1195721 - (homepage) Set a home page

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(Firefox for Android Graveyard :: General, defect)

Description

[Karen Rudnitski [:kar]]

 **Requirements:**

- Be able to set a home page akin to setting a home page on desktop
- Ensure the home page URL can be set via a distribution file
- Provide an 'unconnected' state if the user has lost Internet connectivity (and/or display an appropriate error page)
- Ensure the home page URL can be modified by the user at any time, even if it's been pre-set via a distribution file
- Easily trigger the home page without cluttering up the existing chrome / UX
- Provide the ability to keep or delete the Top Sites home panel in addition to having a set home page
- There is no link (no 'in sync' requirement) between Firefox desktop home page and Firefox for Android (or iOS) home page.

**User Stories:**

- As a user, I want to set a home page URL instead of (or in addition to) using Top Sites so I can start browsing using my preferred home page.
- As a user, I want to be able to edit my home page URL at any time.
- As a partner, I want to be able to set the home page URL.
- As a user, I want my chosen home page to display upon browser start-up.
- As a user, I want the ability to choose to go to my home page whenever I open a new tab.
- As a user, I want the ability to choose to go to my home page whenever I tap on the URL bar.

**Acceptance Criteria:**

- Partner distributions can set the home page URL
- The home page URL is editable by the user
- Both the home page 'action' and the ability to interact with home panels live harmoniously

**Additional Info:**

- This has been an oft-requested feature from our users over the past 3 years
- The idea here is to provide a more customized and personalized way of browsing that's totally within the user's choice: either continue to use and love the Top Sites algorithm, or be able to set and use a 'home page' concept

Comment 1

[Karen Rudnitski [:kar]]

NI-ing Darrin for designs

Comment 2

[Darrin Henein [:darrin]]

Going to challenge one of the user-stories:


"As a user, I want the ability to choose to go to my home page whenever I tap on the URL bar."


I'm not sure this would make sense. The URL bar is reserved for navigating to new places. Having that UI take you to a fixed place "home page" does not make sense to me. I am against the idea of showing a webpage within the panel experience we have: web pages should be displayed consistently and without exception – with the url bar at top and nothing else (save for the bottom toolbar on iOS)


Really, I think: 

- "As a user, I want the ability to choose to go to my home page whenever I open a new tab."
- "As a user, I want my chosen home page to display upon browser start-up."

are the best experience here, if we want to go down this route. It also makes this much simpler:

- "Both the home page 'action' and the ability to interact with home panels live harmoniously"



Do you have thoughts on this Karen?

Comment 3

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

(In reply to Darrin Henein [:darrin] from comment #2)
> Going to challenge one of the user-stories:
> 
> 
> "As a user, I want the ability to choose to go to my home page whenever I
> tap on the URL bar."
> 
> I'm not sure this would make sense. The URL bar is reserved for navigating
> to new places. Having that UI take you to a fixed place "home page" does not
> make sense to me. I am against the idea of showing a webpage within the
> panel experience we have: web pages should be displayed consistently and
> without exception – with the url bar at top and nothing else (save for the
> bottom toolbar on iOS)

What if we treat the "Home page" as a dynamic bookmark, shown in the Bookmarks list whenever a Home page is set? In general though, I agree that we don't want to make any one-off UI for accessing the Home page from the Home panels.

> Really, I think: 
> 
> - "As a user, I want the ability to choose to go to my home page whenever I
> open a new tab."
> - "As a user, I want my chosen home page to display upon browser start-up."
> 
> are the best experience here, if we want to go down this route. It also
> makes this much simpler:

I think "browser start-up" is the only high priority use case.

Comment 4

[Karen Rudnitski [:kar]]

Darrin - in short, I accept your user story challenge and have decided to agree with you. I also think that starting somewhere is the best case scenario, and a 'browser start-up' is certainly the most common scenario in which a user would expect to see their defined home page show up, however also believe that same expectation about a 'home page' behaviour with a new tab.

I do think we can and should start somewhere, though, so think the next step are some designs and see how it feels (from browser start-up and/or new tab), provided we also provide a mechanism for someone to hit 'home' easily (which would be more important if we only support a 'browser start-up' situation).

