249883 - Do not open sidebar if panel content to fill it does not exist.

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(Toolkit :: Add-ons Manager, defect)

Description

[Asa Dotzler [:asa]]

We have this issue (with this extension, at least) where if you have it active
(sidebar open) when you uninstall it, we don't clean up the localstore.rdf data
so a restart gives you an open and empty sidebar. This could potentially be a
more widespread problem. I think the uninstall routine needs to look at
localstore and remove any related items.

http://tkm.s31.xrea.com/xul/grepsidebar.shtml

Comment 1

[Mike Shaver (:shaver emeritus)]

Removing localstore contents will make upgrading from one version of an
extension to a later one a mite troublesome, if we aren't careful.  But who
isn't careful around here?

Comment 2

[Asa Dotzler [:asa]]

*** Bug 248152 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 3

[Benjamin Smedberg]

There is no way to associate data in the localstore with any particular
extension. It might be possible to special-case a sidebar entry.

Comment 4

[Kathleen :Brade]

Maybe we shouldn't be cleaning up localstore.rdf directly (if it's too risky or
needs special casing).

Can the sidebar realize there isn't any content and close itself (or is that the
special casing bsmedberg plans)?

Could each extension have an "uninstall from app" function for this type of cleanup?

Comment 5

[Nickolay_Ponomarev]

This also happens after installing a new Firefox release, which disables
non-compatible extensions automatically. (Reported recently as a QuickNote bug
<http://bugzilla.mozdev.org/show_bug.cgi?id=7371>).

Comment 6

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

It should be possible to strip entries from the localstore for a given package
as that package is uninstalled, no? (This would require direct tweaking of
localstore from EM uninstall logic... hardly ideal but ideally localstore/etc
would acquire some sort of useful API towards 2.0...)

Comment 7

[chris hofmann]

ok, lets try and do this for 2.0 where there is more time for testing.

Comment 8

[MW]

sorry for bugspam

I hope this does not sound trite, but this bug can be worked around fairly
smoothly for extensions. Reinstall extension, Close Sidebar (or open a default
sidebar like bookmarks/history) and then Uninstall the extension. This method
won't solve the comment #5 issue though.

Deleting the localstore.rdf also works around the problem (obviously you will
loose button placement/window size and misc settings ect different from the
default FireFox setup).

Comment 9

[Phil Ringnalda (:philor)]

*** Bug 278910 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 10

[baris]

Ping? 

Comment 11

[Teune van Steeg]

Attachment: Stops the sidebar from opening when the content does not exist

This patch prevents the sidebar from opening on browser startup when the
content is not present anymore (i.e. after uninstalling an extension). This as
an alternative to associate an extension with localstore data.

(I got the idea from the proposed patch for bug #285513)

Comment 12

[Teune van Steeg]

Comment on attachment 181138 [details] [diff] [review]
Stops the sidebar from opening when the content does not exist

request review

Comment 13

[Steve England [:stevee]]

*** Bug 294809 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 14

[Mike Connor [:mconnor]]

I'm not sure about this fix given a cursory reading, but this isn't really a
blocker, unless you can't close the empty sidebar...

Comment 15

[Asa Dotzler [:asa]]

(In reply to comment #14)
> I'm not sure about this fix given a cursory reading, but this isn't really a
> blocker, unless you can't close the empty sidebar...

you can't close the empty sidebar.

Comment 16

[Kathleen :Brade]

seeking blocking status since you can't close the sidebar

Comment 17

[Benjamin Smedberg]

Can we morph this bug, then, into making the sidebar sane, instead of "cleaning
up localstore" which is probably a cannon solution to a flyswatter problem.

Comment 18

[Asa Dotzler [:asa]]

We need to see if this still impacts current and popular sidebar extensions. 

Comment 19

[Tracy Walker [:tracy]]

Tested with EditCSS sidebar extension on Windows Deer Park build from 0719

-Open the EditCSS sidebar
-Unistall that extension
-Restart

The EditCSS extension still appears in the sidebar. As expected EditCSS does not
appear in the View | Sidebar menu. Clicking the [X] to close the sidebar doesn't
work. However, the workaround is to simply change the sidebar to Bookmarks or
History, then close and reopen the sidebar.

Comment 20

[Tracy Walker [:tracy]]

Further testing shows that with every subsequent restart the sidebar opens with
blank content.  This happens no matter what state the sidebar was left in on app
exit.  This is bad and worth considering blocking 1.1

Comment 21

[Asa Dotzler [:asa]]

Thanks, Tracy. This shows the same results I was seeing months ago. We do need
to fix this. Ben, can you review this patch?

Comment 22

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

Attachment: patch, based on [e-mail]'s version.

Comment 23

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

Landed. thanks for the patch!

Comment 24

[Dave Townsend [:mossop]]

*** Bug 303777 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***