1492199 - Update error message when loading extension that uses storage API and has no ID via about:debugging

Status: NEW

(WebExtensions :: General, defect, P3)

Description

[Caitlin Neiman [:caitmuenster]]

When developers install an extension via about:debugging and the extension uses a storage API, they receive an error message that says: 

"Unchecked lastError value: Error: The storage API will not work with a temporary addon ID. Please add an explicit addon ID to your manifest. For more information see https://bugzil.la/1323228." 

This error message should be updated to say: 

"Error: The storage API will not work without an extension ID. Please add an explicit extension ID and a strict_min_version to your manifest.json. For more information see http://bit.ly/webextapplications."

Comment 1

[Mike Kaply [:mkaply]]

I'm also curious as to why we can't use the temporary ID for this. That seems to be what Chrome does...

Comment 2

[Andrew Swan [:aswan]]

mkaply: storage.sync stores data permanently on Firefox Sync servers, if you use it with an extension that has a temporary ID, that data will never be accessible again, so we don't permit it.

caitmuenster: what's the rationale for changing the error message away from the bug that describes the issue in detail?  If we do, -1 on linking through bit.ly

Comment 3

[Caitlin Neiman [:caitmuenster]]

> caitmuenster: what's the rationale for changing the error message away from
> the bug that describes the issue in detail?  If we do, -1 on linking through
> bit.ly

My concern here is that developers who get this error are going to want to know how to fix the problem rather than see a description of the issue, especially for those who are porting from Chrome. Like mkaply said, Chrome appears to automatically assign a temporary ID for extensions sideloaded for testing purposes; it may be confusing to them that Firefox doesn't work the same way. (When this came up for me during a recent test, I had to spend some time crawling through MDN to figure out how to add a temporary ID.)

We don't have to use the bitly link. :) How about: 

"Error: The storage API will not work without an extension ID (see https://bugzil.la/1323228). Please add an explicit extension ID and a strict_min_version to your manifest.json. Documentation is available at https://mzl.la/2NlD27Y."

Comment 4

[Mike Kaply [:mkaply]]

Can we just not sync data with a temporary addon ID?

Do we know what Chrome does in this case?

Comment 5

[Andrew Swan [:aswan]]

(In reply to Caitlin Neiman [:caitmuenster] from comment #3)
> We don't have to use the bitly link. :) How about: 
> 
> "Error: The storage API will not work without an extension ID (see
> https://bugzil.la/1323228). Please add an explicit extension ID and a
> strict_min_version to your manifest.json. Documentation is available at
> https://mzl.la/2NlD27Y."

why is strict_min_version necessary?

Comment 6

[Mike Kaply [:mkaply]]

> mkaply: storage.sync stores data permanently on Firefox Sync servers, if you use it with an extension that has a temporary ID, that data will never be accessible again, so we don't permit it.

Couldn't we just not sync data with a temporary ID and only allow it locally? Is everything in chrome.storage synced?

Comment 7

[David Durst [:ddurst]]

Filed bug 1501685 for kaply's question here. Leaving this bug about the error message.