The web3 usage metrics added in #9144 assumed that all web3 properties
were strings. When a `Symbol` property is accessed, our `inpage.js`
script crashes because the `Symbol` cannot be serialized correctly.
A check has been added for non-string property access. The metric event
in these cases is set to the string "typeof ", followed by the type of
the key. (e.g. `typeof symbol` for a `Symbol` property).
Fixes#9234
The web3 usage metrics added in #9144 assumed that all web3 properties
were strings. When a `Symbol` property is accessed, our `inpage.js`
script crashes because the `Symbol` cannot be serialized correctly.
A check has been added for non-string property access. The metric event
in these cases is set to the string "typeof ", followed by the type of
the key. (e.g. `typeof symbol` for a `Symbol` property).
Fixes#9234
The usage metrics for the injected web3 instance were being sent upon
each use, which exceeded the limits of our Matomo plan. These metrics
are now only being sent upon the first usage, for each origin and
property.
The usage metrics for the injected web3 instance were being sent upon
each use, which exceeded the limits of our Matomo plan. These metrics
are now only being sent upon the first usage, for each origin and
property.
* Fix require-unicode-regexp issues
See [`require-unicode-regexp`](https://eslint.org/docs/rules/require-unicode-regexp) for more information.
This change enables `require-unicode-regexp` and fixes the issues raised by the rule.
* Remove case-insensitive flag from regexps
The "Background" metrics category was being set in the
`backgroundMetaMetricsEvent` function. This function might not
necessarily include any event at all though, so setting it here seemed
inappropriate. It would also crash if `eventData.eventOpts` was not
set, which is not great since that property is optional.
The background category is now set in the `sendBackgroundMetaMetrics`
function in `metamask-controller`. This method is used solely for event
data, so it would make sense for this category to be always set.
There is no functional difference, since `backgroundMetaMetricsEvent`
is called solely by `sendBackgroundMetaMetrics`.
The `currentPath` parameter passed to our metrics utility had been
passed the full URL rather than just the path, contrary to what the
name would imply. We only used the path portion, so passing the full
URL did lead to complications.
Now just the `pathname` is passed in, rather than the full URL. This
simplifies the metrics logic, and it incidentally fixes two bugs.
The main bug fixed is regarding Firefox metrics. Previously we had
assumed the `currentPath` would start with `chrome-extension://`, which
of course was not true on Firefox. This lead to us incorrectly parsing
the `currentPath`, so path tracking was broken for Firefox events.
This broken parsing is now bypassed entirely, so metrics should now
work the same on Firefox as on Chrome.
The second bug was that we were incorrectly setting the tracking URL
for background events during tests. As a result, we were incorrectly
detecting ourselves as an internal site that had referred the user to
us. But this was not of major concern, since it only affected test
metrics (which get sent to the development Matomo project).
Lastly, this change let us discard the `pathname` parameter used in
the `overrides` parameter of the `metricsEvent` function. Now that
`currentPath` is equivalent to `pathname`, the `pathname` parameter is
redundant.
* Remove `url` parameter from `metricsEvent`
The `url` parameter was used to override the `currentPath`, but it
never worked correctly. It was supposed to be used for setting the
`url` query parameter that was sent to Matomo, but `currentPath` was
always used even if it `url` was set and `currentPath` was empty.
Instead, `currentPath` is now always used. There was never a need to
provide an "override" for `currentPath` when it can be set directly.
The metrics provider does set `currentPath` automatically by default,
but this can be overwritten already by passing a second parameter to
`metricsEvent`.
There were two places this `url` parameter was being used: background
events, and path changes. Background events were submitted with no
`currentPath`, so because of the bug with the `url` parameter, the
metrics utility would crash upon each event. So those were never
actually sent. This commit will fix that crash.
The `currentPath` parameter was supplied as an empty string for the
path change events, so those never crashed. They just had the `url`
query string parameter set incorrectly (to an empty string). It should
now be correctly populated, which should mean we'll be capturing all
path changes now. Previously we were only capturing path changes to
pages that happened to include an event, because of this blank `url`
problem.
* Use `url` query parameter as fallback for generating `pv_id`
The `pv_id` parameter currently isn't generated correctly on Firefox,
as the generation assumes that the current URL starts with
`chrome-extension://`. The `url` query parameter is still unique for
each path, so it's probably good enough for generating an id for each
page.
