745431 - [meta] Support changed or inconsistent server after significant client-effected change

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(Firefox for Android Graveyard :: Android Sync, defect, P1)

Description

[Richard Newman [:rnewman]]

This includes the gamut of external perturbations to the Sync constellation -- another client has uploaded records that we recognize as significantly changed, such as new keys, an altered meta/global, missing keys, etc.

This is one part of real-world readiness that's required before wide deployment. The other is handling of a clean-slate server.

Comment 1

[Richard Newman [:rnewman]]

Part of this is to tie into the resetting system (not yet built; beta blocker) to at least guard against complete and consistent changes. In this respect this bug is quite close to Bug 745430.

Another part is to handle incompleteness: a server with records but no keys, for example. This can happen if a user was syncing with Firefox 7 or so.

A third part is to handle race conditions: kicking off our first sync before our paired desktop has finished configuring the server. This means generating and uploading keys etc., but doing so in a way that fails under concurrent modification.

We spent several months ensuring this kind of safety in the desktop client. We should aim for the same here.

Comment 2

[Richard Newman [:rnewman]]

Have discussed with Erin and Ally. Requesting release blocker.

This has to be addressed before a large number of users start using Sync on Android, because statistics will ensure that some proportion of users will get screwed by routine node migrations or fresh starts.

Comment 3

[Allison Naaktgeboren :ally]

mobile triage: this is release blocking, but our policy is to mark the individual bugs and remove the flag from this one.