Blair’s Brain And Other Unfocused Things

Status update

Extension Manager UI Redesign

Status

• Planned for eventual mozilla-central landing – want to get initial parts landed before betas
• Major AMO integration will probably be done as followups
• Have been bringing UI up to speed with changes in mockups
• Started looking at install/updates before realizing it’s not in the API yet

Loose ends

• Boriss was away for the latest meeting, need to catch up
• Waiting on project branch to be setup (bug 542910)

Next steps

• UX discussions! UX discussions! UX discussions!
• Implement helper widgets
• Install/uninstall/update/enable/disable
• Search
• Help with API development

Target for next week

• Catch up with Boriss
• Implement various widgets – download progress, ratings, etc
• Start implementing search (only local, until the API supports AMO searching)

Tab matches in Awesomebar

Status

• Refactored UI for better toolkit/browser separation
• Renamed “open tab” concept to the more generic “open page”
• Must remember that adding a constant doesn’t mean the interface needs a change of UUID
• Waiting on next review, then SR

Loose ends

• None

Next steps

• Land
• Tackle followup bugs

Target for next week

• Landed on mozilla-central

Reflections

• I need to get better at estimating time required for larger projects
• I’m having far too much fun for this to be considered “work”

Status update

Tab matches in Awesomebar

Status

• “$” or “!” as the restrict character? Got i18n input: smontagu suggested “%” as a more common character on non-US keyboards
• Discovered a (small) issue with having such a normalized DB schema
• Unit tests (why do these take SO much time?!)
• In process of final code review

Loose ends

• None

Next steps

• Address reviewer’s comments
• Get SR review for API changes

Target for next week

• Final reviews and (finally) landing

Extension Manager UI Redesign

Status

• Meetings, plannings, and discussions, oh my!

Loose ends

• None

Next steps

• Bring UI in line with newer mockups
• Handle installing and updating

Target for next week

• Extract mockups from Boriss’s brain
• Act on said mockups
• Handle updates

Miscellaneous

• Firefox 3.6 released.  Boo-ya!

Reflections

• 5am start to a 13 hour day makes the next day really difficult.

Firefox 3.6 is out!

You may have heard: Firefox 3.6 is out. Its pretty awesome. I helped make it. That makes it extra special.

If you use Firefox, you should upgrade – its easy! And if you don’t use Firefox, give it a try! Here’s why:

• It’s fast
• It’s secure
• It’s stable
• It’s pretty

Download it from firefox.com!

Status update

Got back from my “holiday” late last week, after taking a 3-day roadtrip home. While away I mostly worked on the new Extension Manager UI, and am rather pleased with it all. Er, I relaxed and spent time with family too. Of course, almost everything else got ignored (including IRC). Back to the usual day-to-day awesomeness now.

Extension Manager UI Redesign

Status

• Add-ons tree, list view, and detail view are all mostly implemented, hookup up the the new API, and look like the mockups
• New API is really nice to use
• Synced up with Mossop and Boriss (screensharing ftw!)
• Sorted out a weekly meeting time (timezones are fun)

Loose ends

• Need more data out of AMO’s API – Mossop has talked to people, filed bugs, etc

Next steps

• Installation and updates
• Searching

Target for next week

• Tackle searching
• Tweaks after latest round of mockups

Tab matches in Awesomebar

No update. Expect things to move quickly this week.

Reflections

• Taking a break from a project can result in a more objective view of past decisions.
• Starting new projects is fun.
• Mondays are EVIL.

Status update

I’m in beautiful Motueka for two and a half weeks, staying with Anne’s family; enjoying the scenery and generally relaxing. I’ll be working while up here (working remotely remotely – very meta), but don’t expect to see me on IRC as much as usual.

