370537 - Hook Up New Remote Start Page

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(Thunderbird :: General, defect)

Description

[Scott MacGregor]

Tracking Bug for integrating the new start page that will be hosted on mozilla.com. This particular bug will track the client side changes to use the new start page. When the page is ready, I'll file the appropriate website bug.

Marketing and silverorange are working on putting the page together and Justin has given the OK from the IT / hosting side.

I think the format for the start page url should mirror Firefox's firstrun/what's new urls, i.e.:

http://%LOCALE%.www.mozilla.com/%LOCALE%/%APP%/%VERSION%/start/

Note the version inside the path so we'll be able to change the start page for different versions.

Comment 1

[Sherman Dickman]

Will there also be a first run and updated page?  I would *highly* recommend it if it is possible to leverage code from Firefox.

Comment 2

[Pascal Chevrel:pascalc]

These pages require localization in 30+ languages, localization done by our software localizers or/and our web content localizers.

In other words, we need the final English reference page to be ready as soon as possible to be ready for the release because localization takes a lot of time.

Comment 3

[Pascal Chevrel:pascalc]

I just saw the beta version of the start page, here are my comments :

- the Thunderbird banner will have to be generated for all languages, that is to take into account in terms of time and manpower
- The support resources this page points to are English only, what do we have other languages point to ? Is pointing to localized support portals acceptable ?
- This is for all languages, not only Mozilla Europe + Japan
- These pages will be localized on mozilla.com infrastructure, the l10N process there is slower than on the affiliates sites

Comment 4

[Justin Fitzhugh]

Let's try to keep these pages static.  We'll have no issues with the load if they are static (i.e. no php/server side code/db calls).  Is this OK?

Comment 5

[Reed Loden [:reed]]

Is this bug for website changes or client changes? If it's for website changes, please move it to the Websites product so that the webmasters (such as myself) know about it.

Comment 6

[Scott MacGregor]

Hi Justin, the current plan is a static page just like the Firefox first run page:

http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/2.0/firstrun/

In fact our current draft looks an awful lot like that page except the logo is different :).

One comment about localization, we've taken the firefox start page which has already been localized and changed just a few sentences to refer to Thunderbird instead of Firefox. 

The issue for support urls is one we need to figure out. Thunderbird 1.5 explicitly allowed  localizers to link to local support sites in the trademark policy. I think we'll want to continue to allow that but from this page, it should be done via a redirect.

Comment 7

[Scott MacGregor]

Hi reed, per comment 0 this bug is intended for the client side changes to support a hosted start page only and should not be moved into the website category. But we're getting lots of good feedback on the hosting side coming in here.

We'll want a separate bug for the website specific changes. I'll get that started.

Comment 8

[Reed Loden [:reed]]

(In reply to comment #7)
> We'll want a separate bug for the website specific changes. I'll get that
> started.

Ok, sounds good. Thanks!

Comment 9

[Scott MacGregor]

Attachment: thunderbird changes to support a remote start page

Here's my first cut at making Thunderbird support a remote start page. I also added support for a welcome page url that loads the first time you run and whenever we detect a version change in the product. We are not planning on hosting a first run page at this time but want the ability to do so in the future. I think this means redirecting urls from:

http://%LOCALE%.www.mozilla.com/%LOCALE%/%APP%/%VERSION%/firstrun/
to
http://%LOCALE%.www.mozilla.com/%LOCALE%/%APP%/%VERSION%/start/

Break down of the patch: 

1) Create branding pref files for official branding and generic builds. I used about:blank for the start page urls for generic builds and the aforementioned mozilla.com formatted urls for official builds.

2) The start page url is no longer stored in messener-region.properties, it is now a formatted preference.

3) Options UI (Tools / General) now handles a formatted URL for the start page preference setting. It shows the user the formatted URL, but stores it without the formatting.

4) If we are offline, don't bother trying to load a start page.

5) In mailWindow.js, loadStartPage needs to format the start page url.

6) In mailWindows.js, I added logic to determine if we should run the welcome/first run url instead of the default start page based on changes to the platform version of the product. Firefox also uses the platform version, I need to investigate if we can use the application version instead, that makes more sense to me.

