2010993 - Make Translations UI States Reactive to Changes in Feature Enabledness

Status: VERIFIED FIXED

(Firefox :: Translations, task, P1)

Description

[Erik Nordin [:nordzilla]]

Description

Prior to now, there was no official way in the UI to disable or enable the Translations feature. It was only available in about:config, which is not an officially user-facing API.

Now that we are going to support this, we need to ensure that we always react correctly to the feature becoming enabled or disabled.

This includes:

• Ensuring all open instances of the about:translations page react accordingly, either enabling or disabling.
• When the feature is disabled, we will need to hide the Translations button on any open tabs that have it present, and possibly ensure that restorePage is called when the tab becomes active again, if Translations was active on the page.
• When the feature is enabled, we need to ensure that already-open tabs may need to run through the translations-offer logic.

This work needs to be completed before the AI Killswitch release, but is not critical to unblock progress on the Settings UI.

Comment 1

[Erik Nordin [:nordzilla]]

Attachment: Bug 2010993 - Ensure TranslationsEngine is destroyed when disabling Translations r=#translations-reviewers!

This commit ensures that disabling the Translations feature will ensure
that the Translations Engine is destroyed. It also ensures that the engine
actor is fetched every time, rather than relying on the cached value, which
may no longer be valid when re-enabling the feature.

Comment 2

[Erik Nordin [:nordzilla]]

Attachment: Bug 2010993 - Make about:translations react to feature enabledness r=#translations-reviewers!

This commit ensures that the about:translations page reacts to the Translations
feature becoming disabled and enabled. When disabled, the page content should
hide itself. When re-enabled, the page content should re-show and continue to
work as normal.

Comment 3

[Erik Nordin [:nordzilla]]

Attachment: Bug 2010993 - Make Translate QuickAction react to feature enabledness r=#translations-reviewers!,daleharvey!

This commit ensures that the Translate QuickAction is reactive to the
enabled state of the Translations feature, which may now become disabled
or re-enabled via the Settings UI.

Comment 4

[Erik Nordin [:nordzilla]]

Attachment: Bug 2010993 - Make SelectTranslations react to feature enabledness r=#translations-reviewers!

This commit ensures that the SelectTranslations context menu item is reactive
to the Translations feature becoming disabled or re-enabled, which may now
occur in the Firefox Settings.

Comment 5

[Erik Nordin [:nordzilla]]

Attachment: Bug 2010993 - Make AppMenu react to Translations feature enabledness r=#translations-reviewers!

This commit ensures that the "Translate page..." Application Menu Item correctly
reacts to the Translations feature becoming enabled or disabled, which may now
occur from the main Settings UI.

Comment 6

[Stuart Colville [:muffinresearch]]

Adding tracking flags for 148

Comment 7

[Erik Nordin [:nordzilla]]

Attachment: Bug 2010993 - Rework StatePerTopChromeWindow to StatePerTab r=#translations-reviewers!

This commit reworks our cached state from being per top chrome window
to being truly per tab. Now that the feature can be disabled and enabled
at runtime with multiple tabs open, there is more than just the current
context that we may need to store in order to behave correctly if the
feature becomes re-enabled with multiple tabs still open.

Comment 8

[Erik Nordin [:nordzilla]]

Attachment: Bug 2010993 - Make FullPage Translations react to feature enabledness r=#translations-reviewers!

This commit ensures that the FullPage Translations functionality is able
to react to the Translations feature becoming enabled and disabled, including
managing the state of the Translations URL bar button across tabs, and handling
context from tabs that may have been disabled mid translation.

Comment 9

[Erik Nordin [:nordzilla]]

Attachment: Bug 2010993 - Add TranslationsFeature Telemetry r=#translations-reviewers!

This commit adds 3 new telemetry metrics so that we can tell how frequently
the Translatiosn feature is being enabled, disabled, or reset from the settings,
especially compared to how often the global AI switch is being flipped.