I'll modify the Aha feature card.

Comment 5

[:Margaret Leibovic]

In triage we discussed some performance concerns about this feature. We should talk to jchen to see what kind of things we can do to make the web page load as fast as possible.

Comment 6

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

From the above comments, it seems like we're in agreement for the following UX of a "Homepage":

1) When a user creates a "New tab" (either via the tabs tray +, or in the menu "Open a New tab")
2) When a user starts "Firefox" (if it's not in Recents)

I think we're in agreement for not having this "Homepage" show when user taps the URL bar (currently, that's the best way to about:home).

I propose the follow UI/UX for this on Android (and will file the bugs and hang them off this one)

A) Adding an item in the simple dialog box for when a user long-presses on the URL bar for "Set as Homepage"
B) Adding an item in Settings > Customize > Home (pending Settings re-org work) for "Set a Homepage" that allows users to enter a URL for the Homepage, or use the current page they're on.

Kar, does this align with your expectations? I also talked to mhaigh who will be taking this bug on and this seems to be the easiest path forward.

Comment 7

[Karen Rudnitski [:kar]]

Anthony - from thinking about it, I think you (B) makes the most sense. I'd rather not implement (A) right now as per my comment in bug 1201185 (for fear of complicating that long press and also for the reason that you don't change your homepage particularly often and likely already know what you want it to be)

Comment 8

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

Great! I've commented in bug 1201185 too.

Comment 9

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

Leaving a note here.

Martyn made a build to prototype this (Settings pref, open on New tab, open on launch) here: 

> https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/7163922/Work/1195721.apk

Copy in the Settings still needs to be updated a la bug 1201181

Comment 10

[Martyn Haigh (:mhaigh)]

https://treeherder.mozilla.org/#/jobs?repo=try&revision=e78beaa582f3

Comment 11

[Martyn Haigh (:mhaigh)]

Attachment: MozReview Request: Bug 1195721 - Set a home page; r?mfinkle

Bug 1195721 - Set a home page; r?mcomella

Initial piece of work - this just adds the ability to open a page on startup.  There's currently no UI until bug 1201181 lands, but you can manually set a sharedpref to test or have a look at the apk in bug 1201181 to see it working.

Comment 12

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

https://reviewboard.mozilla.org/r/18491/#review16543

::: mobile/android/base/GeckoApp.java:1493
(Diff revision 1)
> +            passedUri = !TextUtils.isEmpty(homepage) ? homepage : null;

I don't think we want to treat the homepage as an external URL.

::: mobile/android/base/Tabs.java:943
(Diff revision 1)
> -        return loadUrl(AboutPages.HOME, Tabs.LOADURL_NEW_TAB);
> +        return loadUrl(getNewTabUrl(AboutPages.HOME), Tabs.LOADURL_NEW_TAB);

I was under the impression that adding a tab would not just go to the homepage. I thought the plan would still show about:home or about:privatebrowsing.

Comment 13

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

(In reply to Anthony Lam (:antlam) from comment #6)
> From the above comments, it seems like we're in agreement for the following
> UX of a "Homepage":
> 
> 1) When a user creates a "New tab" (either via the tabs tray +, or in the
> menu "Open a New tab")
> 2) When a user starts "Firefox" (if it's not in Recents)

I am not sold on #1. I think we should still show about:home or about:privatebrowsing, and the user can pick the homepage from the about:home.

Comment 14

[Martyn Haigh (:mhaigh)]

Comment on attachment 8658152 [details]
MozReview Request: Bug 1195721 - Set a home page; r?mfinkle

Bug 1195721 - Set a home page; r?mcomella
Initial piece of work - this just adds the ability to open a page on startup.  There's currently no UI until bug 1201181 lands, but you can manually set a sharedpref to test or have a look at the apk in bug 1201181 to see it working.

This work addresses the first issue mfinkle raised about repurposing the passedUri variable and treating the homepage like an external URL..

