644424 - Add a "refresh" button to the remote tabs list

Status: VERIFIED FIXED

(Firefox for Android Graveyard :: General, enhancement)

Description

[Matt Brubeck (:mbrubeck)]

The "Desktop" panel in the awesomescreen (tabs from other computers) should have a "refresh" button that does a "Sync now."

This is useful when I have just loaded a page on my computer and synced it, and want to bring it up right away on my phone.

Wherever we place the button, it could also be used to display sync status and/or an "Enable" button when sync is disabled, as discussed in bug 639711 comment 7 through 9.

Comment 1

[Madhava Enros [:madhava]]

What about "Sync Now" as an Android Menu item?  Ideally, this would be as transparent to the user as possible -- i.e., can we refresh when the user switches to that tab?  Generally, I think the Sync philosophy is that it should seem like you're "synced" at all times rather than having to "sync" as an action.

(I know this isn't necessarily completely possible)

Comment 2

[Vivien Nicolas (:vingtetun) (:21) - (NOT reading bugmails, needinfo? please)]

(In reply to comment #0)
> The "Desktop" panel in the awesomescreen (tabs from other computers) should
> have a "refresh" button that does a "Sync now."
> 
> This is useful when I have just loaded a page on my computer and synced it, and
> want to bring it up right away on my phone.

I guess this is useful for devel purpose but is it really useful for a normal user?

Do you know what is the actual refresh delay for sync?

Comment 3

[Matt Brubeck (:mbrubeck)]

(In reply to comment #2)
> I guess this is useful for devel purpose but is it really useful for a normal
> user?

Perhaps - often when I do this, it's for testing website compatibility.  But sometimes it's for "normal" use when I just want to switch devices.

> Do you know what is the actual refresh delay for sync?

* During normal operation, we schedule a sync every 5 minutes on mobile.

* When you open the remote tabs list, Fennec will start an immediate sync for just the "tabs" engine, *if* it hasn't already synced in the last 30 seconds.

So each time you open the remote tabs list, there's a 10% chance that it will not refresh, because it's already synced sometime in the last 30 seconds.  Then you might need to wait 5 minutes before you can see the page that you want.

If we shortened or eliminated the 30 second threshold, I probably wouldn't need a "Sync Now" button.  It would also be good to show some indication that a new sync is in progress, and maybe the time since the last sync.

Comment 4

[Mark Finkle (:mfinkle) (use needinfo?)]

(In reply to comment #3)

> If we shortened or eliminated the 30 second threshold, I probably wouldn't need
> a "Sync Now" button.  It would also be good to show some indication that a new
> sync is in progress, and maybe the time since the last sync.

If we can address this without adding a button, we win. We are trying to add less UI around Sync, not more. Your idea for shortening the threshold and/or changing the logic seems like a good approach.

Comment 5

[Vivien Nicolas (:vingtetun) (:21) - (NOT reading bugmails, needinfo? please)]

Attachment: Patch

Let's try 10s if it's ok for you? I think this will cover the case where the user leave the list then go back to it quickly and it will allow you to reduce this to 0 for devel purpose.

Comment 6

[Matt Brubeck (:mbrubeck)]

Comment on attachment 521790 [details] [diff] [review]
Patch

Yes, let's try this.

Comment 7

[Vivien Nicolas (:vingtetun) (:21) - (NOT reading bugmails, needinfo? please)]

http://hg.mozilla.org/mobile-browser/rev/3f8519dfd4c6

Comment 8

[Andreea Pod]

Every time when I access "Desktop" tab the list refreshes and it shows new tabs if there are any. Marking this as verified fixed 

Nightly: Mozilla /5.0 (Android;Linux armv7l;rv:9.0a1) Gecko/20110905 Firefox/9.0a1 Fennec/9.0a1

and Aurora: Mozilla /5.0 (Android;Linux armv7l;rv:8.0a2) Gecko/20110904 Firefox/8.0a2 Fennec/8.0a2