268944 - Set default pref in firefox.js for livemark refresh interval (livemark_refresh_seconds)

Status: VERIFIED DUPLICATE of bug 280644

(Firefox :: Settings UI, defect, P5)

Description

[:Gavin Sharp [email: [e-mail]]]

Add the default pref so that it appears in about:config. See bug 259682.

Comment 1

[:Gavin Sharp [email: [e-mail]]]

Attachment: Patch

Comment 2

[Ross Shannon]

If this is going to be user-configurable, even if it through the relatively
undiscoverable about:config, there needs to be restrictions on the values that
can be set, to stop clueless users entering '60' and hammering RSS feeds.

Comment 3

[Mike Connor [:mconnor]]

I don't think this is a good idea, myself.  Its deliberately hidden from even
about:config.  If we were going to expose the pref, it makes more sense to have
a visible option with limited options (15/30/60) etc.

Comment 4

[Phil Ringnalda (:philor)]

Do I have the story of our caching behavior right, that for the very rare feed
with explicit caching headers, like Slashdot, we'll honor them and look broken
("I set it to 67 seconds, but it only updates every 1800!"), while for the vast
majority that don't have any (because we're pretty nearly the first feed reader
to look at them, rather than in-band hinting and community norms) we'll pound
away at every single feed at the shortest interval the user wants for any feed?

Comment 5

[:Gavin Sharp [email: [e-mail]]]

The minimum is set as 1 minute at
http://lxr.mozilla.org/aviarybranch/source/browser/components/bookmarks/src/nsBookmarksFeedHandler.cpp#284

If there are concerns about that being too low, then the solution is to raise
the minimum, not hide the pref. 10 minutes sounds like a more reasonable minimum
to me.

If people are using about:config to configure it to the minimum, then I would
assume they understand the consequences of that. I don't think that people would
complain that a pref they set in about:config wasn't working. Renaming it to
something like "livemark_refresh_default_seconds" would probably solve that
minor issue.

When I filed this I hadn't realized that we actually obeyed the feed's specified
TTL. I also agree that some UI should be added for this at some point, but that
shouldn't prevent us from exposing the pref to those who want it now.

Comment 6

[Ross Shannon]

(In reply to comment #5)
> The minimum is set as 1 minute. If there are concerns about that being too
low, then the solution is to raise the minimum, 

That is far too low. It should be up somewhere in the range of 20-30 minutes. We
have a menu item to 'Refresh Live Bookmark' if the user explicitly wants to
update the feed.

> If people are using about:config to configure it to the minimum, then I would
> assume they understand the consequences of that.

That's a mighty assumption. Most people will see this as an opportunity to get
posts 'as they happen', and so will set Firefox to check for updates as often as
they can, without a thought for how this might affect the server on the other
end. We need to be very careful on what values we allow here. Many A-listers
have complained of the huge bandwaidth costs of having a popular RSS feed, and
allowing people to poll it every 10 minutes would be a killer, especially if the
server is not set up to send caching headers correctly.

Here's an article that discusses the problem:
http://radio.weblogs.com/0001011/2004/09/08.html

Comment 7

[:Gavin Sharp [email: [e-mail]]]

*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of 280644 ***

Comment 8

[Mike Connor [:mconnor]]

sorry for bugspam, long-overdue mass reassign of ancient QA contact bugs,
filter on "beltznerLovesGoats" to get rid of this mass change