1695596 - After TB update failed, "Download the latest version..." link (to TB homepage) is not release-channel specific, resulting in confusion if user downloads wrong channel and old profile seemingly "disappears"

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(Thunderbird :: General, defect)

Description

[Thomas D. (:thomas8)]

+++ This bug was initially created as a clone of Bug #1586699 +++

STR (from memory, and as reported by Wayne in Bug 1586699 Comment 39)

• Tried to update Daily 87 via About TB --> update failed, shows download link:
  "Download the latest version..."

Actual result

• The download link did not point to the DAILY release channel in any way, but was just linking to our main homepage, where the RELEASE download button is prominent.
• Users can easily get tricked into installing a different channel, which will start with blank profile, then they panick - "my profile has disappeared"

Expected

• "Download the latest version..." link should be release-channel specific, to prevent users from downloading the wrong channel install
• So if getting this message for Beta / Daily, it should take user to dedicated download pages/anchors for downloading Beta / Daily
• If it's too complex to point to the exact latest version which needs to be updated, at least point to the respective download pages (do we have something else for daily?):
  • https://www.thunderbird.net/en-US/thunderbird/beta/all/
  • http://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/thunderbird/nightly/latest-comm-central-l10n/

Comment 1

[Rob Lemley [:rjl]]

The URL is taken from the preference app.update.url.manual, which is always set to https://www.thunderbird.net. It's set in mail/app/profile/all-thunderbird.js.

Got a couple different options. One is to follow Firefox and move this into the branding prefs files.

Follow Firefox

Setting the URL to something different for Nightly is easy enough. Move the preference to the branding prefs files. For Nightly, that's mail/branding/nightly/thunderbird-branding.js. There's no pretty page on thunderbird.net for Nightly.

Beta and release use the same branding files, so mail/branding/thunderbird/thunderbird-branding.js will need something like what's in browser/branding/official/pref/firefox-branding.js with #if MOZ_UPDATE_CHANNEL == beta. That file will also need to be changed to a pre-processed file. I would also argue that checking for beta-localtest and beta-cdntest somehow would be a good idea to make it easier to test.

app.update.url.details could get updated to the same value as app.releaseNotesURL probably.

Use a live redirect

There's no https://live.thunderbird.net redirect to the download pages currently, but I see no reason why we can't add one. Then app.update.url.manual could be something like https://live.thunderbird.net/thunderbird/download?locale=%LOCALE%&version=%VERSION%&channel=%CHANNEL%&os=%OS&buildid=%BUILDID% and the whole preprocessing thing goes away. Just need to make sure that any place app.update.url.manual is pulled from preferences that Services.urlFormatter.formatURLPref is used. (This appears to be the case already.)

Comment 3

[Rob Lemley [:rjl]]

Attachment: Bug 1695596 - "Update Failed" buttons open channel-specific URLs. r=#thunderbird-reviewers

When an update fails, the prompt has "Download Manually" and "More Information"
buttons. They opened pages on thunderbird.net that are suitable for stable
releases, but not for beta.

Move the prefs in question to branding, and use the update channel name to set
beta and release specific URLs.

For all non-shippable builds that use "nightly" branding, just set both URLs to
www.thunderbird.net as there is no "Daily" download page and there are no "Daily"
release notes. This will also be used for local developer builds.

The new "details" URL for beta needs a PR merged on the website before it will
work.

Comment 4

[Pulsebot]

Pushed by [e-mail]:
https://hg.mozilla.org/comm-central/rev/6c9cf34d9883
"Update Failed" buttons open channel-specific URLs. r=mkmelin

Comment 5

[Pulsebot]

Pushed by [e-mail]:
https://hg.mozilla.org/comm-central/rev/8b9adbae10c5
follow-up - Update .eslintignore for the moved files. rs=linting

Comment 6

[Rob Lemley [:rjl]]

Comment on attachment 9279684 [details]
Bug 1695596 - "Update Failed" buttons open channel-specific URLs. r=#thunderbird-reviewers

[Approval Request Comment]
Regression caused by (bug #): not a regression
User impact if declined: If an update fails, beta users are taken to a download page for release versions. This change will send beta users to the new beta download page. The more info link will redirect to latest beta release notes (and the same is now done for release versions.)
Testing completed (on c-c, etc.): Testing is really only valid with a beta build as that's what changed. That said, I did a beta build with this change and verified that the prefs were set correctly. The website support needs to be merged to prod for the beta "more info" link to work.
Risk to taking this patch (and alternatives if risky): Low risk, just moves some prefs into branding and updates the URLs.

Comment 7

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

Comment on attachment 9279684 [details]
Bug 1695596 - "Update Failed" buttons open channel-specific URLs. r=#thunderbird-reviewers

[Triage Comment]
Approved for beta.

Rob, Thanks for doing this! I had it in the back of my mind that we needed it.

Does daily have the same issue?
(We don't have a daily download page, but I'm thinking we should should)

Comment 8

[Rob Lemley [:rjl]]

There's no Daily page, and there's no Daily release notes, so both buttons go to thunderbird.net homepage.

Comment 9

[Rob Lemley [:rjl]]

Thunderbird 102.0b4:
https://hg.mozilla.org/releases/comm-beta/rev/e04fdbec6887
https://hg.mozilla.org/releases/comm-beta/rev/957fb9d5d227