MozillaWiki - User contributions [en]

Firefox/Feature Brainstorming

2006-05-18T09:06:36Z

Saqu ettair: /* Requiring little or no UI changes */

== Firefox Feature List Brainstorming ==
We are currently in the early development stage for Firefox 2, and would like to collect all the ideas for front-end, user-facing feature enhancements in a single place. Our goal is to create a single index that lists what sorts of things we're thinking of doing, with links to more detailed ideas about implementation specifics or concerns, and tagets for inclusion in the project.

'''How to use this page''':

* ''If you have ideas about features listed below'' please create a new wiki page off of your user page that outlines your ideas (mockups welcome!) and add a link to that page in the "References" column. Or link to existing pages with examples, design thoughts, interesting articles, etc.

* ''If you have ideas for features not listed below'' please add them to the most appropriate group below. Leave the target field blank, and add any references to more detailed implementation ideas.

''note: Mozilla platform feature enhancements are not in scope for this page; please refer to the [http://www.mozilla.org/roadmap/gecko-1.9-roadmap.html Draft Gecko 1.9 Roadmap]''

===Requiring new UI design===
{| border="1" cellpadding="3" width="100%" valign="top"
|- align="left"
! style="background-color: #efefef; width: 50%" | ''Feature''
! style="background-color: #efefef; width: 10%" | ''Target''
! style="background-color: #efefef; width: 40%" | ''References''
|-
| Default Page Zoom and Default Text Zoom
* setting the default page zoom % for every page being loaded
* setting the default text zoom % for every page being loaded
* Menu entries for them in the view menu in a possible page zoom submenu and text zoom submenu
* Also putting this in Tools > Options > Content > Page Zoom % and Text Zoom %
* pretty please with a cherry on top
| FFx2
|-
| Identity Management
* password and cookie management
* next-generation identity systems
* single sign-on
| ext/FFx3
| [http://www.identity20.com/media/OSCON2005/ Identity 2.0 at OSCON]
|-
| Optional Eye Candy Integration
* Tab opening + closing animation
* Sidebar and search animation
* Possible manipulation by theme
| FFx3
|
|-
| Optional IE theme
* Same size and button positioning
* Tab opening like IE7
|
|
|-
| Session Saver
* restore tabs/windows
* restore history of each tab
* advanced restore of DOM state/content
| FFx2
| [https://addons.mozilla.org/extensions/moreinfo.php?id=436 Session Saver .2]
[http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?t=380534 Session Manager]
|-
| Roaming Profiles
* share a server hosted profile between multiple installations
* secure storing and transmission: bookmarks, mail headers, passwords, cookies etc.
* optional choices, eg: mail -> share only sent mails
* HTTP(DAV)[, SFTP, LDAP]
* user installable server script (PHP?)
|
| [[User:boo/roaming|"Roaming Thoughts" (boo)]]
|-
| RSS Reader/Viewer
| FFx2
| [[Feed Handling]] - design document
[[Feed_Handling:User_Interface|feedreader+ design document]]
|-
| Omnibus "Status" Area
* download status
* popup/cookie/XPI blocker status
* security/trustworthiness status
* see "Artifact/Resource Detection"
| FFx2
|
|-
| Phishing Protector
| ext
|
|-
| Content Manipulation (like GM)
* persistent site-specific view options
* tie-in to accessibility for consumers
* annotation/personalization of the web
| future
|
|-
| Artifact/Resource Detection
* make it easier to find linked/embedded content
* media type detection
* microformats
* rss detection
| ext
| [[Microsummaries|Myk's Microsummaries Idea]]
|-
| History/Bookmark Overhaul
* history enhancements
** global history navigation & presentation
** session history navigation & presentation (handling iframes & modern DOM tricks)
** search using metadata / full page text from cache
** Option to store all text from all pages (possibly excluding https and preset sites) ever visited -- this would let you revisit pages that disappeared off the internet, and also do very good search through history. At 100 pages per day, and a very generous 10k per page (storing text-only, not scripts and images), this would be about a third of a gig annually, so manageable storage requirements by modern standards.
* bookmark enhancements
** tag-based system
** preserving hierarchical behavior for those who want it
** when searching for bookmarks show the folder of the found bookmarks
** page change notification (any bookmark can be "live")
** make it easier to directly add a keyword when saving bookmarks (i.e. you should see a keyword field when you press ctrl+D to bookmark a page)
** Easily-accessible, actual book-style bookmarks for long documents, where you can:
*** Preserve your position in the page
*** Move, rather than create new/delete old, the bookmark. This is useful when reading through e.g. the archives of an on-line comic, an e-book, or catching up after vacation on a blog like slashdot,
** Allow the user to store the full text and images of bookmarked pages, just in case they go away.
* next-generation ideas
** scrapbook/grabbag concept
** relevance based filtering
** leverage power of DB-based history/bookmarks
** auto-linking/smart tagging
** preserving DOM state
** baysian training/pruning
* APIs & integration points
** social web service tie-ins
** remote/sharing APIs
** portable profile
| FFx2
| [[User:Dria/On_Tagging|"on tagging" (dria)]] <br/> [http://weblogs.mozillazine.org/ben/archives/008250.html thumbnail session history (ben)]
|-
| Intro/Tutorial Mode
* host it on mozilla.com as movies
* have some UI hooks in the product
| FFx2
| [[User:FunnyMan3595:Tutorial_Mode_Thoughts|thoughts from FunnyMan3595]]
|-
| Bluetooth support (send content to device)
| future
|
|-
| Extension Security & Management
* whitelist & blacklist
* third-party signing and authentication by Mozilla
| FFx2
| [[Firefox:1.5_Extension_and_Plugin_Blacklisting|Extension Blacklisting UI Spec]]
|-
| Stub Installers
| FFx1.5
|
|-
| Look & Feel for XUL Rendered in Browser Window
* Get a design team up 'n running
| FFx2
| [https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=322007 Bug 322007]
|-
| EULA displayed on first run for each new profile
* required for distribution opportunities
* This is probably not required for distribution opportunities, and is indeed probably a bad idea (reduces usability, no benefit). This is only required for programs having license clauses stronger than copyright law (e.g. no reverse engineering), and not for GPL/MPL/NPL-style licenses.
| FFx2
| [[User:CBeard:Fx2_EULA_Requirements|End-User License Agreement (EULA) Requirements for Firefox 2]]
|}

