796539 - navigator.mozConnection does not provide the correct network information

Status: RESOLVED DUPLICATE of bug 960426

(Firefox OS Graveyard :: General, defect)

Description

[GH to BZ]

[GitHub issue by crdlc on 2012-08-27T14:12:29Z, https://github.com/mozilla-b2g/gaia/issues/3850]
Hi all,

   I was testing the mozConnection API in the homescreen and the bandwidth is always Infinity (with or within WIFI). Anyone with this problem?

Thanks

var connection = window.navigator.connection ||
                   window.navigator.mozConnection ||
                   window.navigator.webkitConnection;

  onConnectionChange();
  connection.addEventListener('change', onConnectionChange);

  function onConnectionChange() {
    console.log('Connection bandwidth: ' + connection.bandwidth);
  }

Comment 1

[Jose Manuel Cantera]

We need to fix this, otherwise apps would need to get access to network specific APIs in order to know whether they are on Wifi or in 3G

Comment 2

[Mounir Lamouri (:mounir)]

Given that would be adding a feature, I'm afraid it might be too late to fix for v1.

Comment 3

[Jose Manuel Cantera]

a feature would be added if navigator.mozConnection would not exist. But as it actually exists and is not working properly that is not a feature, but a bug to be fixed

Comment 4

[Jonas Sicking (:sicking) No longer reading bugmail consistently]

Given that we are past feature freeze, I think we need to minus this one. It's also not something that we expect a huge number of apps to require.

Comment 5

[[e-mail]]

Nominate since It's necessary for App that seriously concerning data bandwidth and have different policy in different connection condition (ex: Dropbox & google+ only auto upload image if in wifi connection)

Comment 6

[Preeti Raghunath(:Preeti)]

Ken

Would this work be in scope for 1.4?

Comment 7

[Ken Chang[:kenkai]]

(In reply to Preeti Raghunath(:Preeti) from comment #6)
> Ken
> 
> Would this work be in scope for 1.4?
This kind of information are not going to be provided by navigator.mozConnection.
It should be provided by Network Information API and seems be discussing now.
ni?Marcos

Comment 8

[[e-mail]]

Seems reasonable to go with Network Information API. https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/WebAPI/Network_Information

Any related bug number?

Comment 9

[John Shih]

(In reply to Fred Lin [:gasolin] from comment #8)
> Seems reasonable to go with Network Information API.
> https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/WebAPI/Network_Information
> 
> Any related bug number?

Hi Fred,
please check Bug 960426.
there is an new API proposal (i.e., Network Information API v3), which is aiming at supporting some use cases (as you mentioned above).

Here are some quick links:
[1] https://github.com/ferjm/w3c-netinfo-v3-proposal
[2] https://github.com/w3c-webmob/netinfo

Comment 10

[Jonas Sicking (:sicking) No longer reading bugmail consistently]

The spec at https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/WebAPI/Network_Information is likely going to change a bunch in response to feedback from other browser vendors as well as web-developers.

See bug 960426 comment 9

This bug is likely also a dupe of that one (or the other way around).

Comment 11

[[e-mail]]

message app need know the bandwidth to provide adaptive thumbnail or tune the voice quality.

Comment 12

[Fernando Jiménez Moreno [:ferjm]]

At [1] you can find a brief explanation about why we consider that this API should not expose a 'bandwidth' property. This includes alternative approaches to solve the use cases that you mentioned above. Please, let us know if [1] makes sense for you.

[1] https://github.com/w3c-webmob/netinfo#why-not-exposing-a-bandwidth-property

Comment 13

[[e-mail]]

Fernando, it make sense. 
Basically developer just need to know what's billing the user and try to avoid making huge data usage to make user unhappy.

I know Android allow developer design a dialog to let user select if they want send data only in wifi mode (or while network is in cellular type). So it works.

Comment 14

[zzt]

I'm really unhappy!

The MozConnection always returns the same (wrong) network information, regardless of whether the device is connected with WIFI or uses CELLULAR data.

For my opinion, Mozilla acts totally paranoid by disabling this feature. Otherwise, I'll need to change my app to "certified" to use the Network Information API (read only!!).

As Fred Lin mentioned:

"Basically developer just need to know what's billing the user and try to avoid making huge data usage to make user unhappy."

This is a major bug in my opinion. The Firefox OS Marketplace is a universe for low-quality apps right now. Serious developers will not touch FFOS until this bug is fixed.

Comment 15

[John Shih]

(In reply to cept0 from comment #14)
> I'm really unhappy!
> 
> The MozConnection always returns the same (wrong) network information,
> regardless of whether the device is connected with WIFI or uses CELLULAR
> data.
> 
> For my opinion, Mozilla acts totally paranoid by disabling this feature.
> Otherwise, I'll need to change my app to "certified" to use the Network
> Information API (read only!!).
> 
> As Fred Lin mentioned:
> 
> "Basically developer just need to know what's billing the user and try to
> avoid making huge data usage to make user unhappy."
> 
> This is a major bug in my opinion. The Firefox OS Marketplace is a universe
> for low-quality apps right now. Serious developers will not touch FFOS until
> this bug is fixed.

Hi,

Network Information API has been updated based on a new proposal [1][2], it could have solved your problem (which don't need privileged permission). However, I think it's not available on 1.4 yet, but you can check it with mozilla-central.

For your concern, I think we can surely consider about whether we need to land it on 1.4 if there are requirements. 

[1] https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=960426
[2] http://w3c.github.io/netinfo/

Comment 16

[Preeti Raghunath(:Preeti)]

Moving this to backlog. Concerned about lateness for release 1.4