379005 - Create Stub Extension that allows <em:requires> tags in Sunbird/Lightning Extensions

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(Calendar :: Sunbird Only, defect)

Description

[Philipp Kewisch [:Fallen][☁️📆]]

Attachment: Sunbird Extension Stub

Currently support for the <em:requires> tag only allows extension-wide dependencies. Adding a such tag to an extension that works for both lightning and sunbird means it will not work on sunbird, since lightning is obviously not installed in sunbird.

On the F2F meeting the idea was brought up to create a stub extension that stays hidden and has the same uuid as lightning. The attached patch does this but can be seen as a proof of concept, therefore I'm not requesting review yet.

The extension is hidden and locked, it does not show to the user.

Comment 1

[Philipp Kewisch [:Fallen][☁️📆]]

See also bug 298497 and http://wiki.mozilla.org/Extension_Manager:Extension_Dependencies

Comment 2

[Michiel van Leeuwen (email: mvl+moz@)]

If the hidden extension has the same ID as lightning, can you still create an extension that only works in lightning?
If not, how about adding an extension to both lightning and sunbird with a new id?

Comment 3

[Philipp Kewisch [:Fallen][☁️📆]]

If you want to make your extension only compatible with lightning, you can just omit support for sunbird by not adding a <em:targetApplication> tag for sunbird but adding one for thunderbird.

A new uuid would probably work too, but I think that might cause confusion.

Comment 4

[Stefan Sitter [:ssitter]]

This makes sense to me.

I would define an extension for Lightning like: Supports Thunderbird version <min> to <max> and required Lightning version <min> to <max>. 

This has the drawback that you can't support Sunbird with the same extension. Having a Lightning stub inside Sunbird would make this possible.

Having a separate uuid is no solution, because you would need to install the dummy extension together with Lightning and extension authors need to know about it too. With the proposed version they just need to know the Lightning uuid.

Comment 5

[Philipp Kewisch [:Fallen][☁️📆]]

Comment on attachment 263009 [details] [diff] [review]
Sunbird Extension Stub

After some thinking about this patch, I do think its ready for review.

Comment 6

[Daniel Boelzle [:dbo]]

Philipp, could you provide a test patch e.g. on gdata-provider, for testing?

Comment 7

[Philipp Kewisch [:Fallen][☁️📆]]

Attachment: Testing patch for gdata

I didn't retest myself since I am in a hurry, but this should do it. It worked fine when I wrote the patch.

Comment 8

[Daniel Boelzle [:dbo]]

I tested it successfully on Solaris SPARC; both Sunbird and Thunderbird/Lightning install such a (patched) gdata-provider.

Comment 9

[cmtalbert]

(In reply to comment #8)
> I tested it successfully on Solaris SPARC; both Sunbird and
> Thunderbird/Lightning install such a (patched) gdata-provider.
> 

This is awesome.  I can't remember if/where we documented the "how to write an extension for calendar" but, as this bug is fixed, can we also update that documentation to reflect this change?  I'd like it updated to coincide with the checkin, if possible, so we don't forget to do it.

Thanks!

Comment 10

[Philipp Kewisch [:Fallen][☁️📆]]

Comment on attachment 263009 [details] [diff] [review]
Sunbird Extension Stub

I created http://wiki.mozilla.org/Calendar:Creating_an_Extension as a start, since I couldn't find a such page.

I think we can check this in. Requesting review on both patches from daniel, to get this going.

Comment 11

[Daniel Boelzle [:dbo]]

Comment on attachment 263009 [details] [diff] [review]
Sunbird Extension Stub

r=dbo

Comment 12

[Daniel Boelzle [:dbo]]

Comment on attachment 277853 [details] [diff] [review]
Testing patch for gdata

r=dbo

Comment 13

[Philipp Kewisch [:Fallen][☁️📆]]

Checked in on HEAD and MOZILLA_1_8_BRANCH

-> FIXED

Comment 14

[Philipp Kewisch [:Fallen][☁️📆]]

Attachment: Add extension to package-static

Of course I forgot about packages-static again. Thanks ssitter for informing me. This takes care of it. I'm giving you review, since you probably know most about packages-static.

Comment 15

[Daniel Boelzle [:dbo]]

Me too :( Good we have ssitter keeping track of proper install sets. Anybody ever thought about a script generating that? It's just error prone.

Comment 16

[Stefan Sitter [:ssitter]]

Comment on attachment 279902 [details] [diff] [review]
Add extension to package-static

r=ssitter

Comment 17

[Philipp Kewisch [:Fallen][☁️📆]]

packages-static patch checked in