===Requiring significant changes to existing UI ===
{| border="1" cellpadding="3" width="100%" valign="top"
|- align="left"
! style="background-color: #efefef; width: 50%" | ''Feature''
! style="background-color: #efefef; width: 10%" | ''Target''
! style="background-color: #efefef; width: 40%" | ''References''
|-
| Tabbed Browsing
* select on close behavior
* close buttons
* tabs instead of windows
* drag tabs between windows
* detach tab to new window
* merge windows to tabs
* tab switching via Mouse Scroll Wheel (on all Platforms)
* grouping of tabs (possibly by multiple tab rows)
* open tabs one upon the other and/or side by side in a single window
* Shading of Tabs denoting time since it started (On the scale of white to black, white is more recent than black)
* Thumbnail tab view as currently in foXpose extension
| FFx2
| [[Link_Targeting|design thoughts for tabs instead of windows]].<br />[http://weblogs.mozillazine.org/ben/archives/009210.html Ben Goodger blogs about tabs].<br />Whether [[Ctrl_W_not_close_app|Ctrl+W should not close the app]].<br />[[User:Ge.diego|Ge.diego]] made some [[User:Ge.diego/Tab_Management_Comments|comments on Ben Godger test build that includes new tab management]] and gave an [[User:Ge.diego/User_Interface_Mockup|alternative user interface mockup proposal]].
|-
| Find Improvements
* find integration points for web applications
| FFx3
|
|-
| Search Engine Management
* adding/managing search engines
* clarifying the default "I'm feeling lucky" search in URL bar
| FFx2
| [[User:Auk/Search_Model]]
|-
| Spell Check
| FFx3
|
|-
| Download Manager
* schedule
* integrated support for 3rd party Anti-virus scanners
* ability to 'Add' file to be downloaded via URL
* make many connections (to different or same server)
* p2p support (locating/participating)
* download queue
| ext
| [[User talk:Mr-squig|Further Thoughts on download manager changes]]
|-
| Aging Population Accessibility
* smart font sizing
* page zoom
| FFx3
|
|-
| Zoom/panning/scaling for images
| future
|
|-
| Print Preview
* Fully editable document within print preview utilizing simple text editor
| FFx2
|
|-
| Extension Management
* version compatibility
* options management
* update/install/remove
| FFx2
|
|-
| Image file support
* support for MNG
* embedded SVG in page via <img> tag
* support for JPEG2000
* keep transparency when copying/pasting transparent images (PNG, GIF, etc...)
| FFx2
|
|-
| Improving Theme Capabilities
| FFx3
|
|-
| Support w32 Group Policies
* Allowed extensions
* Basic customizations (eg. company homepage)
|
| Requires that controls become disabled if overridden by policy. Use the normal Windows UI for editing the policy itself. See [http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=267888 bug 267888]
|-
|Make the profile manager accessible through the menu
|
|[[User_talk:Bur#Profile manager|details & discussion]]
|-
| Tabbed Browsing via Sidebar
* User should choose tab or tab Sidebar (with thumbnails)
|
| [http://users.blueprintit.co.uk/~dave/web/firefox/TabSidebar/index.html Tab Sidebar extension homepage]
|-
|Allow user to move toolbars
|
|See [https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=172818 bug#172818]
|-
|Allow user to disable plugins
*via about:plugins
*via Options/Preferences
*via Extensions
|
|
|-
|Extentions and GUI convert to object code
*should increase execution speed
*should decrease less memory usage
|
|
|-
| Metadata harvesting (semantic web implementation)
* should harvest metadata directly from website in your browser
|
| See Piggy Bank [http://simile.mit.edu/piggy-bank/]
|}

