1587804 - Add a policy to set the private browsing search engine

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(Firefox :: Enterprise Policies, task, P2)

Description

[Marco Bonardo [:mak]]

Policies can set an engine as default, but not as Private Default.

Comment 1

[Mike Kaply [:mkaply]]

What version of Firefox is this targeted for?

Comment 2

[Mark Banner (:standard8)]

(In reply to Mike Kaply [:mkaply] from comment #1)

What version of Firefox is this targeted for?

71. We're looking to be turning on the feature in nightly tomorrow, ahead of the soft freeze. We should be able to help out next week, though pointers might be useful.

Comment 3

[Mike Kaply [:mkaply]]

Actually we don't allow search engine changes except on ESR, so we won't need this until mid next year.

so no rush.

Comment 4

[Mike de Boer [:mikedeboer]]

Attachment: Bug 1587804 - Add an Enterprise Policy that allows to set the default search engine used in Private Browsing mode. r?mkaply!

Comment 5

[Pulsebot]

Pushed by [e-mail]:
https://hg.mozilla.org/integration/autoland/rev/caf57dd9ae33
Add an Enterprise Policy that allows to set the default search engine used in Private Browsing mode. r=mkaply

Comment 6

[Oana Pop-Rus]

https://hg.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/rev/caf57dd9ae33

Comment 7

[Vlad Lucaci, Thunderbird QA (:vlucaci)]

Hello,
I have several questions about this ticket:

• I have verified and can confirm that the default search engine can be set via policy. However , it can be noticed that even though the default search engine is set for private browsing, it also applies to normal session.

*Another thing would be that even though the default search engine is set via policy, the user can still change the default search engine, and the option remains selected even after browser restart.

*Verification was done on 72.0a1 (2019-10-23), 71.0b3 BuildID:20191021164841 where the policy is indeed set(with the above mentions), however in comment 3, it states that this will also apply to ESR, but only next year. Would it be possible to let us know on which builds should we test, if this is indeed ready to be tested by QA.

Comment 8

[Mark Banner (:standard8)]

A quick glance at the code and it looks like we're not setting browser.search.separatePrivateDefault to true first...

The policy applying whilst not on ESR is strange...

Comment 9

[Mike de Boer [:mikedeboer]]

I guess I was wrong in assuming that the defaultPrivateEngine setter would set the browser.search.separatePrivateDefault pref, but I guess I'm just confused about how that pref should be used in general and whether it's good practice to have the policy code mess with it in the first place.

Comment 10

[Mark Banner (:standard8)]

(In reply to Mike de Boer [:mikedeboer] from comment #9)

I guess I was wrong in assuming that the defaultPrivateEngine setter would set the browser.search.separatePrivateDefault pref, but I guess I'm just confused about how that pref should be used in general and whether it's good practice to have the policy code mess with it in the first place.

Yeah, I think my original ideas were wrong about that. I've filed bug 1591059 as a follow-up. We won't need it for 71, but we may want it later.

I think the only other remaining thing here is the question of the policy being enabled on non-ESR, that hopefully the other Mike can help us with.

Comment 11

[Mark Banner (:standard8)]

(In reply to Vlad Lucaci, QA (:vlucaci) from comment #7)

*Verification was done on 72.0a1 (2019-10-23), 71.0b3 BuildID:20191021164841 where the policy is indeed set(with the above mentions), however in comment 3, it states that this will also apply to ESR, but only next year. Would it be possible to let us know on which builds should we test, if this is indeed ready to be tested by QA.

I just stumbled across the code:

https://searchfox.org/mozilla-central/rev/35873cfc312a6285f54aa5e4ec2d4ab911157522/toolkit/components/enterprisepolicies/EnterprisePolicies.js#397-426

The basic summary is that ESR-only policies are actually only disabled in release channels. They're still allowed in beta & nightly. So the fact it worked is expected.

Comment 12

[Mike Kaply [:mkaply]]

I was totally going to post that and forgot. Sorry.