7) A user who wishes to always bypass the welcome page can set mailnews.start_page_override.mstone to have a value of "ignore"

8) Remove the old local start page

Comment 10

[Scott MacGregor]

Attachment: add back the local start page & use it for now

Actually, let's leave the local start page alone for now and let's use it for the default values of mailnews.start_page.url and mailnews.start_page.welcome_url. This would allow us to land the Thunderbird client changes to support a remote start page without actually having the remote start page. Down th eline, adding support would just mean changing the urls in thundebird-branding.js.

And folks can set these two prefs via about:config to test the remote start page with these client changes. 

magnus/bienvenu, see comment 9 for a break down of the changes in this patch.

Comment 11

[David :Bienvenu]

Comment on attachment 255545 [details] [diff] [review]
add back the local start page & use it for now

could use ? operator here...

+    if (formatter.formatURL(this.mStartPageUrl) == startPage.value)
+      return this.mStartPageUrl;
+    else
+      return startPage.value;           

writeStartPageUrl seems like a slightly misleading method name - I guess it's doing something more like getStartPageUrlForWriting

Comment 12

[Sherman Dickman]

Per comment 7, have you created separate bug for the website specific changes?

Comment 13

[Scott MacGregor]

Comment on attachment 255545 [details] [diff] [review]
add back the local start page & use it for now

Magnus, see comment 9 and 10 for a break down of this patch.

Comment 14

[Scott MacGregor]

(In reply to comment #12)
> Per comment 7, have you created separate bug for the website specific changes?
> 

I filed Bug 370828 to track any website changes required to support the static start page.

Comment 15

[Magnus Melin [:mkmelin]]

Comment on attachment 255545 [details] [diff] [review]
add back the local start page & use it for now

>+  var formatter = Components.classes["@mozilla.org/toolkit/URLFormatterService;1"]
>+                             .getService(Components.interfaces.nsIURLFormatter);

Should be lined up. In the other places you have split it with '.' at the end of the line, but maybe dot on a new line is better.

>+  // Can we use an application version instead? For now, also use the platform version.
>+  var currentPlatformVersion = Components.classes["@mozilla.org/xre/app-info;1"].
>+              getService(Components.interfaces.nsIXULAppInfo).platformVersion;             

There is a lot of spaces at the end of the line here and in a couple of other places.
Other than that, looks good.

Comment 16

[Scott MacGregor]

Attachment: patch as checked in with the review comments

approving for the branch too.

Comment 17

[Scott MacGregor]

Fixed on the branch and trunk.

To test this, use the config editor to set the following two prefs to different urls:

1) mailnews.start_page.url
2) mailnews.start_page.welcome_url
3) Reset any stored user pref value for: mailnews.start_page_override.mstone

Restart Thunderbird. Notice that the value of the welcome_url loads the first time you run. Now try: Go / Mail Start page and verify that the url you used for mailnews.start_page.url loads. Restart Thunderbird again and the start page url should be loaded again.

We'll also want to test around setting and restoring the start page URL via the Options UI, especially once we have elements in the start page url that need formatting. 

I'm going to mark this as closed and then use a new bug to add the urls when they are ready for us.

Comment 18

[Scott MacGregor]

I'm re-opening this. Sherman kindly explained the difference between a first run welcome page and an update page that loads after a major update, I thought they were the same page. I want the flexibility to support both of these urls just like Firefox, even though right now we won't be using either one.

Comment 19

[Scott MacGregor]

Attachment: add support for both a welcome and update url

Per my previous comment, this adds client side support for a start page, a first run welcome page and an update page. For now, all urls point to the local start page. 

I also fixed a problem with resetting the start page pref in the options UI.

Comment 20

[Scott MacGregor]

This last patch supporting all three states has been checked in. For testing purposes:

1) mailnews.start_page.url is used as the default start page
2) mailnews.start_page.welcome_url is a first run start page that only gets loaded once per profile. Testers may need to clear the mailnews.start_page_override.mstone pref from their profile to see this url get loaded.
3) mailnews.start_page.override_url runs every time the gecko version changes. Change the value of mailnews.start_page_override.mstone t osee this page get loaded.

Comment 21

[u81239]

This new start page has several issues.

Please review the bug 373887 I created describing what’s wrong with it.


~Grauw