Show the first run page when reinstalling

[fhd]

Background

We currently only show the first run page once for each Firefox profile, after ABP was first installed. That's because ABP's profile data stays behind when ABP is uninstalled.

I think it'd be more obvious to most users if we show it after ABP was uninstalled and reinstalled as well.

What to change

Showing the first run page as-is only makes sense if we actually wipe the data. However, that's not something we want to do, as it's unusual for Firefox extensions and could lead to confusion.

So what we need is a new workflow for users that already have ABP data in their profile, e.g. a question asking them whether they want to reuse that or start with a clean state. In order to not confuse non-power users, it should nudge people towards the clean state, when in doubt.

[fhd]

Actually, looking at the current first run page again, I think it's relatively simple to get it to make sense in this context:

1. We change the Acceptable Ads part when the user had opted out in the old profile
2. We enable the features that are actually enabled in the feature list below

That sounds relatively straightforward. What do you think, Wladimir?

[fhd]

Adding Sven, since this is definitely a UX thing.

[fhd]

Increasing priority since Tim keeps asking for it :)

Sven, any thoughts?

[sven]

I think pretty much the same here. It makes sense to me to show the first run page after reinstalling the extension and it also makes sense to update the data on the first run page if we can keep them from an existing ABP profile.

Replying to fhd:

Actually, looking at the current first run page again, I think it's relatively simple to get it to make sense in this context:

1. We change the Acceptable Ads part when the user had opted out in the old profile
2. We enable the features that are actually enabled in the feature list below

That sounds relatively straightforward. What do you think, Wladimir?

[Kai]

Any update? Also I think this should be a global change not restriced to FF.

Best
Kai

[trev]

Unsetting "ready" flag - this issue is currently underspecified. Right now the first-run page says:

Annoying ads will now be blocked

We'd like to encourage websites to use straightforward, unobtrusive advertising. That's why we've established strict guidelines to identify acceptable ads, which are shown under default settings. If you still want to block every ad you can disable this in a few seconds.

This doesn't make sense for a reinstall, it should rather say that the settings have been kept. Maybe:

Your settings have been kept

The settings from your previous Adblock Plus installation have been kept. If you wish to reset Adblock Plus to the default settings you can click here.

Clicking "here" will ask for confirmation: "Are you sure you want to remove all Adblock Plus settings? Automatic backups will be removed as well so this action cannot be reversed." Then it should reset all preferences, remove the adblockplus directory and rerun the first-run actions (will open the first-run page again, this time with the standard text).

Sven, Felix, what do you think?

[fhd]

Replying to Kai:

Also I think this should be a global change not restriced to FF.

We only have this problem in Firefox (and IE, I'm pretty sure). And it's not really a _problem_ in that sense: It's a technical difference between Firefox/IE and the others: They don't remove any data from the extension when it is uninstalled, the others do. Still, makes sense to ensure the user is informed about this (and specifically about Acceptable Ads) when reinstalling.

Replying to trev:

Your settings have been kept

The settings from your previous Adblock Plus installation have been kept. If you wish to reset Adblock Plus to the default settings you can click here.

Clicking "here" will ask for confirmation: "Are you sure you want to remove all Adblock Plus settings? Automatic backups will be removed as well so this action cannot be reversed." Then it should reset all preferences, remove the adblockplus directory and rerun the first-run actions (will open the first-run page again, this time with the standard text).

That makes sense yes. However, I believe it'd make more sense to combine this with the first run page - which says "Adblock Plus has been installed", which is true (see my suggestion above for how I think this should work). We can still show a message about this being a reinstallation and allowing the user to reset the data in addition here - maybe in the usual place where we show warnings?

[trev]

Replying to fhd:

However, I believe it'd make more sense to combine this with the first run page

I'm not suggesting to replace the first-run page completely - merely a single paragraph on it. Everything else makes sense for reinstalls as well.

[fhd]

OK, then I misunderstood you and we seem to agree.

Sven, what do you think? If you agree, would be great if you can do a mockup for this.

[sven]

Replying to fhd:

OK, then I misunderstood you and we seem to agree.

Sven, what do you think? If you agree, would be great if you can do a mockup for this.

No worries, i don't agree ;-).

You need to ask yourself why someone would like to re-install adblock plus. I basically see 2 main reasons for this:

1. Something is broken and you want to get the default settings back
2. You uninstalled it because you're annoyed by something in adblock plus and after a while you see that you can't live without adblock plus

In both cases a clean adblock plus installation should be proceeded by default. If we have some user data from a previous installation, we can ask the user if he wants to use these settings instead. This would result in the following changes for this issue:

For the case a user uninstalled adblock plus and installs it again on FF:

changes	current behavior	suggested behavior
1	no FRP will be shown	FRP should be shown like on chrome with the difference that we ask back if a user wants to use stored settings

For a mock-up:

I could imagine to create a headline element and a checkbox with a label like: "i want to use my old adblock plus settings".

The label should say something like: "There are some old adblock plus settings which are stored by your browser"

[trev]

Mass-closing all bugs in Adblock Plus for Firefox module, the codebase of Adblock Plus 3.0 belongs into Platform and User-Interface modules. Old bugs are unlikely to still apply.