Firefox/Windows 8 Integration

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Windows_8_Integration - General 3rd party browser collaboration page dedicated to overview, architecture, and challenges for vendors.

Firefox Feature Tracking

Metro Project Status

Desktop

  • Firefox (and other browsers, presumably) works in the Windows 8 "Classic" desktop as it does on other platforms. No major changes to installers required, although there may be some touch-up work to do with registration.
    • What touch-up work?
  • Classic environment browsers receive a tile/icon in the Metro environment when the desktop version is installed.
    • If/When we have a Metro style browser in the Metro environment, we might want to change the Classic environment browser's tile to be more explicit -- or remove it. What's required to not have a tile for a classic app?
    • Win8fxtile.png
  • There are Taskbar improvements for multi-monitor (Taskbar spanning)

Desktop Builds

Metro

This is summary of our work / planning for a Win8 Metro browser. For testing purposes we have been working with the /mobile/xul Fennec browser. Moving forward we would like to take the base Fennec XUL code and Metro specific code we've already developed (currently on Elm with some build related work already on mc) and integrate this in with the default Firefox build and install.

We are interested in getting as much feedback as possible from stake holders and from people who have worked with these newer platforms. If you have Win8 up and running in a vm or on a test system, there are details here on how to get builds going, how to register the browser, and test builds for installing.

What’s different and what’s the same

By in large platform was a nice fit for Metro. We ran into surprisingly few problems. It took us about a week to get a basic version of Fennec running in the environment and most of that time was spent combing through the registration/integration doc Microsoft sent us. Below are some specific details on the areas of the repo we are currently leveraging.

nsBrowserApp

Currently using fennec’s nsBrowserApp.

chrome interface markup and css (different)

Metro apps are single window applications. The current desktop UI does not fit this new environment. There are no secondary windows we create. Secondary UI (file pickers, warnings, message boxes, toasts) are all displayed and managed by the os. The interfaces to these features are also async. We will provide interfaces for invoking these. Some have already been integrated on Elm (file picker for example).

browser comps (different)

dictionaries, hyphenation, res, searchplugins, extensions, plugins (shared)

Due to the differences in view model most of /browser components code can’t be leveraged. Fennec's script based components are currently in use. [1]

The current metro browser leverages the Fennec front end app code but we could switch to firefox’s code base and enable / augment what we need for metro.

toolkit/xre (modest differences)

The app model is slightly different for Metro. UI events and rendering do not occur on the main thread. We have a working model implemented on Elm that breaks up parts of XRE_main so that certain parts (startup & run) can be called on a different ‘main’ thread.

widget (mostly shared widget/windows code base with different nsIWidget classes)

There are significant differences in the view model so we needed a new nsWindow class. nsWindow latches into a new set of apis for events and view management. [2] Generally winrt and winapi code has integrated well together. We are currently leveraging Component Extensions and various winrt runtime classes. We will be able to share a great deal of win32 widget code.

default browser integration (new registration / launch characteristics for both desktop and metro for win8, older os remains unchanged)

installer/helper/uninstall (shared codebase w/new registration for win8)

On Windows8 the mechanics of launching the browser have changed. There is a new intermediary (a ‘command execute handler’) which is a small, light weight COM server Windows launches. This application chooses which browser to launch based on the environment requested. This change effects the launch of both browsers and the way we register as the default browser on Windows 8. [3] We currently have a basic Fennec install going for testing purposes, but it shouldn’t be too hard to move this over to the Firefox installer.

everything else in runtime (shared)

Generally we’re currently leveraging a majority of our common code base without issue. Threading, timers, networking, ssl, layout, gfx, etc. have all fit in really well. Misc. detail -

  • gfx - not currently using accelerated layers but plan to in the near future. The surface rendered to in Metro is D2D and there is no GDI fallback. As such there are some issues with blacklisted hardware.
  • e10s - currently using Fennec’s out of process tabs.
  • Accessibility - not integrated yet.
  • Netwerk - no issues.
  • Layout - no issues.
  • dom & dom/system & hal - DOM interfaces for device info / sensor input and events. Currently there isn't much here for Windows.
  • media - no issues.
  • storage - works, although there are some profile corruption problems from early termination which can occur in metro. We also have a 'shared profile' problem (see Big Issues).
  • toolkit - very little of this is in use. Crash reporter UI will need work/integration.
  • xpcom - no issues.

A tentative proposal

  • Build two browser front ends - copy mobile/xul code down to the root of the repo – /metro or /metrobrowser.
  • Integrate building this new area into the current desktop firefox build.
  • Fixup the firefox installer so that we bring both browsers down in a single unified windows install.
  • Share the runtime between the two apps in the install.
  • Have nsBrowserApp communicate to xul lib what environment we are running in.
  • Dynamically switch out which code path we want in xul lib where necessary.
  • Organize interface code, browser glue, and browser comps such that desktop firefox install layout remains unchanged. Layer metro specific resources down in such a way that the two sets of resources do not conflict.
  • Share a single profile between both browsers or Sync two profiles on the same machine.

Pros and Cons

  • Pro – single unified Windows installer / unified browser build.
  • Pro – shared runtime without multiple copies of key files like xul.dll.
  • Con – larger Windows install regardless of what version of the os we install on. metrobrowser would be present on all Windows installs.
  • Con – builders / release eng. will have to upgrade to VC11 / Win8 SDK to do the build. For the time being however we have a build switch that enables win8 specific components, so we can start landing on mc without breaking existing desktop builds which leverage vc10 build tools. bug 737994
  • Con - the current VC11 Beta redist runtime is not compatible with XP.
  • Pro/Con – With this setup we currently assume we will leverage xul lib. On the positive side having xul makes putting together our UI fast and easy. On the negative side startup performance may be an issue. We are working on getting telemetry data going so we can better measure this in the test builds we are distributing. Thus far test builds we have going on Samsung tablets and a few other test machines show promise on startup performance. Windows is obviously optimized for loading our libraries and the browsers we compete against all have the same encumbrance.

