304397 - Extension Update should display update severities

Status: RESOLVED WONTFIX

(Toolkit :: Add-ons Manager, enhancement)

Description

[alanjstr]

See also bug 304396

When the application says that an update available, it should be able to tell
the user whether it is important.  This will help differnetiate from an
enhancement update from a security update.  Firefox updates have different
levels already.

Comment 1

[Robert Strong (they/them - no direct email)]

Is this for extension update? If so it belongs in the Extension/Theme Manager
component. If not the summary should be changed

Comment 2

[Robert Strong (they/them - no direct email)]

Who / how would this be managed? The only way this would be of value is if everyone used the same criteria to designate an update severity. This could possibly be done for addons hosted on AMO but I wouldn't implement this without such a process in place on AMO first otherwise it would just be additional code / work with little value for it.

Comment 3

[alanjstr]

Robert -

Thats why I referenced the AMO counterpart, bug 304396

Comment 4

[Cees T.]

See also bug 263438.

Comment 5

[Dave Townsend [:mossop]]

Another issue here is how severitys cascade over multiple versions. If for example I have the first version of an extension, the latest version available is the third version and the second version is a critical security fix. Somehow we would have to figure out that the third version is really a critical security fix for the first version when it might not be for the second.

Comment 6

[Dave Townsend [:mossop]]

From bug 416833, extensions that have high severity updates available should be presented to the user immediately in order to ensure that they see and either apply the update or dismiss it based on knowledge of the update severity.

Comment 8

[Michael Morgan [:morgamic]]

When could this be implemented?  Bug 304396 is a simple server-side task.  Is this on the roadmap anywhere?  How can we help move this forward?

Comment 9

[Dave Townsend [:mossop]]

(In reply to comment #8)
> When could this be implemented?  Bug 304396 is a simple server-side task.  Is
> this on the roadmap anywhere?  How can we help move this forward?

There is basically no chance of it being implemented for Firefox 3 unless it were made blocking and as of now it is late in the game. We would also still need to come to some conclusions on the questions in comments 2 and 5.

Comment 10

[alanjstr]

This doesn't need to be chicken and egg.  The application will need to know what to do if that RDF element isn't present.  Whether AMO first deploys the severity or some private user does, we'd be able to display it.

For comment #2: Once we have the RDF to display it, whoever supplies it will be able to take advantage, whether it be AMO or private.  

For comment #5: Setting severity should be server-side (Bug 304396).  The client would only know about 3.0 and 3.2, it wouldn't know that 3.1 was marked as a priority.

Comment 11

[Dave Townsend [:mossop]]

(In reply to comment #10)
> For comment #2: Once we have the RDF to display it, whoever supplies it will be
> able to take advantage, whether it be AMO or private. 

I don't understand this comment. What we need to know is what severity levels we are going to work with, an idea of what those levels relate to in the real world such that we can design the UI based around how to display the updates.

> For comment #5: Setting severity should be server-side (Bug 304396).  The
> client would only know about 3.0 and 3.2, it wouldn't know that 3.1 was marked
> as a priority.

Ok that places the burden on AMO to get the severity across versions correct. This is fine by me.

Comment 12

[alanjstr]

(In reply to comment #11)
> (In reply to comment #10)
> > For comment #2: Once we have the RDF to display it, whoever supplies it will be
> > able to take advantage, whether it be AMO or private. 
> 
> I don't understand this comment. What we need to know is what severity levels
> we are going to work with, an idea of what those levels relate to in the real
> world such that we can design the UI based around how to display the updates.

I misunderstood the comment.  You want to know the range of values and what they mean.  I'd recommend numbers so that the text can be localized.  I've left gaps in case we want other values in the future.

0 - Normal (enhancements, just released, etc)
3 - Major (bugs fixed, significant perf improvement)
5 - Critical (crash, security bugs)

Comment 13

[Andy McKay]

The last comment on this was 9 years ago. It seems no-one wants to implement this, so I'm going to close.