Overview

This may not be pretty, but this should give our (currently Mozilla-only) testers a view of what's been included in previous builds, links to corresponding surveys, and the areas we're asking participants to focus on for the current build.

Note - currently working on recruiting a list of participants for external pre-release testing. This is more tricky, since we are limited to a number of test spots available to external users as per Apple deployment guidelines. Therefore we have a short survey for a chance to participate that has circulated for a short period of time already, but we got an overwhelming number of responses. We may send out another call for participants for the chance to test, but stay tuned. We are trying to work out in the open (as it feels much more natural to us) but are sometimes limited in what we can do.

General Notes

• Communications are sent out to the ios-mobile-testers group. If you're a (Mozilla-only) participant, make sure you're included in that group to get the latest & greatest information in real-time. If you haven't received your invite, let Karen (kar), Mark (mfinkle) or Jenn (jchaulk) know and we can add you.
• Details on how to download the test build are included in the group's welcome message. You need to ensure your LDAP credentials have been included since you'll need them to download the client.
• The client will only work with iOS 8. To see if your i-device is compatible, check out the bottom of the page of this link.

Feedback

We expect feedback, feedback and more feedback. And it couldn't be easier to provide it.

• File a bug
• Send an email from your desktop, mobile or tablet to ios-feedback@mozilla.com
• Send a note to ios-mobile-testers for some extra fun to banter about opinions from your fellow participants
• Take a screenshot (within the client) and a pre-populated email will pop up. Type in a few descriptive words to send off the pic!
  • The email is sent to ios-feedback
  • If you haven't already configured an email address with your i-device, you will be prompted to do so the first time you use this handy-dandy feature

Catch Up with your Surveys

• Build #6 Survey
• Build #5 Survey
• Build #4 Survey
• Build #3 Survey
• Pre-Release Test Program Participant Survey

Focus Areas for Each Build

Build 15 - May 14

• New onboarding experience! If you want to check it out, uninstall the client and re-install (using the above link). We’d be grateful if most of you could do that, actually!
• Improved and LARGER touch target sizing!!!! This is something most folks have talked about, so let us know if you feel there’s a positive difference here
• Improved location bar and tool bar scrolling
• More user data databases have been updated (\o/). Please keep an eye out for missing or incomplete data for bookmarks, history, top sites, etc
• Fixes for when the screen orientation changes
• Fixed a regression: Closing tabs causes other tab thumbnails to disappear
• Start-up crash on iPad Touch and 4S should be resolved
• Synced tabs no longer disappear after refresh

Build 13 - May 7

• You can SIGN INTO YOUR FIREFOX ACCOUNT !!
  • NB: currently, you can’t create a Firefox Account from Firefox for iOS… yet. Please use your current one, or create one from Desktop or Android and use an existing account to sign into Firefox for iOS.
• Not all sync functionality is enabled, however – right now, tabs are syncing, so please only focus on synced tabs for expected behavior / UX
  • If anyone reports that bookmarks aren’t syncing, you’ll have to pay $5 into my ‘bookmarks aren’t syncing’ jar. Let’s hope you all read these notes 
• When the application is killed, lost tabs are retained when you next open the app
• The ‘grey boxes’ issue appearing in the tabs tray should be fixed
• Links and Controls should now be highlighted (and a different menu associated with them) when tapped
• Phone number URL formatting should be fixed (and improved!)
• If you don’t have any history, default thumbnails [tiles] have been added
• Tile styling on tablets have (hopefully) improved
• Some accessibility improvements
• L10N updates (see the dashboard for added locales and progress \o/)

Build 8 - Apr 22

Here are some fixes that made it into the build:

• Modified icon (we love it, so I expect you to love it as well!)
• Added a ‘close’ button for tabs
• Better a11y support in Home Panels and Search
• Support for basic authentication (ask username/password with a dialogue)

Here are some areas we’d like some targeted testing on:

• See if URL autocompletion in the URL bar is working as expected
• Reader View and Reading List :
  • The Reader View controls are now all functional, so give ‘em a whirl
  • Most of the Reading List UI is now in place, so we’d love you to really put it through its paces (note – you can now swipe on items in the list to mark them as read or to delete them)
• A ‘long press’ on the URL bar will allow you to copy / paste a URL, so let us know if it’s not working well or as expected
• We have a new layout for the tab manager for Portrait and iPad-sized devices – tell us what you think
• We now give you a prompt when you open a non-http URL – useful or a pain?

