Trigger Listeners

A set of action listeners that can be used to trigger CFR messages.

Usage

As part of the CFR definition the message can register at most one trigger used to decide when the message is shown.

Most triggers (unless otherwise specified) take the same arguments of hosts and/or patterns used to target the message to specific websites.

// Optional set of hosts to filter out triggers only to certain websites
let params: string[];
// Optional set of [match patterns](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Mozilla/Add-ons/WebExtensions/Match_patterns) to filter out triggers only to certain websites
let patterns: string[];
{
  ...
  // Show the message when opening mozilla.org
  "trigger": { "id": "openURL", "params": ["mozilla.org", "www.mozilla.org"] }
  ...
}
{
  ...
  // Show the message when opening any HTTP, HTTPS URL.
  trigger: { id: "openURL", patterns: ["*://*/*"] }
  ...
}

Available trigger actions

openArticleURL

Happens when the user loads a Reader Mode compatible webpage.

openBookmarkedURL

Happens when the user bookmarks or navigates to a bookmarked URL.

Does not filter by host or patterns.

frequentVisits

Happens every time a user navigates (or switches tab to) to any of the hosts or patterns arguments provided. Additionally it stores timestamps of these visits that are provided back to the targeting context. They can be used inside of the targeting expression:

// Has at least 3 visits in the past hour
recentVisits[.timestamp > (currentDate|date - 3600 * 1000 * 1)]|length >= 3
interface visit {
  host: string,
  timestamp: UnixTimestamp
};
// Host and timestamp for every visit to "Host"
let recentVisits: visit[];

openURL

Happens every time the user loads a new URL that matches the provided hosts or patterns. During a browsing session it keeps track of visits to unique urls that can be used inside targeting expression.

// True on the third visit for the URL which the trigger matched on
visitsCount >= 3

newSavedLogin

Happens every time the user saves or updates a login via the login capture doorhanger. Provides a type to diferentiate between the two events that can be used in targeting.

Does not filter by host or patterns.

let type = "update" | "save";

formAutofill

Happens when the user saves, updates, or uses a credit card or address for form autofill. To reduce the trigger’s disruptiveness, it does not fire when the user is manually editing these items in the manager in about:preferences. For the same reason, the trigger only fires after a 10-second delay. The trigger context includes an event and type that can be used in targeting. Possible events include add, update, and use. Possible types are card and address. This trigger is especially intended to be used in tandem with the creditCardsSaved and addressesSaved targeting attributes.

{
  trigger: { id: "formAutofill" },
  targeting: "type == 'card' && event in ['add', 'update']"
}

contentBlocking

Happens at the and of a document load and for every subsequent content blocked event, or when the tracking DB service hits a milestone.

Provides a context of the number of pages loaded in the current browsing session that can be used in targeting.

Does not filter by host or patterns.

The event it reports back is one of two things:

defaultBrowserCheck

Happens at startup, when opening a newtab and when navigating to about:home. At startup, it reports the source as startup, and it provides a context attribute willShowDefaultPrompt that can be used in targeting to avoid showing a message when the built-in default browser prompt is going to be displayed. This is important to avoid the negative UX of showing two promts back-to-back, especially if both prompts offer similar affordances. On the newtab/homepage, it reports the source as newtab.

let source = "startup" | "newtab";
let willShowDefaultPrompt = boolean | undefined;

Examples

  • Only trigger on startup, not on newtab/homepage

  • Don’t show if the built-in prompt is going to be shown

{
  trigger: { id: "defaultBrowserCheck" },
  targeting: "source == 'startup' && !willShowDefaultPrompt"
}

deeplinkedToWindowsSettingsUI

Triggers when the user has indicated they want to set Firefox as the default web browser and interaction with Windows Settings is necessary to finish setting Firefox as default.

captivePortalLogin

Happens when the user successfully goes through a captive portal authentication flow.

preferenceObserver

Watch for changes on any number of preferences. Runs when a pref is added, removed or modified.

// Register a message with the following trigger
{
  id: "preferenceObserver",
  params: ["pref name"]
}

featureCalloutCheck

Used to display Feature Callouts in Firefox View. Can only be used for Feature Callouts.

pdfJsFeatureCalloutCheck

Used to display Feature Callouts on PDF.js pages. Can only be used for Feature Callouts.

newtabFeatureCalloutCheck

Used to display Feature Callouts on about:newtab. Can only be used for Feature Callouts.

nthTabClosed

Happens when the user closes n or more tabs in a session

// Register a message with the following trigger and
// include the tabsClosedCount context variable in the targeting.
// Here, the message triggers after two or more tabs are closed.
{
  trigger: { id: "nthTabClosed" },
  targeting: "tabsClosedCount >= 2"
}

activityAfterIdle

Happens when the user resumes activity after n milliseconds of inactivity. Keyboard/mouse interactions and audio playback count as activity. The idle timer is reset when the OS is put to sleep or wakes from sleep.

