1066865 - "Sign in to Sync" snippet shown to "old sync" users, leading to blank screen

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(Snippets Graveyard :: General, defect)

Description

[Katie Parlante]

After my browser upgraded to 32.0.1, I noticed the "Sign in to Sync" snippet. My browser is configured for "old sync". When I clicked on the link, it launched the about:accounts page (about:accounts?action=signup), which an "old sync" user is never supposed to see. (It yields a blank page).

The sync snippet probably shouldn't be shown to users who already have sync set up, either the older or newer version.

Comment 1

[Matthew N. [:MattN]]

The snippet should be using:
  Mozilla.UITour.getConfiguration("sync", (result) => console.log(result))
and checking that result.setup is False to indicate that sync is not setup.

Comment 2

[Giorgos Logiotatidis [:giorgos]]

Currently we have generic code that triggers the ShowFirefoxAccounts Event when a link to 'about:accounts' is clicked. This code is unaware of the text of the snippet or user's sync status. 

If we update it in a way that all snippets with "about:accounts" links are not displayed to users with sync already setup, then we cannot create snippets like:

"Hey we added feature to X to accounts, go check it out!"

Q: How many of our users use the old sync?

Q: Is there a configuration call to identify users with old sync?

In any case it feels like users with old sync should get a more meaningful page when hitting about:accounts, whether it comes from snippets, mozilla.org or directly typed. 

Q: Is this something firefox team considers doing?

Comment 3

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

(In reply to Giorgos Logiotatidis [:giorgos] from comment #2)
> If we update it in a way that all snippets with "about:accounts" links are
> not displayed to users with sync already setup, then we cannot create
> snippets like:
> 
> "Hey we added feature to X to accounts, go check it out!"

If we want to do that, we should figure out how in a new bug.

> In any case it feels like users with old sync should get a more meaningful
> page when hitting about:accounts, whether it comes from snippets,
> mozilla.org or directly typed. 
> 
> Q: Is this something firefox team considers doing?

Apart from this, there is no way for those users to see this page, short of learning about it otherwise and entering it manually. Given that, it doesn't make much sense to improve the display of this page. We should just fix this bug as Matt describes in comment 1, and then we'll be in a much better position here.

Comment 4

[Giorgos Logiotatidis [:giorgos]]

One solution could be to filter out all snippets that link to about:accounts during chooseSnippet() when user's using the old sync. What do you think :mkelly?

Comment 5

[Osmose [:osmose, :mkelly]]

(In reply to Giorgos Logiotatidis [:giorgos] from comment #4)
> One solution could be to filter out all snippets that link to about:accounts
> during chooseSnippet() when user's using the old sync. What do you think
> :mkelly?

Sounds good to me.

Comment 6

[Giorgos Logiotatidis [:giorgos]]

ACK going forward with this plan. I'll make snippet creators aware of this special case once it's deployed.

Comment 7

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

(In reply to Giorgos Logiotatidis [:giorgos] from comment #4)
> One solution could be to filter out all snippets that link to about:accounts
> during chooseSnippet() when user's using the old sync. 

I assume you mean "when the user is already signed up for Sync (old or new)", right?

Comment 8

[Giorgos Logiotatidis [:giorgos]]

(In reply to :Gavin Sharp [email: [e-mail]] from comment #7)
> (In reply to Giorgos Logiotatidis [:giorgos] from comment #4)
> > One solution could be to filter out all snippets that link to about:accounts
> > during chooseSnippet() when user's using the old sync. 
> 
> I assume you mean "when the user is already signed up for Sync (old or
> new)", right?

Yes that is correct.

Comment 9

[[github robot]]

Commits pushed to master at https://github.com/mozilla/snippets-service

https://github.com/mozilla/snippets-service/commit/d1d2fb08e5e0d1e18ca3816b2993721b218a118f
[fix bug 1066865] Ignore snippets that link to about:accounts when sync is setup.

https://github.com/mozilla/snippets-service/commit/b3542a25746194694efe0206b2d6206b454946b8
Merge pull request #64 from glogiotatidis/accounts-oldsync

[fix bug 1066865] Ignore snippets that link to about:accounts when sync is setup.

Comment 10

[Giorgos Logiotatidis [:giorgos]]

This is now fixed on production. :D