Browser vs rocket

[Michael Bauer]

Hi,

I'm trying to figure out where and how the decision was made to replace
the browser with the 'rocket' bar - and the amount of user testing
involved, ideally. All I can find are references that it *has* been
replaced.

Thanks

Michael

[Fred Lin]

Hi,

You could refer mozilla hacks post 'Building the Firefox browser for Firefox OS'
https://hacks.mozilla.org/2014/08/building-the-firefox-browser-for-firefox-os/

which explains more details of the change

regards
--
Fred

----- 原始郵件 -----
寄件者: "Michael Bauer" <fi...@akerbeltz.org>
收件者: dev-...@lists.mozilla.org
寄件備份: 2014 10 月 5 星期日 下午 10:08:31
主旨: Browser vs rocket

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[Michael Bauer]

Thanks Fred.

There's a lot of people unhappy (especially non-developers) with losing
the browser (cf https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1059697)
... anyone know where the best place would be to kick off a debate about
keeping the browser (alongside the bar)?

Michael

06/10/2014 02:49, sgrìobh Fred Lin:

[Dale Harvey]

As has been mentioned in that bug, the browser icon has not dissapeared in master, this is an issue with the vertical homescreen not being used on the tablet build, its a bug needing to be fixed.

I dont know the details / timelines of the tablet projects, it may be an idea for the various teams to start building / testing with the tablet so it doesnt lag in the same way it does now (its usually easier to fix these issues earlier in the pipeline)

[Michael Bauer]

Hm are you sure? Cause I was forwarded an email which said

Just a heads-up to QA and Dogfooders that we just deleted the browser app from the master branch of Gaia, saying goodbye to ~10,000 lines of code and making way for the new Haida user interface with shiny new integrated system browser!

which suggests to me that someone IS trying to take the browser out.

Even more confused now...

Michael

06/10/2014 12:23, sgrìobh Dale Harvey:

[Gabriela Montagu]

I'm sorry but.... what about the post in this same list stating the browser app has been intentionally deleted and the content of the following link?

https://hacks.mozilla.org/2014/08/building-the-firefox-browser-for-firefox-os/

Gabriela
QA Mozilla Hispano Team Responsible


http://www.mozilla-hispano.org
http://twitter.com/mozilla_hispano
http://facebook.com/mozillahispano

On 6 October 2014 08:23, Dale Harvey <da...@arandomurl.com> wrote:

As has been mentioned in that bug, the browser icon has not dissapeared in master, this is an issue with the vertical homescreen not being used on the tablet build, its a bug needing to be fixed.

I dont know the details / timelines of the tablet projects, it may be an idea for the various teams to start building / testing with the tablet so it doesnt lag in the same way it does now (its usually easier to fix these issues earlier in the pipeline)

On 6 October 2014 12:47, Michael Bauer <fi...@akerbeltz.org> wrote:

Thanks Fred.

There's a lot of people unhappy (especially non-developers) with losing the browser (cf https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1059697) ... anyone know where the best place would be to kick off a debate about keeping the browser (alongside the bar)?

Michael

06/10/2014 02:49, sgrìobh Fred Lin:

Hi,

You could refer mozilla hacks post 'Building the Firefox browser for Firefox OS'
https://hacks.mozilla.org/2014/08/building-the-firefox-browser-for-firefox-os/

which explains more details of the change

regards
--
Fred

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[Michael Bauer]

PPS

Also seems to be at odds with
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1058270

Michael

06/10/2014 12:23, sgrìobh Dale Harvey:

[Dale Harvey]

The old browser application code has been deleted and been replaced by the rocketbar implementation, there is still an icon on the homescreen (that now starts the search app - https://github.com/mozilla-b2g/gaia/blob/master/apps/search/manifest.webapp) that starts a similiar experience to the previous browser with history and top sites being displayed etc

If you dont see a browser icon, its a bug with the specific build, it is there on master, and I am sure.

