273916 - document security dialogs (Certificate Manager, Certificate Viewer, Manage CRL's, Device Manager, etc.)

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(support.mozilla.org :: Knowledge Base Articles, task)

Description

[Stefan Borggraefe]

Steps to reproduce:
1. In the Preferences/Options window select "Advanced|Manage Certificates..."
2. Select a certificate and press "View"
3. Press "Help"

Result:
The Help window opens, but there is no documentation for the Certificate Viewer.

Expected:
Show me some info what this dialog is all about. ;-)

The Suite has some help content behind this button. Maybe this could be used in
FF, too.

Comment 1

[Stefan Borggraefe]

Morphing bug...

As it turns out certManager.xul, clientauthask.xul, crlManager.xul,
deletecert.xul, domainMismatch.xul, downloadcert.xul, editcacert.xul,
editsslcert.xul, escrowWarn.xul, getp12password.xul, newserver.xul,
resetpassword.xul, serverCertExpired.xul, serverCrlNextupdate.xul and
setp12password.xul have a Help button, but no documentation. Documentation for
all these dialogs is available in the Mozilla Suite.

Comment 2

[Jeff Walden (gone starting June 8)]

This is somewhat problematic, as most of the stuff PSM reveals is currently just
so much bloat.  As I understand it, they're looking at refining some portion of
this stuff sometime (I don't know how much, but I assume when the UI for
certs/validation in Options is fixed, this will get tweaked as well).  When that
happens we'll update, but until then I don't see this getting any real coverage
unless someone outside the main group of Help contributors provides a patch.

Note also that the Seamonkey Help for this is not sufficient, as it's far too
unwieldy to count.  Help docs are comprehensible right now, but with Seamonkey's
help for PSM added we lose that understandability.  Much of the disclosed
information is all but useless, so it presumably will be changed so that only
truly important stuff is displayed.

Comment 3

[Steffen Wilberg]

Moving over to SUMO.
We should
1. create a new "in-product" article for the various security dialogs which can be opened from Options->Advanced->Encryption->Certificates like the Certificate Manager, Certificate Viewer, Manage CRL's, Device Manager etc.
2. add back the Help buttons to these dialogs.

Seamonkey has got documentation and Help buttons for those. For reference:
http://mxr.mozilla.org/seamonkey/source/suite/locales/en-US/chrome/common/help/certs_help.xhtml
http://mxr.mozilla.org/seamonkey/source/suite/locales/en-US/chrome/common/help/cert_dialog_help.xhtml
http://mxr.mozilla.org/seamonkey/source/suite/locales/en-US/chrome/common/help/using_certs_help.xhtml

Comment 4

[Bo]

Here is a draft of a "Certificate Manager window" document:
(http://support.mozilla.com/kb/Certificate+Manager)

Notes:
* We're trying to focus on "How to do x" instead of documenting every little thing, so I'm being quite a bit less verbose than the SeaMonkey documentation.
* I don't think we should try to explain public key cryptography in our knowledge base, so I'm just assuming the reader searches for how to add or remove a certificate or whatever, and knows what she's doing.

Comment 5

[Bo]

Here's a draft of a "Security Device manager" document:
(http://support.mozilla.com/kb/Security+Device+Manager)

Comment 6

[Bo]

Here's a draft of a "Certificate Revocation List Manager" document:
(http://support.mozilla.com/kb/Certificate+Revocation+List+Manager)

Comment 7

[Bo]

Lastly, here's a draft of an "OCSP Certificate Validation" document:
(http://support.mozilla.com/kb/OCSP+Certificate+Validation)

Sorry for the multiple comments.

I am marking this FIXED so we can review it for the SUMO KB. Please note any issues.

Comment 8

[Chris Ilias [:cilias]]

Who uses these dialogs? There is some content that I might consider too techie, but then I doubt that the average user would be interested in articles like these in the first place (unless they are troubleshooting). I'm not saying that we shouldn't have these articles. I'd just like to have a better idea of who will read these articles and why. It helps when reviewing.

Comment 9

[Bo]

The forum occasionally gets questions on:
* Adding certificates/authorities (e.g. http://support.mozilla.com/en-US/forum/1/311561)
* Adding CRLs (e.g. http://support.mozilla.com/tiki-view_forum_thread.php?locale=en-US&forumId=1&comments_parentId=38857)
* Enabling/disabling FIPS (usually about how to turn it off after accidentally disabling it)

The only times I've ever been asked about these tabs:
(1) Needed to add a certificate/CRL/whatever for something at work (e.g. intranet)
(2) Someone was bored and was looking through what settings are available, and didn't know what they were
(3) "Same serial number" (http://support.mozilla.com/en-US/kb/Certificate+contains+the+same+serial+number+as+another+certificate) craziness

I think these settings should be documented for (1). I tried to make the drafts "How to do x," so we're accomplishing that instead of (2).