1512851 - Add Share Menu to File Menu on macOS

Status: VERIFIED FIXED

(Firefox :: Menus, defect, P3)

Description

[kristoffer]

Attachment: Capto_Capture 2018-12-09_08-15-32_AM.png

User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10.13; rv:65.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/65.0

Steps to reproduce:

The native sharing menu is hidden under the three dots in the address bar.


Actual results:

I though Firefox didn't support any other sharing than emailing the link, since the sharing functionality was so hidden.


Expected results:

It should also be accessible from the File menu too, like in Chrome. See the attached screenshot.

Comment 2

[dylthom]

I think this should be added to the right click menu rather than File, since it's already available by clicking the three dots in the address bar.

Comment 3

[kristoffer]

By that standard most of the other menu bar options should also be removed. Bookmarking the current page should be removed from the Bookmarks menu. Emailing the page should be removed. Etc... That's just foolish.

The goal should be to make the Firefox UI better, not worse. The problem is actually the opposite, that Firefox has created an additional menu while disregarding UI best practices and confusing users by not exposing the functionality where it is customary to do so - in the menu bar.

Firefox already has at least three different top level menus (disregarding right click) - the menu bar, the hamburger menu and the three dots menu, too many. Where each option is placed is completely random and confusing - you can email using any of the menus, if you want to share a link you can't use the menu bar, but if you want to save a page you can't use the three dots menu..

Ideally the three dots menu should be removed completely, but I can see why that is difficult due to cross-development with other operating system.

Moving the Share menu (and other hidden functionality) to the main menu (the menu bar) is the very least that can be done.

Comment 4

[kristoffer]

This gains extra significance since Proton removed the Thee dot menu totally.

Comment 5

[kristoffer]

This flaw needs to be fixed ASAP, it's so dumb that links need to be copied into Chrome to be AirDropped.

Comment 6

[dylthom]

You don't need to copy it to Chrome, you can just right click the tab you want to share, but I can see how you wouldn't know that since they keep moving it around with no info in the updates... But I still think they should add it to the File menu and Right click context menu like every other browser.

Comment 7

[kristoffer]

(In reply to dylthom from comment #6)

You don't need to copy it to Chrome, you can just right click the tab you want to share, but I can see how you wouldn't know that since they keep moving it around with no info in the updates... But I still think they should add it to the File menu and Right click context menu like every other browser.

No, I'm using Tree Style Tabs, and they haven't even created an API that the TST dev can use to replicate the same functionality. Right clicking tabs is an arbitrarily weird place to place it anyway, other browser place the Share functionality in the File menu for a reason - that has been customary for more than a decade. The Send as Email function is already there, why would you spread sharing functionality all over the app - horrible UX.

As of Firefox 89 using Chrome/Safari is required if you need to Airdrop stuff while using TST.

Comment 8

[Rob Wu [:robwu]]

I asked :jaws whether it makes sense to introduce a "Share" option under the "File" menu since there is already an ancient "E-mail link" menu item (from two decades ago in bug 173954), and he didn't object. This could help users with sharing content when the tab strip is absent, e.g. when hidden (Tree Style Tabs users) or in popups for example.

To implement this, the following changes need to be made:

• Add menu item:
  • menu item at https://searchfox.org/mozilla-central/rev/85a74c965bd4bcab091b5767c13c44f84671d9ce/browser/base/content/browser-menubar.inc#61-62
  • command handler at https://searchfox.org/mozilla-central/rev/85a74c965bd4bcab091b5767c13c44f84671d9ce/browser/base/content/browser-sets.inc#27-28
  • menu label + access key after https://searchfox.org/mozilla-central/rev/85a74c965bd4bcab091b5767c13c44f84671d9ce/browser/locales/en-US/browser/menubar.ftl#93, ideally consistent with the existing Share menu item at https://searchfox.org/mozilla-central/rev/85a74c965bd4bcab091b5767c13c44f84671d9ce/browser/locales/en-US/browser/tabContextMenu.ftl#69-71
• Move common implementation of share menu building logic. The logic was introduced in https://hg.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/rev/56c41d4630dd2a4b6b7e9aef19b046c8ce548b33
• Add unit tests. Tests were introduced in https://hg.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/rev/52dd74e22ce2

Patches are welcome. To get started:

• https://firefox-source-docs.mozilla.org/setup/index.html
• https://firefox-source-docs.mozilla.org/contributing/contribution_quickref.html

Basically:

• Check out the code.
• Run ./mach bootstrap and choose artifact builds (this is just a frontend change, you can build in a few minutes rather than hour(s)).
• ./mach build to build Firefox
• ./mach run --temp-profile to try out the build.
• Make the changes described above and run the Firefox build again to manually confirm the fix.
• Now or somewhere earlier, add the unit test and run ./mach test [path/to/test/here] to run the test.
• Submit the patch for review.

PS. I suggest to not change priorities from P3 to P2 to P1 yourself. Changing the priority of a bug won't get the issue fixed sooner. What can help is approval for the change (which I just got) and finding someone to contribute the code (and knowing what needs to be done helps - which I've written here).

