Firefox extension stops working if user disables cookies

[ameshkov]

It seems that disabling cookies prevents access to the extension's own localStorage and that breaks settings.

We should alert user if we detected a situation like that and provide an instruction:
#940 (comment)

[corvo7]

Hi:) We are waiting for the solution of the problem ...

[Mizzick]

It is possible to add our extension to cookies whitelist with moz-extension://[Internal UUID] address, that could be obtained from about:debugging tab.

Please check this instructions for more details:
https://www.ghacks.net/2017/10/10/how-to-deal-with-firefox-extensions-that-require-cookies/

[ameshkov]

@The-Commissioner it's not about cookies, it is about localStorage and indexedDB, and this is a common practice to use both to store add-on settings.

[ameshkov]

Blocking cookies also blocks indexedDB and localStorage, that's the whole point -- user has disabled cookies and we ended up with localStorage and indexedDB that do not persist their state.

[ameshkov]

That's not about localStorage, this is about another entity -- "browser.storage"

[ameshkov]

As I can see, uBO also uses indexedDB. It may not look like it's broken, but it actually is -- filters content and caches aren't persisted and loaded from defaults every time. Actually, I think that both ways are not okay.

We'd better let users know that one of the components is not working as it should, and provide an instruction.

[ameshkov]

You can't see it, but if you debug it and find indexedDB usages, you'll see what I am talking about.

[Mizzick]

So, do we need to show some warning to user in case cookies are disabled?

[Mizzick]

No longer reproducable with FF 59