Platform/Roadmap

	Firefox Platform 2015 Roadmap
	Owner: Martin Best	Updated: 2015-07-21
	This roadmap outlines the current direction for Firefox Platform development through 2015. The following document is subject to change at anytime. It is also not a commitment to ship a features but rather an intent to implement and land them on by default in the nightly version of Firefox unless otherwise stated.

Related Links:

• Firefox Desktop Q1 2015 Areas of Focus Post
• Firefox Release Calendar
• 2012 Platform Roadmap

Teams

Definition of Done: All listed features are present in our nightly version of Firefox. The features must then go through the standard quality assurance process before appearing in a release channel.

Accessibility

Current Plans

Previous Plans

------ Items above done before or during Q1 ------ FFOS Lightsaber v1.0 engineering support Enable marionette a11y checks in Gaia Integration tests. Accessibility Dev Tool (prototype) Create accessibility inspection Developer Tool addon. Ensure iOS is VoiceOver ready. ------ Items above done before or during Q2 ------ ------ Items above planned to be done before or during Q3 ------ Webspeech TTS hookup on Windows ------ Items above planned to be done before or during Q4 ------ Accessibility support for E10s. (targeting Gecko 44 TBD) Ship Accessibility Dev Tool Web Facing Accessibility API (full proposal)

[everything below not finalized] Webspeech TTS hookup on Windows ------ Items above planned to be done before or during Gecko 39 (Q1) ------ Accessibility support for E10s. (targeting Gecko 42 TBD) FFOS Lightsaber v1.0 engineering support Enable marionette a11y checks in Gaia Integration tests. Accessibility Dev Tool Create accessibility inspection Developer Tool addon. Webspeech TTS hookup on Windows Ensure iOS is VoiceOver ready. ------ Items above planned to be done before or during Gecko 42 (Q2) ------ Accessibility Metrics Accessibility Training Materials Web Facing Accessibility API ------ Items above planned to be done before or during Gecko 45 (End 2015) ------

DOM

Current Plans

Previous Plans

Service Workers behind a pref IndexedDB in Workers Picture Tag requestSync (FxOS-only precursor to BackgroundSync) e10s (drag-and-drop, clipboard, leak detection and reporting) BroadcastChannel ------ Items above done before or during Q1 ------ Web Manifest Screen Orientation API (almost complete) Notification API in Workers Infrastructure for tab muting Fetch API Cache API MessagePort in Workers ------ Items above done before or during Q2 ------ WebMIDI (preliminary; likely not fully shipping on any platform until Q4 at earliest) WebGL in Workers Pre-rendering API Shadow DOM (pending outcome of W3C WebApps WG F2F April 24) Custom Elements (pending outcome of W3C WebApps WG F2F April 24) Service Workers Web Push ------ Items above planned to be done before or during Q3 ------ Streams API ------ Items above planned to be done before or during Q4 ------

Service Workers behind a pref IndexedDB in Workers Picture Tag requestSync (FxOS-only precursor to BackgroundSync) e10s (drag-and-drop, clipboard, leak detection and reporting) BroadcastChannel ------ Items above planned to be done before or during Gecko 39 (Q1) ------ Pre-rendering API Shadow DOM (pending outcome of W3C WebApps WG F2F April 24) Custom Elements (pending outcome of W3C WebApps WG F2F April 24) Web Manifest WebGL in Workers Firefox OS application security model work Screen Orientation API WebMIDI Notification API in Workers ------ Items above planned to be done before or during Gecko 42 (Q2) ------ BackgroundSync Web Push Media Controls API localStorage + Quota Manager Image Resizing API FileSystem API Web Share primitive (towards Web Activities standardization) finish remaining WebIDL conversions JS-implemented plugins IndexedDB data change observer events Device Orientation Locking (any spec work; others doing implementation) MessagePort Remove appcache Directory upload DOM bits of Object.observe Get rid of DOM child array Web Audio in Workers ------ Items above planned to be done before or during Gecko 45 (End 2015) ------

e10s

Current Plans

Previous Plans

Milestone 4 completed in Gecko 38 (buglist) Milestone 5 completed in Gecko 38 (buglist) CPOW mitigation tools ------ Items above done before or during Q1 ------ Milestone 6 completed (buglist) Milestone 7 completed (buglist) Default in Nightly 42 Opt-in in Aurora 41 ------ Items above done before or during Q2 ------ Milestone 8 completed (buglist) Addons: new extension api made available Removal of CPOW use from browser code Default in Aurora 42 Opt-in in Beta 42 ------ Items above planned to be done before or during Q3 ------ Milestone 9 completed Default in Release 43 ------ Items above planned to be done before or during Q4 ------