Comment 9

[:Gijs (out for now; he/him)]

(In reply to Rob Wu [:robwu] from comment #8)

I asked :jaws whether it makes sense to introduce a "Share" option under the "File" menu since there is already an ancient "E-mail link" menu item (from two decades ago in bug 173954), and he didn't object.

This needs product and UX signoff though, so Jared's say-so alone is not enough. The relevant people have been pinged, but until we hear from them I would not recommend people working on this.

I'm reverting priority and, because we can't just crash-land strings for this in shipped releases, marking the non-nightly branches wontfix - if PM/UX sign off, we may do this in 91.

Comment 10

[kristoffer]

Glad to see that this is being worked on finally, although it is a shame that Proton were introduced without proper replacements of some important features it made inaccessible.

Anyway, bug 1512851 should likely be introduced at the same time as this, no-brainer to have the various sharing functionality at the same place. When both are added, the sharing UX in Firefox will finally make some sense.

Comment 11

[kristoffer]

Sorry, meant bug 1709609 in the last comment.

Comment 12

[Romain Testard [:RT]]

Meridel, I discussed with Martin that this entry is pretty desirable on macOS. I feel like it fits on the "File" menu underneath "E-mail link..." do you concur?

Comment 13

[Rob Wu [:robwu]]

(In reply to Romain Testard [:RT] from comment #12)

Meridel, I discussed with Martin that this entry is pretty desirable on macOS. I feel like it fits on the "File" menu underneath "E-mail link..." do you concur?

This comment only mentions macOS, while the feature is also present on Windows (but not Linux though).
I assume that if the menu were to be introduced again, that this would mean to add the menu on macOS + Windows, right?

Comment 14

[:Gijs (out for now; he/him)]

(In reply to Rob Wu [:robwu] from comment #13)

(In reply to Romain Testard [:RT] from comment #12)

Meridel, I discussed with Martin that this entry is pretty desirable on macOS. I feel like it fits on the "File" menu underneath "E-mail link..." do you concur?

This comment only mentions macOS, while the feature is also present on Windows (but not Linux though).
I assume that if the menu were to be introduced again, that this would mean to add the menu on macOS + Windows, right?

Yes, though it works differently on Windows/macOS. I have a WIP patch ready, but the precise location will be determined by UX so I haven't put it up yet.

Comment 15

[:Gijs (out for now; he/him)]

Attachment: WIP: Bug 1512851 - add share item to the file menu, r?sfoster

Comment 16

[:Gijs (out for now; he/him)]

(In reply to :Gijs (he/him) from comment #14)

I have a WIP patch ready, but the precise location will be determined by UX so I haven't put it up yet.

I'm off on PTO for a while, but in case the UX request is resolved before then someone can take this and run with it - or I'll do it when back. Caveats: untested on Windows, will still need an automated test, and might need the exact location of the menu and/or separators in it adjusting.

Comment 17

[Meridel [:meridel]]

Attachment: Menu IA options for Share.png

Thanks for bringing me in, Gijs.

Having "Share" and "Email link" on the same level is a bit confusing since emailing a link is a form of sharing. Could we move "Email link" to a sub-menu of "Share", as I have here in Option 1? This aligns more closely with other browsers, too. We talked about doing something like this earlier in the menus work.

I assume Option 1 might be more work, though.

Comment 18

[kristoffer]

Mail is always the first option of the Share menu on macOS though, so Option 1 wouldn't be any less confusing - it would actually be more confusing, since users would first see the Firefox "Email link" and then "Send link with Mail".

It makes way more sense IMO to keep the native Share menu clean than to have duplicate email options right next to each other inside the same sub menu.

Comment 19

[Meridel [:meridel]]

Attachment: Screen Shot 2021-06-06 at 3.33.33 PM.png

I am on a macOS and do not see the option for "Send link with Mail." Can you share a screenshot of what you are seeing?

Comment 20

[:Gijs (out for now; he/him)]

(In reply to Meridel [:meridel] from comment #19)

Created attachment 9225489 [details]
Screen Shot 2021-06-06 at 3.33.33 PM.png

I am on a macOS and do not see the option for "Send link with Mail." Can you share a screenshot of what you are seeing?

Your screenshot is from release (89) - it doesn't have the fix from bug 1707223 - we previously (in 89 and earlier) explicitly removed Mail from the list, to avoid more or less this exact problem. Your e-mail app will be in any other macOS app with a share menu, or in Firefox beta/nightly.

The issue with the designs in attachment 9225387 [details] is that at least at the moment, there is no way for us to know which share item is an email item - if the user has a different email client (hi, I do!), it'll be a different app, so although we could go back to specialcasing com.apple.mail or whatever it is, that will still look odd. There is also the fact that Firefox lets you configure using a web page (by default, gmail or yahoo mail; we have bugs on file to expand that list, and users can already add their own with some help from the website in question) for email, and "email link" will use that; the OS share option will not.