===Requiring little or no UI changes===
{| border="1" cellpadding="3" width="100%" valign="top"
|- align="left"
! style="background-color: #efefef; width: 50%" | ''Feature''
! style="background-color: #efefef; width: 10%" | ''Target''
! style="background-color: #efefef; width: 40%" | ''References''
|-
| Improve App/OS Integration
| FFx3
|
|-
| Transactional DOM
| FFx3
|
|-
| Adblock and Remote Filter Sets
| ext
| Why not use [http://bene.sitesled.com/ Adblock]?
|-
| Base on XULRunner
| FFx3
|
|-
| Autocomplete URL from
* middle of word
* local filenames
* user's bookmarks
* using history frequency for relevance
| FFx2
|[[User talk:bur#Autocomplete_URL|remarks from bur]]
|-
| Offline Mode/Use of Cache
* browsing
* apps (supercookies)
| FFx2
|
|-
| Instrumentation
* history navigation
* install/uninstall
| FFx3
|
|-
| Precognitive Fetch
| FFx3
|
|-
| Integrate MHT saving (see MAF extension)
|
|
|-
| Convenient usable Flash blocker
* should be easy to use
* should apply as a default for all pages
* should allow Flash for certain sites
* should be able to load flash on user request
* Should also block the stupid "Extension not installed" pop-up if you do not have Flash installed. Without Flash installed, Firefox is a royal pain to use, since half of the sites on the Internet use it for ads, and each time you visit one, you get a stupid dialog you need to click away before you can keep browsing. I should be able to say "no" once, dammit.
|
|[[User talk:bur#Flash_blocker|remarks from bur]]
[https://addons.mozilla.org/extensions/moreinfo.php?id=433&application=firefox Flashblock] ext exists
|-
|Make printing popup windows possible
|
|[[User talk:ThomasWaldmann|more here]]
|-
|Make searching textarea possible
|FFx2
|[[User talk:ThomasWaldmann|more here]]
|-
|Show and hide navigation/bookmark/menu bar via a right-click menu everywhere
|
|[[User talk:bur#Show_.26_Hide_bars|details & discussion]]
|-
|Minimize to tray
|
|[[User talk:bur#Minimize_to_tray|details & discussion]]
|-
|Improve bookmarks backend
|
|[[User talk:Theflow|more here]]
|-
|Option to show an icon next to (and/or in the status bar) hyperlinks which open in a new window/tab (e.g. the icon next to external links on Wikipedia, etc).
|
|
|-
|Saved Password Editing
* Ability to edit saved usernames and their respective passwords via the Privacy > Passwords > View Saved Passwords dialog
|
|
|-
|Find function improvements/options
* Highlighting
** Allow user to configure highlight color
** Highlight color is chosen to be in contrast to the page background
|
| [[Find_UI_enhancement|Visual feedback on text/link find]]
|-
|Stability/Performance
*Stability
**Optimize browser stability when using a lot of extensions
*Performance
**Optimize memory usage
|FFx2
|[http://kb.mozillazine.org/Memory_Leak Mozillazine advice]
|-
|Form Dirty Bit
* Warn User before closing page with modified form
|
|[[Form Dirty Bit]]
|-
|Crash Recovering (automatic session saving with minimal UI impact)
* Saves tab histories, form data, cookies
* Offers to restore after a crash
* Optional restoring after controlled shutdown
* Prompt force termination of Firefox process when trying to reopen after unexpected crash
|
|[http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?t=164513 Crash Recovery]
|-
|Better AccessKeys implementation
* no conflicts between web page and browser shortcuts
* showing AccessKeys for the current page
|
|[[AccessKeys_solution]]
|-
|Search for whole words only
* Search bar should allow the user to search for a string matching only a whole word.
|
|[[Search for whole words only]]
|-
|Improved ad filtering
* A bunch of web sites get around pop-up blocking by having it event-triggered, rather than on-load. I hit ctrl-L on the Dilbert comic site, with maximum pop-up block settings in my browser (FX 1.5.0.1), and much of the time, it pops up an ad window. That sucks.
* Have a menu option to the effect of "show all images", because there's some Akamai server that mostly servers ads, but also "order" buttons on some Yahoo stores and travel web sites
