883268 - User research build should suppress all Sync activity

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(Firefox :: General, defect)

Description

[Mike Conley (:mconley) (:⚙️)]

Asa brought this up during the last Australis checkpoint meeting - the build that we're giving to our user research team includes a script to clone the user's default profile. This way, they can make whatever changes they'd like, and then we just blow away the clone when we're done.

If, however, the user has Sync set up, changes they make *might* be sent to the Sync server....and then the next time they start up their un-cloned profile, those changes could show up. We don't want that to happen.

So this bug is to suppress all Sync activity for the User Research build.

According to rnewman, clearing the services.sync preferences branch should do the trick.

Comment 1

[Mike Conley (:mconley) (:⚙️)]

Another solution, and one that I think I prefer, is to compile this user research build without defining MOZ_SERVICES_SYNC. I think I'll try that route.

Comment 2

[Mike Conley (:mconley) (:⚙️)]

Attachment: Undefine MOZ_SERVICES_SYNC

Comment 3

[Justin Dolske [:Dolske]]

Slight caution -- we haven't shipped a build without MOZ_SERVICES_SYNC in a long time, so I'd be a bit wary of breakage from things expecting sync stuff to always exist. But if some spot checks of the integration points are working fine, we should be ok.

Comment 4

[Mike Conley (:mconley) (:⚙️)]

Attachment: Patch v2

Undefining MOZ_SERVICES_SYNC appears to result in a broken build - some build configuration just assumes services/sync is enabled for locales, and so the build won't complete.

I'll file a separate bug for that - although I should also note that even after fixed, the build doesn't appear to work... I got an XML parsing error. I'll include that information in the bug I file.

Comment 5

[Mike Conley (:mconley) (:⚙️)]

So the patch I've posted is quick 'n dirty, and it's supposed to be that way. Basically, I'm just trying to neuter Sync in the most direct way possible, while keeping the browser functional. This will never, ever hit UX or m-c.

Gregory - is my approach sufficient to make sure the browser doesn't attempt to sync? Or is there anything I'm forgetting?

Comment 6

[Mike Conley (:mconley) (:⚙️)]

Filed bug 883679

Comment 7

[Gregory Szorc [:gps]]

Comment on attachment 763287 [details] [diff] [review]
Patch v2

Review of attachment 763287 [details] [diff] [review]:
-----------------------------------------------------------------

I think this will do it!

Comment 8

[Mike Conley (:mconley) (:⚙️)]

Thanks Gregory - UR Build is done, included this patch.