1831944 - About Dialog's Update Interface shows version information for the current version rather than the update version

Status: NEW

(Toolkit :: Application Update, defect)

Description

[Robin Steuber (they/them) [:bytesized]]

I haven't actually verified this, but the code for the About Dialog that shows the "What's New" link appears to show the what's new page for version %VERSION%, which appears to show the currently installed version, not the update version.

Comment 1

[Robin Steuber (they/them) [:bytesized]]

Attachment: About Dialog Update Failed.png

I looked into this a bit further and I'm now confused. A version and the release notes link are both shown, but are they actually part of the Update Interface? It sure seems like they are. The "releasenotes" element resides within the "updateBox" element. And visually, it's indented at a different level compared to the other contents of the dialog. But neither the version number nor think release notes link have anything to do with the update potentially in-progress; they both pertain to the currently installed version. In fact, we also appear to show the exact same information when update fails completely (image attached), or even when Firefox was built without support for the updater.

In my opinion, we should do one of these three things here:

1. Separate this information from the update interface.
2. Use some kind of labeling to make it clear that it is showing the current version rather than the update version.
3. Show update version information here rather than current version information.

I'm going to try to figure out who to talk to in order to determine if we can make one of these changes.

Comment 2

[zithro]

For convenience, the About dialog could even display both links, something like :
"Release Notes - current (v112.0.2)" and "Release Notes - new version (v113.0)".

Minor remark : the link is called "What's new", but links to "Release Notes".
When restarting FF after an update, I get a "What's new" page, but this is not the "Release Notes" ;)

Comment 3

[Shane Hughes [:aminomancer]]

(In reply to zithro from comment #2)

Minor remark : the link is called "What's new", but links to "Release Notes".
When restarting FF after an update, I get a "What's new" page, but this is not the "Release Notes" ;)

Yeah that would be worth fixing as well. I think permanently displaying "What's New" doesn't make sense unless we permanently keep track of the previous version from before the last update, since I think that gets sent as a parameter to the What's New page, for use in constructing a kind of "diff" or something? So if we're gonna permanently display a link to the product details about the current app version, it makes sense for that link to be a releasenotes link, but the label should probably reflect that.

Idk how valuable a link to the current version's release notes is, though. If there's anything important, that's the job of the What's New page and other onboarding/messaging.

One possible pattern would be to show the current version's release notes in the deck when no update is available or being processed at all, but otherwise show the release notes for the update that is available/awaiting restart. So only one should appear on the page at a time. But even then, the labels still probably need to be different to avoid confusion.

For convenience, the About dialog could even display both links, something like :
"Release Notes - current (v112.0.2)" and "Release Notes - new version (v113.0)".

Right now, there's a text span with a link next to it

<button>Update to 115.0a1 (2023-05-11)</button>
114.0a1 (2023-05-08) (64-bit)   <a>What's new</a>

I think we could change it so that, when an update is not available, it says this:

114.0a1 (2023-05-08) (64-bit)   <a>Release Notes</a>

And when an update is available, it says:

<button>Update to 115.0a1 (2023-05-11)</button>   <a>Release Notes</a>
114.0a1 (2023-05-08) (64-bit)

That way the release notes link appears next to the update button when an update is available, but appears next to the current version details when an update is not available.

Comment 4

[zithro]

FWIW, I like your solution !

Discard what I said about having both links, you're right it's useless. I sometimes skip small updates (because only fixing bugs I don't have), and wanted a link to the "discarded update" Release Notes, but that may be a PITA to code for not much benefit.

But related to that, what I'd REALLY like to see, is an easily accessible link to the page referencing all Release Notes (RN) on the RN page !
There's none right now, the only solution is a web search. So a link to this page : https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/releases.
Possible solutions, adding the link to the "See what’s new in Firefox!" banner, like :

• Release Notes tell you [...] => <a href="$URL">Release Notes</a> tell you [...],
• or at the end of the sentence : You can find all/old Release Notes <a href="$URL">here</a>.

And while we're at it, https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Mozilla/Firefox/Releases could also be linked somewhere on the RN page.
But I guess it should be reported elsewhere as it's an unrelated www feature request ? (If yes, please tell me where !).

Comment 5

[Shane Hughes [:aminomancer]]

That does sound like a good idea, but you're right that falls under a different product. Looks like it has already been reported in bug 1277874, but hasn't seen any activity in several years.

Comment 6

[zithro]

Sorry for offtopic ! And I just realized the link was already there, buried down the RN page ...
I've posted on 1277874, thanks for the link !

Comment 7

[zithro]

Attachment: TB-about_dialog.png

Today, I saw this ;)

Comment 8

[zithro]

Attachment: TB-about_dialog.png

(Sorry, didn't see the wrong size ...)