2063361 - HNT widgets are available on default profile by using VPN set to US

Status: ASSIGNED

(Firefox :: New Tab Page, defect)

Description

[Catalin Sasca, Desktop Test Engineering [:csasca]]

Attachment: release widgets with US VPN.png

Affected versions

• Firefox 153.0.4 - trainhop addon 155.1.20260811.195042

Affected platforms

• Windows 11
• macOS 27
• Ubuntu 26

Preconditions

• Have a VPN set to US

Steps to reproduce

1. Navigate to the HNT

Expected result

• No widgets are available on clean profiles

Actual result

• 3 widgets are available on a clean profile without the New Tab XPI (Lists, Timer and Clocks), and 5 widgets are available after adding the New Tab XPI (Lists, Timer and Clocks, POTD, Particle Game)

Additional Notes

• The issue can be seen in the attachment.
• Having the VPN will not set the following pref (browser.search.region) to US region by default on a clean profile (as it does with other regions), so the pref is not present at all and must be manually set to US which will remove the widgets as expected.
• This doesn't affect any other regions (for ex. FR, DE, etc) where the browser.search.region is set accordingly to the country in question.
• This may be related to Bug 1102416.

Comment 1

[BugBot [:suhaib / :marco]]

The severity field is not set for this bug.
:thecount, could you have a look please?

For more information, please visit BugBot documentation.

Comment 2

[Amber Meryman]

I wonder why the VPN is not setting the browser.search.region) to US when it is for other regions??

Comment 3

[Fred Chasen [:fchasen]]

Definitely related to Bug 1102416, which made US with a non-US timezone set is treated as a unknown region.

gharp What behavior do we want for when the region is unknown, is not having any widgets set?

Comment 4

[Fred Chasen [:fchasen]]

Definitely related to Bug 1102416, US with a non-us timezone set is treated like an unknown location.

Comment 5

[Fred Chasen [:fchasen]]

Attachment: Bug 2063361 - Enable widgets only when the region is known. r=maxx!

• Requires a known region before enabling widgets from trainhop configs.
• Updates widgets that gate on region to recheck when it is know.
• Refreshes enabled-widget telemetry when the region updates.
• Add tests for unknown regions and updates tests without regions set to US.

Comment 6

[Fred Chasen [:fchasen]]

Attachment: Bug 2063361 - Enable widgets only when the region is known. r=maxx!

• Requires a known region before enabling widgets from trainhop configs.
• Updates every widget feed that gates on trainhop config to wait for the region and recheck when it resolves.
• Refreshes enabled-widget telemetry when the region updates.
• Adds tests for unknown regions and sets US in tests that had no region.