Marketplace/Maintenance mode transition
Marketplace has been directed to stop the addition of new features, and to concentrate efforts on cleanup/stabilization and securing it prior to placing it in maintenance mode. This is in accordance with the plans for Firefox OS post-2.5.
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What does "maintenance mode" mean?
"Maintenance mode" means that Marketplace will not be under active development by Mozilla. It will effectively be running as a legacy application to support legacy clients (Firefox OS v1.1-v2.5). Our goal is to ensure that existing clients have a functional and positive experience during and after this transition.
Marketplace Next Steps
As a result, the Marketplace team will focus on these efforts prior to the end of Q1 2016:
- We will disable desktop submissions in January 2016 (exact date TBD) -- whether the desktop site will be accessible is TBD
- We will disable Android submissions in January 2016 (exact date TBD)
- UX/UI cleanup 1189298
- IARC update 1143040
- django upgrade to 1.8 1156928
- remove tarako review queue 1223401
- remove payments
- complete AWS S3 migration 1167271
In addition, we will be triaging all KTLO bugs (https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/buglist.cgi?cmdtype=runnamed&namedcmd=ktlo_all&list_id=12734639) and all open bugs.
Outstanding Questions
There are many questions about what else should be done. Perhaps more can be removed to streamline the application/configuration and simplify community contribution. Among these questions:
- Do we support discovery of progressive webapps?
- Do we need to support the New Security Model?
- Do we need to support Pin-the-web?
- Can we eliminate operator shelf? (carrier-specific functionality)
- Can we eliminate late customization? (carrier-specific functionality)
- Can we remove websites from Marketplace?
Subsequent releases of Firefox OS could prolong the life of Marketplace. Therefore:
- With each new release of a version of FxOS that requires Marketplace, how long do we support Marketplace?
- FxOS add-ons are currently in Marketplace. Should they move to AMO?
TV
TV brings up specific questions.
- TV uses the API (and back-end), but has no submission or review tools -- do we need to add that capability, and to what -- devhub? /content?
- What team will be responsible for these changes?
NSEC
NSEC brings up specific questions:
- Will Marketplace have to exist just to host NSEC apps? How do we migrate current apps?
- Langpacks and homescreens are *not* planned to migrate to NSEC for 2.6; therefore, Marketplace must continue to support the old format while also supporting the new format. Should this be a Q1 2016 goal for whatever team will take over Marketplace? There are several issues:
- Marketplace itself is a packaged app.
- Developers who currently host their app on Marketplace will still rely on Marketplace (because they also can't self-host their apps on a CDN).