ChannelSwitching/ChannelSwitchingFeature: Difference between revisions

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 <section begin="status" />
-| Means by which users on our new Experimental, Beta and Final channels can switch the channel they are on.
+| [[ChannelSwitching/ChannelSwitchingFeature|Channel Switching]]
-| Backend work almost complete - waiting on review. UI Design finished but need to implement.
+| {{StatusHealthy|status=We removed the Channel Switching UI for Firefox 5. We tracked this with [https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=659972 Bug 659972].}}
-| 2011-04-18
+| 5.0
 | Sheila Mooney
 <section end="status" />
@@ Line 16: / Line 16: @@
 == Summary ==
+Means by which users on our new Experimental, Beta and Final channels can switch the channel they are on.
-In order to support our new shorter release cycle, we need a mechanism by which users can switch what channel they are to get on that update path. This applies to users who are on the experimental (new), beta and final channels.
+In order to support our new shorter release cycle, we need a mechanism by which users can switch the release channel they are on and get on a different update path. This applies to users who are on the experimental(new), beta and final channels.
-The nightly channel is a separate path and they will continue to receive the nightly updates for mozilla-central. In order for those users to get on a different channel ie: beta, they must first download a beta build.
+The nightly channel is a separate path and they will continue to receive the nightly updates from mozilla-central. In order for those users to get on a different channel ie: beta, they must first download a beta build.
-Implementation includes some back end work as well as minimal front-end UI for doing the switching.
+Implementation includes some back end work as well as minimal front-end UI for doing the switching. This feature is being coordinated with another effort on how to message the channels to users and migrate them to the right place.
 == Release Requirements ==
-Complete checklist of items that need to be satisfied before we can call this feature "done".
+* Both the front-end and backend pieces need to be implemented and linked together.
+* We need to have the experimental channel setup so we can test this.
+* We can potentially test this without having the experimental channel in place - we can add a config value so we can switch to the nightly channel just to test the mechanism.
 == Next Steps ==
-Either the next set of tasks that need to happen to move this project along, or (ideally) the full list of project tasks/action items with things crossed off as they're finished.
+* The backend and front-end pieces are completed. The About dialog with the switcher appears in the Aurora build. We are still missing the AUS piece to serve up the actually update.
+* The team is currently working out a plan for how to evangelize the new channels, migrate users, messaging and other coordination.
+* We are working on building a beta (shadow of Aurora) that will enable us to test switching between these 2 channels.
 == Related Bugs & Dependencies ==
-Links to the feature tracking bug & other relevant bugs; links to related plans (test plan, product marketing plan, etc.); notes about things that depend on this, etc.
+These are the bugs we are using the track this work...
+* {{bug|644517}} - UI work
+* {{bug|386760}} - backend work
+* {{bug|646236}} - engagement piece
+* {{bug|648011}} - new about:home logos for nightly and aurora channels
+* {{bug|648087}} - AUS piece
+* {{bug|649168}} - feedback button
+* {{bug|648587}} - metrics about people changing channels
+* {{bug|649322}} - bug introduced with checkins for 386760
+Bugs that have been logged for the channel switcher (confirmed and unconfirmed).
+* QA is tracking these bugs using the [http://bit.ly/l9L8nx [channel-switcher]] whiteboard tag
+== Use Cases ==
+* 1. User of nightly builds
+** a. Go to the download page for the Aurora builds and get the latest build. Go to about dialog to see you are on the Aurora channel.
+** b. Go to the download page for the Beta builds and get the latest build. Go to about dialog to see you are on the Beta channel.
+** c. Go to the download page for the Release and get the release build. Go to about dialog to see you are on the Release channel.
+* 2. On Beta channel (will not work Apr 12)
+** a. Go to about dialog, select the Aurora channel and click Apply Update.
+** b. Go to the about dialog, select the Release channel and click Apply Update.
