1038533 - Impossible to install packaged app for Desktop from WebIDE devtool

Status: RESOLVED WONTFIX

(Firefox Graveyard :: Webapp Runtime, defect, P1)

Description

[Nazar Mokrynskyi]

User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Ubuntu; Linux x86_64; rv:31.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/31.0 (Beta/Release)
Build ID: 20140702123034

Steps to reproduce:

Try to install Firefox OS app for Desktop


Actual results:

Unable to install and debug it for Desktop, only for mobile phone using simulator. It is possible to install packaged app from Firefoox Marketplace,  but not from my own source code directly.


Expected results:

I should be able to install packaged apps locally just like from Firefox Marketplace, but from source code to see how it looks/works on desktop before publishing to the Marketplace.

Comment 1

[mail]

We have this problem as well. We have a packaged app in the Chrome Web Store and are evaluating a Firefox port. Debugging on a Firefox OS device is all fine and good, but we're mostly interested in the desktop platform right now due to it's higher marketshare.

Comment 2

[Myk Melez [:myk] [@mykmelez]]

asuth just started a thread about this over in dev-webapps <https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/mozilla.dev.webapps/QNk6KnajAao>.  Unfortunately, I don't know of a good way to do it at the moment.  See bug 987848 for a related issue, but this bug is better for tracking the specific feature of being able to install an app to desktop.

So I'm moving it to the Firefox :: Webapp Runtime component, although ultimately this will probably entrain work in the Developer Tools: WebIDE (née App Manager) code, and cc:ing some folks who may be able to help implement a fix, find others to do so, or describe workarounds in the meantime.

Comment 3

[Myk Melez [:myk] [@mykmelez]]

Note that you can debug the app once you get it installed, so I'm updating the bug summary to focus on the install case.

(For instructions on debugging the app, see this blog post comment <https://hacks.mozilla.org/2014/03/better-integration-for-open-web-apps-on-android/comment-page-1/#comment-2159140>; for discussion about making the process easier, see bug 987848.)

Comment 4

[Marco Castelluccio [:marco]]

This is basically a subset of bug 987848 (despite the name). I think we should start with fixing the install case, as its priority is higher.
The main problem to solve is a design problem, we should decide how we want to handle the desktop case that is different than the mobile case.

Comment 5

[singpolyma]

I tried to collaborate on porting an existing FirefoxOS app to the desktop runtime, and run headfirst into this issue.  If I can't run the app in privileged mode, how can I do any testing at all?

Comment 6

[Peter Strapp]

Am I missing something? How has anyone ever written a privileged webapp for desktop if they can't install/run it without going via the Marketplace?

Comment 7

[Felix E. Klee]

@peter Yes, I've written Trigger and Theta Control, both available on the Marketplace. They are privileged apps as they require access to the TCPSocket API. I simply tested them on Firefox OS, and then prayed that they also run on the desktop, which they do.

Comment 8

[zzt]

Voted.

However, I can not figure out, how to start installed apps from the Marketplace without visiting the store page and pressing the "run" button?

Ridicolous.

Comment 9

[Nazar Mokrynskyi]

Application should appear among regular installed apps.

Comment 10

[zzt]

@Nazar

Yes, I have found the app's icon in my Gnome Applications Menu (Linux). However, this is distracting. One alternative would be an "App Launcher" page.

I have filed a new Bug/Feature request: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1148788

Comment 11

[zzt]

Any updates?

Comment 12

[zzt]

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/24339502/how-to-test-privileged-packaged-apps-on-firefox-for-desktop

Comment 14

[J. Ryan Stinnett [:jryans] (Use needinfo, replies may be slow)]

I would be happy to mentor someone working on desktop RT to make progress here.  For the moment, the DevTools team is focused on polishing the core tools in the toolbox, so it could be a while before we would get to this ourselves.

Comment 15

[zzt]

Bad news. However, I will create a patch for the Aurora channel, disabling security checks for WebApps (eg. with a new preference, like "dom.mozApps.disable_security_level"). Is this reasonable?

See https://github.com/mozilla/gecko-dev/blob/master/dom/apps/Webapps.jsm

Comment 16

[Myk Melez [:myk] [@mykmelez]]

Per bug 1238079, we're going to disable the desktop web runtime and remove it from the codebase, so we won't fix these bugs in it.