1425712 - [tracking] Support dynamic langpack installation in Fennec

Status: RESOLVED INCOMPLETE

(Firefox for Android Graveyard :: General, enhancement, P3)

Description

[Zibi Braniecki [:zbraniecki][:gandalf]]

In order to reduce the APK size, we'd like to move the loading of Gecko strings to use langpacks instead.

This is a tracking bug for this shift.

Comment 1

[Zibi Braniecki [:zbraniecki][:gandalf]]

Thank to Nick's work in bug 1413240 we soon will be able to produce fennec langpacks.

There is still a number of steps we have to take to get this functionality ready:

1) Start producing fennec langpacks and put them on AMO
2) Add ability to trigger langpack installation from inside of Gecko
3) Add all locales for which we have resources in Java and available locale in AMO to the locale picker (bug 1353337)
4) Improve Fennec's ability to negotiate languages between what Gecko has, what Java has and what user requested (bug 1357240)
5) Ensure we fallback correctly if the langpack download fails

Nick - are you the right person to help get (1)?
Kris - are you the right person to help get (2)?
Nevin - are you the right person to help get (3)/(4)/(5)?

Seems like we're really close!

Comment 2

[Zibi Braniecki [:zbraniecki][:gandalf]]

Also, we will want the same behavior eventually for Firefox Desktop, so I assume (2) is going to be shared.

Comment 3

[Nick Alexander :nalexander [he/him]]

(In reply to Zibi Braniecki [:gandalf][:zibi] from comment #1)
> Thank to Nick's work in bug 1413240 we soon will be able to produce fennec
> langpacks.
> 
> There is still a number of steps we have to take to get this functionality
> ready:
> 
> 1) Start producing fennec langpacks and put them on AMO

<snip>

> Nick - are you the right person to help get (1)?

I might be, if there's prior art.  A quick scan of the tree doesn't show any existing langpack -> AMO upload process.  Is this done now?  How is this done?  If it's new project to get this done, I almost certainly am not the correct person to achieve this.

I expect that any process that is built for Firefox for Desktop will work, mutatis mutandis, for Firefox for Android.  We will need to ensure the XPIs are targeted for the correct package, of course.

Comment 4

[Nick Alexander :nalexander [he/him]]

(In reply to Nick Alexander :nalexander (less responsive until Jan 3, 2018) from comment #3)
> (In reply to Zibi Braniecki [:gandalf][:zibi] from comment #1)
> > Thank to Nick's work in bug 1413240 we soon will be able to produce fennec
> > langpacks.
> > 
> > There is still a number of steps we have to take to get this functionality
> > ready:
> > 
> > 1) Start producing fennec langpacks and put them on AMO
> 
> <snip>
> 
> > Nick - are you the right person to help get (1)?
> 
> I might be, if there's prior art.  A quick scan of the tree doesn't show any
> existing langpack -> AMO upload process.  Is this done now?  How is this
> done?  If it's new project to get this done, I almost certainly am not the
> correct person to achieve this.
> 
> I expect that any process that is built for Firefox for Desktop will work,
> mutatis mutandis, for Firefox for Android.  We will need to ensure the XPIs
> are targeted for the correct package, of course.

s/package/product/

Comment 5

[Zibi Braniecki [:zbraniecki][:gandalf]]

> I might be, if there's prior art.  A quick scan of the tree doesn't show any existing langpack -> AMO upload process.

Correct, it seems to me that we're currently using a manual process to upload them to AMO.

But the first step would be to start producing them as part of the release cycle, much like we produce Firefox langpacks - https://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/firefox/nightly/latest-mozilla-central-l10n/win64/xpi/

Is that something you can help us get to?

Comment 6

[Nick Alexander :nalexander [he/him]]

(In reply to Zibi Braniecki [:gandalf][:zibi] from comment #5)
> > I might be, if there's prior art.  A quick scan of the tree doesn't show any existing langpack -> AMO upload process.
> 
> Correct, it seems to me that we're currently using a manual process to
> upload them to AMO.
> 
> But the first step would be to start producing them as part of the release
> cycle, much like we produce Firefox langpacks -
> https://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/firefox/nightly/latest-mozilla-central-l10n/
> win64/xpi/
> 
> Is that something you can help us get to?

Yes, I think so, although a quick scan doesn't show where those XPI files are getting recorded in the build configuration.  I can help guide this in the New Year, though.

Comment 7

[Nevin Chen(Not active on Bugzilla)]

I'll completely work on other project now. Sorry I can't continue the work here.

Comment 8

[BMO Automation]

We have completed our launch of our new Firefox on Android. The development of the new versions use GitHub for issue tracking. If the bug report still reproduces in a current version of [Firefox on Android nightly](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.mozilla.fenix) an issue can be reported at the [Fenix GitHub project](https://github.com/mozilla-mobile/fenix/). If you want to discuss your report please use [Mozilla's chat](https://wiki.mozilla.org/Matrix#Connect_to_Matrix) server https://chat.mozilla.org and join the [#fenix](https://chat.mozilla.org/#/room/#fenix:mozilla.org) channel.