Firefox OS/Comms/Dialer
The dialer is a component of Gaia, which in turn is the front-end for Firefox OS. The dialer comprises all of the front-end code for making and receiving calls, including the callscreen, which is a separate app. The dialer team is organized under the umbrella of the communications apps team.
In addition, the dialer team is responsible for emergency calling, CDMA, USSD/MMI, DTMF tones, integration with other communications apps, and dealing with partner requirements.
Meetings/Team Communication
IRC
We mostly use IRC. We're available on #fxos-dialer, and #fxos-comms.
Daily Standup Meetings
The daily standup meeting is composed of two parts: the first is async, and happens sometime before the sync meeting. Full-time dialer team members should write the progress that they've made in the last day on the dialer scrum Etherpad. Part-time members and observers can optionally do the same. Additional instructions on what to write are in that section itself.
The second part of the meeting is sync, and happens over IRC at 2:30 pm GMT (10:30 am EST, 4:30 pm CEST) in the #fxos-dialer IRC channel. Here, participants should only discuss major things, blocking issues, and questions that they have for others. The goal is to keep this meeting 10 minutes long or less.
Comms Apps Meetings
Dialer team members participate in the thrice-weekly comms apps meetings and give updates here. There are no established rules for this, but typically only European members participate, due to timezone differences. These meetings are expected to be killed off soon.
Sprints
Past Sprints
- Sprint v2.0-S6, Jul 7 - Jul 21
- Sprint 1, Jun 23 - Jul 4
- Different naming system; this was the first sprint that we documented. It is now retroactively named v2.0-S5.
Sprint Planning
Sprint planning happens every 2 weeks on Mondays, at 1:30 pm GMT (9:30 am EST, 3:30 pm CEST) in Joe Cheng's Vidyo room.
Retrospective
We begin sprint planning with a retrospective. This is the place where we change things. Everybody must think ahead of time about what was good and bad during the last sprint. This could be anything, and can be entirely opinion. Participants should also think of any questions that they have.
During the meeting, everybody dumps their thoughts on the sprint planning retrospective Etherpad, and then we take some time to review them. Ideally, all bad things and questions end up having action items.
Estimates
We have 25 points of velocity every sprint based on 8 team members; 2 part-time. We make estimates as to how long features will take to complete, but we don't estimate bugs (or we assume they're 1 point).
Between 50% and 75% (depending on the moment in the release cycle) of the velocity is used for blockers. The rest of the velocity is kept for new blockers appearing during the sprint.
We take the list of bugs in the order of priority, and estimate them together.
Priorities
Currently, the rough priority order is: 1.3T+ > 1.4+ > 2.0+ > 2.1+ > features > nice-to-have >= dialer-most-wanted. We can have a look at the nominations (2.1?, etc) too. nice-to-have are provided by the EPM, whereas dialer-most-wanted are decided internally within the dialer team.
Assigning
When we reach the available velocity, we stop. We try to take some tech debt bugs or long term projects (at least 1 per sprint would be nice), identified by blocking the dialer-most-wanted bug, bug 1036516.
Whiteboard Tags
- [planned-sprint] - Indicates that we planned to take this at the beginning of a sprint.
- [in-sprint=vXXX] - (e.g. [in-sprint=v2.0-S5]) Indicates that we took this in a previous sprint and had to push it to a later one.
