| Feature | Status | ETA | Owner |
| Feature Page Structure | In Progress. | 2011-07-01 | Robert Strong |
Summary
To reduce update fatigue, don't display application update notifications and user interface unless necessary.
Twelve hours after an update is downloaded the user is told to restart Firefox by the display of the application update user interface. Instead of always notifying after twelve hours and possibly interrupting the user the notification should only be displayed when it is important for the user to apply the update (e.g. the update contains an important security fix the user should be notified).
If there is a pending update it is applied during startup and the updater dialog is displayed. Over the last year there have been several improvements to the updater that have made it apply updates significantly faster. When the update is applied quickly the updater dialog should not be displayed.
Team
- Feature Manager: Robert Strong
- Lead Developer: Tim Taubert
- QA: TBD
- UX: TBD
- Security: Lucas Adamski
Release Requirements
- Needs to lessen the amount of times the user sees user interface associated with an application update
- The decision to display the notification must be controlled remotely (the update xml)
- Needs to pass a security review
- Needs to have tests
Next Steps & Open Issues
- Decide whether this can be implemented using the existing user interface since the new application notification user interface hasn't been created yet. Should be resolved during the kickoff meeting on 5/24/11.
- bug 353804 - Automatic update does not check for newer versions before resuming an update download on startup - Tim Taubert - in progress
- bug 657472 - Replace notification that an update has been downloaded / please restart with new notification system TBD
- bug 659181 - 'Tune' when the updater dialog is displayed - Robert Strong
- Decide what applying an update 'quickly' means as it relates to bug 659181
Related Bugs & Dependencies
- bug 481815 - Provide a Windows service to update applications without asking Administrator password
- bug 394984 - Unable to update on mac if admin user is not the same admin user as the person who installed firefox
- bug 529746 - App update should request elevation when the user doesn't have privileges to update
Risks
- New notification interface hasn't been created yet. This can be mitigated by using the existing interface for the time being.
Use Cases
- Users that seldom restart Firefox
- Users that use builds that update often when compared to Release builds (e.g. Aurora)
Designs
- TBD
Test Plans
- TBD (QA)
Goals
- Lessen application update user fatigue by lessening the times when the application update user interface is displayed to the user.
Non-Goals
- Implementing a background method for updating the application