Partnering:Projects:BYOB

Build Your Own Browser is a web-based application that simplifies light customizations of Mozilla Firefox. You can give it a whirl at byob.mozilla.com.

Weekly Project Update

• Each Wednesday at 12:00 Pacific / 14:00 Central / 15:00 Eastern
• +1.650.903.0800 x92 Conf# 283 (US/INTL)
• irc.mozilla.org #byob for backchannel

Meeting Minutes

2010

• 2010Q3
  • Sep: 01; 08; 15; 22; 29
  • Aug: 04; 11; 18; 25
  • Jul: 21; 28
• 2010Q2
  • Jun: 30; 23; 16; 02
  • Mar: 26; 19; 12; 05
  • Apr: 21; 14
• 2010Q1

2009

• See: Partnering:Projects:BYOB:Meetings#2009

Production Notes

• Open bugs
  • 1.0 milestone (2010Q2)
  • 1.5 milestone (2010Q3)
• Closed bugs
• New bug (Websites, byob.mozilla.com)

Milestones / Schedule

Q4 2010

Build

• setup triggered, automated build creation via buildbot on the pool of BYOB slaves [CARRYOVER]
  • will use a shared NFS mount to store config information
• setup signalling between the web app and the buildbot automation system [CARRYOVER]

Q3 2010

Infrastructure

• Move web application to cluster
• Transition repack process to buildbot cluster
• Transition hosting to independant/clustered file store

Previous

Week-by-week milestones, which need to be copied to meeting notes each week as discussion points and updated as required.

• First cut at timelines based on work progression, discussions. Needs review in meeting for 15 Jul 2009. (the Gantt Project source file can be found here)

timeline/milestones

Design / UX

• Design/UX requirements overview
• Site Mockups

Webapp Implementation

• SVN repository
• Check-ins

Repack Build Process

• Repack build script
• Details on build queue for pilot
• Build system design

QA

• Tomcat is QA lead
• BYOB Testplan

Hosting

• Production acceptance doc
  • Probably need a new/separate one for BYOB itself
• Staging / preview server:
  • http://dm-partdist-stage01.mozilla.org/
  • Staging server is operational at dm-partdist-stage01.mozilla.org (VPN access required). Note that PHP 5.3 is installed.
• Production server is dm-partnerdist01.mozilla.org
• Final domain name is http://buildyourownbrowser.com, which redirects to https://byob.mozilla.com

Marketing

Target

• Primary: Affinity groups, charities, non-profits, small to mid-size organizations that previously were not considered for distribution partnerships and custom builds.
• Secondary: Larger organizations that are willing to create a distribution within the customization guidelines of the BYOB program.

Web Site

• New BYOB site pages:
  • First pass at what homepage could look like (copy+layout) File:Homepage.pdf - feedback requested!
  • Features Page
  • FAQ Page
  • Standard First Run Page
• Suggestions for BYOB UI tweaks: new version: File:Byob-ui-comments v2.pdf
• Suggestions for BYOB messaging (input from Slater): File:Byob-ui-comments v2 JS-dr.pdf

Emails

• Needed emails (can find updated suggested copy here: File:Byob-ui-comments v2 JS-dr.pdf )
  • Signup/account verification email
  • Lost password email
  • submit build email
  • build is ready for download email
• Need to include CAN-SPAM requirements on all emails (unsubscribe? (may not have to if considered services emails only), Mozilla address

Outreach

• Latest-draft of pitch deck (updated 4/5/10): File:BYOB pitch-deck v7.pdf‎
• Older version of pitch deck: File:BYOB pitch-deck v5.pdf
• Goal of pitch deck: have material that can be presented to potential "beta" partners
• To-do: create a one-sheet (use the pitch deck as a model)

Metrics/Tracking Requirements

• Add in Webtrends tracking to capture the following:
  • Pageview/visitor data
  • Conversion funnel data
  • Download data (record download with user click on the create BYOB button
  • Affiliate tracking data integrated into BYOB (e.g., Boy Scout troup creates an affiliate button and has group members post it on their personal website/blog, etc. --> be able to capture this BYOB capture data within WebTrends)

