Bug 270513 – Move User Agent Quirks to a Config File

• Status: RESOLVED
• Resolution: DUPLICATE
• Component: WebKitGTK

[Dennis Camera]

Instead of managing a list of domains requiring User Agent quirks hard-coded in C++, I think it would be better to move the list of domains requiring quirks to a config file.

Websites can change quickly while updating the hard-coded list requires a bug report, somebody write a patch, merge the patch, have the commit be included in a release, distros picking up the release, users installing the update.
This process can take days to weeks or possibly even longer which IMO is bad user experience.

If instead the list was in a config file, distros or even users could include new domains much quicker or also remove them after they fixed their sites.

I would suggest a plain text file, one domain per line (possibly allow /regular expressions/, ignore lines starting with [#;]).
This would make it easy also for system administrators to deploy new domains using a shell script when they need to.

What do you think?

[Ahmad Saleem]

I think similar idea was pitched by Karl during WebKit Contributor Meeting.

@Karl - any input?

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My idea is for current quirk system (at least to reduce them):

1) LinkedOnAfter
2) UA Overrides
3) Quirks
4) Any other ways - we workaround - which we don't know.

__

We add page on webkit.org, where user can search their website to see, if they have any quirk. Similarly, we add contact button or reference bugs to say that they want to delete them and how to contact us or if it is difficult then add 'Console' message that this website has ABC quirk activate, please contact for removal.

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As for adding quirks, I think adding configurable quirks (similar to Firefox on the fly - would be ideal).

Similarly we should work with webcompat.com to bring their extension on Safari for continuous effort to improve WebKit / Safari bugs / workaround and it might benefit Epiphany as well.

[Michael Catanzaro]

Let's discuss more in bug #263619. It's definitely desired as rebuilding WebKit to add quirks is not easy for users.

*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of bug 263619 ***