1340087 - Update funnelcake logic to include IDs for windows links only

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(www.mozilla.org :: Bedrock, defect)

Description

[Alex Gibson [:agibson]]

Bedrock has long had some built in logic so that if a user hits the download page with a funnelcake parameter in the URL [1], that ID is automatically inserted into the download button URLs that point to bouncer.

The issue with this seems to be that funnelcake builds are only ever spun up for Windows, so if a macOS or Linux user hits those experiment URLs, they get a 404 download which is no good.

This doesn't appear to have been a major problem as the majority of experiments target Windows users only via Optimizely. However recently we have had some reports from users who have suffered from possible platform detection issues. Bouncer has also been seeing some 404s in the logs that could further validate this.

I think we should update the bedrock logic to only include the funnelcake parameter for Windows builds only. At least that way we mitigate the risk of breaking downloads for people.

This also makes another good case for using Traffic Cop for experiments more regularly [2] instead of Optimizely. This way it can use the exact same platform detection that bedrock already handles.

[1] https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/new/?f=99 
[2] http://bedrock.readthedocs.io/en/latest/javascript-libs.html#mozilla-traffic-cop

Comment 1

[Alex Gibson [:agibson]]

Should we also limit the funnelcake logic to the en-US locale only?

It looks like other locales 404 also: https://download.mozilla.org/?product=firefox-stub-f99&os=win&lang=de

This could be an issue if someone hits the en-US page, enters the experiment, but has 'de' as their preferred choice in their Accept-Language header when clicking the button.

Comment 2

[Alex Gibson [:agibson]]

I think I can take a go at this

Comment 3

[Alex Gibson [:agibson]]

Attachment: GitHub pull request

Comment 4

[Alex Gibson [:agibson]]

It looks like 64 bit builds on Windows are 404 too: https://download.mozilla.org/?product=firefox-51.0.1-f99&os=win64&lang=en-US

Thankfully we're not exposing these yet to our main download buttons.

Seems we should be limiting funnelcakes to: Win 32, en-US.

:pmac made a nice suggestion that we could use environment variables to define which platforms and locales should be included, which gives us the flexibility to change things easily without requiring a deployment.

Comment 5

[[github robot]]

Commits pushed to master at https://github.com/mozilla/bedrock

https://github.com/mozilla/bedrock/commit/f1fff4bf83157d18251d25201018ccd8370e1e1a
[fix bug 1340087] Update funnelcake logic to include IDs for windows links only

https://github.com/mozilla/bedrock/commit/af5b26d7e9fb604afc80a17b703315ca9c37c80d
Merge pull request #4671 from alexgibson/bug-1340087-funnelcake-builds-en-us-win-only

[fix bug 1340087] Update funnelcake logic to include IDs for windows only