Build 7 - Apr 9

Here are some fixes that made it into the build:

• About:home thumbnails actually shows a thumbnail (!  )
• Telephone number links should now work (give it a try, and know that there are some known bugs for visual formatting)
• Fixed rotation ‘mangling’ of search results
• Visual improvements to the Tabs Tray, Reader View and Share Extension

Here are some areas we’d like some targeted testing on:

• Check that you can open links from SMS (text messages) and Facetime
• Reader View should hide/show when navigating or switching tabs
• (you’re gonna love this) ‘Swipe to Close’ gesture now supported in the Tabs Tray
• Combined URL bar and Tool bar on Tablets and Landscape layouts
• Added a ‘long press’ on the Reader View button in the URL bar as a shortcut to add that article directly to your Reading List
• And – this is REALLY amazing news – for the first time, we have included work-in-progress locales! Check here for a dashboard on all of the locales that are currently being worked on

Build 6 - Mar 25

Note: This build will clear existing history, bookmarks and reading list.

• Tab tray transitions are now (even) faster
• Added Settings and Add to Reading List to the Reader View button bar (right below the URL bar) - please try these two areas only
• You should now be prompted to save passwords
• WOO! Top Sites now have thumbnails! Let us know if they look right.
• Added build details in the settings menu
• Share Extensions should work to add items to Firefox Bookmarks and the Firefox Reading List from other - yes, other - applications (so if you find yourself in Safari, try adding a page to the Firefox bookmarks or adding an article to your Firefox reading list using the Share functionality)
  • NB - there is a known crash when you share using an iPad, but should be fixed in the next build

Build 5 - Mar 18

• To make sending feedback EVEN EASIER, if you take a screen shot (whilst within the Firefox for iOS app, of course!), this will automatically be attached to an email and add ios-feedback@mozilla.com as the recipient. Put in a few more lines of text as to why that screenshot was noteworthy and hit ‘send’. Easy!! Use it for web compat issues, describing why something in the UI looks a little funky, or to better report a problem. Try it – it’s totally awesome. TOTALLY.
• Fair bit of work has gone into Reader View (like page titles, opening in full screen and some other UX updates). Please continue playing around with this feature – it’s an important one for us.
• We have added the ‘Top Sites’ home panel, so browse and see how it fills out for you.
• More search settings stuff have landed: see that you can keep changing to any provider in that list, that search suggestions are working as expected, you’re prompted to turn on search suggestions upon start-up, and the concept behind ‘quick search’ is allowing you to search more… quickly.
• Layout of the Location Bar has been tweaked – is it still behaving as expected? Looking for regressions, etc.

Build 4 - Mar 16

• Known issues that caused crashes on the iPhone 6 plus have been resolved - let us know if you're still crash-ey
• Open and read PDF files from a webpage
• Change your search provider options in Settings
• Home Panels are now your start page - what do you think?
• History Home Panel now is split into handy sections (today, last week, last 2 weeks, ....) - easier to find what you're looking for?
• Text Selection is working for URLs
• Tapping a Search Suggestion that is a domain address will open up as a URL

Build 3 - Feb 20

• Does basic browser navigation work (back/forward/reload/stop)?
• Does Tabbed Browsing feel intuitive and instinctual (adding new tabs, navigating between tabs)?
• Is Search behaving as expected? Do search suggestions appear?
• Can you share URLs to other apps? (We don't have full functionality here yet, but partial)
• How does Reader View feel to you? Easy to get to? Easy on the eyes?
• Is your History and Bookmarks working? (NB - sync is not yet functional, therefore this is limited to this local client instance only)
• Any general Web Compat issues? (Grab a screenshot if you can: hold down the ON/OFF button then press the Home button)