Comment 10

[Pulsebot]

Pushed by [e-mail]:
https://github.com/mozilla-firefox/firefox/commit/60b926db4079
https://hg.mozilla.org/integration/autoland/rev/7a80e16ce9ce
Ensure TranslationsEngine is destroyed when disabling Translations r=translations-reviewers,gregtatum
https://github.com/mozilla-firefox/firefox/commit/7dbe5906dfdb
https://hg.mozilla.org/integration/autoland/rev/b366ef118d69
Make about:translations react to feature enabledness r=translations-reviewers,gregtatum
https://github.com/mozilla-firefox/firefox/commit/d0e01653aba7
https://hg.mozilla.org/integration/autoland/rev/f6f4b5dc5f0c
Make Translate QuickAction react to feature enabledness r=daleharvey,translations-reviewers,urlbar-reviewers,gregtatum,mak
https://github.com/mozilla-firefox/firefox/commit/b1369094877a
https://hg.mozilla.org/integration/autoland/rev/2b8df146544e
Make SelectTranslations react to feature enabledness r=translations-reviewers,gregtatum
https://github.com/mozilla-firefox/firefox/commit/28c1a0fa597a
https://hg.mozilla.org/integration/autoland/rev/e6968aa3e79b
Make AppMenu react to Translations feature enabledness r=translations-reviewers,gregtatum
https://github.com/mozilla-firefox/firefox/commit/4276ace5a173
https://hg.mozilla.org/integration/autoland/rev/81b8e6689732
Rework StatePerTopChromeWindow to StatePerTab r=translations-reviewers,gregtatum
https://github.com/mozilla-firefox/firefox/commit/c12ab13d7d25
https://hg.mozilla.org/integration/autoland/rev/6c09712822cf
Make FullPage Translations react to feature enabledness r=translations-reviewers,gregtatum
https://github.com/mozilla-firefox/firefox/commit/5ea4fa9b40c0
https://hg.mozilla.org/integration/autoland/rev/7b5cdf9bdc75
Add TranslationsFeature Telemetry r=translations-reviewers,gregtatum

Comment 11

[Pulsebot]

Pushed by [e-mail]:
https://github.com/mozilla-firefox/firefox/commit/f3081be7b6d3
https://hg.mozilla.org/integration/autoland/rev/759dff34f2a0
Revert "Bug 2010993 - Add TranslationsFeature Telemetry r=translations-reviewers,gregtatum" for causing multiple bc failures

Comment 12

[amarc]

Backed out for causing multiple bc failures

• Backout link
• Push with failures
• Failure Log
• Failure Log 2
• Failure log -> ui-test

Comment 13

[Aaron Train [:aaronmt]]

re: Failure log -> ui-test

Translate extension doesn't seem to be offered at all looking at the android videos in the matrix associated with the run

Comment 14

[Erik Nordin [:nordzilla]]

Attachment: Bug 2010993 - Update Android Test Expectations r=ohall!

This commit ensures that the test expectations on Android
reflect the new flow of the FullPage Translations language
state and detection logic.

Comment 15

[Erik Nordin [:nordzilla]]

I believe that I've addressed all of the issues.

Try runs are looking green for the 3 failures mentioned in comment 12.

Queuing for relanding.

Comment 16

[Pulsebot]

Pushed by [e-mail]:
https://github.com/mozilla-firefox/firefox/commit/97239f8ed9c3
https://hg.mozilla.org/integration/autoland/rev/e89f154cdd54
Ensure TranslationsEngine is destroyed when disabling Translations r=translations-reviewers,gregtatum
https://github.com/mozilla-firefox/firefox/commit/f78f5e861274
https://hg.mozilla.org/integration/autoland/rev/b76c96846ed3
Make about:translations react to feature enabledness r=translations-reviewers,gregtatum
https://github.com/mozilla-firefox/firefox/commit/e97e9bb23240
https://hg.mozilla.org/integration/autoland/rev/e703fa6f5541
Make Translate QuickAction react to feature enabledness r=daleharvey,translations-reviewers,urlbar-reviewers,gregtatum,mak
https://github.com/mozilla-firefox/firefox/commit/accc09b6ed83
https://hg.mozilla.org/integration/autoland/rev/c128c380c618
Make SelectTranslations react to feature enabledness r=translations-reviewers,gregtatum
https://github.com/mozilla-firefox/firefox/commit/63d9a87bfefc
https://hg.mozilla.org/integration/autoland/rev/ee946f7958a5
Make AppMenu react to Translations feature enabledness r=translations-reviewers,gregtatum
https://github.com/mozilla-firefox/firefox/commit/cceadb3a8154
https://hg.mozilla.org/integration/autoland/rev/4e654220d7cf
Rework StatePerTopChromeWindow to StatePerTab r=translations-reviewers,gregtatum
https://github.com/mozilla-firefox/firefox/commit/1288d8c4183d
https://hg.mozilla.org/integration/autoland/rev/0dced6f77beb
Make FullPage Translations react to feature enabledness r=translations-reviewers,gregtatum
https://github.com/mozilla-firefox/firefox/commit/45bd6451cfec
https://hg.mozilla.org/integration/autoland/rev/2228c46fc529
Add TranslationsFeature Telemetry r=translations-reviewers,gregtatum
https://github.com/mozilla-firefox/firefox/commit/fe1114298a60
https://hg.mozilla.org/integration/autoland/rev/5b25cb295eec
Update Android Test Expectations r=ohall,geckoview-reviewers,translations-reviewers

