412885 - Warning needed before installing in the profile an upgrade to an app-global extension

Status: RESOLVED DUPLICATE of bug 300967

(Toolkit :: Add-ons Manager, defect)

Description

[Tony Mechelynck [:tonymec]]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; rv:1.9b3pre) Gecko/2008011701 SeaMonkey/2.0a1pre
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; rv:1.9b3pre) Gecko/2008011701 SeaMonkey/2.0a1pre

Sometimes, "Search for Updates" will find an update for an extension distributed with SeaMonkey (suiterunner), such as Chatzilla or Venkman. The upgrade (if selected) is installed in the profile. If a later bz2 install unpacks the same or a later update under the application install folder, the version in the profile still has priority, as shown by viewing the extensions.rdf.

The fact that duplicate versions of the extension are installed is not obvious (only one version is shown in the Add-Ons Manager) but can be ascertained, for instance, by comparing attentively the directory listings of the extensions/ subdirectories of both the profile and install folders (for instance, for a duplicated ChatZilla, a {59c81df5-4b7a-477b-912d-4e0fdf64e5f2} subfolder exists in both).

After using "uninstall" for such a duplicated extension in the Add-Ons Manager and restarting SeaMonkey, only the version in the profile is uninstalled, reactivating the one under the install folder: this may make a naïve user believe that the uninstall "didn't work", but extensions.rdf shows that the extension is now global (in the RDF:Description tag for that extension, NS1:installLocation is now "app-global" rather than "app-profile").

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. See above
2.
3.


Expected Results:  
- When finding an upgrade for an extension in the install folder, the fact should be mentioned to the user. (Installing the upgrade in the profile and giving it priority is, I suppose, OK if the user decides to proceed with the upgrade.)
- When, at startup, an extension is found in both the profile and the install folders, with the latter being the same or a later version than the former, the user should be given the option to uninstall the version in the profile.

Comment 1

[Tony Mechelynck [:tonymec]]

I think this bug should be All/All rather than PC/Linux but I cannot test it: if someone on another platform can check me, please change the Hardware/OS settings accordingly.

Comment 2

[Andrew Schultz]

AFAICT, the only SeaMonkey issue you've raised is the way we're shipping some extensions.  See

http://wiki.mozilla.org/ChatZilla:Suiterunner#appManaged

The specific issues you raise sound like Extension manager bugs (conveniently located in the product you're not using), but they probably deserve separate bugs (morph this bug into one of them (like "the user should be notified when installing an extension to override an app-installed extension") and file a new bug for any others).

Comment 3

[Dave Townsend [:mossop]]

I think this is probably a dupe of bug 300967 or at least very strongly related to it. We basically need to figure out what is the right thing to do when seeing an update for an extension in an install location we can't update in.

Comment 4

[Tony Mechelynck [:tonymec]]

In reply to comment #3

Yes, I think this is due to the same issue as bug 300967 -- I'm still changing the Summary for clarity. For the lack of warning after the app-global version equals or exceeds the one in the profile, I'll file a different bug, with pointers back and forth between it and 300967 (though I don't think either of them "blocks" the other), and CC to you.