Milestone 4 completed in Gecko 38 (buglist) Milestone 5 completed in Gecko 38 (buglist) CPOW mitigation tools ------ Items above planned to be done before or during Q1 ------ Milestone 6 (buglist) Rollout to Aurora 40 Milestone 7 completed (buglist) ------ Items above planned to be done before or during Q2 ------ Milestone 8 completed (buglist) Rollout to Beta 41 Addon migration tools ------ Items above planned to be done before or during Q3 ------ Rollout to Release milestone completion placeholder - additional milestones may be defined later in the year for winding the e10s project down. ------ Items above planned to be done before or during Q4 ------

Graphics

Current Plans

Previous Plans

(Q1 unchanged from the original plans) FirefoxOS GFX Device Support OMTC - Off Main Thread Compositing Windows e10s - Ship Electrolysis Project Silk Graphics - FirefoxOS Critical Memory Usage Reduction WebGL 2 Demo WebGL Desktop Performance Desktop OOM driver related issues ------ Items above done before or during Q1 ------ WebWorkers WebGL support (added in April) Runtime HW testing (added in May, pushed some items down) Compositor success detection (to combine with video success detection) Additional telemetry for startup testing Crash detection and recovery during startup testing Tiling on Desktop - Removed in April. Currently not deemed as required for APZ and scrolling performance, so the priority dropped. ------ Items above done before or during Q2 ------ APZ on Desktop (postponed from Q2 in May) - enable in 42, do a double nightly, ride 43 train APZ Fennec parity (added in June) - enable in 43, but do a double nightly, ride 44 train Desktop Scrolling Performance (postponed from Q2 in May) Overscroll Improvements - removed - no further work required Expose the graphics card details ------ Items above planned to be done before or during Q3 ------ APZ - "fake scroll" - removed - need to verify the priority APZ - OOP iframe support - removed - need to verify the priority Zooming-in Improvements - tentative - the ask may not be there anymore WebGL2 on par (target 46; goal added in June) WebGL Mobile Performance WebGL Performance Parity on Desktop ------ Items above planned to be done before or during Q4 ------

FirefoxOS GFX Device Support OMTC - Off Main Thread Compositing Windows e10s - Ship Electrolysis Project Silk Graphics - FirefoxOS Critical Memory Usage Reduction WebGL 2 Demo WebGL Desktop Performance Desktop OOM driver related issues ------ Items above planned to be done before or during Gecko 39 (Q1) ------ APZ on Desktop Tiling on Desktop Desktop Scrolling Performance ------ Items above planned to be done before or during Gecko 42 (Q2) ------ APZ - "fake overscroll" APZ - OOP iframe support Zooming-in Improvements Overscroll Improvements Expose the graphics card details WebGL Mobile Performance WebGL Performance Parity on Desktop ------ Items above planned to be done before or during Gecko 45 (End 2015) ------

JavaScript

Current Plans

Previous Plans

Parsing and Caching Optimization Shumway ARM Mobile Opts - Support demo Detailed GC jank Telemetry ES6 Classes SAB demo SIMD.js demos ARM 64 baseline on Intel CGC Target release JIT Frame for Profiler JIT Coach plumbing Experimental SIMD.js for ASM.js on x86 only (Intel demo) ES6 Generators JITted ES6 Symbols ------ Items above done before or during Q1 ------ SIMD.js on ION Intel GC/CC scheduling improvements Shared Array Buffer v1 Research PGO Enable the backtracking allocator for all Ion code Improve web framework (Shumway/Ember/Angular) performance ES6 let and const ------ Items above done before or during Q2 ------ ------ Items above planned to be done before or during Q3 ------ ------ Items above planned to be done before or during Q4 ------

