{"id":1942,"date":"2011-01-18T22:30:50","date_gmt":"2011-01-19T03:30:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mikeconley.ca\/blog\/?p=1942"},"modified":"2023-12-20T16:25:14","modified_gmt":"2023-12-20T21:25:14","slug":"day-2-at-mozilla-messaging-pbranch-testing-teleconferencing-intranet-and-more-testing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mikeconley.ca\/blog\/2011\/01\/18\/day-2-at-mozilla-messaging-pbranch-testing-teleconferencing-intranet-and-more-testing\/","title":{"rendered":"Day 2 at Mozilla Messaging: pbranch, testing, teleconferencing, intranet, and more testing"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ok, today was my second day at Mozilla Messaging<\/a>.\u00a0 Another good day.\u00a0 Here are some highlights:<\/p>\n

Today, I started off my day by wanting to learn a few things:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. How to use pbranch<\/a> to locally commit my Firefox patch from yesterday<\/a><\/li>\n
  2. How to write tests for my patch using Mochitest<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    I started with the first one.<\/p>\n

    So, for the most part, Mozilla uses Mercurial<\/a> as its distributed version control system.\u00a0 I’ve been using Git<\/a> (arguably Mercurial’s main competitor<\/a>) since last summer with both MarkUs<\/a> and Review Board<\/a>.\u00a0 Mercurial is something quite different.\u00a0 Quite different indeed.<\/p>\n

    pbranch is a tool that lets me have a patch queue.\u00a0 Basically, organization, and re-organization of any changes I make to the Mozilla code-base is a lot easier using something like pbranch.<\/p>\n

    So I spent a few minutes going through the pbranch tutorial<\/a>.\u00a0 Eventually, I think I got the hang of it – basically, for my extension changes-sets, I create a new branch using hg pnew, and commit to that branch.\u00a0 I’ll keep committing to that, and when I’m all done, I’ll dump my patch to a Bugzilla attachment.\u00a0 After I pass code review, someone will merge my patch.\u00a0 Then I’ll remove my local branch and pull in my changes.\u00a0 Sweet!<\/p>\n

    Ok, so at this point, I think I got the workflow.\u00a0 Next, I needed to figure out how to write a Mochitest.\u00a0 Thankfully, there’s this tutorial<\/a>.<\/p>\n

    Looking through the documentation, I was reminded of Selenium<\/a> a little bit.\u00a0 I think it’s sort of the same idea.<\/p>\n

    So how do I write a test for my changes?\u00a0 Unfortunately, the documentation on how to write a Mochitest is a little thin.\u00a0 So I started hunting around, looking for examples to extrapolate from.<\/p>\n

    At some point, I found myself staring at this code<\/a>.\u00a0 Wow!\u00a0 A full-blown API for manipulating the add-ons manager!\u00a0 Great!\u00a0 But it turns out that this is for Mozmill tests, and not Mochitests.\u00a0 But a quick search through MXR showed that nobody<\/em> was using that add-on manager API.\u00a0 Argh.<\/p>\n

    Was I barking up the wrong tree here?\u00a0 Where the hell were the add-on manager tests?<\/p>\n

    I quickly swallowed my pride, and decided to talk to an expert.\u00a0 I used Mercurial’s log function to determine who had changed extensions.js the most.\u00a0 The name Dave Townsend<\/a> came up.\u00a0 According to his site, he’s “Mossop” on IRC, but he wasn’t online.\u00a0 The log function also mentioned the name Blair McBride<\/a>.\u00a0 On IRC, he’s “Unfocused”.\u00a0 He was online, but unavailable.<\/p>\n

    Argh.<\/p>\n

    It was at this point that Blake told me that the Mozilla Messaging weekly meeting was going to take place.\u00a0 Apparently this happens every Tuesday at 9:30AM PST.\u00a0 So we marched over to a conference room, hooked up this super-advanced phone (the phone had a boot-up screen, and then showed the Mozilla logo…whoa!).\u00a0 A little while later, the meeting began.\u00a0 The meeting was super fast, and super efficient – especially considering the teams are spread out across the globe.\u00a0 One person led the meeting, and called the different teams up to give their weekly status.\u00a0 I also got to introduce myself to the team.\u00a0 I rambled off something about Thunderbird+Unity and code review, and then stumbled back to my chair.\u00a0 Cool times.\u00a0 Anyhow, teleconferencing is going to take some getting used to.<\/p>\n

    So, with the meeting over, and still no word from Unfocused, I decided to clean up my code a bit<\/a>, and then posted my patch up on Bugzilla.\u00a0 I asked Dave Townsend for a code review, and said that if testing needs to happen, hopefully he’d let me know and advise me.<\/p>\n

