Tag: status

Where is the updated Nightly Tester Tools?

Many of you nightly testers may have noticed that Nightly Tester Tools’ compatibility override feature doesn’t work with the new add-ons manager and may be wondering when I’m planning to issue an update to fix that. The more astute of you may have noticed that there hasn’t actually been a real code update to Nightly Tester Tools in 2 years, barring a couple of simple app compatibility fixes. Those with a sharp memory will remember that I said just under 2 years ago that I was ceasing work on my extensions in my spare time. I suggested that Nightly Tester Tools might still receive the odd update but obviously that hasn’t happened and the truth is that I can’t see it happening anytime soon. I’m too busy with that whole real life thing to even be able to work on projects I do enjoy, let alone maintain old stuff that no longer really interests me.

This unfortunately leaves a sizable number of users losing a feature that they liked and still potentially have a need for. I can only really see a couple of possible roads to follow from here:

  1. Do nothing. Users will be annoyed for a time but eventually find ways around what they needed NTT for.
  2. Find someone else to pick up and maintain NTT. I’ve had numerous requests for the source code for many of my extensions over the past two years, none have ever apparently tried to do anything though. Perhaps someone out there will pick up the torch this time?
  3. Point all the users to something else, like the Add-on Compatibility Reporter (once that is updated to work on trunk). While nothing else I know of works quite like NTT at least something is better than nothing, and ACR has the benefit of being Mozilla supported, provides Mozilla with valuable information about add-on compatibility and may be rolled into Firefox at some point.

Option 3 is the only one available that involves any work on my part but probably the choice that leads to less user annoyance, unless someone reading this wants to take up the challenge or has a better idea?

Update: Part of the Mozilla QA team are going to take over development and maintenance of Nightly Tester Tools, let them know what you want to see!

Mossop Status Update: 2010-05-14

Done:
Relanded the new extension manager
Working through more bugs and issues
Started implementing transactions and locking for the main database

Next:
Fix overlays for about: urls
Mak…

Done:

  • Relanded the new extension manager
  • Working through more bugs and issues
  • Started implementing transactions and locking for the main database

Next:

  • Fix overlays for about: urls
  • Make chrome registration possible for bootstrapped add-ons
  • Work on shipping default extensions with the app
  • Help Ben Parr, the new intern get up to speed

Mossop Status Update: 2010-05-07

Done:
Backed out the new extension manager
Fixed some of the bugs found during the extension manager testday
Found the cause of the Ts regression
Prepared everything to be landed again

…

Done:

  • Backed out the new extension manager
  • Fixed some of the bugs found during the extension manager testday
  • Found the cause of the Ts regression
  • Prepared everything to be landed again

Next:

  • Work out when we can re-land the new extension manager
  • Start churning through more of the known issues

Coordination:

Need to work with IT and RelEng to find out what the situation is with getting the Talos boxes all dongled up

Mossop Status Update: 2010-04-30

Done:
Landed the new extension manager

Next:
Tracking down a Ts regression from the new extension manager
Resolving any important issues that users and developers find from the landing…

Done:

  • Landed the new extension manager

Next:

  • Tracking down a Ts regression from the new extension manager
  • Resolving any important issues that users and developers find from the landing

Mossop Status Update: 2010-04-12

Done:
Worked on more review comments for the add-ons manager rewrite
Investigated a new issue that QA came across in the rewrite
Met with UX to talk about the Home Tab plans (https://wiki.mozilla.org/Firefox/Projects/Hom…

Done:

  • Worked on more review comments for the add-ons manager rewrite
  • Investigated a new issue that QA came across in the rewrite
  • Met with UX to talk about the Home Tab plans
  • Started playing around with building Firefox for the Palm Pre

Next:

  • Blog about the new restartless add-ons spec
  • Land the extension manager rewrite on trunk
  • Look at starting on the Home Tab project

Mossop Status Update: 2010-04-02

Done:
All major issues taken care of
Ported all the currently applicable tests from the old xpcshell suite to the new API
Finalized spec for restartless extensions

Next:
Address the ne…

Done:

  • All major issues taken care of
  • Ported all the currently applicable tests from the old xpcshell suite to the new API
  • Finalized spec for restartless extensions

Next:

  • Address the next round of review comments
  • Land this sucker
  • Sleep

Mossop Status Update: 2010-03-26

Done:
Met with dveditz from the security team and talked over potential issues with the current plans.
Addressed review comments
Started on reviews for the UI
Fixed many remaining issues
Re-prioritized a couple of items
…

Done:

  • Met with dveditz from the security team and talked over potential issues with the current plans.
  • Addressed review comments
  • Started on reviews for the UI
  • Fixed many remaining issues
  • Re-prioritized a couple of items

Next:

  • Finish addressing review comments
  • Finish reviewing UI
  • Finish fixing everything that needs to be fixed
  • Trunk landing

Mossop Status Update: 2010-03-19

Done: Serious amounts of progress on the extension manager rewrite work this week

Restartless extensions implemented
Personas and basic plugin and search engine supported added
Silent background updating implemented
Upda…

Done:

Serious amounts of progress on the extension manager rewrite work this week

  • Restartless extensions implemented
  • Personas and basic plugin and search engine supported added
  • Silent background updating implemented
  • Updated the API docs to be accurate
  • Filed bugs on all known remaining issues
  • Worked out a rough schedule for trunk landing
  • Submitted the main part of the backend and API to Rob Strong for code review
  • Blogged about how this impacts extension developers

Next:

  • Fix up the remaining issues, all currently known are small or straightforward
  • Have an informal meeting with the security team to talk about potential issues
  • Fix any issues that come up from the reviews
  • Reviewing the UI side of the rewrite

Mossop Status Update: 2010-03-12

Done:
Wired up installs and blocked installs from webpages
Converted the xpinstall test suite to work with the new APIs
Started preparing the project branch for performance testing

Next…

Done:

  • Wired up installs and blocked installs from webpages
  • Converted the xpinstall test suite to work with the new APIs
  • Started preparing the project branch for performance testing

Next:

  • Finish support for extensions that don’t need restarts
  • Personas and plugins support
  • Background auto-updates
  • Convert the old EM test suite to the new APIs
  • Make sure the API docs are in sync with the code
  • Make a list of things not yet implemented for QA
  • Put together a plan for a trunk landing