1702501 - Remove print.tab_modal.enabled pref and old frontend print preview code

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(Toolkit :: Printing, task, P3)

Description

[Mark Striemer [:mstriemer]]

Any code that references print.tab_modal.enabled can have the check and the code related to the preffed off branch removed.

• Some of the code in PrintUtils will likely become unused.
• In PrintingChild, Printing:Preview:Navigate is likely the only message that will be called and the rest can be removed.
• printPageSetup and printPreviewToolbar should become unused.
• printProgress is likely not used, but support for it will need to be removed from the C++ code.
• A lot of tests can be cleaned up.

Comment 1

[Tim Nguyen :ntim]

There's some CSS & images too:

https://searchfox.org/mozilla-central/rev/d36cf98aa85f24ceefd07521b3d16b9edd2abcb7/toolkit/themes/windows/global/global.css#120-150
https://searchfox.org/mozilla-central/rev/d36cf98aa85f24ceefd07521b3d16b9edd2abcb7/toolkit/themes/linux/global/global.css#62-90

toolkit/themes/windows/global/printPageSetup.css
toolkit/themes/windows/global/icons/Print-preview.png
toolkit/themes/windows/global/icons/Landscape.png
toolkit/themes/windows/global/icons/Portrait.png

Comment 2

[Tim Nguyen :ntim]

...and the print preview menu item: https://searchfox.org/mozilla-central/search?q=menu_printPreview&path=&case=false&regexp=false

Comment 3

[MarjaE]

Print modal is not accessible.

Comment 4

[MarjaE]

I know it's a migraine trigger. Bug 1692100. It has the preview scroll separate from the background.

I don't know how the capabilities compare with system print dialogues, because I can't use the modal without getting a migraine.

I don't know if it has other accessibility problems, for the same reason.

Comment 5

[Tom S [:evilpie]]

I think before we do this we should look into fixing bug 1712104 - "Implement the DisablePrintPreview policy from Chrome and Edge" first.

Comment 6

[Mike Kaply [:mkaply]]

In looking at this more, I think it would make sense to do this and the DisablePrintPreview work at the same time.

I started looking at how do add the DisablePrintPreview policy and if I follow the same paths as the tab_modal code, we're just going to end up keeping all of the unnecessary code.

All the DisablePrintPreview code needs to do is show the system dialog instead of the preview, nothing else, so it should be the equivalent of clicking "print using the system dialog"

Is there some simple way to do that without bringing along all of the other code associated with the old preview?

Comment 7

[Jonathan Watt [:jwatt]]

Attachment: Bug 1702501 - Remove print.tab_modal.enabled pref and old frontend print preview code. r=mstriemer

Comment 8

[Pulsebot]

Pushed by [e-mail]:
https://hg.mozilla.org/integration/autoland/rev/b3a6d66cd607
Remove print.tab_modal.enabled pref and old frontend print preview code. r=mstriemer

Comment 9

[Sandor Molnar[:smolnar]]

https://hg.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/rev/b3a6d66cd607

Comment 10

[Václav Trpišovský]

Can somebody explain this, in my opinion, unjustified and unfortunate decision?
Is there a workaround short of keeping FF<97 or modifying the new browser’s source code to reimplement this preference, both of which cause security issues due to update neglection which I will be happily living with, keeping the print dialog I want by default?
Proprietary software forcing arbitrary UI changes on users is one of the main reasons why many people choose open source. Based on the number of online guides and forum Q&A’s that called to disable tab_modal by default, I guess that the option had a reason to stay. You are digging your own grave.
Apart from force-downgrading on all devices I admin, I will abstain from providing volunteer help on the Firefox Help forum until this is PROPERLY resolved. This is my last straw. I will now be scouring the world for Firefox-based browsers that do actually listen to their users, and will happily make the switch if there is no other way in this or a future release, as well as discourage people from firefox-main where possible. And I was even considering getting Mozilla’s VPN – despite fully aware it was a repackaged Mullvad – just to support your organisation. No way I’m doing that now. </rant>

