443822 - Built-in search engine may hide custom one for the same site after Firefox update

Status: RESOLVED INVALID

(Firefox :: Search, defect)

Description

[Andrey Lokot]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; ru; rv:1.8.1.15) Gecko/20080623 Firefox/2.0.0.15
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; ru; rv:1.8.1.15) Gecko/20080623 Firefox/2.0.0.15

I deleted built-in search plugin and installed updated version from its website. It was possible because their names were a bit different. Updated version of Firefox includes updated search plugin (now with the same name), and when I install it this search plugin disappears.

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Install Firefox 2.0.0.14 (ru-RU localization)
2. Delete Yandex built-in search plugin from the list
3. Go to www.yandex.ru and install search plugin. It appears in the list now
4. Update Firefox to 2.0.0.15

Actual Results:  
No error messages were shown while updating. Yandex search plugin is not present in the search plugins list. I can't install it from Yandex website because there is no install item in drop-down menu. The only way to reinstall it is to restore all built-in search plugins.

Expected Results:  
Maybe some error message should be shown. And at least on of the engines should remain in the list.

In ru-RU localization Yandex and Wikipedia(ru) search engines have different versions with different names in Firefox and on the websites (the last ones support search suggestions). In Firefox they were updated in 2.0.0.15 to the versions on the sites and have the same names now. After updating their xml files still are in /searchplugins subdir of my profile but engines themselves do not appear.

Think the same may be found with Wikipedia(en) engine and (maybe) another version of Firefox.

Comment 2

[:Gavin Sharp [email: [e-mail]]]

Not a dupe of bug 311626. We use the filename to store the "hidden" state in the DB, but the engine's ShortName (display name) to uniquely identify it once loaded. So when the old version's shipped plugin is hidden, and then renamed in a new version to match a profile plugin, it overrides the profile plugin but remains hidden (because the filename is the same).

Not that big of a deal, since you can always "restore default" to have it appear again.

Comment 3

[Andrey Lokot]

(In reply to comment #2)
> So when the old version's shipped plugin is hidden, and then renamed in
> a new version to match a profile plugin, it overrides the profile plugin but
> remains hidden (because the filename is the same).
Only shortnames now are the same. Filenames are still different.

Old shipped plugin: ShortName="Yandex" filename="yandex.xml"   (in app dir)
     Custom plugin: ShortName="Яндекс" filename="872861-f.xml" (in profile dir)
New shipped plugin: ShortName="Яндекс" filename="yandex.xml"   (in app dir)

Old shipped plugin: ShortName="Wikipedia (RU)" filename="wikipedia-ru.xml"
     Custom plugin: ShortName="Википедия (ru)" filename="-ru.xml"
New shipped plugin: ShortName="Википедия (ru)" filename="wikipedia-ru.xml"

> Not that big of a deal, since you can always "restore default" to have it
> appear again.
The solution is easy when you know what caused the problem. I spent some time investigating why Firefox "doesn't understand" xml files in my profile.

Thank you for your attention.

Comment 4

[:Gavin Sharp [email: [e-mail]]]

(In reply to comment #3)
> Only shortnames now are the same. Filenames are still different.

> Old shipped plugin: ShortName="Yandex" filename="yandex.xml"   (in app dir)
>      Custom plugin: ShortName="Яндекс" filename="872861-f.xml" (in
> profile dir)
> New shipped plugin: ShortName="Яндекс" filename="yandex.xml"   (in app
> dir)

Right, I meant that the "new shipped plugin" and "old shipped plugin" have the same filename, but a different ShortName. We should perhaps consider changing the filenames of shipped plugins when we change their ShortName.

Comment 5

[Henrik Skupin [:whimboo][⌚️UTC+1]]

Gavin, is this a valid request? If yes we should confirm this bug.

Comment 6

[Henrik Skupin [:whimboo][⌚️UTC+1]]

Confirming bug by reading comment 2 from Gavin.

Comment 7

[Florian Quèze [:florian]]

This behavior is now intentional (see bug 1109354).