On 6 October 2014 13:29, Gabriela Montagu <gmon...@gmail.com> wrote:

I'm sorry but.... what about the post in this same list stating the browser app has been intentionally deleted and the content of the following link?

https://hacks.mozilla.org/2014/08/building-the-firefox-browser-for-firefox-os/

Gabriela
QA Mozilla Hispano Team Responsible


http://www.mozilla-hispano.org
http://twitter.com/mozilla_hispano
http://facebook.com/mozillahispano

On 6 October 2014 08:23, Dale Harvey <da...@arandomurl.com> wrote:

As has been mentioned in that bug, the browser icon has not dissapeared in master, this is an issue with the vertical homescreen not being used on the tablet build, its a bug needing to be fixed.

I dont know the details / timelines of the tablet projects, it may be an idea for the various teams to start building / testing with the tablet so it doesnt lag in the same way it does now (its usually easier to fix these issues earlier in the pipeline)

On 6 October 2014 12:47, Michael Bauer <fi...@akerbeltz.org> wrote:

Thanks Fred.

There's a lot of people unhappy (especially non-developers) with losing the browser (cf https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1059697) ... anyone know where the best place would be to kick off a debate about keeping the browser (alongside the bar)?

Michael

06/10/2014 02:49, sgrìobh Fred Lin:

Hi,

You could refer mozilla hacks post 'Building the Firefox browser for Firefox OS'
https://hacks.mozilla.org/2014/08/building-the-firefox-browser-for-firefox-os/

which explains more details of the change

regards
--
Fred

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[Francesco Lodolo [:flod]]

Il 06/10/14 13:29, Gabriela Montagu ha scritto:

I'm sorry but.... what about the post in this same list stating the browser app has been intentionally deleted and the content of the following link?

https://hacks.mozilla.org/2014/08/building-the-firefox-browser-for-firefox-os/

The browser as a separate app is gone, but the Firefox icon for browser is still there.
In other words, you don't have to open the rocket bar to search on the Web, just tap the Firefox icon (I confirm, just flashed master on flame). What Dale is saying is that tablets don't have it and that's just a bug.

Francesco

[Gabriela Montagu]

I can't see the Firefox icon in the tablet using the last good build (September 30)

Gabriela
QA Mozilla Hispano Team Responsible


http://www.mozilla-hispano.org
http://twitter.com/mozilla_hispano
http://facebook.com/mozillahispano

[jch...@mozilla.com]

Yup, flash a build and take a look
the browser icon is still there for end users to access as it always has been :)

Francesco Lodolo [:flod] wrote:

Il 06/10/14 13:29, Gabriela Montagu ha scritto:

I'm sorry but.... what about the post in this same list stating the browser app has been intentionally deleted and the content of the following link?

https://hacks.mozilla.org/2014/08/building-the-firefox-browser-for-firefox-os/

The browser as a separate app is gone, but the Firefox icon for browser is still there.
In other words, you don't have to open the rocket bar to search on the Web, just tap the Firefox icon (I confirm, just flashed master on flame). What Dale is saying is that tablets don't have it and that's just a bug.

Francesco

Re,
Joe Cheng

Sent from Firefox OS

[Francesco Lodolo [:flod]]

I can't see the Firefox icon in the tablet using the last good build (September 30)

What Dale is saying is that tablets don't have it and that's just a bug.

Not sure how else it can be explained: the icon is missing only on tablets, and that's a bug for tablets (not using the vertical screen)

Kairo already filed this bug
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1052080

See screenshot of a freshly flashed Flame with Gaia 2.2
http://flod.org/screenshots/flame_browser.png

Francesco

[Ben Francis]

On Mon, Oct 6, 2014 at 12:26 PM, Michael Bauer <fi...@akerbeltz.org> wrote:

which suggests to me that someone IS trying to take the browser out.

Just to back up Dale, Don't Panic! There's still a browser.

The browser is now more tightly integrated into the system as part of the "Haida" project [1] which has been going through user testing for over a year, but it is very much still there. Thanks Fred for linking to my blog post which tells some of the story of its development.

