314567 - Talkback data (config and events) lost on Firefox upgrade

Status: RESOLVED WONTFIX

(Core Graveyard :: Talkback Client, defect)

Description

[Tony Mechelynck [:tonymec]]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8) Gecko/20051031 Firefox/1.5
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8) Gecko/20051031 Firefox/1.5

When upgrading Firefox, all Talkback data is lost

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Install Firefox, e.g. ftp://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/firefox/nightly/latest-mozilla1.8/firefox-1.5.en-us.win32.installer.exe
2. Run C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\extensions\[e-mail]\components\talkback.exe to configure Talkback
3. In Talkback, select Settings -> archiving -> Keep all incidents (and any other desired settings).
4. Wait for a crash to happen. (This is not the place to tell you how to crash Firefox ;-) ).
5. Send the Talkback report and _do not_ delete the event.
6. Upgrade Firefox e.g. as in step 1 above. (Custom install with all bells & whistles.)
7. Reload Talkback as in step 2 above.
8. A Talkback setup wizard appears, and all saved events are lost.
Actual Results:  
All Talkback settings and events are lost after the upgrade.

Expected Results:  
Crashes and settings set before the upgrade should have been kept over the upgrade, like all other settings which are kept in the user's profile, and all the more so now that Talkback is listed among the extensions.

I have checked this on my present build, i.e., Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8) Gecko/20051031 Firefox/1.5 ID:2005103103. I suspect that it may affect all products and platforms but I cannot check it. If you have Mozilla/Thunderbird/Camino/Linux/Mac/... please test it.

Comment 1

[timeless]

talkback data isn't really lost, it's more that talkback isn't interested in finding your reports (they're in application data directories per version).

it'd be very nice if talkback would show reports from all versions...

Comment 2

[Tony Mechelynck [:tonymec]]

(In reply to comment #1)
> talkback data isn't really lost, it's more that talkback isn't interested in
> finding your reports (they're in application data directories per version).
> 
> it'd be very nice if talkback would show reports from all versions...
> 

Well, couldn't Talkback (like other "extensions") keep its settings and data in some version-independent place in the user's profile? I guess the fact that Talkback is closed-source software makes that harder, but I imagine (rightly or wrongly) that it wouldn't be totally impossible.

Comment 3

[Jay Patel [:jay]]

We don't have the source for Talkback and this "bug" is just a limitation in the implementation.  If we ever get the source, we might be able to fix this, but for now, I don't see anything being done about preserving Talkback data locally.

Comment 4

[Tony Mechelynck [:tonymec]]

(In reply to comment #3)
> We don't have the source for Talkback and this "bug" is just a limitation in
> the implementation.  If we ever get the source, we might be able to fix this,
> but for now, I don't see anything being done about preserving Talkback data
> locally.
> 

Too bad. We don't have the source but we can ascertain where the Talkback client associated with each build of Firefox keeps its data. Short of having Talkback keep its data in one version-independent place, wouldn't it be possible to modify the installer script so that, if a previous Talkback installation is found, its settings and data be somehow "carried over" (copied) to the new place?

This would involve no change in the Talkback client itself. I humbly suggest that this bug be reopened, and moved back to the Installer component.

Comment 5

[Alex R.]

*** Bug 345228 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 6

[Tony Mechelynck [:tonymec]]

Now that I am operating mostly on Linux, I can see this bug here also. Hence I'm changing this bug from "Windows" to "All". I'm even changing this to "All/all" on a hunch. If it doesn't ghappen on non-i86 platforms, change the "Hardware" flag back, or if you can't, post a comment and I will.