1097533 - Can't install app to non-B2G runtime

Status: RESOLVED INVALID

(DevTools Graveyard :: WebIDE, defect)

Description

[T. Burns]

Attachment: FF_Developer_WebIDE_Fail.jpg

User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; WOW64; rv:35.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/35.0
Build ID: 20141111004002

Steps to reproduce:

I started Firefox Developer edition, started WebIDE, created HelloWrld WebApp, tried to connect to Chrome desktop, then I wanted to run the app.


Actual results:

WebIDE tells me:

Operation failed: installing and running app: Can't install


Expected results:

The app shoud run in chrome desktop

Comment 1

[T. Burns]

BTW, my Chrome browser is version 39.xxx

Comment 2

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

So, this is actually expected.

At this time, you can only install apps to:

* Firefox OS simulators
* Firefox OS devices

For the remaining runtimes, such as:

* Local Runtime
* Chrome
* Safari
* Firefox for Android

either they don't support apps at all, or we do not yet have the infrastructure in place to install them yet.

With Chrome and Safari, WebIDE's main purpose at the moment is that you can connect to them and debug existing tabs using the Firefox DevTools.  Opened tabs in Chrome / Safari will appear in the WebIDE project list.

It's a common point of confusion, so I've filed bug 1097758 to try to make this more obvious.

Comment 4

[T. Burns]

Hi,

thanks but it is still not that clear to me.
A so called 'app' for me is juts Code made from HTML, JavaScript and CSS.
So I wonder why Chrome, Safari etc. won't support it?

Comment 5

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

(In reply to T. Burns from comment #4)
> A so called 'app' for me is juts Code made from HTML, JavaScript and CSS.
> So I wonder why Chrome, Safari etc. won't support it?

The main limitation I am describing in this bug is that there is no code written at the moment that allows WebIDE to talk to non-Mozilla browsers to install apps.  This is something that could be solved when it makes sense to do so by adding the needed support to Valence.

However, at the moment, it would not make sense to add such support for several reasons:

1. App Manifests

Unlike regular web sites, web apps do not yet have a common packaging format across vendors.

(If you want to make a regular web site in WebIDE, that is planned, but not yet supported.  See bug 1077784.) 

Mozilla's app format[1] and Chrome's app format[2] are different for example.  There's also a comparison page to highlight the differences[3].

There is spec for a common format[4] which was recently added to Chrome 38.  There is a open bug (bug 997779) to add this to Gecko (Firefox products) as well.

2. APIs

There are many non-standardized APIs available to apps on each platform, so it's quite hard today to port between platforms.  However, it's possible for libraries like Cordova or similar to paper over these rough edges.

Having said all this, I believe the main blocker to installing something into Chrome today is the app packaging format.  I'll re-open this bug to this track such work, though I am not sure when it would be done.

[1]: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/Apps/Build/installable_apps_for_Firefox_OS
[2]: https://developer.chrome.com/extensions/manifest
[3]: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/Apps/Build/Porting_Chrome_apps_to_open_web_apps
[4]: https://w3c.github.io/manifest/

Comment 6

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

Apps are being removed with B2G cleanup.