1861483 - [meta] Move Firefox View to the privileged content process

Status: NEW

(Firefox :: Firefox View, task, P3)

Description

[Sam Foster [:sfoster] (he/him)]

As the scope of Firefox View has changed, it not really something we want running in the main parent process, where any slow operation can directly affect the responsiveness of the rest of the browser. It should be moved to use the same privileged content process as e.g. about:newtab.
This will need to be a multi-step plan, so lets gather those steps and blockers under this meta bug.

Comment 1

[BugBot [:suhaib / :marco/ :calixte]]

The meta keyword is there, the bug doesn't depend on other bugs and there is no activity for 12 months.
:sclements, maybe it's time to close this bug?

Comment 2

[Sarah Clements [:sclements]]

Indeed bot, lets close it. We've resolved the performance concerns that came up around this. Any qualms with closing it out Sam?

Comment 3

[Sam Foster [:sfoster] (he/him)]

(In reply to Sarah Clements [:sclements] from comment #2)

Indeed bot, lets close it. We've resolved the performance concerns that came up around this. Any qualms with closing it out Sam?

Yeah i'm not sure this is a good long-term state to be in. My understanding is that we are trying to move work out of the parent process where possible. Firefox View is arguably an extension of browser chrome and belongs in the parent process, but the fact we were able to jank the browser at all points to the original motivation for filing this bug.

To move forward, we would need a kind of bridge to relay events and changes for things like tabs and history to a priviliged content process. The firefox view components would listen for update from the bridge on those rather than directly. That wouldn't be so tricky for the open tabs stuff - which already provides an async API layer, so we'd just update the underlying implementation. It would however require a lot of test refactoring.

:mconley, can you provide some perspective on the severity and priority here? My understanding is that the decision to implement firefox view in the parent process was based on a earlier much more limited scope, and given the today's requirements we would gone with a privileged content process from the outset. That's water under the bridge, but do we consider moving it to a child process now a necessary or nice-to-have step long term?

Comment 4

[BugBot [:suhaib / :marco/ :calixte]]

The meta keyword is there, the bug doesn't depend on other bugs and there is no activity for 12 months.
:sclements, maybe it's time to close this bug?