1404626 - Popup window of WebExtension's browser_action has hardcoded size limit of 800x600px

Status: RESOLVED WONTFIX

(WebExtensions :: Frontend, enhancement)

Description

[p]

User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.3; Win64; x64; rv:56.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/56.0
Build ID: 20170926190823

Steps to reproduce:

Set the size of browser_action popup window bigger than 800x600px.


Actual results:

Scrollbars appear, because there is hardcoded size limit.


Expected results:

I think maximum size limit should be relative to screen size. Mentioned 800x600px limit has been enforced since 2010 and a lot have changed since then.

Ultrawide 21:9 monitors gain popularity, as well as 4K screens. How 800x600px popup window looks like on 4K screen?

My proposal is to loosen up maximum size to 75% of screen resolution.
So most popular Full HD screen 1920x1080px would have maximum popup size of 1440x810px.

Why would we allow bigger popups you may ask? For example, I'm developing chat add-on which resides inside browser_action popup window. Current width limit is too small and kills UX. I want to use double column layout (one for people list, second for actual chat), but space is too tight to fit it there.

I think proposed limit 75% of screen size is perfect for most use cases.

Comment 1

[Kris Maglione [:kmag]]

This limitation was inherited from Chrome, and is intentional.

Comment 2

[Shane Caraveo (:mixedpuppy)]

(In reply to Kris Maglione [:kmag] (long backlog; ping on IRC if you're blocked) from comment #1)
> This limitation was inherited from Chrome, and is intentional.

Can you expand on the intentional part?  Does that still make sense?

Comment 3

[Caitlin Neiman [:caitmuenster]]

Hi p, this has been added to the agenda for the WebExtensions APIs triage on April 17, 2018. Would you be able to join us? 

Here’s a quick overview of what to expect at the triage: 

* We normally spend 5 minutes per bug
* The more information in the bug, the better
* The goal of the triage is to give a general thumbs up or thumbs down on a proposal; we won't be going deep into implementation details

Relevant Links: 

* Wiki for the meeting: https://wiki.mozilla.org/WebExtensions/Triage#Next_Meeting
* Meeting agenda: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1A7lwSkunTIdPE8FGqYV93oO-2l8xo3GFqTbY1l1QC1w/edit#
* Vision doc for WebExtensions: https://wiki.mozilla.org/WebExtensions/Vision

Comment 4

[Mike Conca [:mconca]]

Changing the default popup size would result in a lot of extension breakage, and in the absence of a true extension spec, maintaining equivalence with Chrome, in this case, provides a good experience for both developers and users. It currently meets the needs of the vast majority of extensions on the vast majority of screen resolutions out there.

Nevertheless, it is undeniable that screens resolutions continue to get higher, so while the whiteboard tag says design-decision-denied, it is probably more appropriate to think of it as postponed. At some point, I'm certain, we'll need to re-evaluate this default setting.

Comment 6

[Robert AB]

(In reply to Mike Conca [:mconca] from comment #4)

Nevertheless, it is undeniable that screens resolutions continue to get
higher, so while the whiteboard tag says design-decision-denied, it is
probably more appropriate to think of it as postponed. At some point, I'm
certain, we'll need to re-evaluate this default setting.

The width and height of the popup are limited by firefox to 800 x 600 pixels:
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Mozilla/Add-ons/WebExtensions/user_interface/Popups

At the same time, 1080p screens are very popular now. Higher screen resolutions are also available now including 4K and 8K:
https://www.dell.com/en-us/work/shop/dell-ultrasharp-32-8k-monitor-up3218k/apd/210-alez/monitors-monitor-accessories

Popup windows for some extensions, like Tab Session Manager, contain plenty of information (about sessions), making difficult to navigate. Here is the example of request from Tab Session Manager support page:
https://github.com/sienori/Tab-Session-Manager/issues/245
https://github.com/sienori/Tab-Session-Manager/issues/269
Previously, XUL addons like Session Manager, were able to create huge window containing information about sessions, which could be extended to entire screen.

Thus, it is necessary to increase significantly the size of popup window for Webextensions.

Comment 7

[ms]

I've also raised this on the chromium bugtracker at https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=1018500

Related older issues died due to inactivity :
https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=36080
https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=64330
https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=119710

Is there some dialogue that could happen here between Mozilla and Chromium devs, as this seems an antiquated limitation which should be either removed or at least increased to current screen resolutions? Code wise this is a small change - it also doesn't seem to raise any proper opposition. It seems it needs to find a maintainer to fix it.

Comment 8

[vleet]

Andy McKay, why did you close this issue silently?
Does this "Won't fix" mean Firefox will have ridiculous 800x600 limitation for addons popup in the time of 4K+ displays?
I though Firefox represents itself as something more advanced and customizable, but you don't think like that, do you?

The same bug in Chromium bugtracker is still OPEN.

Can you please re-open the issue with low priority and enhancement flag and close it only after the issue is solved?
Because closing issues like that only makes it look like there are no problems nor user improvement requests, but it's not true.