Parsing and Caching Optimization Shumway ARM Mobile Opts - Support demo Detailed GC jank Telemetry ES6 Classes SAB demo SIMD.js demos ARM 64 baseline on Intel CGC Target release JIT Frame for Profiler JIT Coach plumbing Experimental SIMD.js for ASM.js on x86 only (Intel demo) ES6 Generators JITted ES6 Symbols ------ Items above planned to be done before or during Gecko 39 (Q1) ------ SIMD.js on ION Intel GC/CC scheduling improvements Shared Array Buffer v1 Research PGO Enable the backtracking allocator for all Ion code Improve web framework (Shumway/Ember/Angular) performance ES6 let and const ------ Items above planned to be done before or during Gecko 42 (Q2) ------ JS team reduce jank (GC tuning) SIMD.js on ION ARM ------ Items above planned to be done before or during Gecko 45 (End 2015) ------

Layout

Current Plans

Previous Plans

Enable OMT Animations on all OMTC platforms -webkit CSS compatibility for fix-list sites Vertical Text (basic text, form controls) CSS Font Loading CSS Object fit and position CSS display:contents CSS scroll snapping CSS Ruby ------ Items above done before or during Q1 ------ Images downscale during decode for APZC platforms Web Animation API HTML5 <canvas> improvements e10s Layout Support Vertical Text (tables) CSS 3D Transforms ( DEAA & VR requirements ) ------ Items above done before or during Q2 ------ ------ Items above planned to be done before or during Q3 ------ ------ Items above planned to be done before or during Q4 ------

Enable OMT Animations on all OMTC platforms -webkit CSS compatibility for fix-list sites Vertical Text (basic text, form controls) CSS Font Loading CSS Object fit and position CSS display:contents CSS scroll snapping CSS Ruby ------ Items above planned to be done before or during Gecko 39 (Q1) ------ Images downscale during decode for APZC platforms Web Animation API HTML5 <canvas> improvements e10s Layout Support Vertical Text (tables) CSS 3D Transforms ( DEAA & VR requirements ) ------ Items above planned to be done before or during Gecko 42 (Q2) ------ CSS Images (media-fragments) CSS Shapes (shape-outside for floats) CSS Box Alignment (for block layout) CSS Grid CSS 3D Transforms ( plane splitting) ------ Items above planned to be done before or during Gecko 45 (End 2015) ------ CSS Masking ------ Items above planned to be done before end 2015 but may get reprioritized ------

Media

Current Plans

Previous Plans

MSE - Media Source Extensions (release Windows Vista and later/YouTube only) EME - Encrypted Media Extensions (beta 38 Windows Vista and later) ------ Items above done before or during Q1 ------ MSE (release Mac OSX/YouTube only) EME (release Windows Vista and later) Video quality and performance improvements ------ Items above done before or during Q2 ------ MSE - remove whitelist in Firefox 42 MSE - support in Android and Firefox OS EME - used on a major web site ------ Items above planned to be done before or during Q3 ------ MP4 demuxer written in Rust JS decoders ------ Items above planned to be done before or during Q4 ------

MSE - Media Source Extensions (release Windows Vista and later/YouTube only) EME - Encrypted Media Extensions (beta 38 Windows Vista and later) ------ Items above planned to be done before or during Gecko 39 (Q1) ------ MSE (release Mac OSX/YouTube only) EME (release Windows Vista and later) Video quality, performance and memory consumption (incl 4k2k video) Web Audio improvements (see WebRTC / WebAudio below) ------ Items above planned to be done before or during Gecko 42 (Q2) ------ MSE improvements EME continued development / other platforms MP4 demuxer written in Rust Daala / JS codecs ------ Items above planned to be done before or during Gecko 45 (End 2015) ------

