Remove cross-promotion for Adblock Browser from first run page on Microsoft Edge

[sebastian]

Background

Certification of our last (devbuild) submission to the Windows Store failed with following report:

Notes To Developer
The app promotes acquiring software through methods other than the Store.

1. Upon installation, webpage is opened containing links to download software outside of the Microsoft Store.

2. Extension window contains links to download software outside of the Microsoft Store.

Apparently Microsoft no longer allows to promote software that is distributed from other sources than the Windows Store. They won't let us publish a new (devbuild or release) version of Adblock Plus as long as we promote Adblock Browser for Android and iOS on the first run page. Note that this is unrelated of EdgeHTML but a Windows Store policy that will remain in effect after they switch to Chromium.

What to change

Hide the cross-promotion for Adblock Browser from the first run page on Microsoft Edge, i.e. info.application == "edge" (not info.platform == "edgehtml").

See also ​ui#273.

[agiammarchi]

Added review URL, this is a no-brainer since the way is the one we already used and tested to avoid showing the issue report button.

[agiammarchi]

Please note there are two different reviews for this, since popup and FRP are different parts of our FE

[abpbot]

Some commits referencing this issue have landed:

• ​Issue 7193 - Remove promotion from first run page in MS Edge
• ​Issue 7193 - Hide footer links in MS Edge

[abpbot]

A commit referencing this issue has landed:
​Issue 7193 - Updated adblockplusui dependency in order to hide ABB promotion on Edge

[abpbot]

A commit referencing this issue has landed:
​Issue 7193 - Fixed popup promotions still being visible

[abpbot]

A commit referencing this issue has landed:
​Issue 7193 - Updated adblockplusui depdency, fixing promotion still being visible on MS Edge

[Ross]

Done. Works as expected.

ABP 0.9.11.2214 (Devbuild)
Edge 44.17763.1.0 / EdgeHTML 18.17763

[greiner]

Added link to GitLab issue.

[greiner]

Does that mean that we can't link to those stores on the first-run page as well as through cross-promotion notifications either? Because if that's the case we'll have to make further changes.

Also note that we only link to adblockplus.org so we could've also left the links in there and instead redirect Edge users to some landing page on adblockplus.org.

[saroyanm]

For the reference: Andrea also filed a bug report, that can be found here -> ​https://developer.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-edge/platform/issues/20064213/

[sebastian]

Repeating the report quoted in the the issue description:

The app promotes acquiring software through methods other than the Store.

I don't think that it matters whether clicking the link takes you to a third-party store or a landing page on your own website, or whether you omit the link at all, instructing the user by other means how they get the software. You must not ask users to install software from outside the Windows Store.

We not only removed the cross promotion from the first run page, but also ​from the browser action popup. As for notifications, we better make sure to not use these on Microsoft Edge in order to cross promote Adblock Browser either. But not sure if that requires changes to the extension, since notifications can target specific browsers.