1748798 - Create an about:config pref to set the user agent string to 100. true/false

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(Web Compatibility :: Tooling & Investigations, task, P3)

Description

[Karl Dubost💡 :karlcow]

(based on a proposal by Chris Peterson)

To help devs test their website with version/100, we should probably give an about:config pref to flip and set version 100

Chrome has a setting UI in chrome://flags/#force-major-version-to-100

Some risks:

• What is happening if the person has already manually changed the UA string?
• What is happening if the person has used an addon for changing the UA string?

Some thoughts

• When Firefox actually reached 100, we need to remove the feature. So we could open a second bug to remove it.

Other possibilities

• Specific Addon to install
• add a "Test Firefox Version 100" checkbox to Firefox Nightly's "Experiments" settings? about:preferences#experimental (proposed also by Chris)

Comment 1

[Chris Peterson [:cpeterson]]

I have a patch.

Comment 2

[Chris Peterson [:cpeterson]]

Attachment: Bug 1748798 - Add 'forceVersion100' pref to make user testing of Firefox 100 UA string easier. r?#necko-reviewers!,#preferences-reviewers,Gijs,valentin

This pref makes Firefox send websites a User-Agent string that pretends to be Firefox version 100. Web developers can use this setting to test whether websites will break when Firefox hits a three-digit version number. The real Firefox 100 is scheduled to be released in May 2022.

Chrome has a similar chrome://flags/#force-major-version-to-100 flag for testing a Chrome 100 UA.

Comment 3

[Chris Peterson [:cpeterson]]

Attachment: Bug 1748798 - Add 'Firefox 100 User-Agent String' to the Nightly Experiments settings. r?jaws,flod

This pref makes Firefox send websites a User-Agent string that pretends to be Firefox version 100. Web developers can use this setting to test whether websites will break when Firefox hits a three-digit version number. The real Firefox 100 is scheduled to be released in May 2022.

Chrome has a similar chrome://flags/#force-major-version-to-100 flag for testing a Chrome 100 UA.

Depends on D135315

Comment 4

[Chris Peterson [:cpeterson]]

Attachment: Bug 1748798 - Hard code experiment version 100 and add Android UA. r?#necko-reviewers,valentin

Comment 5

[Pulsebot]

Pushed by [e-mail]:
https://hg.mozilla.org/integration/autoland/rev/b95bd8f3f5d4
Hard code experiment version 100 and add Android UA. r=necko-reviewers,valentin

Comment 6

[Pulsebot]

Pushed by [e-mail]:
https://hg.mozilla.org/integration/autoland/rev/509c128c5d15
Add 'forceVersion100' pref to make user testing of Firefox 100 UA string easier. r=preferences-reviewers,necko-reviewers,Gijs,valentin
https://hg.mozilla.org/integration/autoland/rev/98b4a50ae8a2
Add 'Firefox 100 User-Agent String' to the Nightly Experiments settings. r=jaws,flod

Comment 7

[Marian-Vasile Laza]

https://hg.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/rev/b95bd8f3f5d4
https://hg.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/rev/509c128c5d15
https://hg.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/rev/98b4a50ae8a2

Comment 8

[Sebastian Hengst [:aryx] (needinfo me if it's about an intermittent or backout)]

Attachment: Bug 1748798 - fix Firefox version 100 test on Windows versions != 10. r=Gijs

Comment 9

[Pulsebot]

Backout by [e-mail]:
https://hg.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/rev/4dfa6c06a936
Backed out 3 changesets for causing bc test failures on browser_navigator.js. a=backout

Comment 10

[Marian-Vasile Laza]

Backed out 3 changesets (Bug 1748798) for causing bc test failures on browser_navigator.js.
Backout link
Push with failures
Failure Log

Comment 11

[Pulsebot]

Pushed by [e-mail]:
https://hg.mozilla.org/integration/autoland/rev/feafc0bb87bd
Hard code experiment version 100 and add Android UA. r=necko-reviewers,valentin

Comment 12

[Pulsebot]

Pushed by [e-mail]:
https://hg.mozilla.org/integration/autoland/rev/4a90f3296ec3
Add 'forceVersion100' pref to make user testing of Firefox 100 UA string easier. r=preferences-reviewers,necko-reviewers,Gijs,valentin
https://hg.mozilla.org/integration/autoland/rev/15922d565b29
Add 'Firefox 100 User-Agent String' to the Nightly Experiments settings. r=jaws,flod

Comment 13

[Cristian Tuns]

Backed out for causing mochitest failures on browser_navigator.js

• Backout link
• Push with failures
• Failure Log
• Failure line: TEST-UNEXPECTED-FAIL | browser/components/resistfingerprinting/test/browser/browser_navigator.js | Checking forceVersion100 navigator.userAgent. - Got "Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; rv:100.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/100.0", expected "Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; rv:100.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/100.0"

Comment 14

[Pulsebot]

Pushed by [e-mail]:
https://hg.mozilla.org/integration/autoland/rev/68668619bf9a
Add 'forceVersion100' pref to make user testing of Firefox 100 UA string easier. r=preferences-reviewers,necko-reviewers,Gijs,valentin
https://hg.mozilla.org/integration/autoland/rev/18d5cb739f09
Add 'Firefox 100 User-Agent String' to the Nightly Experiments settings. r=jaws,flod

Comment 15

[Atila Butkovits]

https://hg.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/rev/68668619bf9a
https://hg.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/rev/18d5cb739f09

Comment 16

[Julien Cristau [:jcristau]]

Also:
https://hg.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/rev/feafc0bb87bd