1281833 - Add webrtcUI WebExtension calls

Status: RESOLVED WONTFIX

(WebExtensions :: General, enhancement, P5)

Description

[Adam Roach [:abr]]

Bug 1189060 added hooks into webrtcUI to allow addons control over certain aspects of the WebRTC permissions and consent model. The blog post at <https://hacks.mozilla.org/2015/09/controlling-webrtc-peerconnections-with-an-extension/> does a good job of demonstrating the kind of things that this facilitates.

The only way to use this at the moment is through traditional mechanisms; however, the utility of this API is likely to remain even after we start shepherding addons authors towards WebExtensions as a preferred technology.

This bug is intended to cover both design and implementation of a WebExtensions API that allows (among other things):
- The ability to add, remove, or change IP addresses exposed by PeerConnections
- Prompting the user for permission to perform address gathering and forming of connections, including the ability to block such operations altogether
- The ability to add user-visible indicia when various WebRTC conditions exist (basically, addons need to know when the various operations and connection states begin and end)

This is a short list off the top of my head; there are probably other things that I've overlooked.

Marking [design-decision-approved] at Andy's suggestion.

Comment 1

[:shell escalante]

this is likely a good first bug for experiments (landing in Q3). let's use this to get some examples for others to follow.

Comment 2

[Andy McKay]

Andrew is working on implementing this as an Experiment.

Comment 3

[Andy McKay]

This is being done here: https://github.com/web-ext-experiments/webrtc/

Comment 4

[Andrew Swan [:aswan]]

The experiment from comment 3 is now out of date but there hasn't been any serious interest in this. Unassigning myself as I'm not actively working on it.

Comment 5

[Shane Caraveo (:mixedpuppy)]

Another close/invalidate or push somewhere into planning bug.

Comment 6

[Philipp Kewisch [:Fallen][📱📆]]

I'm inclined to close this bug until we encounter a more recent use case and request for accessing this kind of information. If anyone from the WebRTC team wants to get in touch with me on this please do.