1560577 - Ability to trigger a background update check via normandy

Status: RESOLVED INACTIVE

(Firefox :: Normandy Client, enhancement)

Description

[Robert Strong (they/them - no direct email)]

bhearsum suggested that Normandy could trigger an update check for chemspills instead of waiting the 12 hours between the client's automatic checks and this could be a good thing for chemspills.

The app update code to trigger this on the client is trivial (see below) though I don't know how difficult it would be to add this capability to normady.

Cc["@mozilla.org/updates/update-service;1"].getService(Ci.nsIApplicationUpdateService).checkForBackgroundUpdates();

Comment 1

[Michael Cooper [:mythmon]]

Normandy's architecture is extensible enough to make this fairly straight forward. The point of extensibility is an action. You can see a simple example of an action here: https://searchfox.org/mozilla-central/source/toolkit/components/normandy/actions/ConsoleLogAction.jsm

Most of the work will be in figuring out how we want to handle the life time of these kind of triggers, and how we store any needed state. I think this makes sense to do. It may be useful to have someone from the updates team do this work, mostly as a way to spread knowledge about Normandy. I'd be happy to help guide this implementation.

Comment 2

[Ethan Glasser-Camp (:glasserc)]

I spoke briefly about this with :bhearsum in Whistler. Last I heard we were talking about hooking into Megaphone. Does this replace that? I guess Normandy is nice because it gives us more precise targeting and a two-person-review workflow?

Comment 3

[[e-mail] (:bhearsum)]

(In reply to Ethan Glasser-Camp (:glasserc) from comment #2)

I spoke briefly about this with :bhearsum in Whistler. Last I heard we were talking about hooking into Megaphone. Does this replace that? I guess Normandy is nice because it gives us more precise targeting and a two-person-review workflow?

Having a two persion review is unnecessary here IMO since it's only triggering code that already runs on a regular schedule in Firefox. If Normandy makes sense for other reasons I'm more than happy to use it though.

I think Robert and I may have got our wires crossed a bit though - it was always my intent to use Megaphone. (I think I talked about Normandy and Kinto when we talked, and may not have expressed my intent well.)

Comment 4

[Michael Cooper [:mythmon]]

Having a two persion review is unnecessary here IMO since it's only triggering code that already runs on a regular schedule in Firefox. If Normandy makes sense for other reasons I'm more than happy to use it though.

Normandy requires two-person review. We don't have anything (and don't plan to add) to avoid this for specific action types.

Regarding Megaphone, Normandy is/will be hooked up to Megaphone via Remote Settings. However, it is a little round-about. Making something more purpose build might make more sense. Using Normandy might be less work and maintenance though.

Comment 5

[Robert Strong (they/them - no direct email)]

I leave it to the people that understand the implemented functionality to decide what makes the most sense.

Comment 6

[Michael Cooper [:mythmon]]

I don't think this is something we need to pursue anymore, though I'd be happy to collaborate with the releng or updater team if this is still needed.