1440089 - implement TelemetryController.canUpload()

Status: NEW

(Toolkit :: Telemetry, enhancement, P3)

Description

[Jared Hirsch [:jhirsch] (he/him) (Needinfo please)]

It would be nice to expose the state of the current upload pref via

  TelemetryController.canUpload()

rather than the current approach,

  Services.prefs.getBoolPref(TelemetryUtils.Preferences.FhrUploadEnabled, false)


(This API came up during discussion of bug 1280234.)

Comment 1

[Georg Fritzsche [:gfritzsche]]

We could consider exposing that through:
- TelemetryController
- nsITelemetry
- ...?

Comment 2

[Chris H-C :chutten]

Just a note that "Can we send Telemetry?" is a rather complex question.

There's the pref, as correctly noted. But also of note is that it's a different pref if we're not on Desktop[0].

There's the TelemetryReportingPolicy part to ensure the user's had a chance to be notified and take action[1].

Then there's the logic around whether we're physically able to send, in TelemetrySend[2].

And from there, the Scheduler will also be considering if it's the right time to send (or if we've sent too much too recently)[3]. But this is mostly just for "main" pings, so maybe it's not behaviour you hope to emulate.

My opinion is that a global "can we send Telemetry" indicator might be most useful when it takes into account the pref and the policy, but leaves sending and scheduling alone.

[0]: https://firefox-source-docs.mozilla.org/toolkit/components/telemetry/telemetry/internals/preferences.html
[1]: https://searchfox.org/mozilla-central/rev/9a8d3f8191b15cdca89a7ce044c7bea2dd0462dc/toolkit/components/telemetry/TelemetryReportingPolicy.jsm#338
[2]: https://searchfox.org/mozilla-central/rev/9a8d3f8191b15cdca89a7ce044c7bea2dd0462dc/toolkit/components/telemetry/TelemetrySend.jsm#1243
[3]: https://searchfox.org/mozilla-central/rev/9a8d3f8191b15cdca89a7ce044c7bea2dd0462dc/toolkit/components/telemetry/TelemetrySession.jsm#224

Comment 3

[Georg Fritzsche [:gfritzsche]]

Talking through this in triage, we need to spend some cycles on design here.