This is just a temporary fix; it will be removed in a future PR, where
Firefox will be properly supported.
Background events are now sent in the `Background` category, rather
than `backend`. Conventionally we use the term "background" over
"backend", as it's not really a "backend" in the normal sense since
it's a client background process. Also it's capitalized because all of
the other event categories are capitalized as well.
The metrics URL has been updated to use `background` instead of
`backend` as well, for consistency.
Luckily we don't have to worry about our metrics being disjointed due
to this name change, because the background metrics never worked to
begin with! So there will be none under the old name. The metrics will
be made functional in a separate PR.
The Sentry DSN is now expected to be provided via environment variable
for production builds. The build script will fail if it is missing, and
an error will be thrown at runtime if it is missing.
The `SENTRY_DSN` environment variable has been set in CI to the old
value for `SENTRY_PROD_DSN`. We can migrate to a new DSN at some point
in the future.
In a non-production environment, Sentry was configured to send error
reports to a "test" MetaMask project. It will still do this during e2e
tests, but in development Sentry is now disabled completely.
In practice this was never useful in development.
* Fix popup/notification when browser is in fullscreen, primarily on OSX.
The issue was reported internally via Slack. User was running Mac OSX Chrome in fullscreen mode where Chrome is created in a new Desktop workspace.
The issue reproduced on OSX Chrome in fullscreen/maximized view overrides the explicitly set width and height for `windows.create()`. Possibly not overrides, but creates a window based off of the window that it was created from. Found a related [Chromium bug](https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=263092&q=window%20create%20width%20os%3DMac&can=2).
The fullscreen `popup.left` pixel will calculate the window position incorrectly since we set and assume the width of the created window. The incorrect `left` position the window and transition the focus Desktop/Workspace incorrectly and make is seem to lose focus of the new window/workspace. Incidentally this will make the popup full width/height, and create a new workspace for the view, which we have no control over until Chrome
fixes it.
This will check if the popup is 'fullscreen', which it gets passed from the origin window, if so then don't reposition the window. If Chrome fixes the issue we can revert this change.
* Feedback commit
Co-authored-by: Mark Stacey <markjstacey@gmail.com>
Co-authored-by: Mark Stacey <markjstacey@gmail.com>
The `currentPath` parameter passed to our metrics utility had been
passed the full URL rather than just the path, contrary to what the
name would imply. We only used the path portion, so passing the full
URL did lead to complications.
Now just the `pathname` is passed in, rather than the full URL. This
simplifies the metrics logic, and it incidentally fixes two bugs.
The main bug fixed is regarding Firefox metrics. Previously we had
assumed the `currentPath` would start with `chrome-extension://`, which
of course was not true on Firefox. This lead to us incorrectly parsing
the `currentPath`, so path tracking was broken for Firefox events.
This broken parsing is now bypassed entirely, so metrics should now
work the same on Firefox as on Chrome.
The second bug was that we were incorrectly setting the tracking URL
for background events during tests. As a result, we were incorrectly
detecting ourselves as an internal site that had referred the user to
us. But this was not of major concern, since it only affected test
metrics (which get sent to the development Matomo project).
Lastly, this change let us discard the `pathname` parameter used in
the `overrides` parameter of the `metricsEvent` function. Now that
`currentPath` is equivalent to `pathname`, the `pathname` parameter is
redundant.
* Remove `url` parameter from `metricsEvent`
The `url` parameter was used to override the `currentPath`, but it
never worked correctly. It was supposed to be used for setting the
`url` query parameter that was sent to Matomo, but `currentPath` was
always used even if it `url` was set and `currentPath` was empty.
Instead, `currentPath` is now always used. There was never a need to
provide an "override" for `currentPath` when it can be set directly.
The metrics provider does set `currentPath` automatically by default,
but this can be overwritten already by passing a second parameter to
`metricsEvent`.
There were two places this `url` parameter was being used: background
events, and path changes. Background events were submitted with no
`currentPath`, so because of the bug with the `url` parameter, the
metrics utility would crash upon each event. So those were never
actually sent. This commit will fix that crash.
The `currentPath` parameter was supplied as an empty string for the
path change events, so those never crashed. They just had the `url`
query string parameter set incorrectly (to an empty string). It should
now be correctly populated, which should mean we'll be capturing all
path changes now. Previously we were only capturing path changes to
pages that happened to include an event, because of this blank `url`
problem.