Mobile Platform

Current Plans

Previous Plans

Enhance Page Load Performance Platform-independent MP3 parser, platform-dependent decoders Ensure all crash reports are going to Socorro OpenH264 on Android ------ Items above done before or during Q1 ------ Platform-independent MP3 parser, platform-dependent decoders Enhanced startup and pageload performance Block autoplay videos via script access ------ Items above done before or during Q2 ------ APZ Gecko on Android Enhance Page Load Performance Reduce start up time Allow multiple Gecko windows via multiple GeckoView instances ------ Items above planned to be done before or during Q3 ------ ------ Items above planned to be done before or during Q4 ------

Enhance Page Load Performance Platform-independent MP3 parser, platform-dependent decoders Ensure all crash reports are going to Socorro OpenH264 on Android ------ Items above planned to be done before or during Gecko 39 (Q1) ------ Standalone WebRTC library usable by third parties Loop client prototype for major platforms (iOS, Android, Windows) Pre-Rendering Web Pages Background Hang Reporting (BHR) working with E10S Enhance screen mirroring performance ------ Items above planned to be done before or during Gecko 42 (Q2) ------ Allow multiple Gecko windows via multiple GeckoView instances Download locales on-demand in split APK (snorp, esawin) Download fonts on-demand in split APK Improve Power Effeciency ------ Items above planned to be done before or during Gecko 45 (End 2015) ------

Networking

Current Plans

Previous Plans

HTTP/2 ships preffed on (currently scheduled for Gecko 35) Network Predictor landed & enabled on m-c (bug 1009122) ------ Items above done before or during Q1 ------ Necko bits needed for Smart Data Management (split "System" data into browser, apps, etc): (bug 1070944) ------ Items above done before or during Q2 ------ Captive Portal service support (bug 1048131) ------ Items above planned to be done before or during Q3 ------ Framework for caching alternate representations of web data (bug 1177572) ------ Items above planned to be done before or during Q4 ------

HTTP/2 ships preffed on (currently scheduled for Gecko 35) Network Predictor landed & enabled on m-c (bug 1009122) Idle mode for networking (optimize radio power use): (bug 1085760) ------ Items above planned to be done before or during Gecko 39 (Q1) ------ Necko bits needed for Smart Data Management (split "System" data into browser, apps, etc): (bug 1070944) ------ Items above planned to be done before or during Gecko 42 (Q2) ------ Network predictor: prefetch resources into HTTP cache if they are very likely to be used. ------ Items above planned to be done before or during Gecko 45 (End 2015) ------

PKI

Current Plans

Previous Plans

OneCRL - certificate revocation list push mechanism. Final round of 1024-bit root removals. ------ Items above done before or during Q1 ------ OCSP disabled for DV validations on Android. Support skipping OCSP for short-lived certificates. ------ Items above done before or during Q2 ------ Certificate transparency (behind a pref). Support the OCSP must-staple extension. Enable skipping OCSP validation for short-lived certificates. Support for CA-provided Intermediate certificate info in SalesForce. OneCRL: support blocking by subject and public key. ------ Items above planned to be done before or during Q3 ------ Add a mechanism to push security policy state updates. ------ Items above planned to be done before or during Q4 ------ TLS 1.3 Certificate chain collection from browsers

WebCrypto OneCRL Phase 1 of CA program migration to SalesForce SHA-1 warnings Name constraints on root CAs OneCRL based on (subject, public key) Certificate observatory Finish removal of 1024-bit roots

Sandboxing

Current Plans

Previous Plans

EME/CDM sandboxing for Windows 7+ e10s sandboxing for Windows (Low Integrity) e10s sandboxing for Windows (Alternate Desktop) e10s sandboxing for OS X (Minimal implementation) e10s sandboxing for Linux (Minimal implementation) ------ Items above done before or during Q1 ------ EME/CDM sandboxing for Windows XP and Vista ------ Items above done before or during Q2 ------ EME/CDM sandboxing for OS X EME/CDM sandboxing for Linux e10s sandboxing for Windows (Low Integrity) ------ Items above planned to be done before or during Q3 ------ ------ Items above planned to be done before or during Q4 ------ e10s sandboxing for Windows (Alternate Desktop) e10s sandboxing for OS X (Minimal implementation) e10s sandboxing for Linux (Minimal implementation)

