1576772 - No sanity checking of search results for tools -> add-ons -> extensions -> find more extensions

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(Thunderbird :: Add-Ons: General, defect)

Description

I'm using version 68.0 (build id 20190816191614) under Windows 10, with its own profile.

I used tools -> add-ons -> extensions -> find more extensions to search for morefunctionsforaddressbook. I expected that to fail since it only supports up to version 60.* and its not on thunderbird.net. The search results were the Mail Merge extension. It should have returned "no results found" like it does if I tell it to search for 23skidoo.

The server returned the wrong add-on. That should be reported elsewhere if it isn't already. What I'd like to report here is that there was no sanity checking of the search results. The same problem occurs with 60.8.

I then searched for red. I got TORPEDO - TOoltip-poweRed Phishing Email DetectiOn (greyed out as the version is not compatible), Lightning, mail redirect, tswana spell checker, zulu spell checker, swati spell checker, tsonga spell checker, ... for 43 entries.

I expected to it find Mail Redirect and RemindMeBot-Reddit (because they include the substring red in their name and claim to support the current version).

If adding add-ons via tools -> add-ons is supposed to be easier/simpler than finding and downloading them using a browser .... then Thunderbird should at least check that the add-on claims to support the current version of Thunderbird and that there is a partial match of the add-ons name with what was searched for.

Comment 1

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

Sancus, duplicate?

Comment 2

[Eric Moore]

An update. I searched for a DarkGreenGeometry theme using 89.0b1 under Windows 10 Home. It didn't find it. I know that theme exists because after finishing all of my testing I downloaded it using a browser and installed it.

Thunderbird returned 18 search results. All had dark or greek in the name. Six were dictionary related. I would have expected the dictionary related ones to be ignored since I was searching for a theme, not a extension. I'm also confused why green ==> greek. None of the results had green in their name.

Searching for green returns 21 search results. Very similar but less predictable as (besides the expected 5 greek dictionary/spelling checkers) it returned add-ons like Spam Scores, FrameWhite , RemindIt, Torpedo, Colorific, Treestat and No small text. However, it did manage to find the Outlook 2003 Green TB and glowygreen-thunder themes (and greyed them as not compatible with the version I'm using).

I expected it it to ignore any themes that were not supported, not grey them.

For comparison a browser based search for green at https://addons.thunderbird.net/EN-US/thunderbird/static-themes/ returns 73 results. Almost all seemed to either have green in their name or have a comment mentioning that a tag was set to green. Unlike Thunderbird it returned only themes, not extensions. It also didn't return any themes that didn't support at least version 60 such as the Outlook 2003 Green TB and glowygreen-thunder themes.

Comment 3

[Andrei Hajdukewycz [:sancus]]

Theme search doesn't work in-client because the Add-on Manager doesn't support different searches anymore, only one, because AMO switched to a unified search.

To actually search for Themes, you need to get to ATN by doing some other search or by clicking "Find More Add-ons" at the bottom of the Recommendations tab, then you need to click on the Themes tab at the top. This produces a search like this: https://addons.thunderbird.net/en-US/thunderbird/search/?q=DarkGreen&cat=themes

Which works for me. I agree this is suboptimal, but there are no easy solutions here, we need to take a full rewrite of search from upstream(impossible currently), do our own rewrite of ATN front-end(a future project) or make major changes to the Add-on Manager(unlikely).

Frankly, Themes have always had very low use numbers, so this is very low priority and likely won't change until we do other major work on ATN.

Comment 4

[John Bieling (:TbSync)]

Attachment: Bug 1576772 - Limit search results to themes, if search was initiated from the themes section. r=mkmelin

Depends on D147629

Comment 6

[John Bieling (:TbSync)]

The listing of incompatible add-ons is fixed in Bug 1771723.

The issue regarding returned "wrong add-ons" depends on the add-on server, not on Thunderbird (but if the developer has attached keywords, the add-on can be returned in searches even though its name does not match, so I do not know if that is a bug at all).

This bug fixes the Theme search issue.

Comment 7

[Pulsebot]

Pushed by [e-mail]:
https://hg.mozilla.org/comm-central/rev/f8f74b189529
Limit search results to themes, if search was initiated from the themes section. r=mkmelin

Comment 8

[John Bieling (:TbSync)]

Comment on attachment 9278741 [details]
Bug 1576772 - Limit search results to themes, if search was initiated from the themes section. r=mkmelin

[Approval Request Comment]
Regression caused by (bug #):
User impact if declined:
Did not make it into 102 on time, would be great to fix Theme search also in ESR 102
Testing completed (on c-c, etc.):
Risk to taking this patch (and alternatives if risky):
Low.

Comment 9

[Rob Lemley [:rjl]]

Comment on attachment 9278741 [details]
Bug 1576772 - Limit search results to themes, if search was initiated from the themes section. r=mkmelin

[Triage Comment]
Approved for 102.0beta1

Comment 10

[Rob Lemley [:rjl]]

Thunderbird 102.0beta1:
https://hg.mozilla.org/releases/comm-beta/rev/53e90eced2b6