There is still a browser icon on the homescreen (on the master branch for smartphones), which launches the browser start page. The browser start page happens to be implemented in an app called "search" which does a lot of things the browser app used to do like keep track of all the places you visit, show your top sites and history and provide awesomebar style search results as you type.

The URL bar is now part of the system app, it is available system wide and collapses down into the status bar (it has the codename Rocketbar). The tab manager is merged with the task manager so that app windows and browser windows exist at the same level and you can easily switch between them with edge gestures.

Bookmarks live on the homescreen and are managed behind the scenes by the new "bookmarks" app. Browser settings now live in the Settings app.

As others have pointed out, the reason the browser icon isn't currently showing on the homescreen on tablets with the latest master build is that the tablet is still using the deprecated homescreen from Firefox OS 1.4 which was replaced by the "vertical homescreen" in 2.0. I believe the old homescreen app is configured to hide apps with the role "search" which may be why the new browser icon is hidden.

I agree the best way to fix this is to migrate the tablet to the new homescreen rather than the one from three versions ago.

Ben

1. https://wiki.mozilla.org/FirefoxOS/Haida

[Gabriela Montagu]

I can't flash a build because since October 1 the builds are all bad, at least according to the following:

https://etherpad.mozilla.org/CmJbD8V0QX

Gabriela
QA Mozilla Hispano Team Responsible


http://www.mozilla-hispano.org
http://twitter.com/mozilla_hispano
http://facebook.com/mozillahispano

[Gabriela Montagu]

Could someone link me to a safe master build please?

Many thanks!
Best regards,

Gabriela
QA Mozilla Hispano Team Responsible

http://www.mozilla-hispano.org
http://twitter.com/mozilla_hispano
http://facebook.com/mozillahispano

[YF]

Current stable build (located in the stable directory on Dropbox): 20140916 GOOD

or 20140930 GOOD

-- from https://etherpad.mozilla.org/CmJbD8V0QX

--

Best regards,
YFdyh000.

http://about.me/yfdyh000

[Gabriela Montagu]

Many thanks YF! However, 20140930 GOOD shows no browser app in the homescreen!!

Gabriela

[Francesco Lodolo [:flod]]

Il 06/10/14 15:39, Gabriela Montagu ha scritto:
> Many thanks YF! However, 20140930GOOD shows no browser app in the
> homescreen!!
And neither will a build from today, until this bug (or a bug to add the
icon to the old homescreen) is fixed
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1052080

Tablet: does not have an icon for browser, it's a known bug.
Phone: does have an icon for browser.

Francesco

[Ben Francis]

On Mon, Oct 6, 2014 at 2:39 PM, Gabriela Montagu <gmon...@gmail.com> wrote:

Many thanks YF! However, 20140930 GOOD shows no browser app in the homescreen!!

I replied in bug 1059697. Try removing "search" from the list of hidden app roles in the old homescreen app.

https://github.com/mozilla-b2g/gaia/blob/master/apps/homescreen/js/grid.js#L16

That might give you a browser icon as a temporary fix, but I can't tell you how well it works because I haven't tested it.

[Gabriela Montagu]

I don't know how to do that  :s.... The github link doesn't help because I don't understand how to proceed. Could you please tell me step by step as if for dummies?

Many thanks!
Gabriela

[pavithran]

I know its silly of me to ask , but when would we be able to see "full
fledged" firefox browser on firefox os especially something which can
support adding extensions ?
Browsing on firefox browser on desktop is such a pleasant experience
with NoScript , ABP etc . Even androids firefox browser has extensions
supported, Why not the browser on firefox os ?

Can a web app serve an extension to change the browsing experience ?

Regards,
Pavithran

[Fabrice Desré]

bug 923897 will provide some extensibility capabilities to the OS. Some
security details still need to be ironed out but I plan to get that
added in 2.2.

Note that NoScript and ADB can't probably be implemented with these
addons because they rely on gecko internals that won't be available to apps.

Fabrice
--
Fabrice Desré
b2g team
Mozilla Corporation