1625963 - Remove the extension is controlling the default search engine setting warning notice

Status: VERIFIED FIXED

(Firefox :: Search, defect, P3)

Description

[:prathiksha]

Attachment: Screen Shot 2020-03-30 at 3.10.24 PM.png

When an extension is controlling a setting in Firefox, we always show a string (see attachment) and a "Disable Extension..." button next to it. It looks like this button is missing for the default search setting. We could select a different default search engine from the drop down below the string as seen in the attachment, but it doesn't really disable the extension.

Also, looking at the code here[0], the description element is controlling a "disableDefaultSearchExtension" element that doesn't exist AFAICT.

[0] https://searchfox.org/mozilla-central/rev/9c6e7500c0015a2c60be7b1b888261d95095ce27/browser/components/preferences/in-content/search.inc.xhtml#31

Comment 1

[Mark Striemer [:mstriemer]]

I think we didn't include the disable button since you can change the controlled pref here without disabling the extension. Does this seem expected, Jorge?

Comment 2

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

Yes, that seems to be expected. An extension can do more than add a search engine, so making it non-default and disabling it should be separate actions.

Comment 3

[Mark Striemer [:mstriemer]]

Looks like this is expected and we probably don't need to change it. I think we want to move away from the disable-only option and prefer something like this where the user can change the preference in the general case as well.

Comment 4

[Dale Harvey (:daleharvey)]

So not entirely sure we want to close this, we let arbitrary webextensions set the default to a built in engine (without a prompt) but we could still let the user disable the extension that set is_default (not the built in engine) here

Comment 5

[Johann Hofmann [:johannh]]

FWIW I agree, especially for search there might be not-so-wanted add-ons overwriting this and the user could be unclear on how to remove the add-on otherwise. Also, are we sure that the user choice will persistently be honored after that and there's no way for the add-on to creep back to their default?

Comment 6

[Johann Hofmann [:johannh]]

And to add another point, I would claim that the majority of users who switch away from DuckDuckGo in the above presented case would actually like to do both, uninstall the add-on and reset their search engine, and we're doing them a disservice by keeping the add-on around in the background when they switched away from the default search engine.

Mark, any major concerns with opening this back up?

Comment 7

[Mark Striemer [:mstriemer]]

I don't see any reason why we can't have the option to disable as well.

(In reply to Johann Hofmann [:johannh] from comment #5)

[...] Also, are we sure that the user choice will persistently be honored after that and there's no way for the add-on to creep back to their default?

That sounds like it would be a serious problem. If there's a real concern here that should probably get looked into.

Comment 8

[Johann Hofmann [:johannh]]

Ok, thanks for confirming!

Comment 9

[Jorge]

I can take on this bug.

Comment 10

[Johann Hofmann [:johannh]]

Mark, can you mentor this bug?

Comment 11

[Dale Harvey (:daleharvey)]

If you still want to pick up this bug I can probably help out our Jorge, do you want me to asssign it to you?

Comment 12

[Jorge]

(In reply to Dale Harvey (:daleharvey) from comment #11)

If you still want to pick up this bug I can probably help out our Jorge, do you want me to asssign it to you?

Hey Dale yes I'm still interested in working on this bug!

Comment 13

[Dale Harvey (:daleharvey)]

ok assigned, feel free to needinfo me or catch me on matrix (daleharvey) if you have any questions, cheers

Comment 14

[Jorge]

Attachment: Bug 1625963 - Added disable extension button when an extension is controlling the default search engine setting r=daleharvey

Comment 15

[Shane Caraveo (:mixedpuppy)]

Stepping in late here because I only just found out about this bug.

The choice to include disable here is opposite of the direction we're going in general with addon settings. While we haven't had the bandwidth to address UI throughout, the backend has been updated to support UI that allows user control and selection of settings that addons do, rather than forcing the disable/removal of an addon to regain control of a setting.

Before we make further changes I'd like to be really clear from the search team about the behaviors and rules around the search default.

Comment 16

[Shane Caraveo (:mixedpuppy)]

To free up work and progress here, I'd propose that the direction changes to removing the "extension has control" block completely. The dropdown allows the user to choose which engine is default. All engines (eventually when opensearch is gone) are extensions, so that block is redundant anyway. In other preferences we are intending a similar approach[1].

