Waterfox Classic addons.json no longer gaining information from AMO that enriches about:addons

[grahamperrin]

Spun off from Waterfox Classic: lack of information for some add-ons (2019-08-03)

… I noticed the problem a few weeks or months ago. …

Following investigation:

• extensions.getAddons.cache.enabled defaults to true but it seems that I no longer get things such as learnmoreURL or reviewURL in addons.json.

Probably the most visible effect of this bug:

• no Rating section at about:addons

– and so, it no longer possible to step from the extension's page in the browser to the extension's page at AMO.

Compare with this, which does have the section:

As far as I can tell – assuming that new/updated entries are appended to the foot of addons.json – the problem began:

• between 2019-02-20 and 2019-02-24.

If that's true, then I'm looking tentatively at this:

• 56.2.6...56.2.7.1

– but at a glance, I see nothing that might have affected the ability to gain data from AMO and add it to e.g. addons.json.

Meta, tracking: #538

Visualising a diagnosis

extensions.json to the left, addons.jsonto the right:

• addons.json scrolled nearly to its end.

Extensions by date of update to the left:

[grahamperrin]

Universal Bypass

Waterfox either failed to gain the required information when the extension was installed (2019-02-23), or lost the information sometime between then and 2019-10-10.

Extensions by date of installation to the left:

I wondered whether I had installed from somewhere other than AMO but this seems unlikely. Two points in time:

• https://web.archive.org/web/20190125034032/https://universal-bypass.org/install
• https://web.archive.org/web/20191010145538/https://universal-bypass.org/install

– both direct the user to AMO.

[grahamperrin]

Impact

Probably a good example of this issue:

Malwarebytes Browser Guard is outdated, and:

• in-page checks for updates do not find applicable updates (by design, this is acceptable)
• there's no obvious way to reach a page for the extension (with a list of available updates a single click away)

Without the expected link at about:addons, what should be a simple essential routine – an occasional check for updates for each extension that requires Firefox 57.0 – becomes a hurdle.

[grahamperrin]

Note to self: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1601927#c2 (confidential, at this time)