* Possibly, replace ads with "Ad blocked. Right click to display"
* Block links around ads. The whole pages shouldn't be a danger zone -- if I click somewhere blank on a web page to give my browser focus, I shouldn't be taken to the advertiser's web site.
* Eventually, regexes I can type in myself
* Then, learning by example. "Block this one" "don't block that one" and it figures it out
* The goal should be to have Firefox work well out-of-the-box (rather than with n hours of poweruser tweaking), so relying on extensions is not the best idea
|
|[https://addons.mozilla.org/extensions/moreinfo.php?id=521&application=firefox RemoveItPermanently]
|-
|Maintain form state in history
* You fill out a long form, click Submit, and an error occurs. You click Back and sometimes all of your form data is gone. I think it has to do with the page having a short TTL so it is re-requested from the server and re-rendered with a blank form.
* Allow users to go back through history and see exactly what was entered in the forms on pages.
* Never save password fields except through existing functionality
* Allow user to enable/disable feature
|
|
|-
|Resize search box
*The box may extend as needed or be set to a new static size
*Users (like me) can see what they are searching when using more than two words.
|FFx2
|
|-
|Ability to remove search engine addons from search box
*Users won't have to remove the default/global search engine addons to get rid of them
*Users won't have to find to find and remove user specific added search engine addons
|FFx2
|
|-
|Easy extension finding
* It's one thing being told Firefox is great because you can add all these extensions. For a significant number of users the reality is that wide choice is confusing and discouraging, and that searching through 3 "tabbed browser extensions" wondering which is "the best" or "right for them" is a powerful disincentive. Not how many developers here think, but many end users will.
* The Firefox forum has a [http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?t=197645 basic FAQ] "I want to do X, what extension do I use" page
* Users coming to Firefox need to be met on their first use, with a "welcome to Firefox" intro, to be told about extensions (amongst other things), and an easily noticed "find me an extension" access point, because helping people to look for extensions for functions they are used to, and quickly choose the one they want, is crucial to acceptance by a significant part of the market who want it easy and "just to work".
* Ideal solution, some kind of online "find me an extension" wizard that helps users identify needs, and recommends the top 3 extensions to do that function, describing them in enough detail that users have some way to choose; online so it's always most up to date.
* (In best marketing style, I'd have it, however it's done, always say "People who liked this extension, might also like an extension to do XYZ." To encourage exploration of Firefox's strengths)
|
|
* [http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?t=197645 FAQ on forum]
* [http://www.extensionsmirror.nl/index.php?showtopic=1048 Extensions summary on TEM]
|-
|Run userChrome.js when loading a XUL window
|
|[[userChrome.js|details & discussion]]
|-
| SSL auth required for send password
* This is an optional, but strongly recommended feature suggested during install
* Sending password with FORM.send or Javascript.Send check if the page is SSL encrypted and will display an error message if there's no valid SSL certificate.
* Will not allow adding "*" to FORM.edit field from Javascript (avoid sproof)
This way a user will get warning when tries to log in to an unsafe service, like phishing sites. All sites with authentication should have valid SSL certificate or should be added to "safe to login" list.
|
|[[User_talk:Csoma|details & discussion]]
|-
| Extension compatibility improvements
|
| [[Extension compatibility ideas]]
|-
|Personalized Bookmarks
*According to the profile you log on to the OS you run, a different set of bookmarks and bookmark folders appears
|
|
|}

