666216 - Add-ons manager should display maxVersion of incompatible add-ons

Status: RESOLVED INACTIVE

(Toolkit :: Add-ons Manager, enhancement)

Description

[Steffen Wilberg]

The Add-ons manager currently displays incompatible extensions like this:
"(addon) is incompatible with Nightly 7.0a1".

It would be cool if it would say:
"(addon) only supports Nightly up to version 6".
I just wouldn't care in that case. But I may have extensions which have a maxVersion of 3.6; I'd rather look for alternatives in that case.

Comment 1

[Tony Mechelynck [:tonymec]]

Maybe something like "Supports Firefox 2.0 - 3.6.*" (or maybe "Supports Toolkit 1.8.1 - 1.9.2.*") displayed for all extensions regardless of whether the current app version falls inside or outside the range? Possibly in the Detail view if there is not felt to be room in the List view (though right-justified [or let's say end-justified: in RTL languages it might mean left-justified] after the install date in the List view seems possible to me).

Comment 2

[Tony Mechelynck [:tonymec]]

P.S. Install dates is in the "Recent Updates" tab; in the "Extensions" tab the corresponding line is the one with the add-on name (and of course I do *not* propose tho add the new mention in the same big bold type as the name).

Comment 3

[Steffen Wilberg]

The minVersion is pretty useless, except for the edge case of opening the profile with an earlier version of Firefox, e.g. 3.6: "(addon) only supports Firefox 5 or newer".

This doesn't belong in the Recent Updates view, as the incompatible add-ons won't be present there...

On the other hand, the details view (double click an extension to open) has plenty of space, maybe after the Last Updated line. Maybe display it there all the time, compatible or not, but only display it in the main extensions listing for incompatible addons, i.e. refine the existing string.

Comment 4

[Henrik Skupin [:whimboo][⌚️UTC+1] (away from Feb 12th - Feb 22nd)]

I don't think that the toolkit version would be helpful for most of our users. They are not aware of the underlying platform, and only know the version of Firefox they are using. I like that idea in general to see at least the max version, because it's kinda in-transparent right now and need further knowledge from users to find out why the add-on is not working.

Comment 5

[Tony Mechelynck [:tonymec]]

In reply to comment #3:
Incompatible versions *will* be present there if they've recently been updated manually, and the appropriate extensions.checkCompatibility.* pref is set to false (or the Compatibility Reporter is installed)

In reply to comment #4: It is possible to install extensions with only generic "Toolkit" support, and I expect that even non-tech users will occasionally do it. For recent versions (>= 5.0) Toolkit version and Firefox version are the same, but this applies neither to earlier Toolkit versions nor to SeaMonkey, so I can see at least the following use cases:
- "This extension supports up to version 2.*": if it's Toolkit 2.* it means Firefox 4.* and there's a good chance (though of course not a certainty) that it still works on 5.* Beta with Compatibility Reporter installed. If it's Firefox 2.* it probably means the maintainer has gone AWOL.
- "This extension supports up to version 5.*": So why doesn't it work on SeaMonkey 2.4a1? (Hint: Sm2.4 corresponds to Fx7.)

Comment 6

[BMO Automation]

Per policy at https://wiki.mozilla.org/Bug_Triage/Projects/Bug_Handling/Bug_Husbandry#Inactive_Bugs. If this bug is not an enhancement request or a bug not present in a supported release of Firefox, then it may be reopened.