1313455 - Develop new integration api for Apple Touch Bar API

Status: RESOLVED DUPLICATE of bug 1313429

(Core :: Widget: Cocoa, defect, P2)

Description

[Nomis101]

It would be nice if we could include support of the new Apple Touch Bar API, so Firefox or Thunderbird can make use of it.
https://developer.apple.com/macos/touch-bar/

Comment 1

[Blake Winton (:bwinton) (:☕️)]

(It would be cool to let add-ons put stuff there, too…  Maybe restricted to addon-sdk at first, until we can get a decent WebExtension api. :)

Comment 2

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

Bug 1313429 seems to have more attention, so let's dupe this one over there.

Comment 3

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

Oh, hmm, maybe I misunderstood and this is only about the API...?  I guess it's not clear to me what "include API" (this bug) vs. "support" (bug 1313429) would mean...

Feel free to reopen if they are actually separate!

Comment 4

[Nomis101]

My understanding was, this Bug is about the underlaying Core work, so Firefox, Thunderbird and Seamonkey can make use of this feature. And than there is a Firefox Bug to implement to "buttons" for Firefox and a Thunderbird bug for the related work of Thunderbird and so on. Thats why I opened this Bug and called it "API".

Comment 5

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

Okay, I guess let's reopen this then...  Bug 1313429 was also moved to Widget: Cocoa.  I would guess maybe we don't need both, but I'll let someone else sort this out. :)

Comment 6

[Jim Mathies [:jimm]]

We want to start with a basic, version 1.0 that we can get implemented and out the door, something we can build on. I'd suggest starting a dev.platform thread discussing possible uses, then pick the top 4 or 5 features we want to support (fx front-end product people should provide input here), then design a solid 1.0 api around that.

Comment 7

[Stephen A Pohl [:spohl]]

Posted to dev.platform:
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/mozilla.dev.platform/OwCTz-pau3c

Comment 8

[Jeff Griffiths (:canuckistani) (:⚡︎)]

Hi Stephen, wondering what the current relative priority of this and other touchbar-related bugs is.

Comment 9

[Stephen A Pohl [:spohl]]

(In reply to Jeff Griffiths (:canuckistani) (:⚡︎) from comment #8)
> Hi Stephen, wondering what the current relative priority of this and other
> touchbar-related bugs is.

This is my top priority. I'm in the process of writing up a plan on how to best expose this and will post it here as soon as it's ready.

Comment 10

[Jeff Griffiths (:canuckistani) (:⚡︎)]

(In reply to Stephen A Pohl [:spohl] (OOO, returning 3/2) from comment #9)
> (In reply to Jeff Griffiths (:canuckistani) (:⚡︎) from comment #8)
> > Hi Stephen, wondering what the current relative priority of this and other
> > touchbar-related bugs is.
> 
> This is my top priority. I'm in the process of writing up a plan on how to
> best expose this and will post it here as soon as it's ready.

Thanks for the clarification. I'm looking forward to reviewing the plan when you're ready.

Comment 11

[Stephen A Pohl [:spohl]]

I've compiled a project plan for this feature here:

https://docs.google.com/document/u/0/d/1hX5IVeFRdLyBCcMu9F_6rQi4wdmLv46UWmJ5muRpwcw/pub

tl;dr: The proposed path forward is to build a WebExtensions API that can be used by both system addons and third-party addons. This allows for individual teams to develop their own WebExtensions for specific use cases without requiring dedicated widget:cocoa work.

Additional input and comments always welcome.

Comment 12

[Nomis101]

Thanks for the plan. Will this API accessible for Thunderbird and Seamonkey as well, so this applications can also make use of the TouchBar (like Apple Mail does)?

Comment 13

[Stephen A Pohl [:spohl]]

(In reply to Nomis101 from comment #12)
> Thanks for the plan. Will this API accessible for Thunderbird and Seamonkey
> as well, so this applications can also make use of the TouchBar (like Apple
> Mail does)?

Yes, this API should be available to Thunderbird and Seamonkey. If I run into any issues during implementation that would restrict the API to Firefox only I'll be sure to mention it here. I'm not aware of any at this time.