[1] https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1548700#c5

Comment 17

[Shane Caraveo (:mixedpuppy)]

An additional note, per the bug I linked to in comment 16, we could choose to differentiate user-installed extensions vs. builtin extensions in the dropdown if that were desirable.

dropdown
-> [icon] $extension-name (extension)
-> [icon] $extension-name

The (extension) text denotes a non-builtin extension that has added a search engine.

Comment 18

[Mark Banner (:standard8)]

The pop-up changes would be a possibility, but I'm not sure it covers all the requirements that we have. I think this needs a discussion with Product + UX for search before we go further here.

Comment 19

[Mark Banner (:standard8)]

(In reply to Mark Banner (:standard8) from comment #18)

The pop-up changes would be a possibility, but I'm not sure it covers all the requirements that we have. I think this needs a discussion with Product + UX for search before we go further here.

Sorry for the stop-energy here. I'm going to put together a doc for what we need and then likely sort out a meeting so that we can figure this out with all the information together.

Comment 20

[Mark Banner (:standard8)]

An update: Shane and I just had a discussion, and we agree between ourselves that removing the information about the add-on is a reasonable way to go (as per comment 16). I need to check that with UX and product, but hopefully I should have confirmation soon.

Comment 21

[Jorge]

Things have picked up at work and I can't dedicate the time to continue working on this bug. How can I unassign myself from this bug?

Comment 22

[Mark Banner (:standard8)]

(In reply to Jorge from comment #21)

Things have picked up at work and I can't dedicate the time to continue working on this bug. How can I unassign myself from this bug?

If you edit the bug (button near the top), you can just remove your email from the assignee field.

I'm sorry I didn't get you an answer sooner. Now I'm back from PTO, I hope to discuss with product & UX this week.

Comment 23

[Mark Banner (:standard8)]

I've just had a discussion and confirmed that removing the warning seems to be the right way to go. We prompt the user for any add-on that isn't setting to one of the default search engines, and so they've already accepted to have changed the default engine. Additionally, they can change the default engine again regardless of the state of the add-on by simply changing the value in the list.

Hence we don't need to have the warning, as it isn't really serving a useful purpose.

Comment 24

[Mark Banner (:standard8)]

Attachment: Bug 1625963 - Remove the warning for the default search engine being 'controlled' by an extension as it isn't useful for users. r?jaws!

Comment 25

[Pulsebot]

Pushed by [e-mail]:
https://hg.mozilla.org/integration/autoland/rev/3054c5649912
Remove the warning for the default search engine being 'controlled' by an extension as it isn't useful for users. r=jaws,fluent-reviewers,preferences-reviewers

Comment 26

[Cristina Coroiu [:ccoroiu]]

https://hg.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/rev/3054c5649912

Comment 27

[Mark Banner (:standard8)]

Updating subject to what we actually did.

Comment 28

[Florencia Di Ciocco, NI to vbalducci]

Attachment: some warning

(In reply to Mark Banner (:standard8) from comment #23)

Hence we don't need to have the warning, as it isn't really serving a useful purpose.

Hi, based on this, I verified that on FF nightly I did not get the extra warning of the image attached. Also, when removing the extension, I only got the usual "Remove Bing Search Engine from Firefox?" This is the expected behavior that we are setting with this bug, right?

Regards, Flor.

Comment 29

[Mark Banner (:standard8)]

(In reply to Florencia Di Ciocco from comment #28)

(In reply to Mark Banner (:standard8) from comment #23)

Hence we don't need to have the warning, as it isn't really serving a useful purpose.

Hi, based on this, I verified that on FF nightly I did not get the extra warning of the image attached.

Yes that's the right warning you should no longer get.

Also, when removing the extension, I only got the usual "Remove Bing Search Engine from Firefox?" This is the expected behavior that we are setting with this bug, right?

That sounds right, that should be unchanged from previous behaviour.

Comment 30

[Florencia Di Ciocco, NI to vbalducci]

Thanks Mark, I've updated the bug accordingly.