Current Sprint (v2.1-S1)
FirefoxOS/Comms/Dialer/Sprint/v2.1-S1
Bugs Taken in Planning
| ID | Assigned to | Summary | Blocking b2g | Feature-b2g | Whiteboard | Status | Resolution |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 967440 | Anthony Ricaud (:rik) | Remove some reflows on the keypad | - | No cf_feature-b2g | [priority][planned-sprint c=3][in-sprint=v2.0-S6] | RESOLVED | FIXED |
| 995938 | David Garcia [:davidg][retired] | Device does not play an 'end tone' when the call is finished | --- | No cf_feature-b2g | [priority][planned-sprint c=2] | VERIFIED | FIXED |
| 998147 | Tamara Hills [:thills] | [Dialer] A Missed Call notification is given when chosing to hang up on an incoming call | 2.0+ | No cf_feature-b2g | [tarako-bug-bash-1.3T][planned-sprint][in-sprint=v2.0-S6] | VERIFIED | FIXED |
| 1006592 | Gabriele Svelto [:gsvelto] | While sending USSD code, last dialed number by user appears in dialer app | 2.0+ | No cf_feature-b2g | [planned-sprint] | VERIFIED | FIXED |
| 1010104 | Germán Toro del Valle (:gtorodelvalle) | [Dialer][Call Screen] Baseline of the contact name when applying the fluid font size | --- | No cf_feature-b2g | [planned-sprint c=1][in-sprint=v2.0-S6] | RESOLVED | FIXED |
| 1015883 | Gabriele Svelto [:gsvelto] | [Dialer][Call Screen][Call Waiting] Apply the visual refresh to the CDMA call waiting scenario | - | No cf_feature-b2g | [planned-sprint c=3] | RESOLVED | FIXED |
| 1023246 | Paco Rampas [:paco] | [Flame][v1.4][Gaia::Dialer]The contact’s photo is shown incompletely in the call log edit screen. | --- | No cf_feature-b2g | torch [planned-sprint] | RESOLVED | WONTFIX |
| 1033937 | Paco Rampas [:paco] | [Calllog] Tap on Withheld number in call log, item highlighted, but stay highlighted when finger released | - | No cf_feature-b2g | [planned-sprint] | VERIFIED | FIXED |
| 1039553 | Doug Sherk (:drs) (inactive) | [Dialer][Call Screen] It's not possible to start a second call | --- | No cf_feature-b2g | [planned-sprint] | RESOLVED | WORKSFORME |
9 Total; 0 Open (0%); 5 Resolved (55.56%); 4 Verified (44.44%);
- Does not include Bugs Taken but not Completed.
Bugs Taken but not Completed
| ID | Assigned to | Summary | Blocking b2g | Feature-b2g | Whiteboard | Status | Resolution |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1039643 | Tamara Hills [:thills] | Write some unit tests for shared/js/dialer/contacts.js | --- | No cf_feature-b2g | [planned-sprint c=][in-sprint=v2.1-S1] | RESOLVED | FIXED |
1 Total; 0 Open (0%); 1 Resolved (100%); 0 Verified (0%);
Bugs Taken During Sprint
| ID | Assigned to | Summary | Blocking b2g | Feature-b2g | Whiteboard | Status | Resolution |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1021478 | Doug Sherk (:drs) (inactive) | Set outgoing calls "Always ask" with two sim card inside, use bluetooth headset to dial, there will be no network message | 2.0M+ | No cf_feature-b2g | RESOLVED | FIXED | |
| 1030623 | Paco Rampas [:paco] | [Dialer] No space between text and border when Contact with long name and number matching hits | --- | No cf_feature-b2g | VERIFIED | FIXED | |
| 1043318 | Paco Rampas [:paco] | [Dialer] [Keypad] On suggestion item when the text goes outside the edge, you can drag the upper part and move the whole screen. | --- | No cf_feature-b2g | RESOLVED | FIXED | |
| 1043904 | Paco Rampas [:paco] | [Dialer][Call screen] There is a empty line at bottom of background image | --- | No cf_feature-b2g | VERIFIED | FIXED | |
| 1047224 | Paco Rampas [:paco] | [Dialer] [Keypad] Follow up for 1043318 | --- | No cf_feature-b2g | RESOLVED | FIXED |
5 Total; 0 Open (0%); 3 Resolved (60%); 2 Verified (40%);
All Issues for this Sprint
14 Total; 0 Open (0%); 8 Resolved (57.14%); 6 Verified (42.86%);
- Does not include Bugs Taken but not Completed.
