1643905 - [[Button:refresh]] markup creates a "Refresh Firefox" link instead of a button and may be broken in some profiles

Status: NEW

(support.mozilla.org :: Knowledge Base Software, defect)

Description

[Alice Wyman]

Step 1 in https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/templateresetsteps tells users,
Click this Refresh Firefox button directly, if you are viewing this page in Firefox. This won't work if you are using a different browser or a mobile device.

The [[Button:refresh]] markup is supposed to create clickable "Refresh Firefox" button. It now just creates a "Refresh Firefox" link, most likely due to the recent redesign. In my normal Firefox 77 profile, the link does nothing; however, in a new Firefox 77 profile, the link does start the Refresh Firefox process.

Can the [[Button:refresh]] markup be fixed? I also posted about this on May 27, 2020 in the Responsive Redesign feedback thread:
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/forums/contributors/713979?&page=3#post-78498

Comment 1

[Roland Tanglao needinfo please :rolandtanglao, :mohnkuchen, :adobo, :sinigang, :roland]

:madalina,:tasos, :leo i guess we need this to be added to our QA testplan (as well as fixing this of course!), right?

Comment 2

[Alice Wyman]

I just wanted to add that, although the Refresh Firefox link didn't work in https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/templateresetsteps or in the articles that use that template (such as https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/refresh-firefox-reset-add-ons-and-settings) using my normal Firefox 77 profile, I was able to start the Refresh Firefox process with my normal fx77 profile from the [Refresh Firefox] button in the about:support Troubleshooting Information page.

Comment 3

[Caspy7]

I and another user found this issue is present for us (we both happen to be on Nightly).
I tested in a fresh profile on Release and things worked properly.

Comment 4

[Alice Wyman]

I can confirm that the Refresh Firefox button (link) in https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/templateresetsteps or in articles that use the template, still doesn't work in all profiles in Firefox 92 on Windows 7. Nothing happens when I click the Refresh Firefox link in my default-release profile, but the refresh process is started in my release-test profile.

Comment 5

[Leo McArdle [:leo]]

On any profiles where this doesn't work, could you try running Mozilla.UITour.resetFirefox() in the devtools (opened from the KB page, the UITour library needs to be loaded) - if that doesn't work, there's not a whole lot we can do on the SUMO end, for whatever reason UITour won't attempt a refresh on those profiles.

I'm not sure if we're able to automatically detect if the refresh has failed - it sounds like Firefox 92 in Windows 7 consistently doesn't work, so when I get the chance I'll attempt to reproduce it in a VM - but we should probably show some steps to manually achieve the refresh.

Comment 6

[Alice Wyman]

(In reply to Leo McArdle [:leo] from comment #5)

On any profiles where this doesn't work, could you try running Mozilla.UITour.resetFirefox() in the devtools (opened from the KB page, the UITour library needs to be loaded)

Can you be more specific on where I would enter that? Firefox AppMenu -> More Tools -> ? -> ?

I'm not sure if we're able to automatically detect if the refresh has failed - it sounds like Firefox 92 in Windows 7 consistently doesn't work,

It does work on Windows 7 in some of my Firefox 92 profiles (release-test and an old "default" profile) but not in other fx92 profiles (default-release and alice profiles).

Comment 7

[Kelimutu [:kiki]]

@Alice I think Leo was talking about the DevTool. So essentially, right-click on the empty part of the KB and click inspect, choose the Console tab, then try to run Mozilla.UITour.resetFirefox() there to trigger the refresh modal.

Comment 8

[Alice Wyman]

(In reply to Kelimutu [:kiki] from comment #7)

@Alice I think Leo was talking about the DevTool. So essentially, right-click on the empty part of the KB and click inspect, choose the Console tab, then try to run Mozilla.UITour.resetFirefox() there to trigger the refresh modal.

Thanks, Kiki. I followed your instructions with both a bad and a good profile.

In the fx92 profile that doesn't work, I pasted Mozilla.UITour.resetFirefox() and it came back with undefined but then nothing happened.

I did the same in a profile that works and, after pasting in the above, it also came back with undefined and the Refresh Firefox process began.

Comment 9

[Krzysztof]

Alice, can you run the following code?

Mozilla.UITour.getConfiguration('canReset', function(value) {
  console.log(value);
})

Comment 10

[Alice Wyman]

(In reply to Krzysztof from comment #9)

Alice, can you run the following code?

Mozilla.UITour.getConfiguration('canReset', function(value) {
  console.log(value);
})

I ran this code in both a bad profile (where [[Button:refresh]] doesn't work) and in a working profile.
Mozilla.UITour.getConfiguration('canReset', function(value) {
console.log(value);
})

In a fx92 "bad" profile, it comes back undefined then nothing.
In a fx92 working profile, it comes back undefined, then true

Comment 11

[Alice Wyman]

A similar issue has come up for me with the new [[Button:preferences]] markup mentioned in https://discourse.mozilla.org/t/kitsune-release-notes-2021-09-23/86281 that was used to produce a Settings link, [[Button:preferences|pane=privacy-locationBar|text=Settings]] in this revision:
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/navigate-web-faster-firefox-suggest/revision/229607

The Settings link works for me (opens the "Address Bar - Firefox Suggest" section in about:preferences#privacy) or is broken (nothing happens) in the same profiles as the Refresh button issue. Related discussion: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/navigate-web-faster-firefox-suggest/discuss/10033

Comment 12

[Alice Wyman]

A change to https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/templateresetsteps was just approved. The [[Button:refresh]] instructions were removed.

Comment 13

[Alice Wyman]

(from comment #11)

A similar issue has come up for me with the new [[Button:preferences]] markup mentioned in https://discourse.mozilla.org/t/kitsune-release-notes-2021-09-23/86281

https://github.com/mozilla/sumo-project/issues/956 Detect whether UITour special links will work