Comment 15

[Martyn Haigh (:mhaigh)]

https://treeherder.mozilla.org/#/jobs?repo=try&revision=5191fa251268

Comment 16

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

Comment on attachment 8658152 [details]
MozReview Request: Bug 1195721 - Set a home page; r?mfinkle

https://reviewboard.mozilla.org/r/18491/#review16643

::: mobile/android/base/GeckoApp.java:1478
(Diff revision 2)
> +        return null;

Can this method be abstract?

::: mobile/android/base/Tabs.java:942
(Diff revision 2)
>      public Tab addTab() {

What about tabs added via JS? afaict, this method isn't called from JS.

Comment 17

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

(In reply to Michael Comella (:mcomella) from comment #16)

> ::: mobile/android/base/Tabs.java:942
> (Diff revision 2)
> >      public Tab addTab() {
> 
> What about tabs added via JS? afaict, this method isn't called from JS.

Again, I question showing a Homepage when adding a new tab.

Comment 18

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

Ah! I see this now.

(In reply to Mark Finkle (:mfinkle) from comment #13)
> (In reply to Anthony Lam (:antlam) from comment #6)
> > From the above comments, it seems like we're in agreement for the following
> > UX of a "Homepage":
> > 
> > 1) When a user creates a "New tab" (either via the tabs tray +, or in the
> > menu "Open a New tab")
> > 2) When a user starts "Firefox" (if it's not in Recents)
> 
> I am not sold on #1. I think we should still show about:home or
> about:privatebrowsing, and the user can pick the homepage from the
> about:home.

Hmmm, I kind of see what you mean. But can you speak a little more about why you're not sold?

From a UX stand point it is straight forward and very much "feels" like the familiar Homepage metaphor. Most users would recall from say Desktop browsers.

I went through an idea of introducing new UX on the user's default home panel too. But it didn't seem to "check off" the aforementioned use cases as well. It also didn't feel great having to take another action after adding a tab (it felt very similar to 'pinning' a top site).

That being said, happy to discuss

Comment 19

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

(In reply to Anthony Lam (:antlam) from comment #18)

> From a UX stand point it is straight forward and very much "feels" like the
> familiar Homepage metaphor. Most users would recall from say Desktop
> browsers.

Firefox Desktop does not show my "homepage" when adding a new tab. When adding a new tab, I see the NewTab page.

> I went through an idea of introducing new UX on the user's default home
> panel too. But it didn't seem to "check off" the aforementioned use cases as
> well. It also didn't feel great having to take another action after adding a
> tab (it felt very similar to 'pinning' a top site).

I agree that a user can "pin" their Homepage to Top Site for easy access when adding anew tab.

Comment 20

[Barbara Bermes [:barbara] - NI please!]

I agree with mfinkle, it feels somehow off opening a new tab and getting the homepage loaded first. I could see users getting annoyed by this (including loading this page over and over again --> bandwidth/data usage concerns)

So I'd suggest just covering 2) When a user starts "Firefox" (if it's not in Recents)

Comment 21

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

I'm open to not having this for each new tab as well. 

But would that hinge on having an alternate way to access said Homepage via some sort of UI/UX on the user's default home panel? or can we just abandon that completely?

Comment 22

[Barbara Bermes [:barbara] - NI please!]

So you mean in addition of opening the homepage on startup, you would want to maybe have another hook on the home panel to open that homepage? Unless you have a great spot/suggestion, I'd pass.

Comment 23

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

Essentially, I'm just thinking about this user story. 

(In reply to Darrin Henein [:darrin] from comment #2)
> - "As a user, I want the ability to choose to go to my home page whenever I
> open a new tab."

But I'm OK if we don't need to satisfying that one. I'm just not sure if this (point 2) is enough? We'll just have to be specific in our Settings copy. I'm happy to follow Products lead here :)

Comment 24

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

(In reply to Anthony Lam (:antlam) from comment #23)
> Essentially, I'm just thinking about this user story. 
> 
> (In reply to Darrin Henein [:darrin] from comment #2)
> > - "As a user, I want the ability to choose to go to my home page whenever I
> > open a new tab."
> 
> But I'm OK if we don't need to satisfying that one. I'm just not sure if
> this (point 2) is enough? We'll just have to be specific in our Settings
> copy. I'm happy to follow Products lead here :)

The user can always pin their homepage to Top Sites. Hell, we could offer to pin the homepage to Top Sites when they save the homepage in Settings. Also, constant use of the homepage will cause the freceny to push it up into Top Sites.