Bugs Redirected
| ID | Assigned to | Summary | Blocking b2g | Feature b2g | Whiteboard | Status | Resolution |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 967440 | Anthony Ricaud (:rik) | Remove some reflows on the keypad | - | --- | [priority][planned-sprint c=3][in-sprint=v2.0-S6] | RESOLVED | FIXED |
| 995938 | David Garcia [:davidg][retired] | Device does not play an 'end tone' when the call is finished | --- | --- | [priority][planned-sprint c=2] | VERIFIED | FIXED |
| 998147 | Tamara Hills [:thills] | [Dialer] A Missed Call notification is given when chosing to hang up on an incoming call | 2.0+ | --- | [tarako-bug-bash-1.3T][planned-sprint][in-sprint=v2.0-S6] | VERIFIED | FIXED |
| 1006592 | Gabriele Svelto [:gsvelto] | While sending USSD code, last dialed number by user appears in dialer app | 2.0+ | --- | [planned-sprint] | VERIFIED | FIXED |
| 1010104 | Germán Toro del Valle (:gtorodelvalle) | [Dialer][Call Screen] Baseline of the contact name when applying the fluid font size | --- | --- | [planned-sprint c=1][in-sprint=v2.0-S6] | RESOLVED | FIXED |
| 1015883 | Gabriele Svelto [:gsvelto] | [Dialer][Call Screen][Call Waiting] Apply the visual refresh to the CDMA call waiting scenario | - | --- | [planned-sprint c=3] | RESOLVED | FIXED |
| 1023246 | Paco Rampas [:paco] | [Flame][v1.4][Gaia::Dialer]The contact’s photo is shown incompletely in the call log edit screen. | --- | --- | torch [planned-sprint] | RESOLVED | WONTFIX |
| 1033937 | Paco Rampas [:paco] | [Calllog] Tap on Withheld number in call log, item highlighted, but stay highlighted when finger released | - | --- | [planned-sprint] | VERIFIED | FIXED |
| 1039553 | Doug Sherk (:drs) (inactive) | [Dialer][Call Screen] It's not possible to start a second call | --- | --- | [planned-sprint] | RESOLVED | WORKSFORME |
9 Total; 0 Open (0%); 5 Resolved (55.56%); 4 Verified (44.44%);
Bugs
Blockers
- Bugzilla query
- Note that these are each prioritized by EPM, not internally within the dialer team.
No results.
0 Total; 0 Open (0%); 0 Resolved (0%); 0 Verified (0%);
Blockers Without an Assignee
No results.
0 Total; 0 Open (0%); 0 Resolved (0%); 0 Verified (0%);
Features
- Bugzilla query
- Note that these are each prioritized by EPM, not internally within the dialer team.
No results.
0 Total; 0 Open (0%); 0 Resolved (0%); 0 Verified (0%);
Nice-to-have
- Bugzilla query
- Note that these are each prioritized by EPM, not internally within the dialer team.
No results.
0 Total; 0 Open (0%); 0 Resolved (0%); 0 Verified (0%);
Dialer-most-wanted
No results.
0 Total; 0 Open (0%); 0 Resolved (0%); 0 Verified (0%);
Reference Materials
API/Programming Documentation
Actual code documentation should go on the Mozilla Developer Network. Currently, the documentation is very shallow. Please consider contributing to it!
Feature/Subcomponent Documentation
- DSDS/DSDA
- USSD/MMI
- CDMA
- DTMF Tones
- WAP Push (not actually really dialer)
UX Specifications
v2.1
v2.0
v1.4
- Dialer: https://mozilla.app.box.com/s/44utizl9oz4eupyu3fuu/1/1464669995
- DSDS: https://mozilla.app.box.com/s/44utizl9oz4eupyu3fuu/1/1425004300
v1.3
- Dialer: https://mozilla.app.box.com/s/44utizl9oz4eupyu3fuu/1/1260971310
- DSDS: https://mozilla.app.box.com/s/44utizl9oz4eupyu3fuu/1/1206603879
Development
Team
Manager
- David "scravag" Scravaglieri - Senior Engineering Manager, Communications
Developers
- Anthony "Rik" Ricaud - Core Developer and Module Peer, Mozilla
- Doug "drs" Sherk - Core Developer, Mozilla
- Tamara "thills" Hills - Core Developer, Mozilla
- Etienne "etienne_s" Segonzac - Developer and Module Owner, Mozilla
- Gabriele "gsvelto" Svelto - Developer, Mozilla
- Germán "gtorodelvalle" Toro del Valle - Developer, Telefonica
- Paco "paco" Rampas - Developer, Telefonica
- David "davidg" Garcia - Developer, Telefonica
User Experience
- Carrie "CarrieW" Wang - UX Designer, Mozilla
Visual Design
- Carol Huang - Visual Designer, Mozilla
Long-Term Project Ideas
- bug 1035153 - Prototype dialer without tab bar.
- bug 1039131 - Improve stylesheet docs, simplicity, and organization.
