about.diff

Philipp, would that work for you?

Comment 10

[Sylvestre Ledru [:Sylvestre]]

Attachment: screenshot

Comment 11

[Lawrence Mandel [:lmandel] (use needinfo)]

As another option, how about adding back the menu item that points to the relnotes and using a referrer id in the URL to measure use over, say, 3 releases. (We need some time for people to discover the menu item.) Once we know if the menu item is being used, we can make a decision about whether it should continue to live in the product.

Comment 12

[Lawrence Mandel [:lmandel] (use needinfo)]

(In reply to Sylvestre Ledru [:sylvestre] PTO => August 1st from comment #10)
> Created attachment 8625113 [details]
> screenshot

How about simply adding "Release Notes" or "What's New in this release" next to the version #?

Comment 13

[(Currently slow to respond) Philipp Sackl [:phlsa] (Firefox UX) please use needinfo]

(In reply to Lawrence Mandel [:lmandel] (use needinfo) from comment #12)
> (In reply to Sylvestre Ledru [:sylvestre] PTO => August 1st from comment #10)
> > Created attachment 8625113 [details]
> > screenshot
> 
> How about simply adding "Release Notes" or "What's New in this release" next
> to the version #?

I like that approach since it's a bit more contextual. We should use a short string like »What's new« in order to not get into any spacing troubles.

Comment 14

[(Currently slow to respond) Philipp Sackl [:phlsa] (Firefox UX) please use needinfo]

Comment on attachment 8625112 [details] [diff] [review]
release-notes-link-from-about.diff

Per my last comment...
Can we just put something short next to the version number?

Comment 15

[Sylvestre Ledru [:Sylvestre]]

Sorry about the lag, I was in PTO at this time. I will take this patch and see if I can come up with something.

Comment 16

[Dan Pernokis]

Hello all...

After fixing a minor glitch in the Thunderbird RELEASE NOTES item (which IS located under the HELP menu), I made mention of the need for the same in Firefox.  Sylvestre pointed me to this bug and suggested we move the discussion here.  See Bug 1209959 Comment 15 onwards for context.

There is definitely a need to have release notes in FF.  As stated above, they are not easy to find on the website.  TB's direct access from HELP is great (I use it regularly), and TB's display format is fully acceptable imo.  I long for the same functionality in FF.

As for location:
(1)  HELP is a good (standard) place for it:  TB puts it there, ABOUT is there (Windows standard, I believe), it is actually help-type info, etc.
(2)  Great idea to have it on the ABOUT/UPDATE window too, as per John's Comment #8 about point of need.  But it would be needed on both the ABOUT to check current release ("Release Notes") and on the UPDATE panel to check the imminent new version ("What's New").
(3)  Could easily be done in all three locations -- that puts it where expected (under HELP, as usual) and on ABOUT panel ("curious for more since I'm here"), and on UPDATE panel (where needed, "I'm about to do an update - what's new?").

The downside of using the ABOUT/UPDATE area is this:  My updates are manual -- I check for update available, then trigger it if I want to do it.  But I recall changing an option which was the default when installed -- the update is automatic as soon as you check for updates.  So someone just checking current version would automatically jump into (trigger) an update without getting the chance to check current OR new version info.  (As a web developer, I use Google Chrome quite often too -- and it does not even allow checking version number without automatically forcing an update -- don't like this at all.)

Comment 17

[Sylvestre Ledru [:Sylvestre]]

Attachment: sc2.png

New try

Comment 18

[Sylvestre Ledru [:Sylvestre]]

Attachment: attachment.cgi?id=8625112

Philipp, there is a new proposition. As you suggested, I added that next to the version number.

Of course, the screenshot is a lie: there is no release notes for nightly. The link will be seen only from aurora.

Comment 19

[(Currently slow to respond) Philipp Sackl [:phlsa] (Firefox UX) please use needinfo]

Comment on attachment 8694135 [details] [diff] [review]
attachment.cgi?id=8625112

Yep, that works!
I'll add a UI-R+, but you should probably request code review from an actual engineer :)

Comment 20

[Sylvestre Ledru [:Sylvestre]]

Comment on attachment 8694135 [details] [diff] [review]
attachment.cgi?id=8625112

Florian, could you help with that? merci

Comment 21

[Florian Quèze [:florian]]

Comment on attachment 8694135 [details] [diff] [review]
attachment.cgi?id=8625112

Review of attachment 8694135 [details] [diff] [review]:
-----------------------------------------------------------------

Looks good, the following comments are all very tiny details.

