The survey is not launched if the study expires after 6 weeks on Mac OS

[SoftVision-CosminMuntean]

[Notes]:

• The issue is only reproducible if the "extensions.shield-search-nudges.variation" is created and the "noshow" or "doshow" value is added. The issue is not reproducible if you don't create the pref.
• The issue is not reproducible on Windows or Linux.

[Affected versions]:

• Firefox 61.0.2 and above

[Affected Platforms]:

• All Mac

[Prerequisites]:

• Have a new Firefox profile with the latest version of the "Search Nudges" add-on (1.8.1) installed from "https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1462136".
• Have the following preferences in the "about:config" page:
  • "xpinstall.signatures.required" set to false;
  • "extensions.legacy.enabled" set to true;
  • create the "extensions.shield-search-nudges.variation" string with the "doshow" value.

[Steps to reproduce]:

1. Open the browser with the profile from prerequisites.
2. Change the system date to be 6 weeks in the future.
3. Restart the browser and observe the behavior.

[Expected result]:

• The experiment expires and the survey is launched.

[Actual result]:

• The experiment expires but the survey is not launched.

[Additional Notes]:

• Unfortunately I can't create a screen recording since I have to change the system date to be in the future.

[SoftVision-CosminMuntean]

Here is a screenshots with browser console errors:

[mikedeboer]

I can't reproduce this behavior, running a Debug build of 63, locally.

[mikedeboer]

The console screenshot that you show here also doesn't say that there's something wrong with the addon, only that the Search Service is initialized synchronously, which is a bug in Activity Stream.

[SoftVision-CosminMuntean]

I have retested this issue using the latest "Search Nudges" version (1.8.2), but the issue is still reproducible.
However, it seems that the issue is not reproducible if the browser is closed normally by using the "Cmd + Q" shortcut or the "Quit" option after the system date was changed to be 6 weeks in the future.
The issue is reproducible if you restart the browser using the browser console after the system date was changed to be 6 weeks in the future.

Here are the STR:

1. Open the browser with the profile from prerequisites.
2. Change the system date to be 6 weeks in the future.
3. Open the browser console (Cmd + Shift + J).
4. Focus the browser console and press the "Cmd + Alt + R" key shortcut.
5. After the browser is reopened observe the behavior.

[Expected result]:

• The experiment expires and the survey is launched.

[Actual result]:

• The experiment expires and the survey is not launched.

The survey is correctly launched even if you restart the browser using the browser console if you don't create the "extensions.shield-search-nudges.variation" string pref.
The issue is only reproducible if you create the pref and add the "doshow" or "noshow" value.

Since the issue is reproducible if the browser is restarted using the browser console, probably there won't be many users which
will encounter the issue.
However, the experiment is correctly uninstalled and also the "exit" and "expired" pings are sent.

Considering this I will reopen this issue so we can do more tests regarding this.

[SoftVision-CosminMuntean]

It seems that the issue is also reproducible on Mac OS if 6 weeks pass and the browser is updated after the experiment expires.
Since the study will run for 6 weeks, probably there will be multiple updates available and if users update the browser in the same day when the study expires, the survey will not be launched for them.