User.js: 0307: lightweightThemes.update.enabled

[Gitoffthelawn]

Section 0307 reads:

/* 0307: disable auto updating of personas (themes) ***/
user_pref("lightweightThemes.update.enabled", false);

Is the description accurate? Does the pref really disable auto-updating of personas (themes)? I think if the pref is true, but Update addons automatically is not enabled in about:addons, then the personas will not be auto-updated.

[Thorin-Oakenpants]

Looks like a rubbish pref to me. I don't even know if it's a thing any more, since Quantum. And themes are not an issue AFAIK (unlike extensions which can go rogue). If you look at themes vs addons in options, you will see they actually use the same cog wheel and menu for controlling them.

So yeah, I think we can remove this pref altogether - after the Big E scopes it out

[Thorin-Oakenpants]

when the big E says its OK to remove it, if he doesn't (edit, i.e remove it after saying we can), I will ..so just waiting on @earthlng

[Thorin-Oakenpants]

lightweightThemes are, I guess, what they are using for themes? e.g I use the inbuilt dark theme, and I use compact .. and I have this

• lightweightThemes.selectedThemeID - [email protected]

But if we set extensions to not auto-update, then we should also set themes to not update to be consistent. I will install a theme on a test profile, an older version of a theme and see what happens when I check for updates

[Thorin-Oakenpants]

If you look at themes vs addons in options, you will see they actually use the same cog wheel and menu for controlling them

Exactly. I set all updates to manual. Installed an older version of a theme. When I went to about:addons > Extensions> cog wheel > check for updates ... it dutifully found an update for the theme.

So it really begs the question of do we want to keep this or ditch it because it has no privacy etc issues. And if we keep it, maybe make it inactive - but then what purpose does it serve? None, so I think we should ditch it - *and update the extension pref to include the word themes

[Thorin-Oakenpants]

the pref doesn't seem to affect any updating

[Thorin-Oakenpants]

I wonder if search update is the same - I will have a play

[earthlng]

lightweightThemes.update.enabled is used in updateThemes() which is called from only 1 place in the code and that's in backgroundUpdateCheck() but only if extensions.update.enabled is true..

Some people might want to have extensions updates enabled but lightweightThemes updates disabled. I'd prefer to keep the pref for that reason

[earthlng]

Update addons automatically seems to toggle extensions.update.autoUpdateDefault and IDK if there's a UI setting for extensions.update.enabled

[Thorin-Oakenpants]

UI setting for extensions.update.enabled

The cog wheel in about:addons: toggling the check mark on the menu item for "Update Add-ons Automatically" only changes extensions.update.autoUpdateDefault - I took copies of prefs.js and compared them between changes.

So we should remove this from 0301b - yes? no?

 * [SETTING] about:addons>Extensions>[cog-wheel-icon]>Update Add-ons Automatically (toggle) ***/

[Thorin-Oakenpants]

Some people might want to have extensions updates enabled but lightweightThemes updates disabled. I'd prefer to keep the pref for that reason

But I tested it, the pref did not prevent the update checking or the update itself, see the pic above

Edit: that was manual. I can redo the test and do a check but not update. And restart and change the pref for auto-installing extension updates, but leave the theme one at false, and see what happens. But I ain't got time to wait a day if that kicks in.

[earthlng]

yeah it's apparently only checking the pref in the background update check. I guess doing a manual check ignores the pref

[Thorin-Oakenpants]

OK, AFAICT the theme pref doesn't actually stop any updates of themes

Nilla profile

• set extensions to update automatically:
  
  
  
  • extensions.update.enabled = true
  
  
  • extensions.update.autoUpdateDefault = true
  
  
• block themes from "auto"? updating
  
  
  
  • lightweightThemes.update.enabled = false
  
  
• add an out of date extension
  
  
  
  • i installed https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/arc-dark-theme-we/versions/
  
  
  • version 2018.8.24
  
  
• add an out of date theme
  
  
  
  • i installed https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/etag-stoppa/versions/
  
  
  • version 0.3
  
  
• go to about:addons and view metadata for extension and theme and check versions are the old one, they are
• do a manual check: it auto installed the update for ETag Stoppa (to 0.4) AND the theme (to 2018.9.24)

What am I missing here, except doing the same test with extensions.update.enabled = false

[Thorin-Oakenpants]

I'll redo that same test, to make sure. I THINK that it didn't notify me about the theme update (but did it anyway).

Edit: What am I thinking, or course it doesn't notify you, it just applies them, because we have extensions.update.autoUpdateDefault = true

[Thorin-Oakenpants]

OK, so I turned off extensions.update.autoUpdateDefault and reran the test. When checking manually for updates, it returned two updates available, and both were auto-checked to include in the updates

[Thorin-Oakenpants]

Am I missing something here?

Do I set all three to false?
extensions.update.enabled = false (master switch?)
extensions.update.autoUpdateDefault = false (so I can see what is going to be updated)
lightweightThemes.update.enabled = false (which is WTF we're trying to see if it has an effect)

Then when I do a manual check, see what is listed? :headspin: :needcoffee:

Update: Did that. No difference. When checking for updates manually (auto-update checks are off), the theme pref has ZERO effect

[Thorin-Oakenpants]

I've tried every combination of these

• extensions.update.enabled
• extensions.update.autoUpdateDefault

with this

• lightweightThemes.update.enabled = false

and in every single case the theme pref = false does nothing to stop themes being included in the update

[Marc05]

The amount of effort put into this seemingly absolutely insignificant issue is the kind of work that makes this project outstanding. Thank you, and please keep doing it for as long as I use Firefox :P

[Thorin-Oakenpants]

LWT (lightweight themes), also known as personas, were introduced in FF3.6. Starting in FF55, Firefox released a new Theme API, which is more powerful, etc.

The pref still works as advertised. But LWTs will be a thing of the past, soon. AMO stopped accepting them quite some time ago. And existing LWTs will be converted - see this (scroll down to Migrating Lightweight Themes) and all LWT code stripped out in good time.

Just to make that clear. LWTs are not the same as themes that use the Theme API introduced in FF55

So, @Gitoffthelawn : yes the pref does actually do what it says. It stop the updating of LWTs or personas