240277 - Help is not packaged in installer builds

Status: VERIFIED FIXED

(Firefox :: Installer, defect)

Description

[Jeff Walden [:Waldo]]

Firefox Help is not registered in the packages-static files for windows/unix
installers.  There's also no help.jst file, either.  Therefore, installer builds
don't have Help in them, a major omission.

Marking severity as major because Firefox Help is on the roadmap for Firefox
0.9, and if it's not in the installer builds (what most people will use) it
won't be used by the vast majority of users.

Comment 1

[Jeff Walden [:Waldo]]

blocking0.9?

If built-in Firefox Help isn't in Installer builds (particularly for Windows),
it might as well not even be there for the newbies who want to use Firefox.

Comment 2

[Jesse Ruderman]

Why do you think Help should be optional?

Comment 3

[Jeff Walden [:Waldo]]

(In reply to comment #2)
> Why do you think Help should be optional?

Aren't Help components typically optional installs for most programs?  I'm sure
I could make a list of such programs if necessary.  In any case, why not make it
optional?  It's no extra bloat, I believe.

Comment 4

[R.J. Keller]

yes, Jeff I disagree. Help should be by default because it is end-user
documentation and end-users aren't going to do custom installs.

Comment 5

[Jeff Walden [:Waldo]]

(In reply to comment #4)
> yes, Jeff I disagree. Help should be by default because it is end-user
> documentation and end-users aren't going to do custom installs.

I think I'm being misunderstood.  I *am* saying that Help should be optional -
but *only for Custom installs*.  If it's a regular install, Help will *always*
be installed.  If the user *chooses* to go with Custom, then Help is
automatically selected, *but it can be deselected if the user chooses*.  This is
win-win.  It means faster downloads for the power user who feels he can intuit
how Firefox works (after net install is available, that is) - *he must remove
Help himself*.  For the common user who won't opt for Custom install, Firefox
Help will *always* be installed without forcing the user to make that decision.

Perhaps another tack will explain better.  Refer to the Installer UE page at
<http://www.mozilla.org/projects/firefox/ue/installer/>.

At page 3, if Standard is selected, Help will be installed because it is *a
"most common [option]"*.  If Custom is selected, then page 6 will include a
third option roughly (text subject to change) as below:

[*] Firefox Help
    Offline Help with learning about and using Mozilla Firefox.

Note that the [ ] is *automatically selected*, meaning that the power user still
must make a conscious effort to remove Help from the installation.

If that's not clear enough, I'm not sure what else I can say.  If you still
either don't understand me or think it's still a bad idea, just change the bug
title.

Comment 6

[R.J. Keller]

oh OK. Sorry for the misinterpretation. That makes sense.

Thanks for the clarification, Jeff.

Comment 7

[Mike Connor [:mconnor]]

rjk, do we need a patch or any sort of build-fu to make this happen in the
installer?

Comment 8

[Mike Connor [:mconnor]]

This qualifies as a blocker, FF Help should have been in 0.8 but came in too
late.  Its also easy enough to fix, it just needs the packaging-fu in place.

This is missing on both gtk2 and win32 installers.

cc-ing bryner for at least the Linux installer end of things.

Comment 9

[Mike Connor [:mconnor]]

removing nonsensical dependency that I somehow added

Comment 10

[Jeff Walden [:Waldo]]

Attachment: help.jst

Comment 11

[Jeff Walden [:Waldo]]

Attachment: Beginnings of a Unix installer patch, apply w/help.jst

Here's some work I've done on this for the Unix installer.  I can't test it and
have no idea what the code edited does, so this is at best a beginning for
someone else to make a better patch.

Comment 12

[Jeff Walden [:Waldo]]

Attachment: Beginnings of a Windows installer patch, apply w/help.jst

Here's some work I've done on this for the Windows installer.  I can't test it
and have no idea what the code edited does, so this is at best a beginning for
someone else to make a better patch.