    It didn’t take long for a response to come back.\u00a0 Apparently, there are indeed tests for the add-ons manager, and they’re right here in front of my face<\/a>.\u00a0 Crap, I should have known.\u00a0 :\/<\/p>\n

    So I dove into those tests…wow, there were a lot of them.\u00a0 And I didn’t have a clue as to how to run any of them.<\/p>\n

    Following the Mochitest instructions, I eventually tried this:<\/p>\n

    TEST_PATH=toolkit\/mozapps\/extensions\/test\/ make -C $OBJDIR mochitest-plain<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

    (where the TEST_PATH is set to the folder of tests I want to run, and $OBJDIR is an environment variable that points to the objdir compilation folder for Firefox.)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

    But this only ran a single test out of the bunch, and there were hundreds in there.\u00a0 So what was the deal?<\/p>\n

    It turned out that the tests I wanted to run were with higher privileges than your average Mochitest test.\u00a0 A basic Mochitest test is run using mochitest-plain.\u00a0 Apparently, I needed to use mochitest-browser-chrome<\/a>.\u00a0 Took me a good half-hour to figure that one out.\u00a0 :\/<\/p>\n

    Anyhow, BAM, I had it – the tests were running.\u00a0 The bad news:\u00a0 I had a bunch of failing tests.\u00a0 The good news:\u00a0 the same tests failed without any of my changes.\u00a0 So…great…I guess.<\/p>\n

    It was at this point in the day that I was given access to the Mozilla Messaging Intranet (the internal wiki).\u00a0 There was plenty to read there, including something along the lines of “So you’re a new Mozilla Messaging hire”…I gave that a read.\u00a0 Very interesting.<\/p>\n

    After that, I subscribed to a few internal mailing lists, and submitted my Mozilla-centric blog feed<\/a> to be added to Planet Mozilla<\/a> and Planet Mozilla Messaging<\/a>.\u00a0 Woop!<\/p>\n

    Finally, I got back to testing.\u00a0 After digging through those add-ons manager tests, I finally found this:\u00a0 PAYDIRT<\/a>.<\/p>\n

    Sweet!\u00a0 Tons of stuff for free in there:\u00a0 MockProvider<\/a>, createAddons<\/a>… writing tests in there looked like it’d be cake.<\/p>\n

    But then it was home time.\u00a0 More tomorrow.<\/p>\n

    \n

    Today, I want to learn a few things:<\/p>\n

      \n
    1. How to use pbranch to locally commit my Firefox patch from last night<\/li>\n
    2. How to write tests for my patch using Mochitest<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      Lets start with 1:<\/p>\n

      So Mozilla uses Mercurial as its distributed version control system.\u00a0 I’ve been using Git since last summer with both MarkUs and Review Board.\u00a0 Mercurial is something quite different.<\/p>\n

      Started going through pbranch tutorial<\/a>.<\/p>\n

      So for my extension changes, here’s what I’m going to do.\u00a0 I create a new branch using pnew, and commit to that.\u00a0 I’ll keep committing to that.\u00a0 When I’m all done, dump my patch to a Bugzilla attachment.\u00a0 Someone will merge my patch.\u00a0 Then I’ll remove my local branch and pull in my changes.\u00a0 Sweet!<\/p>\n

      Ok, so I’ve got the workflow (I think).\u00a0 Next, I need to figure out how to write a Mochitest.\u00a0 Thankfully, there’s this:\u00a0 https:\/\/developer.mozilla.org\/en\/Mochitest<\/p>\n

      I’m reminded of Selenium a little bit.\u00a0 I think it’s sort of the same idea.<\/p>\n

      So how do I write a test for my changes?\u00a0 Unfortunately, the documentation on how to write a Mochitest is a little thin.\u00a0 So I guess I’ll be looking at examples, and extrapolating from there.\u00a0 Let’s see if I can find a similar test written elsewhere.<\/p>\n

      This is promising:\u00a0 http:\/\/mxr.mozilla.org\/mozilla-central\/source\/testing\/mozmill\/tests\/shared-modules\/testAddonsAPI.js<\/p>\n

      Hm…but this is for Mozmill, and not Mochitest.<\/p>\n

      Yep, Mozilla uses a lot of different testing frameworks.\u00a0 It’s a little confusing.\u00a0 Mozmill is also like Selenium<\/p>\n

