Fenix: FNX-85 ⁃ SPIKE: Send download to external Downloader like ADM

[spandan888]

Send a download to third party downloader like ADM, like Firefox Android does.

Instead of downloading in browser, send the download to third party downloader

User is able to utilize a third party downloader

[vesta0]

@cpeterso would this be addressed by using the GV download API in the future? What makes this work in Fennec?

[pocmo]

This could be implemented in AC (in feature-downloads). For every download Fennec does a lookup whether there's an app installed that can handle the download URL / MIME type combination. If there's at least one app then Fennec will show a dialog (like the intent chooser) where the user can select whether to download with Firefox or one of the available apps.

[abhimanyusingh0]

So is this feature coming in future? I really miss this.

[sblatz]

AC: are you able to help us understand:

• How difficult is this to implement?
• Does this make sense to add as a part of the meta of download manager as we work on it?

[NotWoods]

I've been having trouble finding documentation on what intents need to be used with third-party downloaders. We may need to dig through Fennec and see what is done there. I think we chose to separate this from the main download manager meta.

[Amejia481]

@pocmo told us that we had worked on the Fennec implementation maybe he can give us some hints

[pocmo]

Fennec roughly does the following:

• It queries the package manager for apps that can handle the URL + mime type
• It filters out browsers
• It adds itself to the list

After that:

• If there's no app -> We can't handle that download
• If there's only one app (Usually Firefox itself) -> Use that
• If there are multiple options: Show an intent chooser like dialog where the user can select an option (and also select to always use this option).

Related code:

• https://searchfox.org/mozilla-esr68/source/mobile/android/components/HelperAppDialog.js#139-251
• https://searchfox.org/mozilla-esr68/source/mobile/android/modules/HelperApps.jsm#137-198
• https://searchfox.org/mozilla-esr68/source/mobile/android/base/java/org/mozilla/gecko/IntentHelper.java#430-437

[Amejia481]

Thanks!

[Amejia481]

For addressing this feature we need to:

• Be able to handle incoming intents for downloads https://github.com/mozilla-mobile/android-components/issues/4770
• Improve our download manger to forward downloads to external download managers https://github.com/mozilla-mobile/android-components/issues/4772

[Amejia481]

As we now have https://github.com/mozilla-mobile/android-components/issues/4770 and https://github.com/mozilla-mobile/android-components/issues/4772 we can close this issue.