Right now, the share menu's list comes directly from platform widget code, which gets it from macOS. Adding our own items is possible but fiddly, and it's not clear to me if users would expect the email option to delegate to the OS mail app or a webmail handler, if configured (like "Email link..." does right now). Either way (ie for either of the 2 designs in attachment 9225387 [details]) ideally frontend code would need to know which of the OS's items is for e-mail.

comment #18 suggests the email item is always the first item; I have no idea if there is any platform guarantee for this and/or if our widget code knows. :spohl or Dale, do you know, or is there perhaps another way to tell?

(We could of course go back to not showing only Mail.app, but IMO that's pretty yucky.)

Comment 21

[kristoffer]

Attachment: macOS Sharing menu configuration

(In reply to Meridel [:meridel] from comment #19)

Created attachment 9225489 [details]
Screen Shot 2021-06-06 at 3.33.33 PM.png

I am on a macOS and do not see the option for "Send link with Mail." Can you share a screenshot of what you are seeing?

The checkbox for the default mail app can't be removed on my end. Are you sure you've configured your email client?

Comment 22

[kristoffer]

I think the best option would be to hide the Firefox "Send link as email" option if a native share menu is present.

Modifying the share menu to facilitate duplicating a native feature is pretty pointless in my view - since the share menu already has an email action

I don't understand why hiding the native email action and then adding the exact back same action again non-natively would be preferable.

Comment 23

[dylthom]

Not sure if a second bug should be opened but could the "E-mail Image" in the menu when right clicking an image be replaced at the same time? In Safari and other browsers the Share menu appears there as well which is very convenient when texting or airdropping images, etc. Attached two screenshots for reference.

Comment 24

[dylthom]

Attachment: Firefox right click menu with Email Image button

Comment 25

[dylthom]

Attachment: Safari's right click menu with a Share submenu

Comment 26

[Stephen A Pohl [:spohl]]

(In reply to :Gijs (out; back Jun 21; he/him) from comment #20)

comment #18 suggests the email item is always the first item; I have no idea if there is any platform guarantee for this and/or if our widget code knows. :spohl or Dale, do you know, or is there perhaps another way to tell?

As you mentioned, we do have granular view into the sharing services, but it is probably best to not rely on the idea that the first item is always the "email item" without any further checking.

Comment 28

[:Gijs (out for now; he/him)]

(In reply to dylthom from comment #23)

Not sure if a second bug should be opened but could the "E-mail Image" in the menu when right clicking an image be replaced at the same time?

Please open a second bug.

Comment 29

[Meridel [:meridel]]

Attachment: Share item, IA.png

Romain, please review the proposed.

Comment 30

[Meridel [:meridel]]

Adding some context for record-keeping: We are proposing to only show the "Email Link..." item when a native Share option is NOT present because the "Email link..." functionality is legacy Windows work where there is no Share menu. For MacOS users, including the "Email link..." item only contributes to confusion and does not offer unique or better functionality. In contrast to "Email link," the "Share" functionality is more powerful and can integrate with other apps.

Comment 31

[Romain Testard [:RT]]

(In reply to Meridel [:meridel] from comment #29)

Created attachment 9230750 [details]
Share item, IA.png

Romain, please review the proposed.

Thanks Meridel, I agree this is the path that makes most sense, this aligns with comment 22.
I updated the user story field to clarify the requirements since a few approaches were discussed on this thread.

Comment 32

[Dale Harvey (:daleharvey)]

I don't but looks like you have a good way forward here (sorry for missing the needinfo)

Comment 33

[:Gijs (out for now; he/him)]

Attachment: Bug 1512851 - tidy up file menu popup event handling, r?sfoster

Comment 34

[:Gijs (out for now; he/him)]

Attachment: Bug 1512851 - extract share menu handling from tabbrowser.js into a utility in browser.js, r?sfoster

Depends on D120636

Comment 35

[:Gijs (out for now; he/him)]

Attachment: Bug 1512851 - make share menu handling more generic and replace the file menu's email link with it on macOS, r?sfoster

Depends on D120637

Comment 36

[Pulsebot]

Pushed by [e-mail]:
https://hg.mozilla.org/integration/autoland/rev/85824b437d49
tidy up file menu popup event handling, r=sfoster
https://hg.mozilla.org/integration/autoland/rev/b2b7fe3afdfb
extract share menu handling from tabbrowser.js into a utility in browser.js, r=sfoster
https://hg.mozilla.org/integration/autoland/rev/1ecacabac728
make share menu handling more generic and replace the file menu's email link with it on macOS, r=sfoster,fluent-reviewers,flod

Comment 37

[Iulian Moraru]

https://hg.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/rev/85824b437d49
https://hg.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/rev/b2b7fe3afdfb
https://hg.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/rev/1ecacabac728

Comment 38

[Romain Testard [:RT]]

Release Note Request (optional, but appreciated)
[Why is this notable]: User visible improvement to the macOS experience
[Affects Firefox for Android]: No
[Suggested wording]:Mac users can now access the MacOS share options from the Firefox File menu.
[Links (documentation, blog post, etc)]:

Comment 39

[Ryan VanderMeulen [:RyanVM]]

Added to the Fx92 beta relnotes.

Comment 40

[Adrian Florinescu [:aflorinescu]]

Verified as fixed on 92b during the PI-1133 testing.