Comment 17

[Pulsebot]

Pushed by [e-mail]:
https://github.com/mozilla-firefox/firefox/commit/726344b075e2
https://hg.mozilla.org/integration/autoland/rev/4fdfd1c2e093
Revert "Bug 2010993 - Update Android Test Expectations r=ohall,geckoview-reviewers,translations-reviewers" for causing bc failures on browser_preferences_usage.js

Comment 18

[rperta]

Backed out for causing bc failures on browser_preferences_usage.js
Backout link
Push with failures
Failure log(s)

Comment 19

[Erik Nordin [:nordzilla]]

I requested that this be backed out (though it may have been regardless).

Opening new tabs is checking the Translations pref too many times.

I need to fix this before landing.

Comment 20

[Erik Nordin [:nordzilla]]

Attachment: Bug 2010993 - Guard against dead context in TranslationsParent r=ohall!

This patch ensures that all access to the TranslationsParent
browsing context are guarded against the context being dead
at the time of access.

Comment 21

[Pulsebot]

Pushed by [e-mail]:
https://github.com/mozilla-firefox/firefox/commit/6b36243e9701
https://hg.mozilla.org/integration/autoland/rev/c601cd62ea35
Ensure TranslationsEngine is destroyed when disabling Translations r=translations-reviewers,gregtatum
https://github.com/mozilla-firefox/firefox/commit/674c7991f558
https://hg.mozilla.org/integration/autoland/rev/2d2f194c1de6
Make about:translations react to feature enabledness r=translations-reviewers,gregtatum
https://github.com/mozilla-firefox/firefox/commit/dc03210a5536
https://hg.mozilla.org/integration/autoland/rev/ddab8d82789c
Make Translate QuickAction react to feature enabledness r=daleharvey,translations-reviewers,urlbar-reviewers,gregtatum,mak
https://github.com/mozilla-firefox/firefox/commit/f3f92ec1ce36
https://hg.mozilla.org/integration/autoland/rev/54a01d9519ba
Make SelectTranslations react to feature enabledness r=translations-reviewers,gregtatum
https://github.com/mozilla-firefox/firefox/commit/a428fda6c5dc
https://hg.mozilla.org/integration/autoland/rev/a7239f47a85b
Make AppMenu react to Translations feature enabledness r=translations-reviewers,gregtatum
https://github.com/mozilla-firefox/firefox/commit/a2cfab1f1c49
https://hg.mozilla.org/integration/autoland/rev/9bb5351f7299
Rework StatePerTopChromeWindow to StatePerTab r=translations-reviewers,gregtatum
https://github.com/mozilla-firefox/firefox/commit/4c2629d08c7f
https://hg.mozilla.org/integration/autoland/rev/35b7db4fbcac
Make FullPage Translations react to feature enabledness r=translations-reviewers,gregtatum
https://github.com/mozilla-firefox/firefox/commit/602d222604be
https://hg.mozilla.org/integration/autoland/rev/94866222a000
Add TranslationsFeature Telemetry r=translations-reviewers,gregtatum
https://github.com/mozilla-firefox/firefox/commit/fdd2fcb75110
https://hg.mozilla.org/integration/autoland/rev/faff99735317
Update Android Test Expectations r=ohall,geckoview-reviewers,translations-reviewers
https://github.com/mozilla-firefox/firefox/commit/609b4c5a07b4
https://hg.mozilla.org/integration/autoland/rev/b55ddd5197de
Guard against dead context in TranslationsParent r=ohall,translations-reviewers

Comment 22

[Erik Nordin [:nordzilla]]

Third time's a charm. Queuing it up!

