ChannelSwitching/ChannelSwitchingFeature

Feature	Status	ETA	Owner
Means by which users on our new Experimental, Beta and Final channels can switch the channel they are on.	Backend work almost complete - waiting on review. UI Design finished but need to implement.	2011-04-11 (hopefully sooner)	Sheila Mooney

Summary

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 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. 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

• 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

Most of the backend implementation is complete. The UI design work is done and we are waiting on the front-end development.

The team is currently working out a plan for how to evangelize the new channels, migrate users, messaging and other coordination.

Related Bugs & Dependencies

There are 2 main bugs tracking this work...

• https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=644517
• https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=386760

Team

• Rob Strong - updater change and will work with releng
• Nick Thomas is probably the right person from releng
• ? - person to implement front end UI
• ? - QA
• Limi - UI design
• Laura and Mayumi on the marketing side
• Rob Sayre - engineering - owner of new release process
• Christian - release management
• Sheila - PM

The team meets weekly on Wed @10:00am in Zombocom.

Designs

Design details and mockups can be found in bug 644517.