1438149 - The name of the extension is not displayed in Add-ons Manager if not included in manifest.json

Status: RESOLVED WORKSFORME

(Toolkit :: Add-ons Manager, defect)

Description

[CosminB]

Attachment: Name.gif

[Affected versions]:
- Firefox 60.0a1 (20180201192139)

[Affected platforms]:
- Win 7 64-bit
- Mac OS X 10.13.2

[Steps to reproduce]:
1.Install https://addons.allizom.org/en-US/firefox/addon/no-name-in-manifest/ 
2.Open Add-ons Manager.
3.Navigate to “Extensions‘ tab.
4.Observe that the name of the extension is not displayed.

[Expected results]:
- The name that was added in the submission process is displayed.

[Actual results]:
- The name of the extension is not displayed in Add-ons Manager.
- Updating the name will have the same result.

Comment 1

[Andrew Swan [:aswan]]

That extension does have a name, the name is just some whitespace.

Comment 2

[CosminB]

If the extension has some whitespace or a name in the manifest.json file, and at submission you add a name in AMO, what is the expected behavior in the Add-ons Manager?

The extension from the video has a name that was added in the submission process, but the name that is displayed is the one from the manifest.json file (the whitespaces).

If I update the name in AMO, the update will not be displayed in Add-ons Manager.

Comment 3

[krupa raj [:krupa--use this to needinfo]]

I think this bug is related to the many discussions we have had around what add-on metadata should be editable by AMO (almost none)

Having said that, should we allow whitespace in the manifest.json for add-ons? NI'ing UX for feedback.

Comment 4

[Markus Jaritz [:designakt] (UX)]

What is the reason to have 2 different names, on on AMO and a different one in the manifest?

For users to be able to identify an extension, and connect that with the relevant AMO page, all the data in Firefox and on AMO should be identical.

So to answer your question:

(In reply to krupa raj [:krupa--use this to needinfo] from comment #3)
> should we allow whitespace in the manifest.json for add-ons?

NO. An extension should have a name that consists of at least one visible character.
Probalby more, and from a more limited character set. (like at least one phonographic grapheme[1])

Different rules could aply to extensions not distributed through AMO. But even then, having a non-visible name should not be possible, as it complicates identifying the extension, and potentially messes with all dialogs we do about extensions.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grapheme#Types_of_graphemes

Comment 5

[Andrew Swan [:aswan]]

(In reply to Markus Jaritz [:designakt] (UX) from comment #4)
> What is the reason to have 2 different names, on on AMO and a different one
> in the manifest?

The add-ons manager has a longstanding "feature" that lets it fetch updated metadata about addons from AMO.  There's general consensus though that this feature's complexity outweighs its value and we intend to remove it.

> NO. An extension should have a name that consists of at least one visible
> character.
> Probalby more, and from a more limited character set. (like at least one
> phonographic grapheme[1])

Implementing "at least one non-whitespace character" is feasible, I'm skeptical about anything more complicated (particularly with localized names).  In any case, if we want to add this restriction, we need at least 2 new bugs: one in a WebExtensions component to enforce it in the browser and one on AMO (or probably addons-linter) to enforce it there.  There's also the question of what to do with existing addons (if there are any) that don't comply with the new rule.

Comment 6

[Markus Jaritz [:designakt] (UX)]

This is good context. I wasn't aware of that "feature". 
I'll cc Emanuela on this, as it falls in her domain of add-on manager re-design.

Comment 7

[Markus Jaritz [:designakt] (UX)]

From what I see on this discussion so far, this seams not resolved, so I'll re-open and look towards emanuela to consider that in new extnsion manager logic.

Comment 8

[Andrew Swan [:aswan]]

Markus, see comment 5

Comment 9

[Andrew Swan [:aswan]]

Please open new bugs as described in comment 5 if we want to proceed with this

Comment 10

[krupa raj [:krupa--use this to needinfo]]

cosmin, please file two bugs as requested in comment 5 and then change the resolution of this bug to WFM

Comment 11

[CosminB]

https://github.com/mozilla/addons-linter/issues/1933 - AMO

https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1448805 - WebExtensions