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Summary

The Mobile Internet Browser for UME will be a finger-navigable browser based on Mozilla. We will start with a recent version of the Mozilla libraries using a recent Firefox 2.0+ tag. The browser will be re-chromed to match the look and feel of other UME applications according to the UI Style Guide

Rationale

A xul-based browser with high-standards compliance and a strong community is desireable. Mozilla is the most obvious choice. The only concern with a Mozilla-based solution is the performance on a resource-constrained device.

Goals for the browser include the following:

Minimo was investigated but after discussions with the maintainer (Doug Turner) we agreed that a Firefox-Mozilla base would be appropriate given our constraints and device characteristics.

The Mobile Internet Browser will be based on Gecko 1.8+. Mozilla will release a new version based on Gecko (1.9) in the late part of the year (Oct or November). At that time we can consider the steps to move the browser to this base.

Mozilla engineers have suggested that there may be some form of "Mozilla Mobile" solution down the road. This will be interesting to track, contribute to, and leverage.

Mozilla can not offer engineering help on the browser work but they are supportive of the effort.

Ideally we would get a solution that would be embraced by the Mozilla community and eventually adopted as the "Firefox Mobile" solution. However, Firefox brand sharing is not something that happens in the short term.

Use Cases

1. A user wants to browse the internet on the go without using his 2" screen cell phone or his beautiful large laptop. He pulls out the mobile device and launches the Mobile Internet Browser. He browses with joy.

2. A developer/user wants to add a cool extension to the browser. They can and do.

3. A user browses to a music website. They click on a streaming music link. Music begins to play via the multimedia-plugin.

4. A user browses to YouTube and watches flash videos via the flash plugin.

Scope

The project encompasses all of the tasks needed to get a Mozilla-based browser ported to the Hildon framework and included in Ubuntu-mobile distribution.

Design

Browser design is a mix of existing Firefox features, Hildon application framework constraints, and UI Style Guide recommendations. The browser user interface will be redesigned to accomodate finger navigation and the small mobile device screen (800x480 to 1024x600). Design wireframes include the following. These are recommendations. Actual implementation can vary somewhat and also be progressive -- changing and improving in time.

mid_browser_gestures_wireframe.jpg mid_browser_menu_wireframe.jpg mid_browser_tabs_wireframe.jpg

Implementation

The following are the steps to completion of the mobile browser:

There is a lot of opportunity to divide and conquer the browser. We welcome help from any experts.

Screen Shot

Here is a screen shot of the latest mobile browser in action (taken on 09/24/2007).

midbrowser_09242007.jpg

Outstanding Issues

Need to decide how to package new browser for gutsy. Should we try to leverage the existing Firefox debian package to build two browsers, or just import another pristine Firefox-2.0.0.5 set of files in a separate package?

BoF agenda and discussion

CategorySpec

Midbrowser issues

MobileAndEmbedded/Browser (last edited 2008-08-06 16:24:35 by localhost)