854040 - Re-enable multi-window screen mode on Samsung devices

Status: VERIFIED FIXED

(Firefox for Android Graveyard :: General, defect)

Description

[Andrew Truong [:feer56] [:andrewtruong] [:atruong]]

User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; WOW64; rv:19.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/19.0
Build ID: 20130307023931

Steps to reproduce:

Try to use split screen on Galaxy Note 10.1


Actual results:

Split screen feature is not there anymore. 


Expected results:

Removed because of bug: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=842911

Now requested in https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/954217

Comment 1

[Aaron Train [:aaronmt]]

I don't understand why it was removed either; worked fine for me.

Comment 2

[Andrew Truong [:feer56] [:andrewtruong] [:atruong]]

User will be moving to another browser if this feature will not be brought back. https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/954217#answer-424168

Comment 3

[Aaron Train [:aaronmt]]

'Critical/ is reserved for crashing not threats.

Conversation in bug 842911

Comment 6

[Aaron Train [:aaronmt]]

I'm re-opening this to be used for re-adding and marking it as tracking; see discussions for this in bug 842911. This is a requested feature that was working for many and removed all of a sudden in Firefox 20.

Comment 7

[Aaron Train [:aaronmt]]

So here is how it works on my Samsung Galaxy Note II (Android 4.1.2), provided I don't see this floating multi-window icon at all.

* In any application including the home-screen one may tap and hold on the device back to reveal this little blue tab panel with pre-set compatible applications (scrollable) and an edit button:  http://people.mozilla.com/~atrain/mobile/screenshots/mw/1.png, hitting the edit button lets you add additional applications http://people.mozilla.com/~atrain/mobile/screenshots/mw/2.png  

* Dragging a full-screen application http://people.mozilla.com/~atrain/mobile/screenshots/mw/3.png such in the case, Twitter over Chrome will make Twitter present and full-screen

* http://people.mozilla.com/~atrain/mobile/screenshots/mw/4.png Maps supports multi-window, so I can drag video into the area and create a multi-window http://people.mozilla.com/~atrain/mobile/screenshots/mw/5.png

This is all the capability I see on my Samsung Galaxy Note II, there are no other options or settings other then to disable Multi window completely in Android -> Display -> Multi-window checkbox.

This worked fine in Firefox when it was in there.

Complaints: http://goo.gl/lP6id, http://goo.gl/utVHB

Comment 8

[Aaron Train [:aaronmt]]

In-case this is never re-added, you can hack multi-window into available applications by using the Xposed Framework and Multi-Window mod (see http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2048668)

Comment 9

[Brad Lassey [:blassey] (use needinfo?)]

Kevin, please get a galaxy note 10.1 to see the behavior as originally reported

Comment 10

[Aaron Train [:aaronmt]]

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.mozilla.firefox&reviewId=Z3A6QU9xcFRPSEVVM0ttR18tTVVuNFJkRWYza2RMNy1tb1hGeGh0a0ppV2NGLWp2MWkyTE9WdVNSa19YSS1adkJEYXFadFVDNzRnYUpyLTF0STdwSEZVS3c

Comment 11

[Brad Lassey [:blassey] (use needinfo?)]

kev, ping?

Comment 12

[Brad Lassey [:blassey] (use needinfo?)]

Tony, since Kevin is out, can you do this?

Comment 13

[Tony Chung [:tchung]]

(In reply to Brad Lassey [:blassey] from comment #12)
> Tony, since Kevin is out, can you do this?

sure, i'll see what i can do.

Comment 14

[Tony Chung [:tchung]]

Attachment: split screen?

Hey guys, i'm not clear what i'm looking for, but here's a screenshot of a touchWiz app that has the mini-app mode, sitting over Firefox android.  Is this by design?   

Firefox does not have the mini-mode setting, but i suspect that is known.

IF someone can clarify what i report back here, i'm happy to look at it.

Comment 15

[Kevin Brosnan [Ex-Mozilla]]

So the bug that backed out the multi-screen mode is valid. Samsung overlays the app with the split screen button whenever the app is maximized. Looking at other Samsung apps we should be providing space for the maximize and close buttons before re-enabling this feature.

Comment 16

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

(In reply to Kevin Brosnan [:kbrosnan] from comment #15)
> So the bug that backed out the multi-screen mode is valid. Samsung overlays
> the app with the split screen button whenever the app is maximized. Looking
> at other Samsung apps we should be providing space for the maximize and
> close buttons before re-enabling this feature.

Thanks for checking this out Kevin. Can you upload some screenshots of how other apps deal with the overlay?

Comment 17

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

Closing this bug until we get more definitive docs on how to implement the feature.

Comment 18

[Kevin Brosnan [Ex-Mozilla]]

Attachment: Screen shot of various apps that support multi-window

Comment 19

[Charles Bronson]

I have a Galaxy Note 8 and the split screen button is not on these apps. Instead, the feature is accessed using icons from a slide out dock on the far edge of the screen. This eliminates the issue of the split screen icon blocking the maximize and close buttons. I can provide screenshots if it will help.