- bug 1039130 - Use StyleDocco documentation generator for stylesheets.
- bug 1039594 - Use FontSizeUtils in shared instead of our own FontSizeManager
- General redesign and refactors (a la Haidification).
- Better support for testing emergency calls without accidentally placing them.
- Moving more towards using HTML template fragments for more realistic testing.
- Clean up keypad and DMTF tones code (blocked partially on platform WebAudio work)
- Clean up USSD/MMI code, add multi-SIM support.
- Have a platform for automated integration tests (mulet? emulator? something else?)
- Testing CDMA in regions that don't use it, perhaps using the emulator.
- Improve emulator use and documentation.
- Separate communications apps into different apps.
- Improve Kanban and our dashboard tools.
- Move call log to a DataStore.
- This will help memory consumption by not opening the Dialer app after a call.
Ideas for Improvement
- Do video demos of important new features.
- Discuss vision for the future of the dialer, including the app itself, the team organization, and how we work.
- Improve communication with VD and UX, e.g. set up progress-based meetings.
- Improve the way we split up bugs and use metabugs to make things easier for UX and VD people.
- Integrate Kanban more into our workflow.
- Get more contributors engaged.
Restructuring Progress
✔ = done, ? = in progress, - = not started, x = failed/punted
Phase 1 (sprint v2.0-S5 / aka "1" until sprint v2.0-S6)
- ✔ Make and use a new #fxos-dialer channel on IRC.
- ✔ Start having daily meetings. I think we can do this over IRC for a start, but be flexible with it.
- ✔ Improve cross-team communication and sharing of ideas.
- I've spoken with Francisco who is very interested in sharing ideas and talking about ways to organize ourselves, and I will be talking with Julien soon. I have spoken with the other messaging team members in the interim.
- ✔ Get UX and VD specs all in one place.
- ✔ Track planning, progress, and discussions on wiki articles.
- ✔ Clean up general docs on dialer.
- ✔ Catalog long-term projects that we can work on, encourage brainstorming and feedback.
- Since we're still in damage-control mode, I don't believe that it's a good idea to put serious thought into implementation of these yet. We have to get ourselves under control, and then start on these when we can.
- ✔ Kill the comms meeting.
- This isn't really in our scope but it's partly our fault that it still happens.
- This isn't done but is effectively out of our hands.
- ✔ Get the UX and VD people on Vidyo/Skype and IRC.
- I've contacted Vicky and she's looking into how to get on IRC with the Telefonica firewall in place (she's going to ask Arnau).
Phase 2 (sprint v2.0-S6 to sprint v2.1-S1)
- ✔ Switch to the people rotation system that the contacts team uses. (see "Differences Between Teams" / "Contacts" / "People")
- ✔ Begin setting aside time for long-term projects.
- ✔ Gather feedback from the changes previously implemented, iterate where necessary.
- ✔ Begin cross-collaboration and sharing of ideas with other teams. Ask them for feedback and help where necessary.
- ✔ Decide on which long-term projects we will be prioritizing.
- ✔ Begin actual planning of long-term projects, discussing architecture, designs, etc.
- We will be careful to include every team member in these discussions.
- ✔ Establish better relations with UX and VD, consider setting up progress-based meetings for when we need to discuss many things with them.
- This is sort of covered by the weekly comms meeting, but there might still be work here to be done.
- Anthony has been doing a great job talking with UX and VD and I don't think there's a problem here.
- x Continue to improve technical documentation.
- x Start estimating during sprint planning.
- We decided to delay this until next sprint due to lack of features to estimate.
Phase 3 (sprint v2.1-S1 onward)
- ✔ Actually set time aside and work on long-term projects.
- ✔ Prepare for new team members from partners.
- This is a very loose objective. I think we should start thinking about this here, but I don't have any specifics.
- We have absorbed a couple of new team members fairly well, been able to deal with Etienne participating more on other teams, and we have more infrastructure in place to support more new people. I think this is resolved.
- ✔ Start estimating during sprint planning.
- ✔ Start doing demos of new features/big fixes.
- ✔ Continue to improve technical documentation.
- We decided to not commit seriously to this and instead improve documentation as we go along. Reviewers are expected to request inline docs/comments for new commits and wiki articles for more complicated things.