315756 - Add Screenshot support to client

Status: RESOLVED WONTFIX

(Other Applications Graveyard :: Reporter, enhancement)

Description

[Robert Accettura [:raccettura]]

This will have some changes to user experience (within the reporter UI).  

A few things that need to be discussed here:
- UI
- Resolution/Quality of screenshots (need to balance size for transfer/storage purposes and quality for QA purposes).
- Privacy issues (likely will be off by default, and a user can check to turn it on, and be shown a preview prior to send.  May want to consider making it viewable to only admin's aka. those with login privilages.)


Depends on server side (bug 313556).

Comment 1

[:Gavin Sharp [email: [e-mail]]]

Viewing submitted screenshots would have to be restricted to priviledged users, at least initially, otherwise it would be possible for people to submit inappropriate content to be publically displayed on a mozilla.org website. I suppose that's already possible with the text entries, but screenshots would obviously be worse.

Comment 2

[Robert Accettura [:raccettura]]

That was my opinion.

I've been considering if we need to filter the description area in any way (**** curses etc.)... but thus far, I haven't seen anything that warrants such action.  I bet there are 1 or 2 in there, but nothing severe.

IMHO due to the nature of the system, there is a risk of seeing "inappropriate content".  

Screenshots IMHO should be behind admin login at least initially.  Another question is, should it ever go beyond "admin"?  Or should it be a pure login based deal.

fwiw, login will likely be forever restricted to certain people.  Not as open as bugzilla.  Simply because it's not needed for 99% of viewers.  Only a handful need access to more than what's already public.

Comment 3

[:Gavin Sharp [email: [e-mail]]]

Also, capturing only the browser content area immediately reduces the privacy implications that stem from people who want their bookmarks, theme, desktop, etc to remain private. I think it's important to make a clear statement that only the web page content area will be sent when giving people the option of sending the screenshot.

Comment 4

[Robert Accettura [:raccettura]]

Yes, I forgot.  my plan is to only capture content.  So perhaps the best thing would be to nix "screenshot" and go with something like "picture of page" or something to that effect.

We'll be doing this via roc's work:
http://weblogs.mozillazine.org/roc/archives/2005/05/rendering_web_p.html

Comment 5

[Robert Accettura [:raccettura]]

Attachment: Proposed UI Changes

Here is a screenshot of the UI changes implemented by this bug.  It's not quite a mockup, as it's functional on my tree.

1.  Addtion of "Send picture of page" checkbox.  Specifically not calling it screenshot in the UI, because we don't want users to think all windows (or their taskbar) would be sent.  It's just the content of the page.  Internally, we call it "screenshot" simply because it's a small concise descriptive word.  The checkbox is unchecked by default.  I'd like to add a hidden pref to make it on by default, for those QA people and such who want to always send.  No UI for that of course.  

2.  Move privacy policy down towards the bottom of the wizard.  This serves a few purposes including preventing accidental clicks (since the checkbox would be right above it).  It's looks a bit better (IMHO).

That's about it.

Comment 6

[Robert Accettura [:raccettura]]

Attachment: Patch v1

Here's what I have so far.

Comment 7

[Robert Accettura [:raccettura]]

Attachment: Patch v2 + async

Previously with only a few bits of text, it didn't matter that we performed queries synchronously.  We would now benefit from doing it Asynchronously so the UI is smoother.  This patch is the first stab at it.  Seems to work pretty reliably.

While at it, I played with fault/error handling a little bit, which hopefully should prove a bit more reliable (not that there have been many real world problems).

This is still a work in progress, but feedback is always welcome.

Comment 8

[Robert Accettura [:raccettura]]

Should note, that I noticed we don't display "behind login" in the show results box, and added that in (no big deal, wasn't worth a whole other bug for).

Comment 9

[Doron Rosenberg (IBM)]

Comment on attachment 210731 [details] [diff] [review]
Patch v2 + async

> 
>-function handleSOAPResponse (response) {
>-  var fault = response.fault;
>-  if (fault != null) {
>+function soapResponse(response, soapcall,error, callback) {

soapcall, error, please :)

>+    var strbundle=document.getElementById("strings");
nit: spaces around the 

The soap error handling seems fine otherwise.

Comment 10

[Robert Accettura [:raccettura]]

Attachment: Patch v2.1 + async

Comment 11

[Robert Accettura [:raccettura]]

Comment on attachment 210913 [details] [diff] [review]
Patch v2.1 + async

Lets move forward.

