625516 - Change snippet content on all pre-Fx Beta 9 browser versions

Status: RESOLVED INCOMPLETE

(mozilla.org Graveyard :: Webdev, task)

Description

[Laura Forrest]

There are over 300K beta users running an outdated version. That number will greatly increase when 9 is launched. In the near future we'd like to update all pre-Firefox Beta 9 snippets to include an "upgrade" message. 

We realize this is one of the first locally hosted snippet changes so please let us know what else we can do to help.

Details:
- Change snippet copy to read: "There's a new version of Firefox 4 Beta! Upgrade today for more speed and cool features. _Free download_."
- Link: http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/beta/?WT.mc_id=S_b8&WT.mc_ev=click
- Show that one snippet to 100% of visitors (remove second snippet where applicable)
- Snippets on Firefox Beta 9 will remain the same
- Content will not exceed current 3.6 snippet functions and will include: text and link only
- en-US locale only 
- If beta version did not include a snippet when shipped no change is needed 

The overarching Firefox 4 Snippet Content Plan:
https://intranet.mozilla.org/Marketing/StartPageSnippets#Firefox_4_Snippets_-_Content_Plan

Comment 1

[Les Orchard [:lorchard]]

FWIW, I don't think I'm the right person to be assigned this bug... I'm working on a snippet server that will be eventually used in Firefox by the time of launch, but it's not being used in any beta version of Firefox 4 yet as far as I'm aware. As such, I don't know of any way to change snippet content in Firefox

Maybe someone from the Firefox team can comment?

Comment 2

[Les Orchard [:lorchard]]

Also, noticed this didn't go through the webdev project initiation form, so adding to the cc list

Comment 3

[Les Orchard [:lorchard]]

Adding [e-mail] to CC, since he worked on the Firefox end of snippets. Hopefully he (or someone else) can comment on / correct this: 

Some betas of Fx4 may already be looking for snippets.mozilla.com, but I'm not sure where the feature was first introduced. Before then, I think the snippets were hardcoded into the released browser and not manageable via the web.

So, some betas may have snippets that can be changed once the snippet service has been launched, and some may not.

Comment 4

[Marco Bonardo [:mak]]

In beta7 we hardcoded http://snippets.mozilla.com/" + STARTPAGE_VERSION + "/%NAME%/%VERSION%/%APPBUILDID%/%BUILD_TARGET%/%LOCALE%/%CHANNEL%/%OS_VERSION%/%DISTRIBUTION%/%DISTRIBUTION_VERSION%/

beta8 moved that to a pref.
But notice that security review requested that those are served through a secure connection, thus we probably need to change to https before the release (see https://wiki.mozilla.org/Security/Reviews/Firefox4/about:home_Security_Review)

in the meanwhile, if you want to put some snippets in the above url, beta7,8,9 should get them.

Comment 5

[Les Orchard [:lorchard]]

(In reply to comment #4)

> But notice that security review requested that those are served through a
> secure connection, thus we probably need to change to https before the release

If http://snippets.mozilla.com/ is a redirect to https, will the request for snippets follow the redirect? I can't remember if that's automatic for XHR in Firefox

> in the meanwhile, if you want to put some snippets in the above url, beta7,8,9
> should get them.

So, in other words, once the snippet service is live, we can serve content into Fx4 beta 7 and later, but nothing earlier than that?

Comment 6

[Marco Bonardo [:mak]]

(In reply to comment #5)
> (In reply to comment #4)
> If http://snippets.mozilla.com/ is a redirect to https, will the request for
> snippets follow the redirect? I can't remember if that's automatic for XHR in
> Firefox

according to the specs it could work
"If the origin of the URL conveyed by the Location header is same origin with the XMLHttpRequest origin and the redirect does not violate infinite loop precautions, transparently follow the redirect while observing the same-origin request event rules."

> So, in other words, once the snippet service is live, we can serve content into
> Fx4 beta 7 and later, but nothing earlier than that?

right, nothing earlier than beta7 has code to download snippets.

Comment 7

[Chris Beard]

which is to say that the snippet service is already live for beta7 and above

Comment 8

[Les Orchard [:lorchard]]

(In reply to comment #7)
> which is to say that the snippet service is already live for beta7 and above

No, the snippet service is not live. But, once it passes load testing and security review, it can go live and beta7 and above will start using it.

Comment 9

[Les Orchard [:lorchard]]

Adding snippet service bug as a blocker

Comment 10

[Laura Forrest]

Closing as resolved/incomplete since snippet service went live with fx4 beta 7 and above and upgrade messaging was/is being served to those folks.