Comment 25

[Karen Rudnitski [:kar]]

Thinking about the folks who have been telling us they want to set a home page, it's because they haven't found value in Top Sites. 

I also think that while pinning is an option, people don't know or understand what it does and how it could satisfy their desire to abandon Top Sites in lieu of a home page. 

I'm ok with starting 'somewhere', but ultimately I'm thinking about the users who have said 'I don't like Top Sites, I want to ability to set a home page instead.' This isn't a setting that's meant to satisfy a broad set of users, but rather those who really just want their set home page (hence why it can be in the settings menu and not published broadly nor having a 'home button' in the chrome anywhere).

Comment 26

[Barbara Bermes [:barbara] - NI please!]

So, looking at all the comments, this seems like we should start with option 2 for now and that should be enough (for now).

Comment 27

[Martyn Haigh (:mhaigh)]

https://treeherder.mozilla.org/#/jobs?repo=try&revision=ed02a5fed706

Comment 28

[Martyn Haigh (:mhaigh)]

(In reply to Michael Comella (:mcomella) from comment #16)
> Comment on attachment 8658152 [details]

> ::: mobile/android/base/GeckoApp.java:1478
> (Diff revision 2)
> > +        return null;
> 
> Can this method be abstract?
> 

It could be, but this way any implementing classes which don't need to worry about this functionality don't have to implement this method.

> ::: mobile/android/base/Tabs.java:942
> (Diff revision 2)
> >      public Tab addTab() {
> 
> What about tabs added via JS? afaict, this method isn't called from JS.

Not an issue anymore.

Comment 29

[Martyn Haigh (:mhaigh)]

Comment on attachment 8658152 [details]
MozReview Request: Bug 1195721 - Set a home page; r?mfinkle

Bug 1195721 - Set a home page; r?mfinkle

Comment 30

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

Comment on attachment 8658152 [details]
MozReview Request: Bug 1195721 - Set a home page; r?mfinkle

https://reviewboard.mozilla.org/r/18491/#review17005

::: mobile/android/base/GeckoApp.java:1450
(Diff revision 3)
>       * tab will be about:home. If we restore tabs, we don't need to create a new tab.

You could update this comment

Comment 31

[Martyn Haigh (:mhaigh)]

https://hg.mozilla.org/integration/fx-team/rev/f0544edc121ea85cd58d813470c320286e1ed4ce
Bug 1195721 - Set a home page; r=mfinkle

Comment 32

[Wes Kocher (:KWierso) (Not reading bugmail; email directly if needed)]

https://hg.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/rev/f0544edc121e

Comment 33

[Liz Henry (:lizzard) (relman/hg->git project)]

Release Note Request (optional, but appreciated)
[Why is this notable]: User-facing new feature. 
[Suggested wording]: Users can set a custom home page
[Links (documentation, blog post, etc)]:   It would be great to have a blog post or other documentation for this. 

Karen, do you have suggestions on the release note wording?

Comment 34

[Teodora Vermesan (:TeoVermesan)]

Tested with:
Device: Nexus 7 (Android 5.1)
Build: Firefox for Android 43.0a1 (2015-09-17)

Scenarios:
1.
- Go to Menu -> Settings -> Customize -> Home -> Set a Homepage and write "https://facebook.com"
- Go back three times until you are at about:home
- Open a few new tabs: about:home is loaded every time. Is it expected?

2. 
Close Nightly and reopen it: one tab is displayed with facebook.com. Any other tab loads about:home.
Is it expected?

3. 
Set a homepage option is present in guest mode: Filled: Bug 1205657 - Remove "Set a Homepage" option from guest mode 

4. 
- After setting the homepage in normal browsing, go to private browsing
- Tap the "+" button to open new tabs: about:privatebrowsing is displayed every time
- But if I go to Menu -> Settings -> Customize -> Home -> Set a Homepage (https://facebook.com is present under the option"). Should "Set a homepage" pref be in private browsing?