* Use `url` query parameter as fallback for generating `pv_id`
The `pv_id` parameter currently isn't generated correctly on Firefox,
as the generation assumes that the current URL starts with
`chrome-extension://`. The `url` query parameter is still unique for
each path, so it's probably good enough for generating an id for each
page.
This is just a temporary fix; it will be removed in a future PR, where
Firefox will be properly supported.
Background events are now sent in the `Background` category, rather
than `backend`. Conventionally we use the term "background" over
"backend", as it's not really a "backend" in the normal sense since
it's a client background process. Also it's capitalized because all of
the other event categories are capitalized as well.
The metrics URL has been updated to use `background` instead of
`backend` as well, for consistency.
Luckily we don't have to worry about our metrics being disjointed due
to this name change, because the background metrics never worked to
begin with! So there will be none under the old name. The metrics will
be made functional in a separate PR.
The Sentry DSN is now expected to be provided via environment variable
for production builds. The build script will fail if it is missing, and
an error will be thrown at runtime if it is missing.
The `SENTRY_DSN` environment variable has been set in CI to the old
value for `SENTRY_PROD_DSN`. We can migrate to a new DSN at some point
in the future.
In a non-production environment, Sentry was configured to send error
reports to a "test" MetaMask project. It will still do this during e2e
tests, but in development Sentry is now disabled completely.
In practice this was never useful in development.
* Fix popup/notification when browser is in fullscreen, primarily on OSX.
The issue was reported internally via Slack. User was running Mac OSX Chrome in fullscreen mode where Chrome is created in a new Desktop workspace.
The issue reproduced on OSX Chrome in fullscreen/maximized view overrides the explicitly set width and height for `windows.create()`. Possibly not overrides, but creates a window based off of the window that it was created from. Found a related [Chromium bug](https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=263092&q=window%20create%20width%20os%3DMac&can=2).
The fullscreen `popup.left` pixel will calculate the window position incorrectly since we set and assume the width of the created window. The incorrect `left` position the window and transition the focus Desktop/Workspace incorrectly and make is seem to lose focus of the new window/workspace. Incidentally this will make the popup full width/height, and create a new workspace for the view, which we have no control over until Chrome
fixes it.
This will check if the popup is 'fullscreen', which it gets passed from the origin window, if so then don't reposition the window. If Chrome fixes the issue we can revert this change.
* Feedback commit
Co-authored-by: Mark Stacey <markjstacey@gmail.com>
Co-authored-by: Mark Stacey <markjstacey@gmail.com>
The `extra` property of errors sent to Sentry is sometimes not
initialized when we add the application state. A check has been added
to initialize it if it's missing.
I suspect that this changed with v5 of `@sentry/browser`, though I
can't find any explicit confirmation of this in their changelog.
The state snapshot that was attached to Sentry errors was removed
recently in #8794 because it had become too large. The snapshot has
now been restored and reduced in size.
A utility function has been written to reduce the state object to just
the requested properties. This seemed safer than filtering out state
that is known to be large or to contain identifiable information.
This is not a great solution, as now knowledge about the state shape
resides in this large constant, but it will suffice for now. I am
hopeful that we can decorate our controllers with this metadata in the
future instead, as part of the upcoming background controller refactor.
A separate `getSentryState` global function has been added to get the
reduced state, so that the old `getCleanAppState` function that we used
to use could remain unchanged. It's still useful to get that full state
copy while debugging, and in e2e tests.
This migration had referred to the non-existent
`TransactionsController` instead of `TransactionController`, so it
effectively did nothing. Now it should work.
This migration hasn't been included in any release yet, so we can fix
it in-place instead of adding an additional corrected migration.
The migration comment has also been updated, as it was inaccurate.
This method was accidentally broken with the introduction of the
permissions controller, as this was missing from the list of safe
methods.
It is now included in the list of safe methods.
Fixes#8993
The currency rate controller is updated upon each network change, as
the "native currency" is network-dependent and might have changed.
However, any thrown errors were being caught and passed to an empty
callback.
The errors are now re-thrown in the callback. As a result, the errors
will now be printed to the console and sent to Sentry.
