1112185 - (tab-queue) [meta] Tab Queue

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(Firefox for Android Graveyard :: General, defect)

Description

[Martyn Haigh (:mhaigh)]

Create functionality to allow users to open URLs from external applications in Firefox without leaving the application.

Comment 1

[Martyn Haigh (:mhaigh)]

Because of current limitations, we're going to have to cut back on some functionality: notably we can't actually start loading the page whilst Fennec isn't in the foreground; for v1 we're looking to collect a list of URLs which we can then act upon at next launch.

Comment 2

[Anthony Lam (:antlam) Find me, @antlam on Slack!]

Attachment: mob_oib_flow1.png

Here's a quick diagram of the flow I'm thinking for V1. As discussed, we should leverage as much system UI as we can for this version and iterate on that for V2.

We could probably offer more functionality like managing that queue list, surfacing more info in that list (bug above ^), etc for V2.

Comment 3

[Anthony Lam (:antlam) Find me, @antlam on Slack!]

Talked to Martyn about this a bit more, we have some ideas for the final steps.

First, leveraging the notification tray as a more persistent UI than said toast/super toast to indicate and "switch to" tabs opened in background.

Second, explore the idea of allowing users to open said queued tabs on another device (probably a V2).

Third, explore UX of final stage (in the diagram).

Will file bugs for things I mentioned above.

Comment 4

[Mark Finkle (:mfinkle) (use needinfo?)]

(In reply to Anthony Lam (:antlam) from comment #3)

> First, leveraging the notification tray as a more persistent UI than said
> toast/super toast to indicate and "switch to" tabs opened in background.

I'm not sold on needing to go to the System Notification area to switch to Firefox. I mean it might be useful to add something to Notfications for persistence, but it is "flow dependent". If I tap a link in Twitter which opens in the background in Firefox, having a toast used as confirmation that it worked + allow me to switch, seems like the fastest UX.

If I have been collecting URLs in the background for a few minutes, then decide "OK, time to go to Firefox", a Notifications item might be an easy way to get to Firefox.

The Notification could also tell you how many URLs you have queued, which is handy.

I just don't think the Notification replaces the Toast.

Comment 5

[Martyn Haigh (:mhaigh)]

Initial pass at functionality: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/7163922/bug-1112185-1.apk

Comment 6

[Martyn Haigh (:mhaigh)]

Working build : https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/7163922/1112185-190215.apk

Comment 7

[Teodora Vermesan (:TeoVermesan)]

I've installed the APK on LG Nexus 4 (Android 4.4)
Scenario:
-Go to twitter.com and tap on some  links
-Complete action using "Fennec martyn" 
-After a while, a pop-up opens "Want to open this later?" with two buttons: "Not now" and "Try it": http://i.imgur.com/0Nakaii.png
-Tap "Try it", a notification appears with 2 buttons "Open later | Open now"  => http://i.imgur.com/YRwLZ6D.png (I think the text size must be the same)
-Choose "Open now" will load a tab with that link
-Choose "Open later" and a notification will be displayed in the android notification bar: "Tabs Queued- x tabs queued" http://i.imgur.com/1OiDWO8.png
-Tap the notification and x tabs will be opened

Comment 8

[Anthony Lam (:antlam) Find me, @antlam on Slack!]

Did we ever determine the logic for reappearing the dialog if user presses "not now"? I thought it was 3 more times but I'm having trouble triggering it again.

Also, the slide in animation is looking quite janky.. we should improve that and/or add a delay so it's less jarring on that first impression.

Thoughts?

Comment 9

[Anthony Lam (:antlam) Find me, @antlam on Slack!]

Also, did we talk about opening Fennec in Tabs Tray view? (better overview of tabs queued)

Comment 10

[Martyn Haigh (:mhaigh)]

(In reply to Anthony Lam (:antlam) from comment #8)
> Did we ever determine the logic for reappearing the dialog if user presses
> "not now"? I thought it was 3 more times but I'm having trouble triggering
> it again.

Behaviour for this is:
- After the 3rd time the app has been opened via an external link it'll show.
- if the user takes action (presses either the yes or no button) they'll never see the notification again.
- if the user dismisses (by pressing the back button or touching anything other than the yes or no buttons) it'll hide the notification and wait 3 more times before showing again
- the notification will be shown a maximum of three times

> Also, the slide in animation is looking quite janky.. we should improve that
> and/or add a delay so it's less jarring on that first impression.

I've not noticed this but will look at perf once the notification bug is being worked on.

> Also, did we talk about opening Fennec in Tabs Tray view? (better overview of tabs queued)

We did, but this will only happen when tapping the notification to open fennec.

Comment 11

[Michael Comella (:mcomella) [NI reported issues only: ex-Mozilla]]

(In reply to Martyn Haigh (:mhaigh) from comment #10)
> > Also, the slide in animation is looking quite janky.. we should improve that
> > and/or add a delay so it's less jarring on that first impression.
> 
> I've not noticed this but will look at perf once the notification bug is
> being worked on.

I've noticed that the share overlay has similar issues (though I always figured this was related to accessing synced accounts during the animation) - CC me on any work you do here, please (and I'll CC you for the same!).

Comment 12

[Anthony Lam (:antlam) Find me, @antlam on Slack!]

(In reply to Martyn Haigh (:mhaigh) from comment #10)
> > Also, did we talk about opening Fennec in Tabs Tray view? (better overview of tabs queued)
> 
> We did, but this will only happen when tapping the notification to open
> fennec.

Notification as in Toast, or the System one's that appear in the status bar?

I think we want to try this for all other ways of switching to Firefox as well, like from the "Recents" view. Is this possible?

Comment 13

[Amir Aharoni]

Mmm... high. Sorry about the noise, but I couldn't find a better place to say this. This is the most relevant page that Googling "firefox android queued tab" brings up. Anyway, all I wanted to say is that I noticed this feature in Nightly on my Android phone and I LOVE IT. Thanks for doing this.

Comment 14

[Lawrence Mandel [:lmandel] (use needinfo)]

Release Note Request (optional, but appreciated)
[Why is this notable]: Open URLs in background without changing context
[Suggested wording]: Open external URLs from Android apps in the background
[Links (documentation, blog post, etc)]:

Comment 15

[Mark Finkle (:mfinkle) (use needinfo?)]

I changed the rel-note flag to 42, since that's the release vehicle

Comment 16

[Anthony Lam (:antlam) Find me, @antlam on Slack!]

We can probably close this bug right?

Comment 17

[Sebastian Kaspari (:sebastian; :pocmo)]

Aye