1486613 - Provide extensions with a way to handle gestures

Status: NEW

(WebExtensions :: General, enhancement, P3)

Description

[Boris Zbarsky [:bzbarsky]]

There are preferences that can be used for this (browser.gesture.twist.left/right, though bug 1478626 kinda broke those and we may need a different mechanism).

Comment 1

[Dão Gottwald [:dao]]

(In reply to Boris Zbarsky [:bzbarsky, bz on IRC] from comment #0)
> There are preferences that can be used for this
> (browser.gesture.twist.left/right, though bug 1478626 kinda broke those and
> we may need a different mechanism).

Extensions can switch tabs themselves if we provide them with a way to handle the gesture.

Comment 2

[Dão Gottwald [:dao]]

We should probably prioritize this higher than P5. People are using hidden prefs to do this, which is wrong in several ways:

- it's only available to a minority of users who are comfortable with about:config

- it's limiting because it only works with <command> elements that we happen to ship

- it might break as the future of <command> element support is uncertain (bug 1486888)

Comment 3

[Shane Caraveo (:mixedpuppy)]

Why is this a webextension issue? It seems like it is just part of the pointer gesture stuff.

https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Pointer_events/Pinch_zoom_gestures

Comment 4

[Dão Gottwald [:dao]]

(In reply to Shane Caraveo (:mixedpuppy) from comment #3)
> Why is this a webextension issue? It seems like it is just part of the
> pointer gesture stuff.
> 
> https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Pointer_events/
> Pinch_zoom_gestures

I'm not sure what you're asking. We currently allow customization via the browser.gesture.* hidden prefs and we'd rather let webextensions handle that. I'm pretty sure the API you mention isn't accessible to webextensions in the browser chrome window, is it?

Comment 5

[David Durst [:ddurst]]

I'll set this to P3, because the risks in #c2 are real, but as far as our roadmap is concerned, this isn't a priority unless something about/until <command> elements changes (and since this is only became acute when bug 1478626 was landed).

Setting NI to mconca, in case he wants to prioritize this enhancement in advance. The real driver for this would appear to be bug 1486888, which is a P1.

[There is nothing preventing another team from creating this API (or extending the commands API, which is probably most appropriate), especially if there's other relevant changes coming from that team.]

Comment 6

[Chris Mills [:cmills]]

We might need some docs about this at some point.

Comment 7

[Mike Conca [:mconca]]

I agree with the P3 priority, given the dependencies.