Comment 20

[Wesley Johnston (:wesj)]

Yeah, the device Kevin is testing on seems to behave very differently than the other Samsung devices I've seen this on. I now have some Tab 10.1's around that are basically running Gingerbread. I'll test them to see if they have the behavior he's showing...

My phone does show icons like those shown in the previous bugs, but they fade away quickly, and are easily hidable by the user (i.e. there's an icon in the primary quick settings ui to disable multi-window mode). I have a sinking feeling that Samsung has been evolving this design in newer tablets, but we're testing against a tablet stuck on an old version of TouchWiz.

Comment 21

[Andre Deyk]

Just installed beta - and still no multi-window support !  
Please bring it back.

Comment 22

[Jiri Bajer]

If you'd like to see the docs for Samsung Multi-Window and Pen-Window + HOWTO for enabling the support, please see https://f-droid.org/forums/topic/request-add-support-for-samsung-multi-window/

Basically all you need to do is to add a few lines to the AndroidManifest.xml. They are ignored on non-Samsung devices.

OsmAnd~ upstream already supports MultiWindow and the version available via F-Droid is able to be Multi-window'ed on SGS3, Note8 and Note10.1 2014. I can test a custom APK for FF with modified manifest on these devices upon a request.

There are tools that decompile an APK, modify its manifest and re-package it back (no root needed, just the app will have different signature and thus no updates). See the XDA threads mentioned on F-Droid forum.

Comment 24

[mndt]

This is totally unacceptable given that all major browsers support this feature and it only takes two lines in the app manifest to implement.

Comment 25

[mndt]

I, m using firefox 28 on samsung note 3 and the issue is present.

Comment 26

[Wesley Johnston (:wesj)]

Attachment: Patch

Thanks for the link to Samsung docs. I still think we should do this too. AFAIK, the only bugs were from old Samsung devices, and I haven't ever been able to reproduce them. AFAIK, it was by Samsung design, and not a bug in our code or implementation.

Mark doesn't own any Samsung hardware. Brad has an S5 now, so I'm sending this to him.

Comment 27

[Jiri Bajer]

Thank you for the patch!
Could you please consider to add support for Pen Windows as well? (allows displaying FF in a small window on top of other Android apps)

The procedure is very similar, see the same F-droid forum:
<category android:name=”com.samsung.android.intent.category.PENWINDOW_LAUNCHER” />

also I have stumbled upon another piece of code that some developers recommend to add into the manifest:

<meta-data android:name="com.samsung.android.sdk.multiwindow.penwindow.enable" android:value="true" />
<uses-library required="false" name="com.sec.android.app.multiwindow" />
<meta-data android:name="com.sec.android.support.multiwindow" android:value="true" />
<meta-data android:name="com.sec.android.multiwindow.DEFAULT_SIZE_W" android:value="632.0dip" />
<meta-data android:name="com.sec.android.multiwindow.DEFAULT_SIZE_H" android:value="598.0dip" />
<meta-data android:name="com.sec.android.multiwindow.MINIMUM_SIZE_W" android:value="632.0dip" />
<meta-data android:name="com.sec.android.multiwindow.MINIMUM_SIZE_H" android:value="598.0dip" />

</application>

See http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=46171000

Experiences of Android developers with adding Multiwindow support to their apps:
http://www.modaco.com/topic/358471-developers-add-support-for-samsung-multi-window-to-your-apps/
http://forum.powerampapp.com/index.php?/topic/4394-multi-window-feature-of-samsung-galaxy-devices/

Discussion about minimum and default size + how to add support for having multiple instances of the same app:
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/14111052/adding-multi-window-support-to-android-application

Comment 28

[Wesley Johnston (:wesj)]

https://hg.mozilla.org/integration/fx-team/rev/0c0f0b98deee

(In reply to Jiri Bajer from comment #27)
> Thank you for the patch!
> Could you please consider to add support for Pen Windows as well? (allows
> displaying FF in a small window on top of other Android apps)

Can you file a separate bug for this. We can track/test it there. It might also be good to file/track a bug about supporting drag and drop/copy paste in and out of Fennec for the multi-window stuff (I saw that Samsung had some special API pieces for that as well).

Comment 29

[Wes Kocher (:KWierso) (Not reading bugmail; email directly if needed)]

https://hg.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/rev/0c0f0b98deee

Comment 30

[Aaron Train [:aaronmt]]

Works for me on my new Galaxy S5.

Comment 31

[Jan Kozanek]

Firefox 29.0.1 current official Play market build - Galaxy Note - multi window feature not present, screen overlaying doesn't work. How is this bug 'fixed and verified'?

Comment 32

[Aaron Train [:aaronmt]]

(In reply to Jan Kozanek from comment #31)
> Firefox 29.0.1 current official Play market build - Galaxy Note - multi
> window feature not present, screen overlaying doesn't work. How is this bug
> 'fixed and verified'?

The fix will be in Firefox 32.

Comment 33

[Jiri Bajer]

Fix works fine on Note 10.1 2014 wifi (p600) using fdroid build of Fennec 32. Thanks a lot!

Comment 34

[Alain Knaff]

"Fix" has been blocking keyboard for several years now (on a Galaxy Note 10.1). When can we get this nonsense out, or at least a better placement of that widget?