Closed
Bug 677861
Opened 14 years ago
Closed 7 years ago
Add way to start with only one addon enabled to track down problem addon
Categories
(Toolkit :: Add-ons Manager, enhancement)
Toolkit
Add-ons Manager
Tracking
()
RESOLVED
INACTIVE
People
(Reporter: WMission76, Unassigned)
References
Details
(Whiteboard: [wontfix?])
User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; WOW64; rv:5.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/5.0
Build ID: 20110615151330
Steps to reproduce:
[Someone said my suggestions were good and I was told to submit my suggestions here, as opposed to at Firebug's site as they would get lost in Firebug's thread
e.g. http://code.google.com/p/fbug/issues/detail?id=4607 ]
ME: You know what?
YOU: What?
ME: What the Firefox community needs is some sort of way to isolate each Add-On in a sort of "debug mode" for things like this.
This is so we don't have to uninstall every single Add-On just to test each one separately to see where the problem really is.
This one thing is probably slowing all Firefox development down.
Furthermore, there should a test, or another Add-On, that can test, while all the other Add-Ons are installed, to see which Add-Ons cause the most performance issues as opposed to going to the Firefox website and looking over there. Sort of like a nested loop with the outer loop disabling add-on in an isolation mode and the inner loop doing the actual performance test of the isolated Add-On.
Yes, I know the FF community has already done a test on the worst performing add-ons.
However, say if some Add-On developer tried to fix their slow Add-On, would it not be nice to automatically use another Add-On or test, THAT SPECIFICALLY ISOLATED their Add-On AUTOMATICALLY, from all the other installed Add-On, to see how well they did?
POSSIBLE ANSWER:
Doesn't Adobe Illustrator and Adobe Photoshop have an isolation mode for each layer as opposed to turning off all the other layers and then leaving the one layer you want to work on?
I think even some Audio Software Mastering tools do the same thing with channels, like DigiDesign's Pro Tools.
Also, in this isolation mode (or whatever) I want to have two lists of disabled Add-Ons. One list of disabled Add-Ons for this isolation mode I am talking about. And another list of disabled Add-Ons that say FF disabled because it wasn't compatible with the latest version of FF. OR, perhaps list the DATE and TIME of disablement in the order of last time disabled, so I can better sort through my list of Add-Ons that I want to "Enable" back after a test.
Nevertheless, an Isolation Mode for Add-Ons, would be nicer as Add-Ons, because there are so many and it's hard to keep up with all the new versions of FF being released.
Actual results:
see above
Expected results:
I tried submitting a suggestion elsewhere at mozilla, the character count was way too low to offer a detailed suggestion.
Comment 1•14 years ago
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Sorry but an extension can't be isolated, they are part of the browser if they are activated. That's the reason why a single extension can break the whole browser. That's of course bad but the advantage is that you can do everything with an extension and are not limited to a fixed API.
You don't need to uninstall an extension, just deactivate it.
A jetpack extension is however different as it only uses a fixed API.
Reporter | ||
Comment 2•14 years ago
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How about a sort of *pseudo* isolation, that is?
This *pseudo* isolation is where all the extensions get deactivated. Then, that one extension, the one you want to test, gets activated and a battery of tests can be run against that one still activated extension.
A little longer, and yes, somewhat round-about, and there could a FF restart for each add-on you want to test, but that sure is a lot better than what we have now.
Right now, everyone has to manually uninstall, or disable all the add-ons and then test one by one.
And using another profile is not exactly that easy either, as I have to find that one extension and install that as the new profile is with FF from scratch.
Then move on to the next one to test. Pain in the neck, not to mention very time consuming as well as tracking which one you tested last, even if done alphabetically.
JUST THINKING OUT LOUD:
Under the Add-Ons page in FF, there is a list of all the Add-Ons. It need to add another button somewhere next to "Disable" and "UnInstall" and it could be called, "Isolate". That essentially, disables all the other extensions, but keeps the one extension, you pressed, "Isolate", still "Enabled".
When you restart FF, only that one extension gets installed on FF restart. Then a test can be done on that one, isolated extension.
Heck, instead of the "Isolate" button, why not have a more advanced button called, "Isolate and Test"?
The "Isolate" button is essentially a brute force way (or semi-automated way) of disabling all the other extensions.
So, isolation in the sense that that one extension is the only one enabled and all other get temporarily disabled. Something like dropping into Safe mode but one extension stays enabled. The disabling of all extensions is managed by FF automatically, no need to disable all manually.
Is that what you suggest?
And what kind of tests do you imagine to run against this extension?
