610036 - Sync adds Utils global with helper functions

Status: RESOLVED INVALID

(Firefox :: Sync, defect)

Description

[Mike Kaply [:mkaply]]

So I was looking at the code for the Prospector addons and I saw these references:

    Utils.delay(function() urlBar.controller.startSearch(urlBar.value));
  let stmt = Utils.createStatement(Svc.History.DBConnection, query);
  Utils.queryAsync(stmt, cols).forEach(function({input, url, title}) {

At first I thought some new API for Utils was introduced in Firefox 4 but not documented.

Upon further investigation, I found this:

http://mxr.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/source/services/sync/modules/util.js

the sync code adds a global called "Utils"

I have two problems with this:

1. Utils is a very generic name being added to the global namespace.
2. Other addons are using this API without it being documented.

If "Utils" is going to be some handy new thing, it needs to be outside of sync.
And if It is intended for Sync only, it should be named "SyncUtils" or something like that.

Comment 1

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

I don't see a "Utils" in the global browser window scope on a recent trunk build. When you say "Sync", are you referring to the addon?

Comment 2

[Philipp von Weitershausen [:philikon]]

Only when you import resource://services-sync/util.js you get Utils imported into your namespace. Prospector might do this for its code, but it's definitely not there by default in browser code. It *is* exposed as Weave.Utils in browser code, though (Weave being the namespace for Sync).

Comment 3

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

The Prospector code does explicitly import it:
jar:http://releases.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/addons/242706/mozilla_labs__prospector_-_speak_words-1-fx.xpi!/bootstrap.js

>function startup(data) AddonManager.getAddonByID(data.id, function(addon) {
>  Cu.import("resource://services-sync/util.js");

Comment 4

[Mike Kaply [:mkaply]]

Sorry, I missed the import because it wasn't contained with the other import
the addons.

This probably belongs over in developer documentation then.

If addon developers are going to start importing and using this (even if they
are Mozilla addon developers), there should probably be some documentation
around it.

Comment 5

[Philipp von Weitershausen [:philikon]]

As far as Sync is concerned these utils are internal to Sync. Labs add-ons might use them for convenience now, but we won't promise that this "API" will be stable.

That said, perhaps we should some of the popular to a more official and prominent location... resource://services-utils/ perhaps...