924629 - Adjust the validator to issue an error if there isn't a 128x128 icon and remove other warnings/errors about icons

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(Marketplace Graveyard :: Validation, defect, P2)

Description

[Aras Balali Moghaddam]

Attachment: icon_sizes.png

User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Ubuntu; Linux x86_64; rv:25.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/25.0 (Beta/Release)
Build ID: 20130904120359

Steps to reproduce:

Create a FirefoxOS app based on any tutorial, sample app, or blog posts out there. Chances are you will include there icons sizes: [16,32,64,128]. Based on previous review feedback user may also sometimes include 60x60 icon. Now when you submit your app you get a few warning messages asking that FirefoxOS requires icon sizes of 60, 90?? and 120. The warning provides a link to this outdated guide: http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/styleguide/products/firefox-os/icons/




Actual results:

I still can not find a single source on the web that could tell me confidently what sizes of icons exactly I need to include in my app.


Expected results:

What should happen is that UX team should decide on what icon sizes are required. This would have prevented a lot of wasted effort and confusion for developers. Now wrong information is circulating out there in form of blog post sample apps etc.

If the validator is going to generate warnings about icon sizes or enforce them, the information should be available to developers before they get there.

Comment 1

[Lisa Brewster [:adora]]

Here's the icon documentation for the manifest spec, which should be the official reference for what icons are required for Marketplace:  https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/Apps/Developing/Manifest?redirectlocale=en-US&redirectslug=Web%2FApps%2FManifest#icons

At minimum, it sounds like the Firefox OS icon style guide linked in the bug description needs to be aligned with the manifest spec.

Comment 2

[Matt Basta [:basta]]

The link to the styleguide was updated recently in a pull request from Matt N. The extra icon sizes were added at the behest of the Firefox OS UX team.

This sounds like a dev docs issue. Mark G, any ideas?

Comment 3

[Andrew Williamson [:eviljeff]]

Any chance we can collapse the 3 warnings into a single one?

Also, is there a link to a document that specifies the current FxOS recommendation of 60, 90 & 120 (the MDN spec only mentioning 60 and seemingly half recommending, half requiring 30 also; the style guide only 60)

Comment 4

[Matt Basta [:basta]]

I don't know enough about icon sizes to make a decision. Honestly, I'd love to just rip those test cases out since they're only confusing to developers. If a developer cares about a platform, they'll upload an icon that looks good; we shouldn't spend time grooming the developers that really don't care.

Comment 5

[Andrew Williamson [:eviljeff]]

I agree - in the absence of a clear guideline we might as well just drop all but the 128x128 requirement.  
If we follow every recommendation/supported size we'd need warnings for 16, 30, 32, 40, 48, 60, 64, 90, 128 and 256 which is madness imo.

Comment 6

[Matt Basta [:basta]]

David, can you coordinate with the platform teams to see what is needed here? Telling developers that they need to include more than three or four sizes is clown shoes, especially when the platform properly downsizes on their behalf.

Comment 7

[David Bialer [:dbialer]]

(In reply to Matt Basta [:basta] from comment #6)
> David, can you coordinate with the platform teams to see what is needed
> here? Telling developers that they need to include more than three or four
> sizes is clown shoes, especially when the platform properly downsizes on
> their behalf.

Under review.

Comment 8

[Mark Striemer [:mstriemer]]

Any updates on this?

Comment 10

[Chris Mills [:cmills]]

I've started following this bug, as I want to get a better handle on what I should be recommending in the MDN docs. Currently the docs say 60 and 128, for device icon and marketplace icon respectively.

This note is also present:

"Note: For Windows 7 and Android, the following app icon sizes are supported: 16 x 16, 32 x 32, 48 x 48, 64 x 64, 128 x 128 and 256 x 256. For optimal display on these platforms, you should consider adding further sizes."

Comment 11

[Potch [:potch]]

I don't think the lack of any icon size other than what is actually required should trigger a warning. People read 'warning' as 'my app won't get approved', and it's causing unnecessary developer churn and angst. Also, the way warnings and errors are displayed together suggests warnings are errors.

Comment 12

[David Bialer [:dbialer]]

So - this is under discussion now given the future direction of firefox os.  It seems we will use the mandatory icon 128x128 as the only mandatory icon.  We will/may have a recommended 1024x1024 icon that will be used as a basis of an automated icon generation - and we will continue with other recommended sizes (TBD) and have a tool for devs to use to generate different sizes to include within their app.

Bottom line: 128x128 will be mandatory.  Others suggested (for those that want pixel perfect) and 1024x1024 as a future proof and basis of an automated process to generate optional icons.

The suggested sizes are coming soon.

Comment 13

[Andrew Williamson [:eviljeff]]

I'm parsing David's response as the validator should only issue a warning for the mandatory 128x128 icon right now.  Other icon size recommendations should be on the MDN documentation.

Comment 14

[David Bialer [:dbialer]]

The validator should issue an error as that is the only icon we are assured to need in the near future.  This is the size can be reasonably scaled up and down for devices planned in the near future across platforms.

Comment 15

[Wil Clouser [:clouserw]]

Thanks.  Mark: would you adjust the validator to issue an error if there isn't a 128x128 icon and no other warnings/errors about icons?  Thanks.

Comment 16

[Chris Mills [:cmills]]

I've updated the docs to call out 128 x 128 icons as the only mandatory icon size. Still waiting for conclusive recommended other sizes list.

Comment 17

[Soledad Penades [:sole] [:spenades]]

I wanted to make sure I was generating the proper icon sizes in the template I'm working on, and I ended up here, and very confused.

As a developer, I would like to find something like this in the MDN Marketplace guidelines: 

YOU MUST PROVIDE a 128x128 px icon and the platform will generate the rest of versions.
Optionally you can provide handcrafted pixel perfect smaller versions for the following sizes: 16, 32, etc...

It would also be really great to know where is each size used. For example: 60px is used in Firefox OS 1.0.1 and ldpi devices.
Otherwise, it just looks as arbitrary sizes were chosen, and there are few things that annoy developers more than arbitrary decisions.

Also, agreeing with Potch: please don't warn people that they're not providing other sizes when not even the docs make it clear which sizes are required :-)

Comment 18

[Chris Mills [:cmills]]

The places where the icon sizes are mentioned are:

https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/Marketplace/Submission/Submitting_an_app#Pre-submission_checklist
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/Apps/Build/Manifest#icons

I'd love if if I could clear up this info and get it totally accurate in terms of what steps developers should follow.

So should I tell developers that they only need to submit a 128px icon, and other sizes will be auto generated, unless they want to provide hand crafted versions for other platforms/device uses?

What other platforms/device uses are these, and what sizes are needed for each platform? What sizes does the marketplace autogenerate if you leave it to its own devices?

I also started this page that could perhaps contain all the full detail and be linked to from other places?
 
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/Apps/Build/installable_apps/Icon_implementation_for_apps

Comment 19

[Wil Clouser [:clouserw]]

Thanks for clarifying, Andrew! :)

Comment 20

[Chris Mills [:cmills]]

As a reminder, the Firefox OS style guide should probably also be updated, if we are saying that 128x128 is the only mandatory icon size.

http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/styleguide/products/firefox-os/icons/

This currently says 60x60

Comment 21

[Andrew Williamson [:eviljeff]]

https://github.com/mozilla/app-validator/pull/26

Comment 22

[Andrew Williamson [:eviljeff]]

https://github.com/mozilla/app-validator/commit/e0d2093c8351e08d3052a25d5b62c99aa64b9bd8