• Other Metrics/ADU/Download Stats to be entered here

Proposed Enhancements

Pilot to Beta/Release

• [DONE] Automated version updates (e.g. on release of a new version of Firefox, automatically generate new versions of all BYOB distributions) bug 526691
• [DONE] Add ability for distribution creators to hide their distributions from the public search and "recently added" pages (and equivs) bug 526700
• Add additional locales to supported installers list bug 526701
• Add per-locale support for bookmarks (and other customizations as required), similar to the localization support in AMO. bug 538883
• [DONE] Add ability to upload and add a limited number of search engines to the default set of search plugins bug 538607
• [DONE] Support bookmark folders in the bookmark toolbar and menu (e.g. define a folder of bookmarks which can then be placed on the bookmark toolbar and/or menu) bug 538888
• Add ability for admins to add ad-hoc entries to each of the Global, Preferences, Localizable Preferences sections in the distribution.ini file bug 538615
• Include a selection of recommended add-ons that can be included in the browser
• Simplify the default persona selection process (e.g. Personas browser, etc.) bug 538889
• Simplify the default collections selection process, and add preview image to personas customization
• Add additional Labs projects (i.e. jetpack and ubiquity) to supported customizations (needs input from labs)
• Support the inclusion of Personas in Firefox 3.6 (may not be a requirement; preference seems to be to continue to include the extension. for discussion)
• Simplify/shorten the registration process (requires discussion and req defintiion)

Proposed Q1 2010 Work

Administration (non-user facing)

• [DONE] bug 538603 Modify functions that call split(), which is deprecated in PHP 5.3+
• [DONE] bug 526691 Add "Update all repacks" for administrators - required for when we launch a product update to re-generate all repacks while maintaining release status.
• [MISSED] bug 538615 Add ability for admins to add ad-hoc entries to a BYOB repack's distribution.ini
• [MISSED] (bug needed) Add ability for an admin to add an extension to a given repack (need to discuss model/reqs for adding extensions to ensure ability to scale, and how we'd flag extensions as public)
• [DONE] bug 516439 Change details link does not show the customizations - would be great fro admins/editors to have a link to a summary page of customizations
• [DONE] bug 510527 Failed releases are kicked back to user instead of editor/admin
• [DONE] bug 521252 Only set a custom first-run page in the browser if a customized page is required

Additional Functionality

• Simplify registration form to minimize info collected, speed up process. Bug needed, dependant on UI work
• bug 526701 Add support for all locales to be repacked (but no "all" button, please! :)
• [DONE] bug 538883 Enhance bookmark support to include folders and localized bookmarks
• [DONE] bug 538607 Add support for adding custom search plugins to a BYOB repack
• [DONE] bug 526700 Add ability for repack authors to hide their repacks from public searches and "newest" lists

User Interface

• Re-design home page to incorporate education/instructional information and simplify messaging
• Re-design config wizard/process to better accomnmodate additional features/functionality
• Re-design registration to simplify and speed up registration process
• Review use of modal views with BYOB on lower resolution screens, error pages, etc. Re-design/tweak as necessary.
• Re-develop copy to incorporate messaging from marketing efforts, simplified text.
• bug 511146 Improve "Contact Us" form with per-category recipients and auto-response messages

Job Jar (not a priority, but generally smaller nit items/bugfixes)

• bug 521242 Change recpatcha links to use SSL
• bug 512665 Use local images for OS icons (causes mixed content warnings)
• bug 516425 Make the byob HTML 4.0.1 Transitional
• Various bugfixes

QA

• Run over all site functions with a fine-toothed comb and file bugs :) There's a bunch of little issues I've run across, and we should document them all and get them into bugzilla.

Medium Term goals (planning for Q2)

• Medium and long-term planning for additional product integration (fennec, unbranded builds), enterprise support, end-goals
• bug 503328 Planning localization support w/involvement of l10n team.
• Discuss addition/value/effort for adding demo account or preview functionality so people can see what the process is like without a need for registration
• Discuss with RelEng (coop) on setting a clear path/workplan on integrating BYOB with linux cluster for front end and byob buildbot and signing back-end.
• Requirements definition for adding statistics fed from metrics/log analysis

Medium/Long-Term Enhancements

• Transition BYOB from OSX to the cluster environment
  • Deploy repack environment w/releng
  • Deploy BYOB on Linux cluster
• Add l10n support (e.g. BYOB in multiple languages)
• Add support for the Mozilla MySQL cluster (separate read/write dbs)
• Add support for the /bundle extension installer

Objectives

Product objective

To create a simple, self-service web application that allows an interested organization or individual to create a customized version of the Firefox browser.

Timeline

• See Partnering:Projects:BYOB:ArchivedTimeline2009

Targets

Primary

Affinity groups, charities, non-profits, small to mid-size organizations that previously were not considered for distribution partnerships and custom builds.

Secondary

Larger organizations that are willing to create a distribution within the customization guidelines of the BYOB program.