Closed Bug 40024 Opened 24 years ago Closed 19 years ago

Strategy for "about:credits"

Categories

(www.mozilla.org :: General, defect, P3)

defect

Tracking

(Not tracked)

RESOLVED WONTFIX

People

(Reporter: BenB, Assigned: gerv)

References

()

Details

Attachments

(8 files)

The about dialog (see bug 40023) uses "Contributors" just like "About". However, "about:" can be resolved locally while "about:credits" is not. -> the about dialog uses "chrome://global/content/credits.html" for the "Contributors" pane in order not to go to the network. -> Clicking on "Contributors" in the "About" pane gives a different page than activating the "Contributors" pane. Proposed Fix: 1. Change "about:credits" to resolve to "chrome://global/content/credits.html". 2. Change the about dialog to use "about:credits" for the "Contributors" pane. This makes sure, we hardcode the "Contributors" page only in one point in the product and still makes sure, the about dialog responses fast. I could do both changes. The only question is "Should I?" (and who will review/checkin).
Ah, and 3. Include a link to <http://www.mozilla.org/credits> in <chrome://global/content/credits.html>.
Currently, the 'About | Contributors' is not up to date (i.e. it's not the same list as <URL:http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=26186>). Should I open a seperate bug on this?
No reaction to my question, so I'll just take this bug, fix it and let it being reviewed. huftis, it's so easy, I'd let it in this bug.
Assignee: endico → mozilla
Status: NEW → ASSIGNED
um, that would be M18, if I could set it :) (no M18 for this product, odd).
Is the local credit list updated for M18 now?
Attached patch New local credits.html, version 1 (deleted) — — Splinter Review
Attached patch about:credits -> local file, version 1 (deleted) — — Splinter Review
Keywords: review
Updated credits.html attached. I - updated the names to the ones on the website - added "The most recent version of this page can be found on our web site." (with link) (see 3. above) - removed the "To be added to the list, s..." paragraph at the bottom. This is internal, and should IMO not be shown on the page, and not be shipped. > 1. Change "about:credits" to resolve to"chrome://global/content/credits.html". Patch attached. > 2. Change the about dialog to use "about:credits" for the "Contributors" pane. If about:credits might point to the mozilla.org web site again in the future, we get those banner and TOC in the small dialog, sucking up most of the space. So, either we drop that change, or add credits/* to NOWRAP or how it is called, i.e. drop the framing table on the web site. I propose the latter.
dmose (who was available at #mozilla): <dmose> BenB: seems fine to me, r=dmose. But.... the one whose review really counts is endico's. You should really get her to review it too.
As I understood endico, she wants to make sure by automatics that the website and local versions are in sync. Fine with me, but - I can't do that - Please do it before N6, so it can point to a local version. On IRC: <endico> BenB: fine just update the one in the source tree to be the same as the one on the web site. Patch attached.
Keywords: reviewapproval
Attached file latest credits page hot out of my tree (deleted) —
Attached patch ultra new updated credits page (deleted) — — Splinter Review
I very much don't like the idea of having two credits pages. The real credits page is on the web site. A big feature of the credits page is that you can use bonsai to look up when and why people got added so it would be bad to lose all this info by moving the page. If there's two pages there's a chance that information will get lost or that the two lists will diverge if someone makes changes to the wrong list. I would really like to work around this by having just one location for the credits page. Either have the mozilla build script pull it from the web site's repository or have the web site script pull it from the source tree. Doing either one would be a pain though so neither will be done in the near future and we have to live with the two file system for a while. In the mean time, lets treat the one on the web site as the original and the version in the source tree should be an exact copy. with the exception that Ben wants to add a link to the original credits page from the static page. This seems like a good idea. He also mentioned adding a link from the static page to cvs log. Now that I think about it more, that's probably a bad idea because the cvs log will contain info that possibly a whole lot newer than the static page. Also, the link is a lot more likely to break. if we move the credits pages some day then the cvs log links will break. Ben also suggested removing the "how to add yoursef" text from the static page. This is probably a good idea because you can't add yourself to the static page after the product has shipped. You can only add yourself to the web page. I would go ahead and check in the most recent page i attached. I doubt i'll get many (if any) requests to be added before nsbeta3. I only added a bunch today because we were talking about it on irc and I had one or two queued up from before.
Attached patch yet another credits page (deleted) — — Splinter Review
ok, this one is really the last one for a while because i'm going home now.
Dawn, I agree now that adding a link to bonsai was no good idea. Made the changes (updating to match the most recent version attached here, adding link to web version, removing the "Adding" blurb at the bottom) to credits.html. Note that you added Jeffrey Baker twice, but I didn't change that. We need to point <about:credits> to the local version now.
jeffery baker is only in once. the one below him is jerry baker, who is someone else.