      So who is using testAddonsAPI.js?\u00a0 Argh.\u00a0 It looks like nobody.<\/p>\n

      I’m having a hard time finding tests for any of the stuff in extensions.js.\u00a0 So I guess it’s time to talk to the expert.\u00a0 I use hg log to see who the most frequent committer is to extensions.js.\u00a0 The name Dave Townsend comes up.\u00a0 http:\/\/www.oxymoronical.com\/ .\u00a0 He’s Mossop on IRC, and not online.\u00a0 So who else is listed in hg log?\u00a0 Blair McBride.<\/p>\n

      Had my first Mozilla Messaging weekly meeting.\u00a0 It’s on a phone.\u00a0 Interesting how its organized…really not like any phone conversation I’ve been a part of.\u00a0 People mute themselves…unmute when its time to talk.\u00a0 Awkward pauses are rampant…pretty cool though.\u00a0 Coordinating around the world.\u00a0 Nice!<\/p>\n

      Ok, back to Blair McBride…after a little hunting around, it turns out his IRC nickname is Unfocused.\u00a0 I’ve found him in a few of the Mozilla IRC channels, and am waiting to hear back from him.<\/p>\n

      No word.\u00a0 So, after some scrubbing<\/a>, I posted my patch up on Bugzilla, and asked Dave Townsend for a review.\u00a0 If testing needs to happen, hopefully he’ll let me know and advise me.<\/p>\n

      Whoop, just got a message.\u00a0 The tests are here:\u00a0 http:\/\/mxr.mozilla.org\/mozilla-central\/source\/toolkit\/mozapps\/extensions\/test\/<\/a>.\u00a0 Crap, I should have known.\u00a0 :\/<\/p>\n

      Ok, lets examine those tests… hold up.\u00a0 How do I run these?\u00a0 Trying to run that directory with Mochitest, I only get 1 test to run…wtf?<\/p>\n

      Success!\u00a0 TEST_PATH=toolkit\/mozapps\/extensions\/test\/ make -C . mochitest-browser-chrome<\/p>\n

      Sweet, so all those tests run.\u00a0 Bad news though – a bunch of failing tests.\u00a0 Going to see if it was my patch.\u00a0 Ok, looks like a bunch of tests were failing before I even committed anything.\u00a0 That’s good, I guess.<\/p>\n

      So, I have to compare them in order to ensure that there aren’t MORE failing tests after my patch goes in.<\/p>\n

      I now have access to the Intranet.\u00a0 Sweet – lots of stuff to read here.\u00a0 “So you’re a new Mozilla Messaging hire…”<\/p>\n

      Just subscribed to a few internal mailing lists, and submitted by Mozilla feed to be added to Planet Mozilla and Planet Mozilla Messaging.\u00a0 Woop!<\/p>\n

      Ok, back to testing, I’ve found this:\u00a0 http:\/\/mxr.mozilla.org\/mozilla-central\/source\/toolkit\/mozapps\/extensions\/test\/browser\/browser_sorting.js\u00a0 This looks like paydirt.<\/p>\n

      The CEO of Mozilla Messaging (David Ascher) just welcomed me to MoMo:<\/p>\n

      mconley: welcome to the madhouse<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

      Awesome. [WELCOME TO THE JUNGLE]<\/p>\n

      Sweet!\u00a0 Tons of stuff for free:\u00a0 MockProvider, createAddons – I think this’ll be cake tomorrow.<\/p>\n

      Ooops – Dave Townsend just asked a good question:\u00a0 what about extensions that are to-be-installed?\u00a0 to-be-uninstalled?\u00a0 Where do they go?<\/p>\n

      I’ll have to check that out tomorrow.<\/p>\n

      But right now, it’s home time.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      Ok, today was my second day at Mozilla Messaging.\u00a0 Another good day.\u00a0 Here are some highlights: Today, I started off my day by wanting to learn a few things: How to use pbranch to locally commit my Firefox patch from yesterday How to write tests for my patch using Mochitest I started with the first […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[874,861],"tags":[887,888,131,639,894,883,884,893,877,885,895,891,882,896,892,890,886,889],"class_list":["post-1942","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-firefox-mozilla-2","category-mozilla-2","tag-addon-manager","tag-addons-manager","tag-extensions","tag-git","tag-intranet","tag-mercurial","tag-mochitest","tag-mochitest-browser-chrome","tag-mozilla-messaging","tag-mozmill","tag-new-hire","tag-ode-review","tag-pbranch","tag-planet","tag-running-mochitests","tag-scrum","tag-selenium","tag-teleconferencing"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/prmTy-vk","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mikeconley.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1942","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mikeconley.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mikeconley.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mikeconley.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mikeconley.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1942"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/mikeconley.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1942\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3146,"href":"https:\/\/mikeconley.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1942\/revisions\/3146"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mikeconley.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1942"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mikeconley.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1942"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mikeconley.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1942"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}