EME/CDM sandboxing for Windows 7+ e10s sandboxing for OS X e10s sandboxing for Linux e10s sandboxing for Windows ------ Items above planned to be done before or during Gecko 39 (Q1) ------ EME/CDM sandboxing for Windows XP and Vista ------ Items above planned to be done before or during Gecko 42 (Q2) ------ EME/CDM sandboxing for OS X EME/CDM sandboxing for Linux ------ Items above planned to be done before or during Gecko 45 (End 2015) ------

Security

Current Plans

Previous Plans

Security hooks revamp completed for Gecko internals. Add on signing support available. UX design for insecure password warning in Dev Edition/Dev Tools - bug 1135766 Security for DevTools: Prototype CSP (content-security policy) analysis in Dev Edition/Dev Tools - bug 1129999 SafeBrowsing Re-enable remote lookups for application reputation - bug 10900754 ------ Items above done before or during Q1 ------ Security for DevTools: CSP (content-security policy) analysis in Dev Edition/Dev Tools - bug 1129999. CSP upgrade-insecure-requests - bug 1139297. Support detecting potentially unwanted software in SafeBrowsing - bug 1147212. ------ Items above done before or during Q2 ------ SRI (Sub-resource integrity) for 3rd party scripts and styles - bug 992096. Evolving Referrer Policy - Implement referrer attribute for navigation and embedding elements - bug 999754 and allow dynamic changes of referrer policies bug 1174915. Containers for isolated non-private browsing sessions. Use a lock with a strikethrough for HTTP pages that have Password Fields in the Control Center - bug 1179961. Tracking Protection enabled by default in Private Browsing Mode bug 1175606. ------ Items above planned to be done before or during Q3 ------ Security for DevTools: CSP (content-security policy) suggestions in Dev Edition/Dev Tools. Encryption for password manager database. Prototype for isolated Private Browsing sessions. ------ Items above planned to be done before or during Q4 ------

Security hooks revamp completed for Gecko internals. Add on signing support available. UX design for insecure password warning in Dev Edition/Dev Tools - bug 1135766 Security for DevTools: Prototype CSP (content-security policy) analysis in Dev Edition/Dev Tools - bug 1129999 SafeBrowsing Re-enable remote lookups for application reputation - bug 10900754 ------ Items above were done before or during Gecko 39 (Q1) ------ Tracking Protection Experiments - bug 1119891. Security for DevTools: Insecure passwords warning in Dev Edition/Dev Tools - bug 748193. SRI (Sub-resource integrity) for 3rd party scripts and styles - bug 992096. Security for DevTools: CSP (content-security policy) analysis and suggestions in Dev Edition/Dev Tools - bug 1129999. CSP upgrade-insecure-requests - bug 1139297. ------ Items above planned to be done before or during Gecko 42 (Q2) ------ Containers for isolated non-private browsing sessions. Evolving Referrer Policy. Encryption for password manager database. Prototype for isolated Private Browsing sessions. Lightbeam-lite/Tracking Detection. Security hooks revamp complete for addons/extensions. ------ Items above planned to be done before or during Gecko 45 (End 2015) ------

WebRTC / WebAudio

(All these features/fixes below are landing in Nightly during these quarters)

Current Plans

Previous Plans

Rewrite SDP/JSEP and add BUNDLE support Multistream, renegotiation support VP9 codec support in WebRTC - pref'd off by default Web Audio and WebRTC working well together OpenH264 for Android supported (no sandbox) ------ Items above done before or during Q1 ------ e10s blocker problems fixed Web Audio performance improvements - phase 1: significant perf wins on all benchmarks ICE TCP support - pref'd off IPv6 support Initial Identity support WebRTC fully integrated with Web Audio: Web Audio can now feed a PeerConnection and receive audio back from that PC ------ Items above done before or during Q2 ------ Add support for audio sharing (when there is audio to share during screen/window/etc sharing) landing pref'd off in Fx42 pref on before the end of the quarter ICE TCP support - pref'd on Simulcast - phase 1: largely focused on signaling (new SDP work, modifying the SDP helper code) Audio/Video refactor - phase 1: paving the way for Full Duplex support and for resolving existing audio/video stack shortcomings Web Audio perf - phase 2 resolve remaining bugs on the web audio perf meta bug identify if there are any games (as of the start of Q3) that must work well by the end of Q3 on a specific (targeted) device that do not currently work well enough and then deliver the performance needed ------ Items above planned to be done before or during Q3 ------ Simulcast support (as described in the IETF spec proposal) landed in Nightly Audio/Video refactor - phase 2 (second of an estimated three phases) Audio Workers (dependent on achieving working group consensus) Data Channels in Workers (dependent on achieving working group consensus) Significant improvements toward spec compliance (full spec compliance with "v1.0" coming in 2016) ------ Items above planned to be done before or during Q4 ------