Left is 2. and (4.) adding the webpage to NOWRAP. (The latter has to be fixed anyway, because you can click on the "most recent version link".) I can fix 2. and will attach patch. Don (module owner for xpfe), can you review, please? Dawn, can you fix 4., please (should be a one-liner)?
Keywords: approvalreview
Attached patch Fix, step 2, version 1 (deleted) — — Splinter Review
Um, no. Its the static credits page in the browser that shouldn't have the bonsai link, not the web page. The web page will continue to be wrapped and have the bonsai link. That's an important part of the page. Also i have no idea what you're talking about with 2) and 4).
Dawn, the problems are the banner and table on the left, not the Bonsai link. Try the following: 1. Enable pref for the modal about dialog 2. Help|About 3. Click on "Contributors" (either the tab or the link in <about:>) 4. Click on "most recent version" Actual result: You see the www.mozilla.org toc table and banner in the small iframe, pushing the real content to the right, without much room left over. If you want the Bonsai link, maybe you can reinsert it manually in the HTML file? I know, it's unfortunate, but if we even want to enable the modal dialog by default (or allow a distributor to do so), then this needs to be fixed anyhow. > Also i have no idea what you're talking about with 2) and 4). This bugs has several sub-tasks, too minor to file bugs for them. "2." is "Change the about dialog to use "about:credits" for the "Contributors" pane" (see inital description) "4." is "Remove the toc table and banner from <http://www.mozilla.ogr/credits/index.html>", i.e. "Add index.html to credits/NOWRAP", for the reasons explained above.
In fact, all of the links from the about dialog have that problem. Not only that, they suffer from other problems of modal dialogs. (You can't go back or copy/paste) You should fix the problem by changing the links on the license page so they load in the browser, not in the dialog. Try something along the lines of <A HREF"blah" target="_TOP"> should work. Also, the fullsoft link in that page is bad. see bug 55257.
endico, yes, makes sense, we should fix the dialog. (But I don't know how, given that we reuse the same content now. target="_top" doesn't seem to work, we'd need special JS to open a new browser window.) IIRC, there's even a bug about it. OK, forget 4.. Don, I still need a review for the latest patch attached.
Bug 40022 is about Dawn's last suggestions. These bugs are so old that I didn't even remember that I filed them. :-(
Could anybody plealse review the latest patch?
Mozilla is still going to the network for about:credits. Is it generally agreed that this is a bad thing? If so, can Ben spruce up his (sadly neglected) patches and we can check them in? Not having a credits page at all for a bit will spur someone on to change the build automation to pull it from the website, if that still needs doing :-) Gerv
> Mozilla is still going to the network for about:credits. Is it generally agreed > that this is a bad thing? When I asked on the newsgroup, the majority thought so, IIRC, yes. (IIRC, there were nobody at all disagreeing with me in that point.)
Its been proposed to move the credits page to the source tree because the about dialog needs it to be a local file and because about:credits will break for people who aren't connected to the internet. (people at work on intranets might not have internet access). I see some problems with this: 1. You assume that the current web page (credits.html) can be moved to the source tree and be used interchangably both by the web site and by the about dialog. It cannot. The web page and the about dialog both use the list of names but the surrounding text needs to be different. The about dialog shouldn't contain any links or the 'how to add yourself' section. The web site will need to not only pull the credits file from the source tree but will also need to extract the list of names and substitute its own introductory content. 2. People embedding mozilla care a whole lot about footprint and I think its quite likely (and reasonable) that some will omit the credits.html file from their distribution to save space. Doing this will break this proposed implementation of about:credits. If you're going to implement the static credits page then make it so the static page is loaded if it exists, otherwise load the url at mozilla.org. This will make it a lot harder for people to inadvertantly break things. 3. Mozilla is a network appliance. Expecting mozilla users to have internet access is not a big stretch. I am not convinced that having a static credits page will result in more people having access to the credits page or that its worth putting a lot of effort in to. Yes, there will be some people who cannot access the web page, but I think that's a tiny proportion of our users and I put this work at low priority compared to most of the other 13K+ bugs in the database. Perhaps having a blank contributors section in the about dialog for a bit will spur someone on to change about:credits and the build automation for the web site. But wait, this has already been broken for quite a while and no patches yet. =(
> You assume that the current web page (credits.html) can be moved to the > source tree and be used interchangably both by the web site and by the about > dialog. It cannot. There are solutions proposed, see bug 55584. > Mozilla is a network appliance. Expecting mozilla users to have internet > access is not a big stretch. Why is bienvenu working (a lot) on offline modes in Mailnews, then? For this general discussion, please followup to the thread in .license (see below). > People embedding mozilla care a whole lot about footprint and I think its > quite likely (and reasonable) that some will omit the credits.html file from > their distribution to save space This is plain illegal. The license requires credits. Actually, IMO, the license requires a local credits file. See my post to .license for this topic, posted sometime around October 2000, IIRC. > I put this work at low priority But no reason to *disallow* somebody to fix it, right?