Feed Handling:User Interface

2006-05-17T07:36:20Z

Saqu ettair: /* User Comments */

=== Background ===

The FeedView RSS pretty print extension has been checked in for Firefox 1.5. Numerous bugs have been pointed out in the feature however and the UI is not up to Firefox quality standards. All of this resulted in FeedView being backed out for 1.5 and targetted for the 2.0 release.

The main tracking bug for this feature is [https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=302121 bug 302121].

=== What Is Needed ===

An audit and investigation of our existing RSS features and a UI that integrates them nicely.

=== Required Features ===

* Discoverable UI for showing and bookmarking feeds
* Ability to bookmark feed for easy use
* Attractive presentation of feeds when viewed in the browser
* RSS(all versions) and ATOM support

=== UI Design ===

When a page with an appropriate <link rel> tag is discovered, place this icon in the location bar:

http://www.bengoodger.com/software/mb/bookmarks/iconandlocationbar.png

When the icon is clicked, show a pretty print of the feed. If there is more than one *TYPE* of RSS feed, "pick the best format" and show that. If there are multiple links with the same format, assume there are multiple feeds (e.g. a blog feed vs. a comments feed) and show a menu, e.g.:

<pre>
[@v]
+----------------------------+
| Show News.com Feed |
| Show Business Stories Feed |
| Show Security Stories Feed |
| Show Internet Fads Feed |
+----------------------------+
</pre>

The pretty print should be laid out like so:

<pre>
+-------------------------------------------------------+
| FEED TITLE |
+-------------------------------------------------------+

[-] Entry Title ====================== [Expand All]
[Collapse All]
entry text entry text entry text entry
entry text entry text entry text entry
entry text entry text entry text entry Add Live Bookmark:
entry text entry text entry text entry Name:
entry text entry text entry text entry [ ] <-- name, prefilled
entry text entry text entry text entry In:
entry text entry ... [ Bookmarks Bar:^] <-- folder selector
( Add )
[-] Entry Title ======================

entry text entry text entry text entry
entry text entry text entry text entry
entry text entry text entry text entry
entry text entry ...

[-] Entry Title ======================

entry text entry text entry text entry
entry text entry text entry text entry
entry text entry ...