Comment 23

[Cristian Tuns]

https://hg.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/rev/c601cd62ea35
https://hg.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/rev/2d2f194c1de6
https://hg.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/rev/ddab8d82789c
https://hg.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/rev/54a01d9519ba
https://hg.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/rev/a7239f47a85b
https://hg.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/rev/9bb5351f7299
https://hg.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/rev/35b7db4fbcac
https://hg.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/rev/94866222a000
https://hg.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/rev/faff99735317
https://hg.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/rev/b55ddd5197de

Comment 24

[Rares Doghi, Desktop QA]

Verified as fixed in our latest Nightly 149.0a1 (2026-01-30).

Comment 26

[Erik Nordin [:nordzilla]]

Attachment: Bug 2010993 - Ensure TranslationsEngine is destroyed when disabling Translations

This commit ensures that disabling the Translations feature will ensure
that the Translations Engine is destroyed. It also ensures that the engine
actor is fetched every time, rather than relying on the cached value, which
may no longer be valid when re-enabling the feature.

Original Revision: https://phabricator.services.mozilla.com/D280367

Comment 27

[Erik Nordin [:nordzilla]]

Attachment: Bug 2010993 - Make about:translations react to feature enabledness

This commit ensures that the about:translations page reacts to the Translations
feature becoming disabled and enabled. When disabled, the page content should
hide itself. When re-enabled, the page content should re-show and continue to
work as normal.

Original Revision: https://phabricator.services.mozilla.com/D280368

Comment 28

[Erik Nordin [:nordzilla]]

Attachment: Bug 2010993 - Make Translate QuickAction react to feature enabledness

This commit ensures that the Translate QuickAction is reactive to the
enabled state of the Translations feature, which may now become disabled
or re-enabled via the Settings UI.

Original Revision: https://phabricator.services.mozilla.com/D280369

Comment 29

[Erik Nordin [:nordzilla]]

Attachment: Bug 2010993 - Make SelectTranslations react to feature enabledness

This commit ensures that the SelectTranslations context menu item is reactive
to the Translations feature becoming disabled or re-enabled, which may now
occur in the Firefox Settings.

Original Revision: https://phabricator.services.mozilla.com/D280370

Comment 30

[Erik Nordin [:nordzilla]]

Attachment: Bug 2010993 - Make AppMenu react to Translations feature enabledness

This commit ensures that the "Translate page..." Application Menu Item correctly
reacts to the Translations feature becoming enabled or disabled, which may now
occur from the main Settings UI.

Original Revision: https://phabricator.services.mozilla.com/D280371

Comment 31

[Erik Nordin [:nordzilla]]

Attachment: Bug 2010993 - Rework StatePerTopChromeWindow to StatePerTab

This commit reworks our cached state from being per top chrome window
to being truly per tab. Now that the feature can be disabled and enabled
at runtime with multiple tabs open, there is more than just the current
context that we may need to store in order to behave correctly if the
feature becomes re-enabled with multiple tabs still open.

Original Revision: https://phabricator.services.mozilla.com/D280387

Comment 32

[Erik Nordin [:nordzilla]]

Attachment: Bug 2010993 - Make FullPage Translations react to feature enabledness

This commit ensures that the FullPage Translations functionality is able
to react to the Translations feature becoming enabled and disabled, including
managing the state of the Translations URL bar button across tabs, and handling
context from tabs that may have been disabled mid translation.

Original Revision: https://phabricator.services.mozilla.com/D280388

Comment 33

[Erik Nordin [:nordzilla]]

Attachment: Bug 2010993 - Add TranslationsFeature Telemetry

This commit adds 3 new telemetry metrics so that we can tell how frequently
the Translatiosn feature is being enabled, disabled, or reset from the settings,
especially compared to how often the global AI switch is being flipped.

Original Revision: https://phabricator.services.mozilla.com/D280542

Comment 34

[Erik Nordin [:nordzilla]]

Attachment: Bug 2010993 - Update Android Test Expectations

This commit ensures that the test expectations on Android
reflect the new flow of the FullPage Translations language
state and detection logic.

Original Revision: https://phabricator.services.mozilla.com/D280872

Comment 35

[Phabricator Automation]

firefox-beta Uplift Approval Request

• User impact if declined: This patch stack is required in order for the Translations UI surfaces to be compatible with the AI Killswitch.
• Code covered by automated testing: yes
• Fix verified in Nightly: yes
• Needs manual QE test: yes
• Steps to reproduce for manual QE testing: The QE representative for this project is aware of the steps and is already testing.
• Risk associated with taking this patch: medium
• Explanation of risk level: I'm marking this as medium risk because it affects the entire set of Translations features from the about:translations page, to selected-text translation, to full-page translation.