::: browser/base/content/aboutDialog.css
@@ +30,5 @@
>    -moz-user-focus: normal;
>    cursor: text;
>  }
>  
> +#releasenotes {

nit: Please move this 6 lines down to avoid separating #version from #version:-moz-locale-dir(rtl) in the file.

::: browser/base/content/aboutDialog.xul
@@ +41,5 @@
>    <vbox id="aboutDialogContainer">
>      <hbox id="clientBox">
>        <vbox id="leftBox" flex="1"/>
>        <vbox id="rightBox" flex="1">
> +        <hbox align="center">

I would use align="baseline" here. With align="center" the text of your link doesn't get aligned with the version number, because the version number has a 2px margin bottom (by default <label> has a margin bottom, and the text-link class removes it).

@@ +46,3 @@
>  #expand <label id="version">__MOZ_APP_VERSION_DISPLAY__</label>
> +#ifndef NIGHTLY_BUILD
> +#expand <label id="releasenotes" class="text-link" href="https://www.mozilla.org/firefox/__MOZ_APP_VERSION__/releasenotes">&releaseNotes.releaseNotes;</label>

Should the url have a trailing '/'?

When I load:
https://www.mozilla.org/firefox/42.0/releasenotes

I get redirected first to:
https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/42.0/releasenotes
and then redirected a second time to:
https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/42.0/releasenotes/

If I load:
https://www.mozilla.org/firefox/42.0/releasenotes/
I get redirected only once to:
https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/42.0/releasenotes/

This double-redirect may be fixable server side too if it matters.

::: browser/locales/en-US/chrome/browser/aboutDialog.dtd
@@ +45,5 @@
>  <!-- LOCALIZATION NOTE (helpus.getInvolvedLink): This is a link title that links to http://www.mozilla.org/contribute/. -->
>  <!ENTITY helpus.getInvolvedLink     "get involved!">
>  <!ENTITY helpus.end                 "">
>  
> +<!ENTITY releaseNotes.releaseNotes   "What's new">

The duplicated 'releaseNotes' isn't helpful here. I would suggest instead:
releaseNotes.link

nit: the quote at the beginning of the string should be aligned with the other strings above (there's currently one extra space).

Comment 22

[Sylvestre Ledru [:Sylvestre]]

https://hg.mozilla.org/integration/mozilla-inbound/rev/a88f7cf060809cefbc4535aa7db90ef9c5673c78
Bug 1047395 - Add a link to the release notes from the about page r=florian

Comment 23

[Sylvestre Ledru [:Sylvestre]]

https://hg.mozilla.org/integration/mozilla-inbound/rev/1cc7f3085826a7bddf4459aa03b1b87cd8cc8a8e
Bug 1047395 - Add a link to the release notes from the about page, fix the alignment r=florian

Comment 24

[Ryan VanderMeulen [:RyanVM]]

https://hg.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/rev/a88f7cf06080
https://hg.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/rev/1cc7f3085826

Comment 27

[Nazir Ahmed Sabbir [:NaSb]]

I have found this issue on Firefox Nightly 34.0a1 (2014-08-01) on Linux, 64 Bit

This Bug is now verified as fixed Latest Firefox Developer Edition 46.0a2 (2016-03-05)

Build ID: 20160305004010
User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64; rv:46.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/46.0

Comment 28

[Dan Pernokis]

I'm grateful to now have the FF Release Notes available -- thanks, guys -- but there is an oddity:  The phrase "What's New" for the link is no longer a realistic description.  I installed FF 46.0 when first released.  It was no longer "new" quite a while before I installed 47.0, and 47.0 is no longer new to me now either.  

Let me suggest:  
(1) For THIS existing link:  Call it "Release Notes" and go to the current release (as it does now) so everyone can see the notes for their present installation.
(2) When "Check Updates" is clicked:  If an update is available, then have a link pop up that says "What's New" and have it go to the Release Notes for this new about-to-be-installed version.  That way people can check what is about to be installed and perhaps wait or not, depending on urgency.

And of course this ignores the fact that the "automatic update" feature might make waiting impossible, but that's the user's choice. :)  (See my Comment 16 above.)

Comment 29

[Sylvestre Ledru [:Sylvestre]]

Dan, see comment #12 and #13 about the wording.
As you point makes sense, please report a new bug and we will continue the discussion here.

Comment 30

[Dan Pernokis]

Discussion has been forwarded to Bug 1282231 as per Sylvestre's suggestion.