Reporter | ||
Comment 4•14 years ago
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Yes, if that's how you want to think of it. A Safe mode where only one (1) extension is enabled at one time, hence, "Isolation" mode.
Nevertheless, the thing about Isolation Mode it to make "EASY" to disable all but one (1) chosen extension so users and just as important, developers, can easily test and isolate their chosen extension.
As for the tests to run on that one extension, how about the tests that are run here:
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/performance/
And here:
http://blog.mozilla.com/addons/2011/04/01/improving-add-on-performance/
SideNote: Heck, if I could somehow just record somewhere the dates of any and all of the extensions that where last disabled by the user, as opposed to FF, I could then click the column header ("last disabled") and sort (by last disabled) the group of extensions I just recently disabled at the top of the list of disabled extensions so I could just scan down the list and enable them one by one. Those that were, say disabled a month or two ago, either by me or FF, would get listed at the bottom and I wouldn't care about those as I am only concerned with the extensions I am currently using or the one I am have trouble with.
Another Note: I don't see why something like FoxClocks makes FF run like 40% slower! It's just a clock on the status bar/add-on bar for me, but it's important as we all spend a lot of time browsing, in fact, many times, too much time. And I like how I can more easily customize the date and time format to what I want. It's also convenient as many times the FF window is maximized or it covers any desktop clocks, but constantly having a clock at the Add-On/Status bar makes it easy for my eyes to glance at the bottom when busy as opposed to mousing over or minimizing the FF window just to check the time.
Reporter | ||
Comment 5•13 years ago
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Another suggestion:
Instead of a "disabled" add-on mode,
how about also adding a "Developer's Add-On Performance Counters" mode?
This mode would somehow surround or put performance timers around each and every Add-On's call or code and mark the begin and end with like special FF comments so they can be taken out via a simple switch.
The performance timers/counter results could be accessed in the Tools --> Option Menu
Or at least "label/identify" where the call came from, and what Add-On Made the call? These calls are then tabulated so you, me, and everyone else, can see what Add-On's are slowing Firefox down when we have multiple Add-On's installed at the same time.
FUTURE SIDE NOTE: As time goes on there will be more and more Add-On's that will also do more and more stuff. Hence, more and more chances for performance slow down...
Confirming as enhancement request.
Severity: normal → enhancement
Status: UNCONFIRMED → NEW
Component: General → Add-ons Manager
Ever confirmed: true
Product: Firefox → Toolkit
QA Contact: general → add-ons.manager
Version: 5 Branch → Trunk
Comment 7•13 years ago
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I don't think that a feature like that will be used often enough that it qualifies for an inclusion into Firefox's code base. It would perfectly fit into the scope of an add-on.
Brian, what do you think about adding it to the ACR extension?
Whiteboard: [wontfix?]
Is it possible for an extension to disable other extensions? And also disable itself to come back enabled at some later FF startup?
Comment 9•13 years ago
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(In reply to aceman from comment #8)
> Is it possible for an extension to disable other extensions?
Yes.
> And also disable itself to come back enabled at some later FF startup?
No.
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Comment 10•13 years ago
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Thanks, that would answer comment 7, that this can't generally be done as an extension. Only if it would be acceptable to leave this "ISOLATING extension" enabled together with the "ISOLATED one" and all other disabled. Then the "ISOLATING extension" could manage the necessary enabling/disabling of other extensions.
Comment 11•13 years ago
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I can't find the bug now, but someone also suggested using binary search to find an addon that was causing problems. ie, disable half of the addons, if the problem persists then disable half of the addons still enabled, etc.
CC'ing Fligtar, since there seems to be a need for something like this somewhere.
Summary: Firebug, *bug*, suggestion for *isolating* Add-Ons in Firefox → Add way to start with only one addon enabled to track down problem addon
Comment 12•13 years ago
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Not sure that this specific case is something we want to bake in, I think if we fixed bug 259057 then it'd go a long way to making doing this straightforward. Just select all and disable then enable the one you want to test and restart.
Comment 13•13 years ago
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(In reply to Dave Townsend (:Mossop) from comment #12)
> Not sure that this specific case is something we want to bake in, I think if
> we fixed bug 259057 then it'd go a long way to making doing this
> straightforward. Just select all and disable then enable the one you want to
> test and restart.
Eh, I wouldn't necessarily call that "straightforward". It's a lot of manual steps if you don't know which addon is causing problems.
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Comment 14•13 years ago
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I think the system planned in bug 695475 could completely solve this. It may even be a dupe.
Depends on: 695475
Comment 15•7 years ago
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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.
Status: NEW → RESOLVED
Closed: 7 years ago
Resolution: --- → INACTIVE
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Description
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