CloudServices/Sync/FxSync/Syncorro

Socorro + Sync = Syncorro \o/

Goals

• Gather statistics on errors (to help with prioritization)
• Be able to correlate errors with maintenance windows, user profiles, etc.
• Simplify error reporting for users who file bugs or SUMO articles
• Detect the "long tail" of problems that are never filed

Features

• Each submitted report should be represented by a URL or at least an opaque token (e.g. UUID)
• Ability to query according to application, Sync, and error specific metadata
• Fulltext search over submitted log data
• Ability to return instructions to client upon report submission (e.g. throttling, recovery, support messages for the user, etc.)

Client UX

Submitting an error report

• When there's a Sync error, the usual error bar is shown (except we're not showing the dreadful Unknown Error message):

 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
 | We're sorry, Sync encountered an error  [Details /\]              (X)|
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------

• Clicking on the Details button slides out the Details drawer with a high-level explanation of the details of the error:

 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
 | We're sorry, Sync encountered an error  [Details \/]              (X)|
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
 | There was a problem saving the "bla bla bla" bookmark to your        |
 | computer. Other data is not affected.                                |
 |                                                                      |
 | To help us improve Sync and prevent errors like this in the future,  |
 | please submit this report. Your personal data will not be submitted. |
 |                                                                      |
 | [ ] Automatically submit reports in the future.                      |
 |                                                                      |
 |                                                     [Submit report]  |
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------

• Clicking the X button on the right will dismiss the bar (including the drawer if it's visible).

 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
 | We're sorry, Sync encountered an error  [Details \/]              (X)|
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
 | There was a problem saving the "bla bla bla" bookmark to your        |
 | computer. Other data is not affected.                                |
 |                                                                      |
 | To help us improve Sync and prevent errors like this in the future,  |
 | please submit this report. Your personal data will not be submitted. |
 |                                                                      |
 | [ ] Automatically submit reports in the future.                      |
 |                                                                      |
 |                                           Submitting report...  ( )  |    <--- this is a throbber
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------

• If the Syncorro server finds a suitable support page, the drawer will change to this:

 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
 | We're sorry, Sync encountered an error  [Details \/]              (X)|
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
 | Good news! We analyzed the report and found a possible solution to   |
 | the problem you're seeing.                                           |
 |                                                                      |
 | _View_support_page_                                                  |
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------

Looking up error reports

• Make about:sync-log look like about:crashes

Client Implementation

Note: This is only a draft that is being fleshed out.

• Using Metric's Elastic Search system (also used for AMO stats and Socorro) at data.mozilla.org
• On error, Sync POSTs a payload to data.mozilla.org:

 PUT /XXX HTTP/1.1
 Content-Type: application/json

 {
   id: "{UUID}",
   app: {
     product: "{UUID}",
     version: "8.0a1",
     buildID: "...",
     locale: "en_US",
     addons: ["{UUID}", "{UUID}", "{UUID}", ...]
   },
   sync: {
     version: "1.10",
     account: "eisklclxuauemrjghidis",
     cluster: "https://phx-sync091.services.mozilla.com/",
     engines: ["bookmarks", "history", ...],
     numClients: 2,
     mobileClients: true
   },
   error: {
     engine: "bookmarks",
     result: 489294595, // the error constant if applicable
   },
   log: "..."
 }

• Under normal conditions, the server returns HTTP 200 OK with optional hints for the client concerning throttling and help for the user:

 HTTP/1.1 200 OK
 Content-Type: application/json

 {
   throttle: 10,  // only submit every 10th error
   infoURL: "http://support.mozilla.com/..."
 }

• Server can also return other status codes to indicate that the data wasn't accepted.
  • 500 Server Error
  • XXX throttled, try again later
  • XXX invalid data

Dashboard implementation

XXX TODO

Questions

• Should this be
  • always on and not configurable, or
  • ask after every error (with the option to remember the user's choice for future incidents),
  • off by default and opt in, or
  • on by default and opt out?
• Will this service require ToS changes?
• What do we do with custom server users?
• What do we do when user has Trace logging enabled?