Tab matches in Awesomebar

Status

• Fixed unit tests, and fixed code breaking unit tests
• First code review done (epic job done by Marco) – very positive

Loose ends

• Need an icon made (no rush for this)

Next steps

• There’s a unit test that fails on the Tryserver Tinderbox but not locally on my machine – need to figure that out
• Fix reviewer’s recommendations, rinse, repeat

Target for next week

• Another round of reviews!

Extension Manager UI Redesign

Status

• Re-read all (?) existing material, studied mockups, etc
• Met with Mossop, who is designing and implementing the new API
• Started building initial (dumb, non-interactive) prototype based on Boriss’s mockups

Loose ends

• None

Next steps

• Non-interactive prototype based on mockups
• Start pulling info from new API, and provide Mossop with feedback from experience

Target for next week

• At least one mockup looking the same in XUL

Miscellaneous

• Bug 397937 (view-source on safebrowsing blocked pages) is ready to be landed (also fixes bug 435726)

Reflections

• Being stuck on a slow 3G connection may prove to be actually good for my productivity
• Hot weather is not good for my productivity (counteracting the above point)

Status update

Sadly, I missed the the Mozilla Corp All-Hands last week in Mountain View, due to a nasty flu bug (bad timing, I know). But I hear it was pretty awesome – photos here. See everyone next time!

Tab matches in Awesomebar

Status

• Various UI bugs fixed
• Discussion on improving the UI further
• Fixed bitrot from changes made in bug 527311 (that was a “fun” merge)
• Made some toolkit code less specific to just tab-matches
• Unit tests (and debugging existing tests – caught some weird behavior)

Loose ends

• UI still not finalized. Might need to land on trunk and tweak UI in followup bugs (assuming review goes smoothly¹)

Next steps

• UI adjustments
• Finish tweaking matching code
• Review

Target for next week

• Make tab-matching dependent on autocompletesearchparam attribute (current it’s a global pref)
• Some small changes to matching behavior (some assumptions changed after seeing some tests fail)
• More UI tweaking/experimentation
• Code review (regardless of whether UI is finalized or not)

Miscellaneous

• Fixed about:jetpack on trunk (bug 534384), awaiting review
• Finally got a patch up for bug 397937 (view-source for safebrowsing blocked pages), awaiting review

Reflections

• Missing an All-Hands due to sickness sucks.
• My co-workers rock – they somehow manage to look out for me when I’m sick, even from the other side of the world. Thanks guys
• Teaching is the greatest way to learn

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¹ That’s not a completely unrealistic expectation, right? RIGHT?

Status update

Tab matches in Awesomebar

Status

• RTL issues looked into (with possible solution) – poses an interesting UI challenge
• Fixed issue where session restored tabs weren’t recorded as being open
• Various other bugs fixed
• Some tests written

Loose ends

• Need UX eyes on the RTL problem

Next steps

• Fix any remaining bugs
• More tests
• Go back over feedback
• Code review

Target for next week

• Fix rare issue with tag-matches showing “Switch to tab” instead of a list of tags
• More unit tests
• Initial code review, depending on feedback

Binding for untrusted text in security dialogs

No change.

Reflections

• A failing test breaks any previous assumptions. Therefore it brings both the code and the test into question.

Status update

Tab matches in Awesomebar

Status

• Took an alternative (more complete, less hacky) approach to autocomplete integration, which took a lot longer. This way should allow easy ranking for tab-only matches.

Loose ends

• None

Next steps

• Finish autocomplete work
• Unit tests
• Preferences UI

Target for next week

• Finish autocomplete
• Unit tests

Binding for untrusted text in security dialogs

Status

• Initial planning
• Identified potential issues with implementing in only JS

Loose ends

• None

Next steps

• More research – especially into unmatched surrogates in UTF-16

Target for next week

• A better understanding of surrogates

Miscellaneous

• 519486 resurrected itself in some (new) popular lightweight themes – looking at ways to further improve the solution.

Reflections

• A hack can save time now, cost time later, and still be worth it.
• Beautiful code is not always useful code.