1766705 - Create list of overrides via remote settings to support specific WebVTT compatible sites with mode = hidden

Status: RESOLVED WONTFIX

(Toolkit :: Picture-in-Picture, task, P3)

Description

[kpatenio]

For certain WebVTT compatible sites like ted.com, their track modes do not always update from "hidden" as one expects, particularly when tracks are visible on a video. Bug 1754549 aims to obtain a collection of sites, for which we "ignore hidden mode", via remote settings.

(To clarify: in ted.com, other text tracks that are not displayed on the video have their modes set to "disabled")

However, someone in the PiP team (or any Mozilla staff really) must set up the remote settings themselves and create the override list that we need. Steps to setting this up can be found here.

To give us an idea of how our data could look, here is a simplified example of how code may look from the client side:

//collection of overrides named as "pip-webvtt-overrides"
const RemoteSettings("pip-webvtt-overrides").get();
/* records ==
 [
   {
     id: "ted",
     url_patterns: ["https://*ted.com/*"],
     should_show: true,
     mode: "hidden",
   },
 ];
*/

Comment 1

[Lata]

Hey! I was searching through the open bugs and find this one relevant for me to work on. I was wondering if I can work on this? Otherwise, if there is any other bug that needs attention please let me know I would be happy to see if I can help.

Comment 2

[kpatenio]

(In reply to Lata from comment #1)

Hey! I was searching through the open bugs and find this one relevant for me to work on. I was wondering if I can work on this? Otherwise, if there is any other bug that needs attention please let me know I would be happy to see if I can help.

Hi Lata, thank you for your interest! Currently, this ticket is not available to be worked on for a few reasons:

1. Due to the steps involved in creating remote settings, this ticket is suited for internal contributors
2. There's an existing ticket Bug 1754549 that tackles to support WebVTT captions with mode = hidden. Someone is already working on that ticket, and we might actually take an approach that doesn't rely on remote settings. So it's possible that remote settings are no longer needed.

You can join the Picture-in-Picture community on Matrix if you'd like to stay involved and ask questions about general PiP work. I'll keep an eye out for tickets that can be worked on for the meantime.

Comment 3

[Lata]

Thank you for this info. I would be happy to join the channel and work further on the bugs suitable for me.

Comment 4

[kpatenio]

Since Bug 1754549 is now in central, we now have the infrastructure to support hidden text tracks without the need for remote settings. Closing this for now; please re-open if remote settings are ever reconsidered for future iterations.