Rewrite SDP/JSEP and add BUNDLE support Multistream, renegotiation support VP9 codec support in WebRTC (we may ship VP9 pref'd off by default) Web Audio and WebRTC working well together OpenH264 for Android supported (no sandbox) ------ Items were done before or during Gecko 39 (Q1) ------ Add support for audio sharing (when there is audio to share during screen/window/etc sharing) e10s blocker problems fixed Web Audio performance improvements - phase 1 ICE TCP support ------ Items above planned to be done before or during Gecko 42 (Q2) ------ Resolve (modulo hardware limitations) reproducible audio problems in WebRTC 1:1 calls Excellent Web Audio performance, especially for games ("phase 2") Audio workers support Simulcast support IPv6 support Full duplex audio support Considerably better NAT traversal (including ICE proxy and UPnP support) Audio output selection Data channels in workers Compliant with "v1.0" (or equivalent) of the WebRTC spec getUserMedia and audio output sandboxing working (support sandboxing team, audio sandboxing may be a stretch for end of year) ------ Items above planned to be done before or during Gecko 45 (End 2015) ------

Web Compatibility

Current Plans

Previous Plans

Hold WebCompat Summit Compatibility Telemetry Reusable Workshop + conference materials developed ------ Items above done before or during Q1 ------ Compatibility dashboard for Telemetry, Bugzilla Develop automated mobile compatibility infrastructure (to be tracked on dashboard) Redundant GitHub webcompat/web-bugs issues data storage. ------ Items above done before or during Q2 ------ ------ Items above planned to be done before or during Q3 ------ ------ Items above planned to be done before or during Q4 ------

Hold WebCompat Summit Compatibility Telemetry Reusable Workshop + conference materials developed ------ Items above planned to be done before or during Gecko 39 (Q1) ------ Compatibility dashboard for Telemetry, Bugzilla Develop automated mobile compatibility infrastructure (to be tracked on dashboard) Redundant GitHub webcompat/web-bugs issues data storage. ------ Items above planned to be done before or during Gecko 42 (Q2) ------ Ship MDN Web Compat Service, in conjunction with MDN + Cloud Services teams Get 1 other major browser vendor involved in webcompat.com Better mobile reporting for webcompat.com i18n for webcompat.com (at least 1 other language) ------ Items above planned to be done before or during Gecko 45 (End 2015) ------

Initiatives

• 60fps
  • Focused on producing a smooth, jank free experiences. 60fps goal is dependant on media type.
• BarrierSmash
  • Ensure that accessibility features are working throughout our products.
• Candle
  • Program targeted at reducing energy usage.
• CrashKill
  • Improve the overall stability of Gecko and the project that rely on it.
• CritSmash
  • Fix known critical security bugs.
• Electrolysis
  • This is focused on providing multi-process browser (aka e10s).
• Offline
  • Offline Support
• Presto
  • Program targeted at improving overall load times and performance. This is resurrecting an older program that was discontinued.
• MemShrink
  • Reduce memory usage (all products)
• Web Compatibility
  • Improve the overall web compatibility of Gecko.
• Webify
  • Reduce the webs dependence on plugins. This includes several content targeted initiatives such as the games program (Unity), Shumway (Flash), MSE/EME, WebRTC (Google Talk, Facebook Video)
  • Games Program