824026 - (fxos-sync) [meta] Firefox Sync client for Firefox OS

Status: RESOLVED WONTFIX

(Firefox OS Graveyard :: Sync, enhancement, P1)

Description

[Brion Vibber]

Firefox Sync between my computers and Android devices is a killer feature of Firefox, and is what got me to use Firefox on my Android phone.

It would be very nice to have support for at least bookmark and password sync to Firefox OS devices as well; this would enable sharing data both with a laptop or desktop computer and would make upgrading to a new phone much less painful.

Comment 1

[Daniel Nunes]

This was the first thing I looked for upon getting a Firefox phone... I want this! Then again looking at the browser's settings, I can understand why this hasn't been done yet. There isn't even a way to change your default search provider yet.

Comment 2

[Ben Francis [:benfrancis]]

This is likely to be a meta bug but adding to the backlog for prioritisation.

Product: has this feature/group of features been slated for a particular release yet?

Comment 3

[Matěj Cepl]

Before we have Firefox Sync at all, could we have at least normal login/password saving to the local storage? Without Browser feels really really lame (especially with non-memorable passwords which should be now standard).

Comment 4

[Frank Gerhardt]

(In reply to comment #0)
> Firefox Sync between my computers and Android devices is a killer feature of
> Firefox, and is what got me to use Firefox on my Android phone.

+1

Comment 5

[Matěj Cepl]

(In reply to Matej Cepl from comment #3)
> Before we have Firefox Sync at all, could we have at least normal
> login/password saving to the local storage? Without Browser feels really
> really lame (especially with non-memorable passwords which should be now
> standard).

This is bug 877648 now.

Comment 6

[Richard Newman [:rnewman]]

This is probably a great time to point out that Firefox Sync has been declared "on life-support"; we're all eagerly awaiting PICL (https://wiki.mozilla.org/Identity/AttachedServices), which is slated to replace it later this year.

There are no engineering resources assigned to Sync, and only critical and security bugs will be addressed.

More broadly, the existing JavaScript Sync codebase is IMO not a good candidate for use on FirefoxOS devices: it is extremely memory- and CPU-hungry, uses synchronous calls and event-loop spinning throughout, and was never designed for the kind of system integration I'd expect in 2013 (state and error reporting, error recovery, easy extensibility, etc.). Needless to say, it's also quite tightly coupled to desktop Firefox internals.

Sync badly needed a rewrite for its entire lifespan, even on desktop (it started out life as a kinda-hacky Labs add-on) but we never had the time or resources to do so. We're all hoping that PICL meets those expectations!

I recommend you (continue to) work closely with the Identity team to spec out your requirements for a profile syncing solution. It's up to you whether you WONTFIX or morph this bug -- I agree with the sentiment but cannot recommend the implied proposed approach.

Comment 7

[Matěj Cepl]

(In reply to Richard Newman [:rnewman] from comment #6)
> This is probably a great time to point out that Firefox Sync has been
> declared "on life-support"; we're all eagerly awaiting PICL
> (https://wiki.mozilla.org/Identity/AttachedServices), which is slated to
> replace it later this year.

http://vimeo.com/63348018 looks really cool, but https://wiki.mozilla.org/Identity/AttachedServices/Roadmap is not that persuasive. Is there any ETA on PICL functionality?

Comment 8

[Richard Newman [:rnewman]]

(In reply to Matej Cepl from comment #7)

> https://wiki.mozilla.org/Identity/AttachedServices/Roadmap is not that
> persuasive. Is there any ETA on PICL functionality?

I have no idea. Tauni and Ben can speak to this.

Comment 9

[Peter Dolanjski [:pdol]]

(In reply to Ben Francis [:benfrancis] from comment #2)
> Product: has this feature/group of features been slated for a particular
> release yet?

It is definitely on our radar, but not until after a 1.2 (Koi) release.  Bookmarks and saved passwords would certainly be a good first step.

Comment 10

[ffos-browser]

A Pivotal Tracker story has been created for this Bug: http://www.pivotaltracker.com/story/show/53548869

Comment 11

[Richard Newman [:rnewman]]

PiCL didn't go anywhere. Sync is the best thing we have, unless you want to build a replacement!

Comment 12

[Albert Scheiner [:alberts]]

I know this is not a forum, but ... just got a new phone with Firefox OS and found out now, that in order to be able to use Sync I should have gotten an Android device instead. That seems rather odd IMHO.

Comment 13

[Ralph Daub [:rdaub]]

For tracking purposes -
TWO (2) users are requesting this feature in the SUMO forums: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1021382

Comment 14

[Ralph Daub [:rdaub]]

Hi Peter, is this feature still on a roadmap for Firefox OS?

Ilana, can you check if we have additional Sync-related mentions or requests on Input?

Thanks in advance,
- Ralph

Comment 15

[Peter Dolanjski [:pdol]]

There is a plan to address this as part of new architecture changes that are coming.

Comment 16

[Richard Newman [:rnewman]]

My recommendations from earlier in this bug largely still stand: trying to use the existing desktop Sync code base will result in a Bad Time®.

Comment 17

[Richard Newman [:rnewman]]

In Bug 1148933 I'm removing storageclient.js from the tree. This was a modern implementation of the Sync 1.1 protocol; it was never used, and in the interest of not running tests or taking up KB in omni.ja for code we don't use, it's being removed.

Should this bug ever turn into a fresh implementation of Firefox Sync, I recommend heading over to that bug and grabbing the code, rather than starting over.

Comment 18

[Ilana]

Piping up from user advocacy: never seen a user request this in feedback. Doesn't mean it wouldn't be valuable, of course.

Comment 22

[Mauricio Navarro Miranda]

Hello, there!

I'm lost on this.
Is there an alpha or beta client for the Flame (nightly-latest) I can use to test and share feedback, or is there anything else a newbie can help with? :)

Comment 23

[Bella Ruiz]

Belinda Ruiz de Rodriguez & Hugo J. Rodriguez R.
Married 10/2011

Comment 24

[BMO Automation]

Firefox OS is not being worked on