It seems that this blocklist checker never worked correctly. Ever since
the initial commit, it was comparing the Number `1` to the `networkId`,
which is a string. Additionally, even if it did throw, the transaction
continued unhindered. The user could still approve it, and there was no
indication shown to the user that anything went wrong. Also some of the
blocklist entries were incorrectly mixed-case, and were never hit.
We can remove this for now, and re-add it later on after we rewrite the
transaction controller.
The `metamaskNetworkId` property in the `txMeta` for incoming
transactions was incorrectly set as a Number instead of a String. This
change was made accidentally as part of #8627.
As a result incoming transactions were being excluded from the
transaction list, as they didn't have a matching network ID.
`metamaskNetworkId` is now set to a string, and a migration has been
added to ensure `metamaskNetworkId` is converted to a string for any
incoming transactions in state.
An optimization in `account-tracker.js` was being skipped consistently
due to a type error (a number was being compared to a string).
The optimization in this case was to update the balances for all
accounts with a single request, rather than one request per account.
The `activeTab.id` property is relied upon in the connected sites modal
to prevent the user from manually connecting to the MetaMask extension
itself. Unfortunately the `id` property was never set.
`id` is now set on the `activeTab` state, so manually connecting to the
extension UI is now impossible.
The `activeTab` state is now set to an empty object if the `origin` of
the active tab is missing or invalid. It can be invalid if the URL
passed to the `URL` constructor is missing a scheme (e.g.
`about: blank`).
There are currently no cases where the rest of the data in `activeTab`
is useful in the absence of an `origin`. This will make upcoming UI
logic changes a bit simpler than they would be otherwise. Now we can
assume that if any property is set on `activeTab`, it must have a valid
`origin`.
There were three cases where execution unintentionally continued after
an error was encountered. These cases likely are impossible to
encounter in practice due to recent validation improvements in the
`eth-json-rpc-middleware/wallet` module, but they were broken
nonetheless.
Execution inside the Promise constructor now halts immediately after
`reject` is called.
* Use over the whole stringified error object which doesn't show the actual error message that is set as the
Co-authored-by: Mark Stacey <markjstacey@gmail.com>
* Feedback commit
The code for checking whether a transaction was dropped or not was
refactored in #8398, but in the process an off-by-one error was
introduced.
The old version of `_checkIfTxWasDropped` would query for an updated
transaction count from the network, and would consider the pending
transaction to be dropped if the count was above the nonce. However,
the version introduced in #8398 considers the transaction to be dropped
if the count is above *or equal to* the nonce.
The pending transaction nonce is expected to be equal to the
transaction count, because the nonce starts at zero. The transaction
count is equal to the expected next nonce.
The variable name has been updated to make this more clear
(`networkNextNonce` is how the `nonce-tracker` refers to this value).
`parseInt` is now called with an explicit radix of `16` as well, to
ensure both nonce strings are always parsed as hex. In all cases I am
aware of, these nonce strings were prefixed by `0x`, meaning that
`parseInt` would default to a radix of `16`, so this likely doesn't
constitute a functional change.
Fixes#8688
* origin/develop: (58 commits)
Fix site icon fallback letter (#8815)
add hover style to list-item (#8813)
Fix site icon size (#8814)
Consolidate connected account alerts (#8802)
lowercase web3
Use markdown-to-jsx@6.11.4 (#8809)
Update app/_locales/en/messages.json
Update app/_locales/en/messages.json
also remove 'dapp' from descriptions
remove all user-facing instances of 'dapp'
update button styling on home/asset page (#8800)
Fix handling of permissions of removed accounts (#8803)
Clear permssions during createNewVaultAndRestore (#8804)
Hide token transfers on ETH asset page (#8799)
Fix account name editing (#8801)
Fix connect flow account list height (#8798)
Update color of menu item icons (#8797)
Update "Connected accounts" empty description (#8796)
Stop reporting failed transactions to Sentry (#8795)
Omit state snapshot from Sentry errors (#8794)
...
* update connected accounts appearance
* consolidate account alerts
* UnconnectedAccountAlert: use ConnectedAccountsList
* move switch account action out of menu in all views
Co-authored-by: Mark Stacey <markjstacey@gmail.com>
Imported accounts can be removed, but the permissions controller is not
informed when this happens. Permissions are now removed as part of the
account removal process.
