283685 - Firefox should display the current profile name somewhere

Status: RESOLVED WONTFIX

(Firefox :: General, enhancement)

Description

[Jeffrey Knauth]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.7.6) Gecko/20050223 Firefox/1.0.1
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.7.6) Gecko/20050223 Firefox/1.0.1

Firefox should display the current profile name somewhere easily
accessible, e.g., in Tools > Options > General or Tools > Options >
Advanced.  This would help avoid confusion when multiple profiles are
being tested by showing clearly which one is currently running.

Mozilla used to display the profile name in the Bookmarks management
dialog (of all places).  I think that was removed some time ago.  I
don't think the current profile name has ever been displayed anywhere in
Firefox.

Someone once described to me a bookmarklet JavaScript technique to
display the current profile name, but I have lost it.  In any event, the
current profile name seems like important information and the user
shouldn't have to turn handsprings to display it.


Reproducible: Always

Comment 1

[Wolf [:wolf]]

I disagree that placement should be located in options... Being able to discover
the current used profile has its place though, particularly in debugging.

Before those condemn this for being bad, though. Consider the all to common case
of firefox spawning a new profile because the current one is suspected of being
in-use (after a crash), to the end user, they just think they've lost
prefs/bookmarks/extensions. It'd be nice to be able to point them somewhere in
browser to determine which profile is in use (and if others are available..
about:profiles perhaps.)

Comment 2

[Nickolay_Ponomarev]

->General

Comment 3

[Jaime Mitchell (use [e-mail] for email)]

Potentially useful support wise as per comment 1 -> New

Comment 4

[Jaime Mitchell (use [e-mail] for email)]

Looking at the dupes of bug 223169 this should be marked a dupe and bug 223169
set to Core: profile backend.

Does that seem reasomable?

Comment 5

[Charles Evans]

I would prefer a checkbox in the profiles manager to put the profile name in 
the Window Title; when you pick a profile it should set the box to the last state it had when that profile was last used.

Comment 6

[David McRitchie]

The bug here is for Firefox.  The bug mentioned in c#4 is for SeaMonkey.   

Besides option (checkmark) of putting name into Title, one should be able to see the actual pathname to the profile directory in Help, and the actual pathname of the application it is running in should also be there as well.

There should also be a related fix for the Profile Manager at the same time, where the pathname of the application calling the profile manager should be made available.  Calling the wrong profile from a different version of Firefox can be damaging.  The complete name should also be determineable, if for no other reason than that the name can be renamed and does not affect the filename.  More to the point it is possible, I expect, to have more than one profile named "default".

Comment 7

[Jacques Lemire]

suggestion:

The Windows Title is already busy.

The profile name should be displayed under View -> Profile
You are currently running profile "<here-a-name>" created 2011/Aug/22

or


The profile name should be displayed under Help -> Profile
You are currently running profile "<here-a-name>" created 2011/Aug/22

Comment 8

[Alex Limi (:limi) — Firefox UX Team]

Hi! Thanks for your work on this.

However, from a UI point of view, this is something that is unlikely to be relevant to anyone but a very small audience, and should probably be an add-on instead.

Comment 9

[Mark Capella [:capella]]

Attachment: Possible solutions (#1 , #2, #3)

Possible solutions (#1 , #2, #3) ... FYI Boriss <[e-mail]> suggested #4  moving it to the Tools / options / Advanced tab under General, UX Team says ADD-ON. This is a first time bug/enhancement for me, so I'll go ahead as appropriate... who decides?

Comment 10

[Jennifer Morrow [:Boriss] (UX)]

(In reply to Mark Capella from comment #9)
> Created attachment 590857 [details]
> Possible solutions (#1 , #2, #3)
> 
> Possible solutions (#1 , #2, #3) ... FYI Boriss <[e-mail]>
> suggested #4  moving it to the Tools / options / Advanced tab under General,
> UX Team says ADD-ON. This is a first time bug/enhancement for me, so I'll go
> ahead as appropriate... who decides?

Until we really have any UI or a switcher, I agree with Comment 8 - the Preferences window isn't used for display of information without the ability to manipulate it anywhere, and adding this would set a bit of a strange precedent.

Comment 11

[Mounir Lamouri (:mounir)]

I think it would have this place in an about page. about:support seems the best suited but I'm not sure it's an ideal candidate though.

Comment 12

[Mark Capella [:capella]]

   Thanks for your attention!

   The profile manager can be set to always open at startup by un-checking the "Don't ask at Startup" box, effectively becoming a "switcher" if I understand the reference.

   Switching profiles on the fly would be trickier, perhaps involving a firefox re-start, and is out of scope of the original enhancement request as I read it.

   I could look into it if the request was expanded, I'm not sure yet of the chain of command around here  : - p

   Maybe I mis-read the intended target audience for the enhancement. Displaying the information on the about:support page (option #3 in my attachement) allows testers and end-users alike an unobtrusive and quick way to check their current profile and satisfy the request.

Comment 13

[Mark Capella [:capella]]

Attachment: propised change to ABOUT:SUPPORT screen

Comment 14

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

Comment on attachment 591365 [details] [diff] [review]
propised change to ABOUT:SUPPORT screen

Spoke to Mark on IRC - I think there isn't much value to exposing this name anywhere, and bug 214675 aims to remove the entire concept of a "profile name", so I think this is WONTFIX.

Comment 15

[Charles Evans]

I use the addon "show profile" 
Highly recommended if you test or use -no-remote 
(If you rename a profile, you have to manually
add the new name as a custom string.
)