No movement on this for 7 months... http: is a bad way to get credits...
<Devil's Advocacy>I don't know about that. For instance, what if the credits page changes a lot between versions, and someone who should be on the credits for the older version is only on for the newer version. For instance, I haven't asked to be put on the credits tree yet, but I have been contributing to this project for over a year and have been involved for much longer. When I get added to the contributor's list, I deserve to be viewable from older versions of Mozilla</Devil's Advocacy>
The only solution I can think of that would make everyone happy is for Mozilla to occasionally (i.e. once a week) grab the new credits page and store it in the binary directory.
Brain, such a problem was exactly the reason why we ended up with the current solution. But it's not the only possible solution. Another one is to have a (public) policy, like "You need to ask this and that way until 2 weeks before a release to get on the credits list for that release".
> I deserve to be viewable from older versions of Mozilla a) no you don't b) mozilla upgrade cycles are high c) you do deserve to be viewable in current versions of mozilla when mozilla.org is long dead, however > occasionally (i.e. once a week) grab the new credits page and store it in uhhh... how can I put this... no. That's the worst of both methods, and then some.
> No movement on this for 7 months... http: is a bad way to get credits... I forgot that it's assigned to myself. If anybody wants to fix it, feel free to do so.
No movement here in over a year. Is there any argument AGAINST making credits a local file? Is all that's holding this up a simple little patch? It certainly isn't size, we already include half a meg of useless sample files no one uses in every build: % du -s res/samples 512 res/samples Isn't it a one liner to tell about: that credits is at resource:///credits.html and not http://mozilla.org/credits/ ? Endico... you apperantly had some concerns about something a while ago... anything I've missed?
Jeremy: Its best to keep the credits online because they might become out of date within the source tree.
[Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Win98; en-US; rv:1.6a) Gecko/20031030] (BuildId=2003110115, bug 224340#c19) (W98SE) I discovered this URL from the new <about:about>. I don't plan to visit that page many times, but for the record, I don't like the idea that an <about:*> URI needs to be online and access to web. Understanding the issue of maintaining a local page with an up-to-date list, What about having a local page with "nothing" but a link to the website ? *It would make it a 2 step process for who actually wants to see the list :-( *It would allow the others to give up, wihout http involved. :-))
Isn't this fixed? Or is only Firebird doing the right thing here?
Re comment 41: I have never used FireBird. My guess is that this bug never fixed anything (in Mozilla suite) yet: only various suggestions were made, and patchs proposed.
We need credits on the server for good reason (because it changes and people might not get added to the list until AFTER a version is sent out even if their contributions were prior to that). Its good the way it is. This bug is dead, and has been dead for a while. WONTFIX?
On second thought, maybe we should have a backup page for when the user is offline that just says something like, "Normally you would see the list of all the contributors, but you are not connected to the internet. Please connect and refresh this page or click here." so it doesn't appear we are broken when the user is offline. It would have no names, just a description of what they should have seen but not look like a standard error you get when not connected. Any about: page that connects should share this behavior so Mozilla doesn't appear broken.
I'm not sure if this needs a separate bug or not, but I can't currently hyperlink to a named anchor within the "about:credits" page. I can type "about:credits#M" in the location bar and it will jump to the letter M in the page, but if I hyperlink <A HREF="about:credits#M">about:credits#M</A>, clicking on that link does nothing. This was with Mozilla 1.6 and Fedora Core 1, but I suspect the problem occurs with earlier releases of Mozilla too and with other OS'es.
[Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Win98; en-US; rv:1.6) Gecko/20040113] (W98SE) Re comment 45: Yes, please (search /) file another bug. Also: loading 'about:credits', then adding '#M' WorksForMe but trying to load 'about:credits#M' directly from: *Browser: does nothing *MailNews: I get these twice { Security Error: Content at mailbox:///X|/WINDOWS/Application%20Data/Mozilla/Profiles/SergeG_M13/p0lj4ssh.slt/Mail/pop.noos.fr/Inbox.sbd/Inbox_BugZilla?number=91427 may not load or link to about:credits#M. + Error: uncaught exception: Load of about:credits#M denied. }
That's a feature. Other protocols can't link to about:
gerv, can you check into this?
Assignee: mozilla → nobody
Status: ASSIGNED → NEW
Component: Miscellaneous → www.mozilla.org
QA Contact: www-mozilla-org
Assignee: nobody → gerv
about:credits is fine as it is, and there has been no activity here for years. Changes in this area are never going to be a priority for reviewers. Marking WONTFIX. Gerv
Status: NEW → RESOLVED
Closed: 19 years ago
Resolution: --- → WONTFIX
Product: mozilla.org → Websites
Component: www.mozilla.org → General
Product: Websites → www.mozilla.org
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