738816 - Allow marketplace.mozilla.org to be an installable open web application

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(Marketplace Graveyard :: Consumer Pages, enhancement, P3)

Description

[Jason Smith [:jsmith]]

An idea I was thinking about - Could we make marketplace.mozilla.org an installable open web application? Meaning, having a button on the marketplace page to "install as open web app" that makes a call to the mozApps API install call to install the application to the device? Likely, this will require on the web runtime side to give the marketplace special permissions to allow mozApps API operations within marketplace. The application should be able to be installed onto any device an open web app can run on (e.g. desktop, phone, tablet).

Thoughts on this idea?

Comment 1

[krupa raj[:krupa]]

Isn't this very similar to what Soup currently does (except that it doesn't work on desktop)?

Comment 2

[Jason Smith [:jsmith]]

Similar, except Soup is built as a native apk using web view. The difference I was thinking about with this idea would be running marketplace as an open web application on our platform, not as a native apk.

Comment 3

[Potch [:potch]]

Most definitely- we've been building the consumer-side UI with the feel of an app in mind, so marketplace.mozilla.org could, inception-style, be an app its self.

Comment 4

[Jason Smith [:jsmith]]

Myk - Knowing that the proof of concept for Mozilla Marketplace App using WebRT desktop is on the table now, should this be marked as a blocker for marketplace beta? How should we change the state of this bug?

Comment 5

[Bill Walker [:bwalker] [@wfwalker]]

(In reply to Jason Smith from comment #4)
> Myk - Knowing that the proof of concept for Mozilla Marketplace App using
> WebRT desktop is on the table now, should this be marked as a blocker for
> marketplace beta? How should we change the state of this bug?

Jason, this issue is definitely a blocker for June, and so we might as well try to get it done for April so we can start testing it. So yes, I'd list it as a blocker for the marketplace beta.

Comment 6

[Andy McKay]

Is this just a matter of adding a manifest to the marketplace? Or is there more?

Comment 7

[Bill Walker [:bwalker] [@wfwalker]]

(In reply to Andy McKay [:andym] from comment #6)
> Is this just a matter of adding a manifest to the marketplace? Or is there
> more?

It's mostly that, also we should (1) provide a magic self-install page or (2) submit the marketplace to the marketplace just like any other app

Comment 8

[Myk Melez [:myk] [@mykmelez]]

And then there's testing that the marketplace works when installed natively on Mac and Windows, and fixing any problems we find.  Plus enhancing the marketplace (and runtime) as needed to make sure the marketplace works well when installed as a native app, given that it will be a showcase, whether we highlight it or not, for what you can do with webapps.

Comment 9

[Jason Smith [:jsmith]]

(In reply to Bill Walker [:bwalker] [@wfwalker] from comment #7)
> (In reply to Andy McKay [:andym] from comment #6)
> > Is this just a matter of adding a manifest to the marketplace? Or is there
> > more?
> 
> It's mostly that, also we should (1) provide a magic self-install page or
> (2) submit the marketplace to the marketplace just like any other app

Might be good to advertise an "install marketplace app" button also on the marketplace.mozilla.org starting page as well, such that a user sees it stand out them in a a very obvious fashion. Might want to design it to be reusable across the web as well (similar to the browser ID button that existed), as other vendors could reuse it to improve discoverability of the marketplace and the associated native application.

(In reply to Myk Melez [:myk] [@mykmelez] from comment #8)
> And then there's testing that the marketplace works when installed natively
> on Mac and Windows, and fixing any problems we find.  Plus enhancing the
> marketplace (and runtime) as needed to make sure the marketplace works well
> when installed as a native app, given that it will be a showcase, whether we
> highlight it or not, for what you can do with webapps.

For testing this on desktop webRT will likely include something similar to the subjective apps analysis that was done for MWC, but in the context for marketplace. See me for more details.

Comment 10

[:Harald Kirschner :digitarald]

For Android WebRT the Mozilla Marketplace is bundled, including native launcher icon. It might make sense to add other markets (that identify themselves as markets by using the mozApps API) to the list of available markets, and let the user set a default in some preference.

