1625257 - Support |storage.sync| API

Status: REOPENED

(GeckoView :: Extensions, enhancement, P3)

Description

[[ex-Mozilla] Agi Sferro | :agi]

Talking with :snorp we think we might be get away with just exposing get and set to embedders.

Comment 2

[[ex-Mozilla] Agi Sferro | :agi]

Found this comment by Lina which looks relevant https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1626506#c4

Comment 3

[[:owlish] 🦉 PST]

This one seems to be supported already according to "GeckoView WebExtension API needs" document

Comment 4

[[ex-Mozilla] Agi Sferro | :agi]

I think the doc is not accurate, we don't support storage.sync, at least not across devices (it's basically a local-only implementation right now).

Comment 5

[Rob Wu [:robwu]]

This lack of functionality is also blocking the removal of the old backend, see bug 1637465 for details. It would be nice if this were to be resolved.

Comment 6

[Simeon Vincent [:dotproto]]

I think the priority/rank of this issue should be increased to reflect that more developers will soon be able to publish extensions on Android: https://blog.mozilla.org/addons/2023/08/10/prepare-your-firefox-desktop-extension-for-the-upcoming-android-release/

Comment 7

[Mathieu Leplatre [:leplatrem]]

I would like to see the priority increased, we would like to decommission some old code (Bug 1637465), and this is a blocker.

Comment 8

[gabriel]

(In reply to Simeon Vincent [:dotproto] from comment #6)

I think the priority/rank of this issue should be increased to reflect that more developers will soon be able to publish extensions on Android: https://blog.mozilla.org/addons/2023/08/10/prepare-your-firefox-desktop-extension-for-the-upcoming-android-release/

while this is a great argument, i can't avoid to point out that the star of Firefox extensions: uBlockOrigin, was always allow-listed on android and always made use (or is still broken by) this feature.

Comment 9

[Chris Peterson [:cpeterson]]

(In reply to Mathieu Leplatre [:leplatrem] from comment #7)

I would like to see the priority increased, we would like to decommission some old code (Bug 1637465), and this is a blocker.

Thanks. I will ask the GeckoView team.

Comment 11

[YUKI "Piro" Hiroshi]

Does this bug cover synchronizing stored data across mobile and desktop devices also? Now I'm trying to develop an addon communicating between android and desktop based on storage.sync so this bug looks to be a blocker.

Comment 12

[Denis Müller [:Webworkr]]

See also https://github.com/mozilla-mobile/fenix/issues/14218.

Comment 13

[Elle Solomina (she/her)]

Does any progress here? I really don't understand what I need to spend so much time after install Firefox on a new device. Please be advised this feature is significant because users see that after login their data from extensions not synced, and this is a terrible experience. :(

Comment 14

[willmarquardt]

One year later...

It's extremely surprising to users that data isn't synchronized between desktop and mobile. The vast majority of people in the world own one desktop device and one mobile device, with a single profile on each device. If there's an API called storage.sync, you'd think that it would sync across those two browsers. Please implement this.

There's already a way to disable syncing of Add-ons, so no changes need to be made to the settings UI.

Comment 15

[Jeff]

(In reply to YUKI "Piro" Hiroshi from comment #11)

Does this bug cover synchronizing stored data across mobile and desktop devices also? Now I'm trying to develop an addon communicating between android and desktop based on storage.sync so this bug looks to be a blocker.

That's also why I'm here, I tried the Cloud Storage and it's promising
But, as of my testing on 2 devices: Windows + Firefox and Android + Firefox
I have a mixed situation where both devices can upload/retrieve to/from cloud storage
BUT, each only get its own set of rules, they're not shared/merged
My wish would be for a single list of filters shared
But I understand some people might want separated between PC and mobile
So maybe have a choice between per device/per device type/common

Thanks again for the hard work

Comment 16

[juraj.masiar]

I would say, to make things simple (for Firefox dev team), it should synchronize everything, same as between desktop browsers - if addons sync. is enabled in the Firefox settings page.
I would say, this will have a desirable outcome for majority of addons.

The cases where synchronization on Android is not desired, the addon authors could update their code and implement a "Switch to local storage" option.