No params or patterns. The idleForMilliseconds context variable is available in targeting. This value represents the number of milliseconds since the last user interaction or audio playback. 60000 is the minimum value for this variable (1 minute). In the following example, the message triggers when the user returns after at least 20 minutes of inactivity.

// Register a message with the following trigger and include
// the idleForMilliseconds context variable in the targeting.
{
  trigger: { id: "activityAfterIdle" },
  targeting: "idleForMilliseconds >= 1200000"
}

cookieBannerDetected

Happens when the cookiebannerdetected window event is dispatched. This event is dispatched when the following conditions are true:

  1. The user is presented with a cookie consent banner on the webpage they’re viewing,

  2. The domain has a valid ruleset for automatically engaging with the consent banner, and

  3. The user has not explicitly opted in or out of the Cookie Banner Handling feature.

cookieBannerHandled

Happens when the cookiebannerhandled window event is dispatched. This event is dispatched when the following conditions are true:

  1. The user is presented with a cookie consent banner on the webpage they’re viewing,

  2. The domain has a valid ruleset for automatically engaging with the consent banner, and

  3. The user is opted into the Cookie Banner Handling feature (this is by default in private windows), and

  4. Firefox succeeds in automatically engaging with the consent banner.

messagesLoaded

Happens as soon as a message is loaded. This trigger does not require any user interaction, and may happen potentially as early as app launch, or at some time after experiment enrollment. Generally intended for use in reach experiments, because most messages cannot be routed unless the surfaces they display in are instantiated in a tabbed browser window (a reach message will not be displayed but its trigger will still be recorded). However, it is still possible to safely use this trigger for a normal message, with some caveats. This is potentially relevant on macOS, where the app can be running with no browser windows open, or even on Windows, where closing all browser windows but leaving open a non-browser window (e.g. the Library) causes the app to remain running.

A toast_notification or update_action message can function normally under these circumstances. A toolbar_badge message will load with or without a window, but will not actually display until a window exists. But messages with templates like infobar will have no effect unless a window exists to display them in. Any message using this trigger, regardless of template, can exclude window-less or browser-less contexts by adding the following targeting. This isn’t strictly necessary because the messaging surfaces will either work normally or fail gracefully, but it may be desirable to test reach only in certain contexts, so the context objects browser and browserWindow are provided, corresponding to the selected browser (gBrowser.selectedBrowser) and the most recently active chrome window, respectively.

{
  trigger: { id: "messagesLoaded" },
  targeting: "browser && browserWindow"
}

pageActionInUrlbar

Happens when a page action appears in the location bar. The specific page action(s) to watch for can be specified by id in the targeting expression. For example, to trigger when the reader mode button appears:

{
  trigger: { id: "pageActionInUrlbar" },
  targeting: "pageAction == 'reader-mode-button'"
}

onSearch

Happens when the user uses the search feature in the awesome bar.

The isSuggestion boolean context variable is available in targeting, and will evaluate to true if the search was initiated from a recommendation in the awesomebar.

The searchSource string context variable is also available in targeting, and returns the search source. It will be one of four values: urlbar-handoff if one of the faux-search inputs were used (such as the one present on the newtab page), urlbar-searchmode if the user has selected a search engine, urlbar-persisted if the user has changed tabs or windows and come back to their search term in the URL bar, or urlbar if the user is doing a standard search by entering a term into the URL bar and pressing enter, or clicking on a search suggestion.

The isOneOff boolean context variable is available in targeting, and will be true if one of the one-off search features (typically found at the bottom of the awesomebar’s dropdown menu) is used.

{
  trigger: { id: "onSearch" },
  targeting: "isSuggestion && searchSource === 'urlbar-handoff' && isOneOff"
}

sidebarToolOpened

Happens when the user opens a tool or extension panel in the sidebar

The view string context variable is available in targeting, and will correspond with which sidebar tool/extension has been opened (ex: “viewHistorySidebar”, “viewBookmarksSidebar”, etc).

The clickCounts object context variable is also available in targeting, and information about how many time a specific tool or extensions has been opened. The SIDEBAR_TOOL_SURVEY callout will be targeted to show if any tool/extension (excluding GenAI chatbot) has been clicked 5 times per-window and per-session. The SIDEBAR_GENAI_SURVEY callout will be targeted to show if the GenAI chatbot panel has been opened 2 times per-window and per-session.

{
  trigger: { id: "sidebarToolOpened" },
  targeting: `'sidebar.position_start'|preferenceValue && view != 'viewGenaiChatSidebar' && clickCounts.totalToolsMinusGenai == 5 && !'messaging-system-action.sidebar-tools-microsurvey-complete-or-dismissed'|preferenceValue`
}