Of course this only concerns Android, but there should be a similar Marketplace handling for Desktop. Will the Marketplace get some premium placement as soon as the user opts in to use Mozilla Apps, or just in-Firefox on homescreen/awesomebar?

Should this be a UX bug, as on-boarding for Desktop WebRT is mostly tbd?

Comment 11

[Wil Clouser [:clouserw]]

Who is driving this?  It sounds bigger than just the marketplace.

Comment 12

[Ed Lee :Mardak]

Myk has asked me to look into this to see if we can uncover any potential mozApps/shell/etc. issues (as well as having the Marketplace as an app.)

Comment 13

[Andy McKay]

Added bug 738816 for the marketplace. If there's any other actionable items, lets add those as separate bugs.

Comment 14

[Jason Smith [:jsmith]]

Note to marketplace team - This is blocking a Fennec Native Apps Phase 1 feature feature (Fennec Native 14) - We need this implemented as soon as we can to allow Mark Finkle to integrate marketplace install when Fennec Native is installed. See bug 738545.

Comment 15

[Andy McKay]

Assigning to marketplace to make the change.

Comment 16

[Andy McKay]

There was already bug 740454, sorry about the noise.

Comment 17

[Wil Clouser [:clouserw]]

Edward: can you give an update on this?

Comment 18

[Ed Lee :Mardak]

Attachment: marketplace launched screenshot + finder

I've been able to install the marketplace using the manifest from bug 740454. Using a Nightly build with bug 739636 and bug 725408.

It installs and launches okay. See attached.

I believe Myk intended this bug to make sure the marketplace app functions correctly and to uncover other bugs. It's difficult to test the expected functionality of a native marketplace because there isn't a dashboard to show installed apps (for bug 738832).

I can get creative and manage to navigate the marketplace app to persona.org to try testing mozApps APIs, but it fails to show apps probably because the marketplace app doesn't have dom.mozApps.whitelist;https://myapps.mozillalabs.com/ pref set.

Trying to use the marketplace developer registration phase, I can't log in because the persona login tries to open a window which the native app prevents (?)

I'll continue testing various navigator.mozApps APIs from the marketplace app. For those wondering how, I use the top-right "mozilla" drop-down to reveal the "website directory" search to find a wiki page that I can control to then link to another page that I control to test out mozApps APIs.

Separate from these in-native-app issues, when viewing persona.org, it doesn't show the icon for the marketplace app because it uses an absolute url (but the icon works fine on desktop). I need to figure out where to file bugs against persona.org.

Comment 19

[Jason Smith [:jsmith]]

(In reply to Edward Lee :Mardak from comment #18)
> I believe Myk intended this bug to make sure the marketplace app functions
> correctly and to uncover other bugs.

Yes that's correct.

> I can get creative and manage to navigate the marketplace app to persona.org
> to try testing mozApps APIs, but it fails to show apps probably because the
> marketplace app doesn't have
> dom.mozApps.whitelist;https://myapps.mozillalabs.com/ pref set.

Right - bug 741490.

> Trying to use the marketplace developer registration phase, I can't log in
> because the persona login tries to open a window which the native app
> prevents (?)

Sounds like bug 729853. If you find any other bugs while using marketplace in a chromeless environment, file it in web apps --> desktop runtime.

> Separate from these in-native-app issues, when viewing persona.org, it
> doesn't show the icon for the marketplace app because it uses an absolute
> url (but the icon works fine on desktop). I need to figure out where to file
> bugs against persona.org.

File the bug for now in Web Apps --> Dashboard.

Comment 20

[Wil Clouser [:clouserw]]

Thanks.  If you need something from the marketplace dev team let us know.

Comment 21

[Ed Lee :Mardak]

On today's Nightly, I'm able to..

1) install Marketplace app (https://marketplace.mozilla.org/manifest.webapp)
2) launch from Finder - Applications
3) log in with Persona
4) install an app
5) launch the app
6) see from Marketplace app that the app is installed

Comment 22

[Jason Smith [:jsmith]]

Right. We should fix bug 765865 though to be careful about how we've implemented marketplace as a web app though. We can track that as a follow-up item though.