Comment 14

[Patrick Albrecht]

I'm not sure if it here the best place to ask that but could you Stephen A Pohl maybe give a update on this? I would really like to use this and the priority of the bug is P2 and you said yourself that this is a top priority for you. Does this first need an approval from some Mozilla board or could you already started working on this?

PS: I hope the needinfo is appropriate.

Comment 15

[Stephen A Pohl [:spohl]]

Yes, this is one of my priorities and anyone can start working on this. What is your specific use case that you're trying to use this for?

Comment 16

[Patrick Albrecht]

Attachment: Touch bar use cases.pdf

Hi Stephen, that's great news! I was so happy that I took the time to write some specifications :) As I don't see anything like that attached to this bug I hope this can used as a base for further discussions. If the specifications are too detailed or something like this already exists please allow me to apologize in advance.

Comment 17

[Stephen A Pohl [:spohl]]

Thanks for putting this together! This is a great document to start conversations.

It seems like a lot of your use cases are specialized and may only appeal to a subgroup of Firefox users. It would be best to support many of these via WebExtensions. However, exposing the touchbar API to WebExtensions will be a long process. Currently, the idea is to support a few common use cases in Firefox itself. Think things along the lines of "open new window", "open new tab", "search on page" etc. We would then be able to measure how many users actually interact with the touchbar through telemetry. If we see that a large number of users are using this feature, we can justify spending the time to develop a WebExtensions API.

If we look at the total amount of effort to support both integrated use cases ("open new window" etc) as well as a WebExtension API, I estimate the effort to be split at about 10% to support the integrated use cases and 90% or more to support WebExtensions. As you can see, we should really make sure that this is a worthwhile effort before going down that path.

Comment 18

[Patrick Albrecht]

I'll play around with the touch bar when my MacBookPro arrives next week and look what I think would be a great feature to represent the touch bar but still easy to implement. As I never work with a telemetry system before I'm not sure how much of the specs I can write there but I'll do my best!

Comment 19

[Patrick Albrecht]

Attachment: UI-Touch-Bar-FirstDraft.png

I avoid here a political discussion about whatever it should be done or what should be implemented even though I don't agree with you. I'll just help you to write the first patch and then we can look from there.

I made some rough sketch for the UI which could also be implemented very fast as it applies to almost every page.

Some comments:
The book symbol should obviously be the Firefox Star for saving a page as a bookmark.
The Send to Pocket and bookmark option would be invisible if the user have a new tab open. 
All other buttons could always be active.
Telemetry would show how many people press the buttons on the Touch Bar vs in the menu.

Comment 20

[Stephen A Pohl [:spohl]]

Clearing n-i since this bug is on my radar and I will get back to it when a few other issues on my plate have been resolved.

Comment 21

[Josemando Sobral]

Hi, Stephen A Pohl.
Could you please give a update on this?
I'm asking because I've always wanted to contribute to Firefox and this is something that looks to me as a great start!
So, if you haven't started working on it, I'd love to try it.
Thanks!

Comment 22

[Stephen A Pohl [:spohl]]

You're more than welcome to try your hand at it. There is a patch in bug 1313429 that might help you get started.

Comment 23

[Tim Nguyen :ntim]

Stephen, are you working on this ? I'd love to give this a stab is this bug is free.

Comment 24

[Tim Nguyen :ntim]

Hmm, just read comment 22, it seems like it should be ok for me to take this ?

Please feel free to reassign if not.

Comment 25

[Stephen A Pohl [:spohl]]

(In reply to Tim Nguyen :ntim from comment #24)
> Hmm, just read comment 22, it seems like it should be ok for me to take this ?

Yes, this is fine. Typically, a bug is assigned once you post a patch (or are about to post a patch) and are asking for review/feedback. Since you have already assigned this bug and bug 1313429 to yourself, just remember to unassign yourself should you no longer be working on it.

FYI, there is no UX spec yet for the kind of functionality that we want to provide via the TouchBar. Once you have successfully exposed some functionality, you will want to get some UX input to figure out exactly what should be in the first iteration of TouchBar support. I'm happy to help get this process started when we get there.