Proposed changes to the Profiles article
Majken Connor
article, especially that it's at the top of the article. I'd like it to be
more like MZ in that the profile manager gets its own article and the
profiles article explains what profiles are, where they are, and which files
do what. This, however, is going to be a lot of work and I don't want to
start on it if people want to keep it the way it is. Any thoughts or
objections?
David Tenser
I mostly agree, and I've felt the same. However, I'd like it to be three
articles:
1. Profile Folder - Explains what the profile folder is on a high level,
and how to locate it on the hard disk. This article should link to the
following two articles:
2. Managing Profiles - Explains how add/remove/move profiles, using the
Profile Manager. Implicitly talks about the Profile Manager, but more of
a how-to for _managing_ profiles (which is what the Profile Manager does
anyway)
3. Contents of the Profile Folder - List of files in the profile folder
and what they do. Should be a separate article because of the much
higher complexity.
How does that sound?
Majken Connor
I would still combine 1 and 3, but with screenshots etc, that will make the
article shorter, and is IMO still better than it is now.
David Tenser
I don't agree, because of the different levels of information.
Article 1 should cover the basic stuff: What is a profile? What is
stored in the profile (bookmarks, passwords, etc.)? What happens with
the profile if I uninstall Firefox? Where is the profile - including
screenshots of the profile folder, showing an example of a full path to it.
Article 3 should cover the advanced stuff: a detailed list of the files
and what they're there for, e.g.
cookies.sqlite - database file for <cookies> (link to Cookies article)
bookmarks.html - (firefox 2) file containing <bookmarks> (link to
Bookmarks article)
prefs.js - preferences file (include edit warnings, etc.. and link to
Options Window article)
cert8.db - whatever that file does
The people needing the info in article 1 will probably outnumber the
people who need article 3 by an order of magnitude.
That said, if you find it important and can make a case for merging the
articles, feel free to do so. The important thing is that we have the
information, and I agree with you that the current merge of "what is a
profile" and "how to manage profiles" is not a good idea.
David Tenser
Majken Connor
article about the files, when it could just be included as a table in
article #1, but again, it's a wiki. We can track how many people go from
the profile article to the article with the file table, and decide to merge
them later if it's a significant portion of users.
David Tenser
Yeah, I think from a troubleshooting point of view, we are probably
going to direct a lot of people to article 1 (what is a profile and
where can i find the folder?), whereas few people will need the info in
article 3. That's why I see the logic in separating them.
Chris Ilias
Considering the profile manager, and the concept of profiles is hidden
from users, 99% of the time users wind up on the profiles article
because they are directed there from another article, telling them to
access their profile folder for some reason (create a file, edit a file,
restore a backup, create a backup). In such cases, the original article
explains what to do afterwards.
I agree with David. ((Profiles)) should be a *brief* intro to profiles
and their locations, as well as give links to ((Managing profiles)) and
((Profile contents)). Including profile contents is an overload of
unneeded info. It should just be a separate reference chart article.
Majken Connor
> _______________________________________________
>
Sorry for the delay on this, Live Chat's been time consuming!
I've started on this now, a couple things up front.
1. The original authors from the profiles article need to be credited on the
Managing profiles article, I may make some changes, like including more
screenshots, but for the most part it's just a straight copy.
2. We'll need to find any other articles that link to the profiles article
for the profile manager. What's the best way to do this?
3. Profile contents - should this just be a table alphabetical by file name
with a description of what each file is and a link to relevant articles? (I
believe this article still needs a bug)
Chris Ilias
> 1. The original authors from the profiles article need to be credited on the
> Managing profiles article, I may make some changes, like including more
> screenshots, but for the most part it's just a straight copy.
Don't worry about it. Those people are still credited on the Profiles
article; plus I think the large majority of it is from
<http://www.mozilla.org/support/firefox/profile> anyway. :-)
> 2. We'll need to find any other articles that link to the profiles article
> for the profile manager. What's the best way to do this?
Search the KB for "create a new profile". :-\
This is one of reasons I filed
<https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=411557>.
> 3. Profile contents - should this just be a table alphabetical by file name
> with a description of what each file is and a link to relevant articles? (I
> believe this article still needs a bug)
I agree. Put the folders first. A couple of references for layout/approach:
http://seamonkey.ilias.ca/profilefaq/#files
http://gemal.dk/mozilla/files.html
Chris Ilias
> 3. Profile contents - should this just be a table alphabetical by file name
> with a description of what each file is and a link to relevant articles? (I
> believe this article still needs a bug)
I didn't forget :-) :
<https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=419397>