Native Firefox Desktop Integration Status

[Matthew N.]

Hello,

In Summer 2012 some Firefox desktop support[1] for BrowserID landed in
mozilla-central. The feature was never enabled by default as there was
remaining work to do on the UI, backend and API.

Austin King started work on bringing this project back to life a little
less than a year ago but we didn't get to the point of being ready for
Nightly testing.

I haven't been hearing much demand for finishing up this project and
last I heard there were still proposed changes to the BrowserID API. As
a result the desktop code isn't really being maintained and it's
starting to become a maintenance issue with tests[2]/code breaking over
time and not being fully E10S-friendly[3].

This raises some questions:
1) Does desktop BrowserID integration fit into any long-term identity
strategy? If so, how does this fit?
2) Any objections to removing the /browser/-specific code from
mozilla-central for now? I'm assuming there is no short-term use for
this but correct me if I'm wrong.
3) Does the recent usage of OAuth2 instead of the BrowserID for Loop-FxA
integration on desktop indicate a shift away BrowserID?

I'm looking forward to your feedback as I'm interested in this both as a
integrator and as a user of BrowserID.

Thanks,
Matthew N.

[1] https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=764213
[2] https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1063404
[3] https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=941426

[Jared Hirsch]

Hi Matthew,

The key question is which parts of the Identity module are still used by the Firefox Accounts code, which we do need on desktop (for sync) and on b2g.

Adding the dev-fxacct list and CCing the Gecko people most likely to know the answer here.

As far as Desktop Persona integration, there was a patch in the Persona repo that was backed out[1] earlier this year, and I'm not aware of any plans to attempt to complete that integration.

Cheers,

Jared

[1] https://github.com/mozilla/persona/pull/4154

> _______________________________________________
> dev-identity mailing list
> dev-id...@lists.mozilla.org
> https://lists.mozilla.org/listinfo/dev-identity

[Chris Karlof]

Native Desktop FxA relies on the jwcrypto components of the native Persona work, but none of the DOM API or UI.

I don’t know of any plans to finish/re-work the native Persona in Desktop Firefox.

The answer might be different for FxOS/B2G.

-chris

On Sep 22, 2014, at 1:10 PM, Jared Hirsch <6a...@mozilla.com> wrote:

> Hi Matthew,
>
> The key question is which parts of the Identity module are still used by the Firefox Accounts code, which we do need on desktop (for sync) and on b2g.
>
> Adding the dev-fxacct list and CCing the Gecko people most likely to know the answer here.
>
> As far as Desktop Persona integration, there was a patch in the Persona repo that was backed out[1] earlier this year, and I'm not aware of any plans to attempt to complete that integration.
>
> Cheers,
>
> Jared
>
> [1] https://github.com/mozilla/persona/pull/4154
>
> On Sep 17, 2014, at 11:04 PM, Matthew N. <ma...@mozilla.com> wrote:
>

>> _______________________________________________
>> dev-identity mailing list
>> dev-id...@lists.mozilla.org
>> https://lists.mozilla.org/listinfo/dev-identity
>

> _______________________________________________
> Dev-fxacct mailing list
> Dev-f...@mozilla.org
> https://mail.mozilla.org/listinfo/dev-fxacct

[Chris Karlof]

On Sep 22, 2014, at 2:45 PM, Matthew N. <ma...@mozilla.com> wrote:

> For #2, I mentioned that I was only talking about code in browser/ (meaning desktop Firefox) and as Chris pointed out, that UI isn't used for FxA. Removing this code won't break anything that's currently supposed to be working. I was mostly asking in case there were plans to resume work on this project.


No plans that I know of.

-chris



>
> Thanks,
> Matthew

>
> ----- Original Message -----
>> Native Desktop FxA relies on the jwcrypto components of the native Persona
>> work, but none of the DOM API or UI.
>>
>> I don’t know of any plans to finish/re-work the native Persona in Desktop
>> Firefox.
>>
>> The answer might be different for FxOS/B2G.
>>
>> -chris
>>
>>
>> On Sep 22, 2014, at 1:10 PM, Jared Hirsch <6a...@mozilla.com> wrote:
>>
>>> Hi Matthew,
>>>
>>> The key question is which parts of the Identity module are still used by
>>> the Firefox Accounts code, which we do need on desktop (for sync) and on
>>> b2g.
>>>
>>> Adding the dev-fxacct list and CCing the Gecko people most likely to know
>>> the answer here.
>>>
>>> As far as Desktop Persona integration, there was a patch in the Persona
>>> repo that was backed out[1] earlier this year, and I'm not aware of any
>>> plans to attempt to complete that integration.
>>>
>>> Cheers,
>>>
>>> Jared
>>>
>>> [1] https://github.com/mozilla/persona/pull/4154
>>>
>>> On Sep 17, 2014, at 11:04 PM, Matthew N. <ma...@mozilla.com> wrote:
>>>

[Matthew N.]

For #2, I mentioned that I was only talking about code in browser/ (meaning desktop Firefox) and as Chris pointed out, that UI isn't used for FxA. Removing this code won't break anything that's currently supposed to be working. I was mostly asking in case there were plans to resume work on this project.

Thanks,
Matthew

----- Original Message -----
> Native Desktop FxA relies on the jwcrypto components of the native Persona
> work, but none of the DOM API or UI.
>
> I don’t know of any plans to finish/re-work the native Persona in Desktop
> Firefox.
>
> The answer might be different for FxOS/B2G.
>
> -chris
>
>
> On Sep 22, 2014, at 1:10 PM, Jared Hirsch <6a...@mozilla.com> wrote:
>
> > Hi Matthew,
> >
> > The key question is which parts of the Identity module are still used by
> > the Firefox Accounts code, which we do need on desktop (for sync) and on
> > b2g.
> >
> > Adding the dev-fxacct list and CCing the Gecko people most likely to know
> > the answer here.
> >
> > As far as Desktop Persona integration, there was a patch in the Persona
> > repo that was backed out[1] earlier this year, and I'm not aware of any
> > plans to attempt to complete that integration.
> >
> > Cheers,
> >
> > Jared
> >
> > [1] https://github.com/mozilla/persona/pull/4154
> >
> > On Sep 17, 2014, at 11:04 PM, Matthew N. <ma...@mozilla.com> wrote:
> >

[Dan Callahan]

On 9/18/14 1:04, Matthew N. wrote:
> This raises some questions:
> 1) Does desktop BrowserID integration fit into any long-term identity
> strategy? If so, how does this fit?

I think we all *want* to see native integration, but don't currently
have the manpower to realize that vision in mozilla-central.

More specifically, the two engineers most closely involved in
Gecko/Persona hacking both left Mozilla this past Summer. :(

> 2) Any objections to removing the /browser/-specific code from
> mozilla-central for now? I'm assuming there is no short-term use for
> this but correct me if I'm wrong.

If it's causing issues, pull it. :) We'll always have the hg history to
look at when we take another stab at integration.

Best,
-Callahad