1277581 - Expose setting to the user to use a homepage as new tab page.

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(Firefox for iOS :: Browser, defect)

Description

[James Hugman [:jhugman] [@jhugman]]

Attachment: Link to Github pull-request: https://github.com/mozilla/firefox-ios/pull/1879

If a home page is set, then we should allow the user chose to use it as the new tab page.

This should default to true for chinese users.

Comment 1

[James Hugman [:jhugman] [@jhugman]]

If a home page is set, then we should allow the user chose to use it as the new tab page.

This should default to true for Chinese users.

Comment 0 should not have an attachment.

Comment 2

[James Hugman [:jhugman] [@jhugman]]

Attachment: Link to Github pull-request: https://github.com/mozilla/firefox-ios/pull/1898

Comment 3

[James Hugman [:jhugman] [@jhugman]]

Attachment: Accessing the new tab choice screen

Comment 4

[James Hugman [:jhugman] [@jhugman]]

Attachment: Selecting the homepage to open

Comment 5

[James Hugman [:jhugman] [@jhugman]]

Attachment: If a homepage is not set, default back to Top Sites.

Currently the default behaviour is to go to top sites.

Comment 6

[Emily Toop (:fluffyemily)]

Question on Functionality. 

We have 3 options, "Show a blank page", "Show your Top Sites" and "Show your Homepage".

But top sites are part of a suite of home panels, so either

1. we should re-word "Show your Top Sites" to "Show your Home Panels" OR
2. expand the list to include all home panels i.e. "Show your Top Sites", "Show your Bookmarks", "Show your History", "Show your Reading List"

Comment 7

[James Hugman [:jhugman] [@jhugman]]

Happy to add these. :tecgirl is my guidestar when it comes to such choices. (I don't think any of this has had any UX input yet).

Comment 8

[Robin Andersen [:tecgirl]]

I would omit "Show your Top Sites". Adding options to open a panel when opening a new tab seems to be overkill, and since no one seems to be a fan of the current version of Top Sites, then let's not make it front and center. Opening Bookmarks or History when opening a new tab is also odd.

Limit the options to:
Show blank page
Show Homepage

and make the default to show a blank page. 

If a user really wants to use a panel as a new tab, perhaps we can add the Homepage option to the panel menu and let them set one as a Homepage. Simplify!

Comment 9

[Robin Andersen [:tecgirl]]

Comment on attachment 8761166 [details] [review]
Link to Github pull-request: https://github.com/mozilla/firefox-ios/pull/1898

see https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1277581#c8

Comment 10

[James Hugman [:jhugman] [@jhugman]]

So…

> Limit the options to:
> Show blank page
> Show Homepage

Currently: you open a new tab and home panels show. When you tap on the URL bar, then the home panels show.

Showing blank page; it be reasonable to expect that the first thing the user will do would be to tap on the URL bar to enter a new URL. Which means you get the homepanels. Unless we disable this behaviour, there is very little difference between "blank page" and "home panel".

If we do disable this behaviour, and make it the default, we are definitely relegating home panels. I'm not averse to this – the homepanels are available from the menu, but I can see that this would freak out a small percentage of our user base.

What I am concerned about with this plan, however, is the empty state on first run problem, which is where (IMO) Top Sites is comes into its own. (this is first tab open after the intro). If we special case first run, and disable homepanels on URL focus, will the user ever get back to the homepanels?

> If a user really wants to use a panel as a new tab, perhaps we can add the
> Homepage option to the panel menu and let them set one as a Homepage. Simplify!
We no longer allow about:home, about:bookmarks etc as user addressable URLs. :(  I've filed Bug 1279179, but I think this is quite a large piece of work before the end of this release.
 
The upshot of all this is a set of options, from easiest-from-here order:
 * "Show about:home" (i.e. string change only)
 * "Show your Top Sites" "Show your Bookmarks", "Show a blank page" etc (an extra option, no biggie)
 * "Show about:home" but not "Show a blank page".
 * No "Show your about:home", default to a blank page, but ensure Top Sites/Home Panels are shown on the first empty tab shown.
 * Fix up the about: links, and go with "Show your homepage", and let homepage be set to an about: link.

My preference would be the first or the last, though I realise that having a blank page was an extra last minute feature slipping into this extra last minute feature.

Comment 11

[James Hugman [:jhugman] [@jhugman]]

Following f2f with tecgirl: going to go with 

"expand the list to include all home panels i.e. "Show your Top Sites", "Show your Bookmarks", "Show your History", "Show your Reading List""

We would like to fix Bug 1279179 so as to rationalize these options down to just Homepage and Blank page.

We were not sure about the merged home panels, but we should definitely keep a track of that.

Comment 12

[Emily Toop (:fluffyemily)]

Comment on attachment 8761166 [details] [review]
Link to Github pull-request: https://github.com/mozilla/firefox-ios/pull/1898

LGTM

Comment 13

[James Hugman [:jhugman] [@jhugman]]

Merged in to master.

Comment 14

[Stephan Leroux [:sleroux]]

v5.x dfbedd2