1565832 - Some extensions don't work anymore after landing patches from bug #1558914

Status: VERIFIED WONTFIX

(Firefox :: Extension Compatibility, defect)

Description

[Virtual_ManPL [:Virtual] 🇵🇱 - (please needinfo? me - so I will see your comment/reply/question/etc.)]

STR:

1. Start Firefox Portable with clean new fresh profile without any addons (extensions, plugins, themes, etc.)
2. Add "Download Star" extension ( https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/download-star/ )
   and see that it doesn't work anymore after landing patches from bug #1558914

Regression caused by:
Bug #1558914 - Remove BinAST tests with Array generics. r=arai

Differential Revision:
https://phabricator.services.mozilla.com/D37273

Comment 1

[Virtual_ManPL [:Virtual] 🇵🇱 - (please needinfo? me - so I will see your comment/reply/question/etc.)]

I also sent extension developer email about this and I'm also ni & CC this person here.

Other extensions are probably also affected by it if they're using these deleted features.

Comment 2

[mark]

I have a trivial fix for Download Star and will publish an update to the extension this weekend.

Comment 3

[Fanolian]

At least a function in Tree Style Tab is affected. Author is notified via:
https://github.com/piroor/treestyletab/issues/2332

Comment 4

[Liz Henry (:lizzard) (relman/hg->git project)]

Tom, are these issues expected (i.e. we expect extension owners to work around them?)

Comment 5

[Kohei]

For web developers, I have already posted a compatibility note but it shouldn’t affect production sites because it’s a Firefox-only feature. For extension developers, someone has to communicate via blog or MDN.

Comment 6

[Tom S. (please needinfo tschuster)]

(In reply to Liz Henry (:lizzard) (use needinfo) from comment #4)

Tom, are these issues expected (i.e. we expect extension owners to work around them?)

We didn't have any idea how much extensions would be affected, but we expect extension authors to work around them. This is still Nightly only, so I think we can just wait for some more extensions to be fixed.

Comment 7

[Kohei]

I thought https://mxr.mozilla.org/addons/ was available to Mozilla employees where you could search source code of AMO-hosted extensions. Do you have the successor?

Update: probably not.

Comment 8

[Virtual_ManPL [:Virtual] 🇵🇱 - (please needinfo? me - so I will see your comment/reply/question/etc.)]

Does AMO platform has some kind of scanner to search for deleted/obsolete features/things in Firefox extensions and inform extensions developers about it? I remember some discussion very long time ago about it, but I don't know results. Or maybe it was what Kohei Yoshino [:kohei] wrote in Comment #7?

Basing on Tom Schuster [:evilpie] reply in Comment #6, I'm changing Component to Extension Compatibility.

Comment 9

[Jorge Villalobos [:jorgev] (he/him)]

We don't have a suitable replacement in place. Maybe Andreas has ideas, but otherwise we should just announce the breaking change in the blog.

Comment 10

[Andreas Wagner [:TheOne] [use NI]]

Yes, unfortunately, we don't have something like that in place. If this is a major issue, we have a pattern that wouldn't cause too many false positives and someone (from Mozilla staff) would be willing to analyze the results, I can grep over all add-on code for that particular pattern. It would be a one-off though, it's not something we can do on a regular basis.

Comment 11

[Jorge Villalobos [:jorgev] (he/him)]

Flagging this for caitlin, to see if she's okay posting in the add-ons blog.

Comment 12

[Tom S. (please needinfo tschuster)]

If we are going to post this anyway, it would be nice to at least mention that we plan to remove toSource (Array.prototype.toSource, Function.prototype.toSource etc.) and uneval. (Bug 1418769)

Comment 13

[Caitlin Neiman [:caitmuenster]]

Yes, we should post this to the Add-ons Blog and note the upcoming removal of toSource and uneval.

Kohei, we will point to your compatibility note about non-standard Array generics being deprecated. Do we have any similar documentation regarding toSource and uneval?

Comment 14

[Liz Henry (:lizzard) (relman/hg->git project)]

When you do post, can you comment here and link to the entry? After that, let's close this bug as WONTFIX. Thanks!

Comment 15

[Caitlin Neiman [:caitmuenster]]

Sure! Blog post is published here: https://blog.mozilla.org/addons/2019/07/25/upcoming-deprecations-in-firefox-70/

Comment 16

[Pascal Chevrel:pascalc]

Marking as wontfix as per comment #14, removing tracking flag for 70 and marking as wontfix as this is a nightly only deprecation at the moment.