Additionally, the `getPermittedIdentitiesForCurrentTab` selector now
filters out any non-existent accounts, in case a render occurs in the
middle of an account removal.
This was resulting in a render crash upon opening the popup on a site
that was connected to the removed account.
The state snapshot we were attaching to Sentry errors was too large.
As a temporary solution, it has been removed completely. We can re-add
it later after reducing its size.
* restore and enhance the time est feature
background: we had a feature for showing a time estimate on pending txs
that was accidently removed during the redesign implementation. This PR
restores that feature and also enhances it:
1. Displays the time estimate on all views instead of just fullscreen
2. Uses Intl.RelativeTimeFormat to format the time
3. Adds a way to toggle the feature flag.
4. Uses a hook to calculate the time remaining instead of a component
* Update app/_locales/en/messages.json
Co-authored-by: Mark Stacey <markjstacey@gmail.com>
* do not display on test nets
Co-authored-by: Mark Stacey <markjstacey@gmail.com>
'Activity' is a better name for this tab because it contains more than
just transactions. Signature requests are also included, and more non-
transaction activity may be included in the future.
initially set out to add the failed tooltip back to the transaction list, but
in the process rediscovered the transaction-status component which illuminated
a fair number of statuses that were not properly handled by the refactor of the
list. These statuses were discussed with UX and engineering team members to come
up with a definitive list of statuses that should be reflected in the UI
Changes:
1. normalized the color of status labels to use Red-500 and Orange-500 where applicable
2. added a new color of icon for pending transactions -- grey
3. added support for dropped and rejected labels
4. failed, dropped, rejected and cancelled all have red icons now.
5. cancelled transactions will reflect a change in the user's balance
6. tooltip displayed for failed transactions
7. Icon logic isolated to a new component.
The `TokenRatesController` was accidentally broken in #8744, when the
logic for starting and stopping polling was moved from the `isActive`
property to start/stop functions.
A reference to the now-obsolete `isActive` property was accidentally
left behind, resulting in no exchange rate updates.
* origin/develop: (35 commits)
Delete unused InfuraController & tests (#8773)
Permissions: Do not display HTTP/HTTPS URL schemes for unique hosts (#8768)
Refactor confirm approve page (#8757)
blocklisted -> blocked
Update app/scripts/contentscript.js
blacklist -> blocklist; whitelist -> safelist
replace blacklist with blocklist
Delete unused transaction history test state (#8769)
fix-formatting-of-gif (#8767)
Order accounts on connect page (#8762)
add gif for loading dev build (#8766)
Bump websocket-extensions from 0.1.3 to 0.1.4 (#8759)
Fix prop type mismatch (#8754)
use grid template to position list item (#8753)
Fix account menu entry for imported accounts (#8747)
Fix permissions connect close and redirect behavior (#8751)
Refactor `TokenBalance` component (#8752)
Fix 'Remove account' in Account Options menu (#8748)
move activation logic into token rates controller (#8744)
asset outdated warning inline on full screen (#8734)
...
Each "message" requiring a user confirmation has a unique `type`
property. These `type` properties have all been added as enums, and the
enum is now used wherever the literal string was used previously.
This reverts commit 466ece4588, which has
the message:
"Revert "Merge pull request #7599 from MetaMask/Version-v7.7.0" (#7648)"
This effectively re-introduces the changes from the "LoginPerSite" PR.
A new page has been created for viewing assets. This replaces the old
`selectedToken` state, which previously would augment the home page
to show token-specific information.
The new asset page shows the standard token overview as seen previously
on the home page, plus a history filtered to show just transactions
relevant to that token.
The actions that were available in the old token list menu have been
moved to a "Token Options" menu that mirrors the "Account Options"
menu.
The `selectedTokenAddress` state has been removed, as it is no longer
being used for anything.
`getMetaMetricState` has been renamed to `getBackgroundMetaMetricState`
because its sole purpose is extracting data from the background state
to send metrics from the background. It's not really a selector, but
it was convenient for it to use the same selectors the UI uses to
extract background data, so I left it there for now.
A new Redux store has been added to track state related to browser history.
The most recent "overview" page (i.e. the home page or the asset page) is
currently being tracked, so that actions taken from the asset page can return
the user back to the asset page when the action has finished.
The `AccountDetailsDropdown` component has been rewritten to use the
new `Menu` component, and to follow the latest designs.