</pre>

=== Problems With Current Implementation ===

'''With the status bar selector:'''
* Not discoverable
* No keyboard shortcut for creating a Live Bookmark
* Shows menu even when there's only one feed, or multiple formats to the same feed
* Defaults saving bookmark into Bookmarks list - Feeds are more constant use items, should default to saving into Bookmarks Toolbar folder
* Defaults bookmark title to be the "title" attribute of the <link rel> tag instead of the feed title

'''With the pretty print'''
* Excerpt length selector is useless (and flickers badly, even on capable hardware) - should just have a 'headings only' vs. 'headings+excerpts' view
* No easy way to add a bookmark other than the non-discoverable status bar icon
* Looks just like Safari but with different colors - does not feel firefox or mozilla-like: should engage visual design team to do a better style sheet
* various rendering errors (escaped HTML, <a hrefs>)

=== Recommendations ===
* move feed discovery icon into location bar, like the lock icon
* make the discovery icon intelligent and automatically pick the best feed from a variety of identical-feed-different-format choices
* make the discovery icon show the pretty print
* make link clicks on feed urls show the pretty print
* make the pretty print have an attractive, mozilla-like style
* ditch the length selector and replace with headings only vs. headings+excerpts
** maybe use an "expand" vs "collapse" metaphor here instead, so "expand all" and "collapse all" with [+] / [-] buttons next to each feed
* add a prominent "bookmark feed" box that default bookmarks onto links toolbar with folder selector.
** should use the feed title as the default name for the bookmark
* fix various rendering bugs in the pretty print
** HTML escaped entities ([https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=303206 bug 303206])
** render HTML links and formatting ([https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=302749 bug 302749])
* Sage...and sage. That is the best way to manage feeds rss and atom. There should be a good style for the feed not just a box...maybe graphic layout. News preview would be good...

=== TBD & Open Questions ===
* Should all bookmarked RSS/Atom files be treated as Live Bookmarks automatically?
* Should we consider the possibilty that there may be multiple feed types with different contents but the same filename?
* Have we talked about including a "what is this" type of thing on the right side next to the "Add Live Bookmark" section? IE7 does this, and I think it'd be good to make sure users know what exactly they are looking at.
* What will happen when the location bar is hidden by the user?
* What indication is available to notify that a page has some kind of feed(s)

=== User Comments ===
* There's one major flaw in Live Bookmarks, and that is the lack of notifications of new content in the feed. There should be a way of notifying you that the bookmarked feeds have new (unread) content both in the toolbar, and possibly via dowload-manager-like alerts (for bookmarks that are not visible on the toolbar). --[[User:Caleb|Caleb]] 01:43, 4 Nov 2005 (PST)

* With the growing amount of blogs/feeds out there people end up adding lots of live feeds to their bookmarks toolbar, which reduces the amount of space for "real" bookmarks in the toolbar. Maybe (at some point in the future, or in FF3) there should be some kind of a different mechanism for managing live bookmarks/feeds/etc..? --[[User:Caleb|Caleb]] 01:43, 4 Nov 2005 (PST)

* Honestly, Feeds should be stored in a single localized location by default for easier management, should (as mentioned above) notify of updates, and should most definately allow for the aggregation of unread feed entries into a single list. The biggest advantage of feeds is allowing a user to access information from multiple sources in a single place. --[[User:Trillinon|Jeff Carlsen]] 10:44, 20 Nov 2005 (PST)

* Maybe I'm missing it, but what about feeds that are already styled through XSLT? Will this completely obfuscate easy ways of creating Livemarks from them? At the very least, the Bookmarks Menu needs to be able to look at the page and see if its a feed or not, and then show the option to add a Livemark to it. Seems like the functionality will still be awfully hidden though. --[[User:Wjjohnst|Wes]] 10:31, 10 Dec 2006 (CST)

* Actually I find this discussion and development strange, just because Safari introduced the pretty lay-outed RSS-feeds and IE7 took this feature in, doesn't mean Firefox should do it the same way. Personally I prefer the way Opera 9 beta handles it. In Opera, RSS-feeds are opened in a complete feed reader similar to the one in Thunderbird, but within the browser. It allows also to delete and comment the feed items and gives you the choice of representing the website or the abstract. The live bookmarks could function thus as a kind of inbox.--[[User:Saqu_ettair|Ludovic Janssens]] 09:34, 17 May 2006 (CEST)

Firefox/Feature Brainstorming

2006-05-15T13:34:35Z

Saqu ettair: /* Requiring significant changes to existing UI */