1308981 - separate system add-ons from extensions in about:support

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(Toolkit :: General, defect)

Description

[Robert Helmer [:rhelmer]]

Right now system add-ons appear alongside normal extensions in about:support.

We should put these in a separate section, with a header like "Application Components" or something along those lines, so it's clear that these are built-in.

Comment 1

[:Gijs (back August 25; he/him)]

about:support lives in toolkit.

Comment 2

[:Felipe Gomes (needinfo for replies!)]

Since we'll be touching this, could we add a new column for these system add-ons that says either "built-in" or "updated"? This would help both the QA process, and also to debug reports from users in the wild.

Comment 3

[Dave Townsend [:mossop]]

(In reply to :Felipe Gomes (needinfo me!) from comment #2)
> Since we'll be touching this, could we add a new column for these system
> add-ons that says either "built-in" or "updated"? This would help both the
> QA process, and also to debug reports from users in the wild.

This isn't trivial to do. Can we not just compare version numbers?

Comment 4

[Dave Townsend [:mossop]]

Attachment: Bug 1308981: Display system add-ons in a separate section in about:support.

Review commit: https://reviewboard.mozilla.org/r/118830/diff/#index_header
See other reviews: https://reviewboard.mozilla.org/r/118830/

Comment 5

[:Felipe Gomes (needinfo for replies!)]

I'm fine with not doing this here, but it'd be nice to leave a bug open for that at least. The trick is figuring out the version number that shipped in past Firefox versions (when we're writing a system addon for a previous version to fix something).. Sure it's not hard but it's still some work.

There's some work planned to publish a list of these versions somewhere (bug 1311105), but I don't know when that will be done.

Comment 6

[Robert Helmer [:rhelmer]]

(In reply to Dave Townsend [:mossop] from comment #3)
> (In reply to :Felipe Gomes (needinfo me!) from comment #2)
> > Since we'll be touching this, could we add a new column for these system
> > add-ons that says either "built-in" or "updated"? This would help both the
> > QA process, and also to debug reports from users in the wild.
> 
> This isn't trivial to do. Can we not just compare version numbers?


(In reply to :Felipe Gomes (needinfo me!) from comment #5)
> I'm fine with not doing this here, but it'd be nice to leave a bug open for
> that at least. The trick is figuring out the version number that shipped in
> past Firefox versions (when we're writing a system addon for a previous
> version to fix something).. Sure it's not hard but it's still some work.
> 
> There's some work planned to publish a list of these versions somewhere (bug
> 1311105), but I don't know when that will be done.

I don't think `about:support` itself needs to know anything about version numbers, besides just exposing what is installed.

AddonManager knows if the add-on is in the built-in or the update location, it's not exposed on the public Addon object - we could do so though (`isBuiltIn` getter for instance - so `(addon.isSystem && !addon.isBuiltIn)` would be a system add-on update)

Let's do a follow-up, something like the above would keep the `about:support` side simple.

Comment 7

[Robert Helmer [:rhelmer]]

Comment on attachment 8845679 [details]
Bug 1308981: Display system add-ons in a separate section in about:support.

https://reviewboard.mozilla.org/r/118828/#review121780

lgtm. I like the use of the word "features" for the UI.

Comment 8

[Dave Townsend [:mossop]]

Comment on attachment 8845679 [details]
Bug 1308981: Display system add-ons in a separate section in about:support.

https://reviewboard.mozilla.org/r/118830/#review122586

I believe that rhelmer meant to r+ this

Comment 9

[Pulsebot]

Pushed by [e-mail]:
https://hg.mozilla.org/integration/mozilla-inbound/rev/eda5d5658dde
Display system add-ons in a separate section in about:support. r=rhelmer

Comment 10

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

https://hg.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/rev/eda5d5658dde

Comment 11

[Robert Helmer [:rhelmer]]

Comment on attachment 8845679 [details]
Bug 1308981: Display system add-ons in a separate section in about:support.

https://reviewboard.mozilla.org/r/118830/#review122990