1524836 - Remove the tree-based "about:config" implementation

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(Firefox :: Settings UI, enhancement, P3)

Description

[:Paolo Amadini]

The tree-based "about:config" implementation can be removed from mozilla-central when bug 1524782 is fixed.

This may or may not involve moving the new "about:config" implementation based on HTML from the "browser" folder to the "toolkit" folder to facilitate Thunderbird integration.

Moving to "toolkit" has specific downsides mentioned on the related dev.platform thread. However, the distinction between "browser" and "toolkit" may be reduced in the future, and we might be able to move assets more easily between them.

Comment 1

[Paul Morris [:pmorris]]

Attachment: Bug 1524836 - Move new HTML about:config page from browser to toolkit. r=Gijs

Comment 2

[Paul Morris [:pmorris]]

I've uploaded a patch to phabricator that moves the new HTML "about:config" from "browser" to "toolkit" directories:
https://phabricator.services.mozilla.com/D25938

This is just an exploration and a starting place if the decision is indeed to move it to toolkit.

Everything seems to be working in my manual testing of the page, and the mochitests for the page all passed when I ran them locally.

Comment 3

[:Paolo Amadini]

This breaks the existing reference to "privacy-security.svg" in any application that is not Firefox, but fixing this now is not necessarily the right way forward. The patch will probably need to be rewritten anyways in the future to account for new changes, as we are working on a new design that might end up relying more on Firefox-specific visual resources.

Whether we want to spend time on making this page directly compatible with other applications is an open question. It is possible that it may become more convenient to share this page in Toolkit rather than keeping separate implementations.

Comment 4

[Magnus Melin [:mkmelin]]

Not sure I understand why having application specific overrides or prettifications (if needed) would be much of a problem.

For Thunderbird, following up with theme changes in Firefox isn't much of a problem. Having to just copy over all the code seems unnecessary, especially as every Mozilla based app is likely to want access to functionality like this. I.e. it is toolkit type functionality.

Paulo, do you have a suggestion on how to proceed with this?

Comment 5

[:Paolo Amadini]

There are several elements that may contribute to the choice of sharing this code or not, but this question doesn't need an answer right now. Unless we need to accelerate things for XUL removal, we will wait until the final implementation in bug 1532703 reaches the Release channel before we stop shipping the old one in bug 1524782.

Bug 1524782 will keep the old code around, and it will be removed in this bug only when we have determined the final location for the new code. At that time, we'll have a clearer idea of how many and which kind of assets are used, and whether we would need to support specific modifications for Thunderbird. It may well be that sharing the code will be the solution we go for, but probably we won't know until that stage.

Comment 6

[Magnus Melin [:mkmelin]]

Since there is now action in bug 1674680, can we move the new about:config to toolkit so that Thunderbird can use it? The patch above would need some dusting off, but I'd imagine it's for the most part there.

Comment 8

[Rob Wu [:robwu]]

Geoff, FYI. This change will likely affect Thunderbird.

Looks like it is used in several places, e.g. at https://searchfox.org/comm-central/rev/5ade04b59a10814e96697338056d46e553d78089/mail/components/preferences/general.js#1280 , https://searchfox.org/comm-central/source/mail/components/enterprisepolicies/Policies.jsm#979 . Depending on the outcome of the patch (D25938), you might be able to replace them with just about:config .

Comment 9

[Geoff Lankow (:darktrojan)]

Thanks for the heads-up. I'll leave this NI here so that I remember to do something about it. Magnus has taken this bug, it's his problem now. :-)

Comment 10

[Mats Palmgren (inactive)]

Magnus, any chance you can push this soon-ish? It blocks us from removing some XUL bits in Gecko. Thanks.

Comment 11

[Tim Nguyen :ntim]

Maybe agi can help with the blocking Android bits here.

Comment 12

[[ex-Mozilla] Agi Sferro | :agi]

Tim are you referring to Bug 1676523 ? We don't really have time for that, sorry. We can happily provide guidance on how to build/test on Android though, if needed!

Comment 13

[Magnus Melin [:mkmelin]]

I've updated the patch. One test failure left to sort out, and reviews to go.

Comment 15

[Pulsebot]

Pushed by [e-mail]:
https://hg.mozilla.org/integration/autoland/rev/2e2f7a1fd4fa
Move new HTML about:config page from browser to toolkit. r=fluent-reviewers,preferences-reviewers,geckoview-reviewers,Gijs,agi

Comment 16

[Sandor Molnar[:smolnar]]

https://hg.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/rev/2e2f7a1fd4fa