1330328 - (themingapi) [meta] Theming API

Status: NEW

(WebExtensions :: Themes, task, P3)

Description

[Mike de Boer [:mikedeboer]]

Main tracking bug for all feature development related the a new theming API that will become part of Firefox.
Each epic will be marked as blocking this bug. You can find the full engineering document that lists these epics at [see URL field].

This bug can be closed once all epics are complete (and linked bugs are closed as well).

Comment 1

[Colin Caine]

Will the theming api, or any other planned/approved api, allow either of the following?

* Hiding core ui elements (e.g. tab bar, navigation and menu bar)
* Defining a new ui element that can expand/overlay the main page and be controlled by a web extension

Both of these features are required to port vimperator, a somewhat popular addon that essentially replaces firefox's UI.

The latter capability would be used to draw the command/statusline (needs to expand to show autocomplete options). It is not sufficient to draw the statusline in a content script whilst content scripts are forbidden for some URLs as that would make the main UI element unusable on some pages.

Digression:

:kmag suggests in another bug that permitting content scripts to run on about:downloads is "out of the question", and I understand the motivation, but this will make it difficult for addons that replace or augment the UI (through differing keybinds or new features (e.g. hint mode)) to provide a consistent UX.

Our preferred solution is that content scripts be permitted to run on all tabs iff the user agrees to some scarily named permission and the developer pinky swears they'll be careful and not use exposed attributes that they shouldn't.

Thanks for your attention and apologies if this is the wrong place for this question.

Comment 2

[Mike de Boer [:mikedeboer]]

Hi Colin, thanks for being interested! I'm afraid this is indeed not the right venue for these kind of questions. We're planning to send out a comprehensive blog mailing list(s) post that explains what the new Theming API will and will not support when the first version ships.
Please stay tuned and feel free to ask any question you might have then. Thanks!

Comment 3

[Colin Caine]

Thanks for the information. Looking forward to it.

Sorry about polluting this bug.

NNTR.

Comment 5

[Colin Caine]

The design document is not world readable. Could it be made so, please?

I've also requested access from my email address

Comment 6

[Mike de Boer [:mikedeboer]]

Colin, there's a world-readable version of the design document here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ueD6V7aLLTuc1GAOxxQYcwl2HR-k62HHu3q8knTJ4FU/pub

Comment 7

[Colin Caine]

Thanks!

Comment 8

[Andrew Swan [:aswan]]

mass move of existing themes bugs to new WebExtensions: Themes component

Comment 10

[juhyt80]

Browser theme API isn't support lightweight themes and default colors.
browser.theme.getCurrent needs to return colors, which browser using now instead of returning 'null'.

Comment 11

[Tim Nguyen :ntim]

(In reply to juhyt80 from comment #10)

Browser theme API isn't support lightweight themes and default colors.
browser.theme.getCurrent needs to return colors, which browser using now instead of returning 'null'.

This will be fixed in Firefox 68 :)