This should be functionally equivalent. A couple of the icons have
changed, but that's about it.
Support for a subtitle was added to `MenuItem` to support the `origin`
subtitle used for the explorer link for custom RPC endpoints.
A few adjustments were required to `test/helper.js` to accommodate
the use of `Menu` from a JSDOM context (this is the first time it's
been used in a unit test). A `popover-content` element was added to the
fake DOM, and another global was added that `react-popper` used
internally.
An additional driver method (`clickPoint`) was added to the e2e driver
to allow clicking the background behind the menu to dismiss it. This
wasn't possible using the `clickElement` method, because that method
would refuse to click an obscured element. The only non-obscured
element to click was the menu backdrop, and that didn't work either
because the center was obscured by the menu (Selenium clicks the center
of whichever element is targeted).
We inject `web3` globally on most websites. This has been breaking
websites that attempted to serialize the `window` object, because any
attempt to access certain `web3` properties (such as `web3.eth.mining`)
would throw an error. This is because `web3` defined a getter for these
properties that would call `.send([method])`, which doesn't work for
most methods.
An example of a site that this breaks is `Storybook`, when the
`@storybook/addon-actions` addon is being used. When using storybook
with this addon and with the MetaMask extension installed, actions
would not be properly dispatched because an error would be thrown in
the attempt to serialize the event (which includes a reference to the
`window`).
The `web3` global we inject is now defined as non-enumerable, so it
will be skipped automatically in any attempt to serialize the `window`
object.
Defaults have been added for all three preferences. The default values
added are both falsey, so this shouldn't result in any functional
change. This was done to help make this preferences more easily
discoverable.
The max listener count of the preferences store has been increased to
12. Recently the 12th listener was added, which resulted in console
warnings during the unit tests - this prevents those warnings.
The default max listener value is 10; we didn't see this warning until
now because one of the twelve listeners is only setup when 3Box is
enabled, which doesn't occur during our unit tests.
Add alert suggesting that the user switch to a connected account. This
alert is displayed when the popup is opened over an active tab that is
connected to some account, but not the current selected account. The
user can choose to switch to a connected account, or dismiss the alert.
This alert is only shown once per account switch. So if the user
repeatedly opens the popup on a dapp without switching accounts, it'll
only be shown the first time. The alert also won't be shown if the user
has just dismissed an "Unconnected account" alert on this same dapp
and account, as that would be redundant.
The alert has a "Don't show me this again" checkbox that allows the
user to disable the alert. It can be re-enabled again on the Alerts
settings page.
All transaction status updates were moved into a `setTimeout` callback
and wrapped in a `try...catch` block in #4131, apparently in an attempt
to prevent failures in event subscribers from interrupting the
transaction logic. The `try...catch` block did accomplish that, but by
putting the status update in a `setTimeout` callback the operation was
made asynchronous.
Transaction status updates now happen unpredictably, in some future
event loop from when they're triggered. This creates a race condition,
where the transaction status update may occur before or after
subsequent state changes. This also introduces a risk of accidentally
undoing a change to the transaction state, as the update made to the
transaction inside the `setTimeout` callback uses a reference to
`txMeta` obtained synchronously before the `setTimeout` call. Any
replacement of the `txMeta` between the `setTxStatus` call and the
execution of the timeout would be erased. Luckily the `txMeta` object
is more often than not mutated rather than replaced, which may explain
why we haven't seen this happen yet.
Everything seems to work correctly with the `setTimeout` call removed,
and now the transaction logic is easier to understand.
The unconnected account alert can now be disabled. A "don't show this
again" checkbox has been added to the alert, which prevents that alert
from being shown in the future.
An alert settings page has been added to the settings as well. This
page allows the user to disable or enable any alert.
This controller was not used. It was used by the
`ComputedBalancesController`, which was removed in #7057 (as it was
also unused).
The pending balances calculator was only used by the balances
controller.
The inactive timer was being reset upon any change to the preferences
store. The intent was only to update the timer when the auto-lock
timeout had changed, so the subscription was updated to only update in
those cases.
There are no indications that this had any effect upon the user. It
looks like the preferences store never updates while the extension is
unattended, so in practice this may have been harmless. It was still
pointless however. This also protects against the possibility of the
preferences store being updated while unattended at some point in the
future.
