472743 - Detect if user has a theme installed prior to install @ getpersonas.com

Status: RESOLVED WONTFIX

(Mozilla Labs Graveyard :: Personas Plus, defect, P2)

Description

[David Rolnitzky]

We should detect whether or not a user has a theme installed before they download the Personas extension.  A user that has a theme installed and then tries to download Personas will likely encounter a conflict.

We'll need to message these users pre-download so that they know they will need to take some action (uninstall or deactivating a theme) before they will be able to install Personas properly.  This messaging should appear on the first-run page (or even the getpersonas.com homepage).

Not a blocker for wider launch, but should be addressed.

Comment 1

[Myk Melez [:myk] [@mykmelez]]

Note: a simpler (although suboptimal, certainly) solution would be to notify the user on the first run page (after they've installed the extension) that their selected theme will interfere with personas.  The reason it's simpler is that the extension has chrome privileges, which makes it easy for it to check if the user has a non-default theme, whereas the website doesn't have chrome privileges, and its more complicated to expose theme info to it.

I agree, however, that the best experience would be for the website to notify the user pre-install.

Comment 2

[David Rolnitzky]

Adding Ryan to this bug.

Ryan -- what's your recommendation here from a web dev perspective?  How much work would it be to detect if a user has a conflicting theme on the getpersonas.com homepage vs. first-run page?

Comment 3

[Ryan Doherty (:rdoherty)]

(In reply to comment #2)
> Adding Ryan to this bug.
> 
> Ryan -- what's your recommendation here from a web dev perspective?  How much
> work would it be to detect if a user has a conflicting theme on the
> getpersonas.com homepage vs. first-run page?

I just talked with Myk and there is no way for a webpage to detect themes installed in Firefox, it would be a security issue if they could. 

So our best option is to message the user on restart, on the homepage or firstrun page.

Comment 4

[David Rolnitzky]

Got it.  OK, we should definitely shoot for the first run page, as every new user will see that page (and see the conflict message).  These users may or may not go back and visit the homepage.

Comment 5

[Chris Beard]

in parallel to any web page content, i think i'll be able to add a check and dialog within the add-on to tell a user that only the default theme is supported, and potentially also have a button to switch to it (or, at the very least a shortcut to open the add-ons manager and navigate to the pane where you select your current theme)

Comment 6

[Myk Melez [:myk] [@mykmelez]]

Note: since we load the first run page from the website, it doesn't have the ability to check what theme the user is using by default either.  We have two options for fixing that:

1. We could bundle the first run page with the extension and load it as chrome.
2. We could expose the current theme to the website (the same way we expose the presence of the Personas extension to the site).

Comment 7

[Myk Melez [:myk] [@mykmelez]]

Note: we should detect and warn users about both browser and OS themes.

Comment 8

[Alfred Kayser]

Some themes, like my Nautipolis and LittleFox do actually support the use of Personas.
There should be a way to allow the combination of a Personas 'theme' with a normal 'Theme'. 
When Personas was just an extension this was possible (and still is via the extension), but now that FF3.6 has 'lwtheme' build in, it outcasts existing themes.
This outcasting behaviour is not Mozilla like, and one should allow theme extensions. 
Note, I have been theming Mozilla for 10 years now, ofwhich5 years for FF, and now this is stopped because of this.
I have invested time to support Personas in my themes (with great effect), but now Personas is refusing to support me....

Comment 9

[Ryan Doherty (:rdoherty)]

Firefox is now responsible for managing theme+persona conflicts. If this is still an issue please open a bug for Firefox -> Theme component.