+** c. Go to the about dialog, select the Beta channel and click Apply Update.
+* 3. On Aurora channel
+** a. Go to about dialog, select the Aurora channel and click Apply Update.
+** b. Go to the about dialog, select the Release channel and click Apply Update.
+** c. Go to the about dialog, select the Beta channel and click Apply Update.
+* 4. On Release channel (will not work Apr 12)
+** a. Go to about dialog, select the Aurora channel and click Apply Update.
+** b. Go to the about dialog, select the Release channel and click Apply Update.
+** c. Go to the about dialog, select the Beta channel and click Apply Update.
+* Notes:
+** If you use the nightlies, you will not get the channel switcher UI unless you first proactively go and download a build for release, beta or aurora.
+** The branding on the product (right logos) will not appear when you simply switch channels, you need to actually get a build and restart to see the new logos ie: logo on about dialog will not change.
+** There is a hack in place to test the mechanism. Go to about:config and there's a pref app.update.desiredChannel. If you set this to different channel than you are on, you can verify you made the switch. Once you get a real update, the pref disappears.
 == Team ==
-Should start with a short intro explaining that this is the current set of team leads, but anyone is welcome to dive in and help out.
-Team list should make it clear who to ask about what, and who to ping when they're needed.  Not all team members will be actively involved with the project at all times, but we should have an idea of who will be the touchpoint for each involved group (PM, marketing, devs, UX, graphic design, services, webdev, QA, etc etc)
+* Rob Strong - updater change and will work with releng
+* Nick Thomas is probably the right person from releng
+* Margaret - person to implement front end UI
+* Geo, Anthony - QA
+* Limi - UI design
+* Laura and Mayumi on the marketing side
+* Rob Sayre - engineering - owner of new release process
+* Christian - release management
+* Curtis Koenig - Security
+* Sheila - PM
-Team info should include notes about where they hang out in IRC, if there's a mailing list, etc.
+The team meets weekly on Wed @10:00am in Zombocom.
 == Designs ==
-Any and all mockups, design specs, tech specs, etc.  Either inline or linked to.
-== Goals/Use Cases ==
+Design details and mockups can be found in {{bug|644517}}.
-The high level goals for the feature (which the release requirements checklist should fulfill).  These are the guiding light and overall vision for the feature.  Refer to this if there is confusion or are disputes about direction, designs, planning, etc.
+== Testing ==
+A detailed feature test plan can be found [https://wiki.mozilla.org/ChannelSwitching/ChannelSwitchingFeature/TestPlan here]
+== Security Review ==
+Date Discussion occurred: 2011.04.14
+Security Concerns:
+* Possible broken update process
+* User could be deceived into switching channels and be stranded without a way to a usable version
+* An add-on could be created to modify channel preferences
-== Non-Goals ==
+Responses to concerns:
-Things we are specifically not doing or building as part of this feature.
+* Initial implementation is that Aurora users can go to beta, others can not
+* Furthest back a user could go is the release channel
+* Users can still opt-out of all updates (user choice even if not advisable)
+* UI is a XUL window that is not mapped to an "about:"
+* Channel info is stored in a  preference that once applied is removed
+* All existing channels are hard coded, thus a be build required to add or remove channels
+* Add-on verification process will need to be modified to check for possible preference changing
-== Other Documentation ==
+Outstanding but not security issues at this time:
-Can include things like:
+* Channel names are not localizable at this time
-* Competitive landscape
-* Research & references
-* Whatever else is useful to the project.
-__NOTOC__
+== Issues ==
-Categories TBD.
+* Once implemented, we ran into a number of bugs with the Channel Switcher. In our evaluation we started to rethink the value of this feature to the user. Without an easy path to address the known issues, it didn't seem to provide as much value to the end user.
+* We have made a decision to remove the channel switcher and evaluate other alternatives for directing users onto the different channels.
+* This work is being tracked in [https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=659972 Bug 659972].