836426 - Disable the picture: true functionality in gUM

Status: RESOLVED INVALID

(Core :: WebRTC, defect)

Description

[Jason Smith [:jsmith]]

The reality is that the picture: true functionality isn't being taking care of (I believe it might be broken on Android right now), isn't being actively being advertised, and we don't seem to be going after fixes here as a priority. I think we should turn the feature off (or at least put it behind a preference) until we revisit the time period where if and when we want to consider having this functionality.

Comment 1

[Jason Smith [:jsmith]]

Testing this on desktop, looks like picture: true doesn't work at all right now. We don't even recognize it. Did we already rip this code out?

Comment 2

[Maire Reavy [:mreavy]]

(In reply to Jason Smith [:jsmith] from comment #1)
> Testing this on desktop, looks like picture: true doesn't work at all right
> now. We don't even recognize it. Did we already rip this code out?

No, we didn't.  It works in Aurora I believe.  This is simply a regression that we should fix.

Comment 3

[Jason Smith [:jsmith]]

(In reply to Maire Reavy [:mreavy] from comment #2)
> (In reply to Jason Smith [:jsmith] from comment #1)
> > Testing this on desktop, looks like picture: true doesn't work at all right
> > now. We don't even recognize it. Did we already rip this code out?
> 
> No, we didn't.  It works in Aurora I believe.  This is simply a regression
> that we should fix.

I'll go check in Aurora.

We aren't taking care of fixing these issues - they aren't even being prioritized with resources at all. In these cases we turn off features permanently or put them behind a pref. Otherwise, we'll end up a foot gun where a feature exists that doesn't exactly work.

Comment 4

[Jason Smith [:jsmith]]

Actually, it doesn't even work in Aurora. In fact, the current behavior right now is the same as if you called gUM with an incorrect parameter combination. So something tells me someone did rip this out.

Comment 5

[Jason Smith [:jsmith]]

(In reply to Jason Smith [:jsmith] from comment #4)
> Actually, it doesn't even work in Aurora. In fact, the current behavior
> right now is the same as if you called gUM with an incorrect parameter
> combination. So something tells me someone did rip this out.

Actually, the code is still there. So what I'm guessing probably might be the issue is that when we landed the UI hookup for gUM, we probably broke picture: true functionality.

Comment 6

[Maire Reavy [:mreavy]]

(In reply to Jason Smith [:jsmith] from comment #5)
> (In reply to Jason Smith [:jsmith] from comment #4)
> > Actually, it doesn't even work in Aurora. In fact, the current behavior
> > right now is the same as if you called gUM with an incorrect parameter
> > combination. So something tells me someone did rip this out.
> 
> Actually, the code is still there. So what I'm guessing probably might be
> the issue is that when we landed the UI hookup for gUM, we probably broke
> picture: true functionality.

Exactly.  What I'd like to do is fix it now (if it's not too much work) and come up with a plan for replacing this with the new vision from the working group.  The working group seems to be coming to the consensus that we no longer want to just take a picture.  Since next week is the WebRTC Interim Standards meeting and our work week, I hope to put a working plan together with the team for all of gum (including this) based on the discussions we have.  I'll post the plan for fixing this and moving to the new version when we're back from the work week.

Comment 7

[Jason Smith [:jsmith]]

Alright, then I'll close this bug then. I'll wait for a plan and then we'll file bugs accordingly.

Comment 8

[Randell Jesup [:jesup] (needinfo me)]

> Testing this on desktop, looks like picture: true doesn't work at all right now.

I realized the primary confusion: picture:true is Android-only, and always has been since it invokes an Android app to take the picture.  It was meant to prototype an interface for getUserMedia, and to provide a simple way to take Instagram-like photos and manipulate them from within the browser for Apps.  It works in Aurora on my Nexus 10, but appears broken in Nightly.

The Working Group/Task Force has been considering other options for image capture that are much more "camera-like" in features; we'll likely discuss them this coming week at the interim.