MB 328: Refactor the search engine patch.

Merge Info

Related Issues

• tor-browser#xxxxx
• #328 (closed)
• tor-browser-build#xxxxx

Backporting

Timeline

• Immediate: patchset needed as soon as possible
• Next Minor Stable Release: patchset that needs to be verified in nightly before backport
• Eventually: patchset that needs to be verified in alpha before backport
• No Backport (preferred): patchset for the next major stable

(Optional) Justification

• Emergency security update: patchset fixes CVEs, 0-days, etc
• Critical bug-fix: patchset fixes a bug in core-functionality
• Consistency: patchset which would make development easier if it were in both the alpha and release branches; developer tools, build system changes, etc
• Sponsor required: patchset required for sponsor
• Localization: typos and other localization changes that should be also in the release branch
• Other: please explain

Merging

• Merge to mullvad-browser - !fixups to mullvad-browser-specific commits, new features, security backports
• Merge to base-browser -!fixups to base-browser-specific commits, new features to be shared with tor-browser
  • NOTE: if your changeset includes patches to both base-browser and mullvad-browser please clearly label in the change description which commits should be cherry-picked to base-browser after merging

Issue Tracking

• Link resolved issues with appropriate Release Prep issue for changelog generation

Review

Request Reviewer

• Request review from an applications developer depending on modified system:
  • NOTE: if the MR modifies multiple areas, please /cc all the relevant reviewers (since gitlab only allows 1 reviewer)
  • accessibility : henry
  • android : clairehurst, dan
  • build system : boklm
  • extensions : ma1
  • firefox internals (XUL/JS/XPCOM) : jwilde, ma1
  • fonts : pierov
  • frontend (implementation) : henry
  • frontend (review) : donuts, richard
  • localization : henry, pierov
  • macOS : clairehurst, dan
  • nightly builds : boklm
  • rebases/release-prep : dan, ma1, pierov, richard
  • security : jwilde, ma1
  • signing : boklm, richard
  • updater : pierov
  • windows : jwilde, richard
  • misc/other : pierov, richard

Change Description

Upstream switched to a completely different search engine configuration between ESR 115 and ESR 128 (see also tor-browser#42891 (closed)).

I had caught this during the rebases, and provided an already updated configuration for the search engines.

However, after working on this also on Tor Browser, I decided to take another path, and refactored MB to be similar to what we did on TBB (tor-browser!1162 (merged)).

In particular, I took MB's configuration and moved it to a JSON file. Also, I added the orderHint property that initially I didn't add, otherwise the engines were sorted alphabetically.

Then, I added another JSON file to declare the icons.

Finally, I restored the unused search engine webextensions, because removing them would require some migration code to remove them also from the databases. Some alpha users might be in an in-between state, but it isn't too late for release users. Upstream also kept them and planned to remove them in the future.

How Tested

Built a local dev build and checked:

• all search engines are still present
• all search engines have icons
• search engines are in the same order as declared (but actually thanks to the orderHint propety)
• we don't have any errors related to the search engines in the console