Comment 13

[Mike Connor [:mconnor]]

RJ, can you test these out? my windows build environment is dead atm

Comment 14

[R.J. Keller]

mconnor: my build is saying "Cannot find install.ini". This is more likely a
problem with my build system than with the environment. Is there something
special I should set? I've never tried using the installer before :P.

Comment 15

[R.J. Keller]

--> jwalden

I'm going to try and get a test build with this over the weekend.

Comment 16

[Jeff Walden (gone starting June 8)]

Attachment: help.jst - v2.0

Comment 17

[Jeff Walden (gone starting June 8)]

Attachment: Unix installer patch, apply w/help.jst - v2.0

This patch is for the Unix installer.  It fixes two issues:

1) Help wasn't listed in the default components for the two types of setup.
2) Help was set as optional.  With bug 242275 in effect, this is not a good
idea.

This patch has a better chance of working than the original, but I still don't
really know if it will work.

Comment 18

[Jeff Walden (gone starting June 8)]

Attachment: Windows installer patch, apply w/help.jst - v2.0

This patch is for the Windows installer.  It fixes two issues:

1) Help wasn't listed in the default components for the two types of setup.
2) Help was set as optional.  With bug 242275 in effect, this is not a good
idea.

This patch has a better chance of working than the original, but I still don't
really know if it will work.

Comment 19

[Ben Goodger (use ben at mozilla dot org for email)]

I tested it, it works. Good enough for me. Checked in branch and trunk. 

Comment 20

[Jeff Walden (gone starting June 8)]

The checkin was for Windows only according to Bonsai.  Should I have bryner
review the Unix patch (even tho it's pretty much a line-for-line transliteration
of the Windows patch)?  As it is right now, Help is presumably *not* part of the
Linux installer, and thus Linux installer builds are presumably affected by bug
242275.  (Of course, this isn't easily testable because no Linux branch builds
are being made.  A trunk build might demonstrate the bug, tho.)

Comment 21

[Hussam Al-Tayeb]

I still see this on tinderbox build Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1;
en-US; rv:1.7) Gecko/20040529 Firefox/0.8.0
1.7.20040.52905
that's after this was marked resolved.

Comment 22

[Bill Mason]

Reopening.  Also not seeing this in trunk build 20040529 PC/WinXP.

Comment 23

[Ben Goodger (use ben at mozilla dot org for email)]

Forgot to check in help.jst. Fixed now. 

Comment 24

[Jeff Walden (gone starting June 8)]

Am I wrong in also not seeing:

mozilla/browser/installer/unix/installer.cfg.in
mozilla/browser/installer/unix/config.it
mozilla/browser/installer/unix/packages-static

...not being checked in on the Firefox 1.0 branch?  That's what it's looking
like to me on Unix.

Comment 25

[Mike Connor [:mconnor]]

Jeff, I'll check in the Unix version of this patch today.  (If you don't see an
update by 5 PM, please email me :)

Comment 26

[Mike Connor [:mconnor]]

never mind, ben did it "I wonder what I have to do to make this file BE CHECKED
IN" :)

Comment 27

[Hussam Al-Tayeb]

verifying fixed in Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.7)
Gecko/20040530 Firefox/0.8.0+

Comment 28

[Bill Mason]

Also verified on the trunk, 20040530 PC/WinXP

Comment 29

[Hiro]

There was no Help in Mac version Firefox 0.9 RC...

Comment 30

[Jeff Walden (gone starting June 8)]

(In reply to comment #29)
> There was no Help in Mac version Firefox 0.9 RC...

That's a separate bug - see bug 244479.

To verify that Help is packaged, type "chrome://help/content/help.xul".  If you
see a pseudo-Help window, then Help is present - it's only the menu items that
aren't present (as a result of the aforementioned bug).

Comment 31

[Hiro]

Thank you for information, Walden-san.
(In reply to comment #30)
> To verify that Help is packaged, type "chrome://help/content/help.xul".

Help was displayed now.
it seems to be the problem of a menu.