649692 - set maxVersion to * so addons are forward-compatible with future Firefoxes

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(Add-on SDK Graveyard :: General, defect, P1)

Description

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

In recent discussions between AMO and Jetpack folks, we concluded that SDK-based addons should have their maxVersions set to * so they are forward-compatible with future versions of Firefox, since the SDK exposes high-level APIs that are intended to be forward-compatible, the Jetpack team will update the SDK to maintain forward compatibility, and AMO will automatically update addons to use newer versions of the SDK.

If we're going to ship this change, we should test it in a beta release, which makes this a P1 for 1.0b5.

Comment 1

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

Attachment: patch v1: implements change

Note: in addition to accomplishing the stated goal, this change also (re)stores compatibility with nightly and Aurora builds, which now have 6.* and 5.* version numbers, respectively.

Comment 2

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

Attachment: patch v2: now with fewer comments

Erm, on second thought, this probably doesn't need to be documented in the code (well, configuration) itself.  Better to save the space in this case.

Comment 3

[Brian Warner [:warner :bwarner]]

Comment on attachment 525761 [details] [diff] [review]
patch v2: now with fewer comments

Sounds good to me. The "AMO will automatically update addons" claim makes me nervous, but it's at least plausible. Are we comfortable with the failure mode if we fail to update them? (addons claiming to be compatible but breaking in weird ways)

Comment 4

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

(In reply to comment #3)
> Sounds good to me.

https://github.com/mozilla/addon-sdk/commit/8a2375d3de745b529e9ff0c75a91fee1f05484ee


> The "AMO will automatically update addons" claim makes me
> nervous, but it's at least plausible. 

Granted we haven't implemented it yet, but it's an AMO Q2 goal (in conjunction with the Builder team, which is implementing the repack service).


> Are we comfortable with the failure mode
> if we fail to update them? (addons claiming to be compatible but breaking in
> weird ways)

That's a good question.  Perhaps you can raise that in the discussion about the change in the discussion group?

http://groups.google.com/group/mozilla-labs-jetpack/t/1c5dec9052de2499

Comment 5

[Anthony Ricaud (:rik)]

I just got bitten by this. cfx run does not work with current Aurora and Nightly. Is it gonna be available in the SDK?