Comment 12

[Mike Beltzner [:beltzner, not reading bugmail]]

Two suggestions:
 - move the checkbox to be closer to the other UI elements that are talking about
   the page; I'd suggest above the "password protected" checkbox

 - nit: s/Send picture of page/Include snapshot of broken web site/

 - default for this box should be checked, I think, if we believe that it's
   really useful for us to see.

Comment 13

[Robert Accettura [:raccettura]]

(In reply to comment #12)
> Two suggestions:
>  - move the checkbox to be closer to the other UI elements that are talking
> about
>    the page; I'd suggest above the "password protected" checkbox
> 
Ok
>  - nit: s/Send picture of page/Include snapshot of broken web site/
> 
Ok
>  - default for this box should be checked, I think, if we believe that it's
>    really useful for us to see.
> 
Scares the heck out of me.  Reason being that if someone's not paying attention and submits one for a banking site, or something else... it would be ugly.

We likely won't make them public anyway (at least not without review or something for this reason).  But I'd still be against checking that by default.  

I was even initially pondering a "Sending a screenshot shouldn't be done for finanical information or any sensitive information" type dialog the first time you check it.

Comment 14

[Robert Accettura [:raccettura]]

Attachment: Patch v2.2

Comment 15

[Robert Accettura [:raccettura]]

Attachment: Beltznerized UI Changes

Comment 16

[Robert Accettura [:raccettura]]

Comment on attachment 211023 [details] [diff] [review]
Patch v2.2

If you want to actually test screenshot support, contact me for reporter-dev access.

Works just fine against production, but screenshots are ignored by the server, who knows nothing about said screenshots.

Comment 17

[Robert Accettura [:raccettura]]

I want the async part of this patch for the branch (will help those with poor connection speeds, or when the server is conjested).  And the screenshot stuff for the trunk (doesn't appear we will get screenshot support in the branch).

Comment 18

[Kay Rhodes]

I realize this bug isn't specific to Firefox but since Firefox would benefit please bear with me...

I think you're missing one incredibly powerful aspect of this functionality that would encourage many more web applications to be written specifically for Firefox. The ability to generate a screenshot file whenever you want.

You already know the many reasons why generating a screenshot is a good for bug reporting and why your average user can't / won't do it or else this issues wouldn't exist. But why should Mozilla be the only ones to benefit from such a feature? 

What if there was a browser out there where developers of web applications could instruct their users to choose an option from a pull down that would save off a screenshot they could send in to clarify their bugs?

That's a killer reason to start requiring Firefox instead of requiring IE if you're a web developer. And it's one you can actually explain to management. 

Comment 19

[Mark Smith [:mcs]]

(In reply to comment #18)
> I think you're missing one incredibly powerful aspect of this functionality
> that would encourage many more web applications to be written specifically for
> Firefox. The ability to generate a screenshot file whenever you want.

FYI, my company offers an extension named Page Saver that provides the capability you asked about.  See:

  http://pearlcrescent.com/products/pagesaver/

Comment 20

[Jason Spiro]

Hi Robert.  I am not an Fx developer, but today I wanted to find out if anyone has ever written an automatic Bugzilla or Trac screenshot upload tool.  (Nobody has.)  But I noticed your work on this bug, and that it has sat unreviewed for two years.  I tried applying the last patch to a recent Fx tarball by typing "patch -p0 < 315756_2.2.diff".  patch(1) said that some of the hunks failed.  Is it likely that reporter will ever gain screenshot support in the future?

P.S.  Should I have sent this question by private email instead?

Comment 21

[Robert Accettura [:raccettura]]

Updating this patch to work against current code base wouldn't take long.

There are issues with the feature, notably privacy.  We could block access to all screenshots to only a few select people, but that has little utility.  We could allow anyone access and warn, but it's inevitable that someone will submit a screenshot of something sensitive (their bank account for example, or an email).  How do we handle this best?  Could we perhaps isolate to a portion of the page (cropping)?  How do users know what developers may be interested in?  And how much?  

This bug like any uncommitted is an idea and a work in progress.  It's not a guarantee that a feature will be included or even fully implemented.

Comment 22

[Mike Connor [:mconnor]]

Comment on attachment 211023 [details] [diff] [review]
Patch v2.2

If this still applies, please re-request review (or find an alternate reviewer in less than 2.5 years...)

Comment 23

[Sylvestre Ledru [:Sylvestre]]

Reporter isn't a maintained project. Closing!