Big Issues

  • Profiles – Certain areas of the user’s profile will need to be shared between two concurrently running browser apps. We’ve just begun exploring ways to do this. Potential solution might involve a mysql database connection shim that leverages a profile broker and IPC so both browsers can talk to the same profile. We also might consider using Sync. There are some hurdles here to overcome.
  • Theming - Common controls have all been updated for Metro. We won't have a native theme library for use in rendering controls so we will need to develop XUL controls that mimic the native controls look and feel and behavior.
  • Accessibility - This area of the code base will be in heavy use in the Metro environment with touch interfaces. Our accessibility code will require performance work and may require a new UI Automation adapter since Win8 leverages UI Automation exclusively.
  • Tests - running mochitest and other UI driven tests/talos inside the metro interface may be an interesting challenge.
  • PGO builds for metro - another interesting challenge.
  • e10s - Certain things are pretty much broken in e10s (e.g. IndexedDB) and other features have not received any testing in several months. Relying on e10s will likely require some investment in the platform to clean this up for metro/desktop parity. Not relying on e10s may decrease the amount of existing XUL Fennec code that can be reused.

Short Term Timeline

  • Discussion, changes, and sign off on an mozilla-central / Firefox integration plan.
  • VC11 build related mc bugs. tracking bug 737975
  • Merging Elm metro code onto mc. This will include getting reviews for work completed. (various bugs filed)
  • Implement basics of the integration plan for mc repo to the point that we can generate an fx install that includes the metro browser. Requires lots of installer integration work and rel eng resources. We also have to solve the XP problem.
  • Experimental nightly fx+metro builds (Releng bug 737994).
  • Misc. key bugs need to be fixed so experimental nightlies are usable:

Metro Builds

Posted 3/21/2012 

export LIBPATH='C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 11.0\VC\LIB;C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 11.0\VC\ATLMFC\LIB;C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 11.0\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v8.0\ExtensionSDKs\Microsoft.VCLibs\11.0\References\CommonConfiguration\netural;C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 11.0\VC\vcpackages;C:\Program Files\Windows Kits\8.0\Windows Metadata
  • Check out Elm
  • Create a Windows mobile .mozconfig file:
mk_add_options MOZ_OBJDIR=@TOPSRCDIR@/../ELM-DBG
mk_add_options MOZ_MAKE_FLAGS=-j4
mk_add_options MOZ_BUILD_PROJECTS="mobile"

ac_add_options --enable-application=mobile
ac_add_options --enable-debugger-info-modules=yes
ac_add_options --disable-optimize
ac_add_options --enable-debug
ac_add_options --enable-debug-symbols
ac_add_options --disable-installer

add a few extra config lines: 

ac_add_options --enable-win8metro
ac_add_options --with-windows-version=602
  • Build Elm
  • open (obj)/dist/install:
    • run registerdefaultbrowser.reg
    • edit createshortcut.bat to be sure the start menu path matches your system.
    • open an administrative command prompt, cd to (obj)/dist/install, and run createshortcut.bat.
  • Open up Control Panel -> Default Programs. You should see 'Metro Firefox' in the list of applications. If not something has likely gone wrong with the reg script.
  • Set all Metro Firefox defaults in Default Programs.

At which point you should have a Firefox tile in Win8 that launches the browser.

Metro Test Install

Locally built, release non-opt builds for testing. No updater. Uninstaller should clean up after itself. Install Firefox before installing as the current metro install relies on fx for desktop browsing.

Note when shutting down these builds, exit via the main menu within Fennec. Closing via right-click thumbnail icon in the start menu results in process termination. In these cases profile and prefs data will not get flushed to disk.

Samsung Series 7

  • To order, file a bug under mozilla.org, Server Operations: Desktop Issues. See bug 738613, CC your PM or Asa.
  • Once you have the tablet, dock, and keyboard, unpack. Charge up the device. It'll be running Win7, ignore all the default software.
  • Download the 64-bit (3.6 gig) Win8 preview ISO on your main system and burn that to a suitable memory stick. For burning on Windows you'll need to download and install the Windows 7 USB DVD Download Tool from Microsoft. For burning on mac?
  • Once you have the ISO burned, plug the USB stick into the tablet's dock. Browse to the USB drive and run "setup.exe". When prompted choose that you want to save nothing from the previous install.
  • Samsung provides an instruction manual on hooking up the Bluetooth keyboard. You can do this after you've installed Win8 as the Win7 desktop instructions are applicable on Win8 desktop.
  • After the tablet is set up, download Firefox nightly or build a local copy and start debugging!

Samsung Series 7 Tweaks

  • If from the VC11 32-bit mozilla build console you get the following from the command 'cl':
fatal error C1510: Cannot load language resource clui.dll

You should be able to fix this by copying the following file: 

C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 11.0\VC\bin\amd64\1033\clui.dll

to the following location: 

C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 11.0\VC\bin\1033\clui.dll

Alternatively just do a complete uninstall and reinstall. A couple devs have found this fixes the problem.

  • To fix auto changing brightness problems for wipe Win8 installs:
    • Open desktop
    • click/tap on the battery icon in the taskbar, select "More power options"
    • Select your current power plan or create a new plan via the link on the left.
    • Under the power plan select "Change advanced power settings"
    • scroll down to "Display" and expand
    • Find the sub-option "Enable adaptive brightness" and expand
    • disable both options under this sub-option

Links

Retrieved from "https://wiki.allizom.org/index.php?title=Firefox/Windows_8_Integration&oldid=418757"