5. 
- Go to Menu -> Settings -> Customize -> Home -> Set a Homepage and write "abcdefgh"
- Close Nightly and reopen it
- One tab is displayed with the "abcdefgh" google search.
Is it expected?

Comment 35

[Teodora Vermesan (:TeoVermesan)]

6. Also if I set a homepage in normal browsing (google.com) and then go to private browsing and set a homepage (change from google.com to gmail.com) and restart Nightly, the homepage set in private browsing (gmail.com) is applied to normal browsing: gmail.com
Is it expected?

Comment 36

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

(In reply to Teodora Vermesan (:TeoVermesan) from comment #34)

> Scenarios:
> 1.
> - Go to Menu -> Settings -> Customize -> Home -> Set a Homepage and write
> "https://facebook.com"
> - Go back three times until you are at about:home
> - Open a few new tabs: about:home is loaded every time. Is it expected?

Yes. We are only using the homepage for startup. New tabs still use about:home

> 2. 
> Close Nightly and reopen it: one tab is displayed with facebook.com. Any
> other tab loads about:home.
> Is it expected?

Yes. We use the homepage on startup.

> 3. 
> Set a homepage option is present in guest mode: Filled: Bug 1205657 - Remove
> "Set a Homepage" option from guest mode 

Commenting in that bug

> 4. 
> - After setting the homepage in normal browsing, go to private browsing
> - Tap the "+" button to open new tabs: about:privatebrowsing is displayed
> every time
> - But if I go to Menu -> Settings -> Customize -> Home -> Set a Homepage
> (https://facebook.com is present under the option"). Should "Set a homepage"
> pref be in private browsing?

The homepage is only used on startup. Adding new tabs, normal or private, will continue to work the old way.

> 5. 
> - Go to Menu -> Settings -> Customize -> Home -> Set a Homepage and write
> "abcdefgh"
> - Close Nightly and reopen it
> - One tab is displayed with the "abcdefgh" google search.
> Is it expected?

I think this is a bug. We should probably validate the text entry. If the value is not a valid URL, we should ignore it. This doesn't mean we check for "live" URLs. It would still be possible to type in a valid URL that does not exist. If that happens, I'd expect an error page on startup.

Comment 37

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

(In reply to Teodora Vermesan (:TeoVermesan) from comment #35)
> 6. Also if I set a homepage in normal browsing (google.com) and then go to
> private browsing and set a homepage (change from google.com to gmail.com)
> and restart Nightly, the homepage set in private browsing (gmail.com) is
> applied to normal browsing: gmail.com
> Is it expected?

Yes. It's just a page used on startup.

Comment 38

[Barbara Bermes [:barbara] - NI please!]

Commented on Liz question in rel notes email

Comment 39

[Teodora Vermesan (:TeoVermesan)]

Why is there a "Set a homepage' option in private browsing if there is no way to apply that page as a homepage, like in normal or guest mode?

Comment 40

[:Margaret Leibovic]

Updating the dependencies here to treat this as the pseudo-meta bug for tracking the remaining work for this feature.

Comment 41

[Ritu Kothari (:ritu) (Inactive, please n-i to RyanVM, jcristau, or pascal)]

Resetting the relnote flag as I believe this is planned for 44. I will add these to 44 beta notes when the time comes.

Comment 42

[Sylvestre Ledru [:Sylvestre]]

Ritu, I think the time has come to add it in 44 ;)

Comment 43

[Ritu Kothari (:ritu) (Inactive, please n-i to RyanVM, jcristau, or pascal)]

(In reply to Sylvestre Ledru [:sylvestre] from comment #42)
> Ritu, I think the time has come to add it in 44 ;)

hehe, that's funny! I will add it asa the nucleus issue is fixed.

Comment 44

[Ritu Kothari (:ritu) (Inactive, please n-i to RyanVM, jcristau, or pascal)]

This was already added as a relnote from bug 1227322. Please let me know if I made the wrong connection here.