Comment 11

[pipedream]

Firefox comlpetely crashes when I click print in the new UI. From about firefox 85 until firefox 97. For at least 3 different users on campus. On Debian 10 or 11. I have submitted countless of the crash reports. I could use this setting as a workaround but now I have to teach all the users and new students over and over again to find the link "Print using system dialogue" and make that extra click. So this has been a bad experience. When I upgraded firefox to a version where print.tab_modal.enabled could not be set to false as a workaround, nothing in about:config showed me that this has been removed, it just looked like I had correctly set it to false. This unfortunately cost me some time and searching the web for print.tab_modal.enabled indeed there are faaaaar more howtos dominating the results about how to disable the new print UI, and it was difficult to find this info that it had been disabled.

Otherwise thank you for the volunteers devloping firefox!

Comment 12

[Daniel Holbert [:dholbert]]

(In reply to Václav Trpišovský from comment #10)

Is there a workaround short of keeping FF<97 or modifying the new browser’s source code to reimplement this preference, both of which cause security issues due to update neglection which I will be happily living with, keeping the print dialog I want by default?

Yes, there soon will be a workaround -- there's work underway to provide an option that jumps straight to the system print dialog and bypasses the print-preview (similar to the print.tab_modal.enabled=false experience, from a user perspective).

Proprietary software forcing arbitrary UI changes on users is one of the main reasons why many people choose open source. Based on the number of online guides and forum Q&A’s that called to disable tab_modal by default, I guess that the option had a reason to stay. You are digging your own grave.

First, I feel obligated to say: I understand you're frustrated, but please tone it down a bit and try to keep comments constructive. Comments like "You are digging your own grave" are not helpful; see https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/page.cgi?id=etiquette.html

(I see your </rant> -- Bugzilla is not a place for rants, please.)

Addressing your "why did this happen" underlying question: it may not be obvious, but the about:config pref in question was in fact guarding a whole bunch of old/different code, and we don't have the resources to maintain and support the old codepath and new codepath in perpetuity. The complexity of maintaining two entirely different printing codepaths alongside each other indefinitely would impose a inordinate maintenance burden. The pref existed so that Mozilla developers could implement the new codepath incrementally, so that it could be tested on beta and quickly rolled back if needed, etc.

Having said that: it sounds like your main concern is that you want to go straight to the system Print dialog (right?), and we are planning on providing the ability to get back the old print dialog (without it being intertwined with our old code that was guarded by the about:config pref); stay tuned.

I was even considering getting Mozilla’s VPN – despite fully aware it was a repackaged Mullvad – just to support your organisation

Thank you for having considered that.

Comment 13

[Daniel Holbert [:dholbert]]

(In reply to pipedream from comment #11)

Firefox comlpetely crashes when I click print in the new UI. From about firefox 85 until firefox 97. For at least 3 different users on campus. On Debian 10 or 11. I have submitted countless of the crash reports

That sounds terrible and is definitely unexpected. Could you please provide links to the crash reports, and we can investigate?

(Ideally it would be great if you could file a new bug at https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/enter_bug.cgi?product=Core&component=Printing%3A%20Output ; but posting the crash reports here is good too.)

Comment 14

[pipedream]

(In reply to Daniel Holbert [:dholbert] from comment #13)

(In reply to pipedream from comment #11)

Firefox comlpetely crashes when I click print in the new UI. From about firefox 85 until firefox 97. For at least 3 different users on campus. On Debian 10 or 11. I have submitted countless of the crash reports

That sounds terrible and is definitely unexpected. Could you please provide links to the crash reports, and we can investigate?

(Ideally it would be great if you could file a new bug at https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/enter_bug.cgi?product=Core&component=Printing%3A%20Output ; but posting the crash reports here is good too.)

Filed a bug with a crash report at:
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1758332
https://crash-stats.mozilla.org/report/index/7ee45184-8307-4976-9da9-8558b0220307