However, I've added 22 new automated test cases to CI, in addition to doing a lot of manual testing myself.

That being said, it's still risky to uplift these kinds of changes in functionality. I feel strongly that there are no major issues.

My biggest fear is regressing something on Android, which is not the target of this work, but shares infrastructure with this code.

However, I've asked for review and testing from Android developers, in addition to testing it myself. I will continue to test even more aggressively once these changes hit the Google Play Store.

I feel confident that anything minor that may come up can be fixed within the next 24 days to release.

• String changes made/needed: None
• Is Android affected?: yes

Comment 36

[Erik Nordin [:nordzilla]]

Attachment: Bug 2010993 - Guard against dead context in TranslationsParent

This patch ensures that all access to the TranslationsParent
browsing context are guarded against the context being dead
at the time of access.

Original Revision: https://phabricator.services.mozilla.com/D281029

Comment 37

[Pulsebot]

https://github.com/mozilla-firefox/firefox/commit/3161da8e7788
https://hg.mozilla.org/releases/mozilla-beta/rev/f07b311b0fe4
https://github.com/mozilla-firefox/firefox/commit/418dfd37f0ae
https://hg.mozilla.org/releases/mozilla-beta/rev/549f98f6a3de
https://github.com/mozilla-firefox/firefox/commit/6251f65857c1
https://hg.mozilla.org/releases/mozilla-beta/rev/331dd0c9cc78
https://github.com/mozilla-firefox/firefox/commit/8071119264f2
https://hg.mozilla.org/releases/mozilla-beta/rev/831f26b2bd8c
https://github.com/mozilla-firefox/firefox/commit/e06067c5bfdb
https://hg.mozilla.org/releases/mozilla-beta/rev/5ad1928058ed
https://github.com/mozilla-firefox/firefox/commit/21e00a1abeb8
https://hg.mozilla.org/releases/mozilla-beta/rev/5ea175badcc0
https://github.com/mozilla-firefox/firefox/commit/5010a018d0b1
https://hg.mozilla.org/releases/mozilla-beta/rev/f5540e7540db
https://github.com/mozilla-firefox/firefox/commit/e1e7b4f84cc2
https://hg.mozilla.org/releases/mozilla-beta/rev/a7decd5c1337
https://github.com/mozilla-firefox/firefox/commit/0debdb6d9680
https://hg.mozilla.org/releases/mozilla-beta/rev/9838d978ac7a
https://github.com/mozilla-firefox/firefox/commit/db3a2b8a2cf3
https://hg.mozilla.org/releases/mozilla-beta/rev/357853e44035

Comment 38

[Rares Doghi, Desktop QA]

This issue is Verified as fixed in our latest Beta 148.0b10 ID: 20260130190749

Disabling this feature from the AI controls page will remove this feature from the Following scenarios:

The URL button will disappear while translating a page or after the page is already translated.
The URL button will disappear from any tab where it was displayed even on multiple tabs or windows.
The Translate Quick Action is also hidden when we type "translate" in the URL bar (first we have to enabled it in Beta from browser.translations.quickAction.enabled - true)
The about:translations page is blank.
The "Translate Page..." option from the Hamburger menu is no longer displayed.
The "Translate selection to .." from the context menu is no longer displayed.

As far as Telemetry goes, Ive only found these 3 besides the ones that trigger when we actually use the feature:
translations.feature.disable
translations.feature.reset
aiControlTranslationsSelect

but I'm not sure which ones have been added with this patch.

Comment 39

[Erik Nordin [:nordzilla]]

(In reply to Rares Doghi, Desktop QA from comment #38)

As far as Telemetry goes, Ive only found these 3 besides the ones that trigger when we actually use the feature:
translations.feature.disable
translations.feature.reset
aiControlTranslationsSelect

The new telemetry events added by this patch are the following:

• translations.feature.reset
• translations.feature.disable
• translations.feature.enable

Due to the way the settings are implemented for Translations, I don't think enable can ever be called in the current state of the code, since Translations only has "Available" and "Blocked" in its menu list.

aiControlTranslationSelect existed prior to this patch.