Fenix: View Page Source option

[sebast889]

Why/User Benefit/User Problem

Useful for developers and users who want to view the source of the page

What/Requirements

View Page Source option to view current page source

Acceptance Criteria (how do I know when I’m done?)

Feature parity with Fennec to view current page source

[buttercookie42]

Ideally needs bug 1539363 in GeckoView.

[Oymate]

@vesta0 timeline for update?

[rickrich]

Please put view-source on your list. Right now I have a problem with https://www.certitudes.org/ and I need this.

[andreicristianpetcu]

Install android dev tools. Link phone to desktop via USB. Make sure adb device list sees your phone. Enable remote debugging on Android Firefox. Go to about:debugging on desktop. Debug the site. @rickrich

[madb1lly]

Hi @andreicristianpetcu,

Whilst suggesting out-of-app workarounds is helpful for people in the short term it doesn't address the problem that this is a feature which has been removed from Firefox for Android; a feature which people used and is no longer available to them and which needs to be reinstated if the app is to remain as useful to them.

And frankly who wants to have to faff around getting a laptop when all that's needed is a quick check and fix of the source?

Cheers 🙂

[andreicristianpetcu]

Rickrich seemed to need to fix a urgent issue with a site. I tried to help with a workaround untill this lands.

[csoti]

I really could use this feature to help quickly begin diagnosing why a private webpage is working for me on Fenix 79.0.5 but not 80.0.1-beta.2
The software developer I'm working with on our project was dumbfounded to learn _view page source_ isn't a standard feature like in all versions of ff for android / web browsers in general.

[lnicola]

@csoti try the remote debugging tools, they're easy to set up if you have a cable at hand. View Source is useless unless the server does UA sniffing because it shows the source as returned by the server and not the DOM (as modified by JavaScript).

[csoti]

@lnicola Thanks for taking the time to offer a thoughtful solution.
I'd like to play around with the remote debugging tools just to learn about it if nothing else.

I brought this up because the software developer suggested viewing the page source to quickly see if anything was trying to load on the page (I was getting a completely blank page).
For my purposes this is all moot as the latest (as of Sept. 4) Firefox for Android beta and stable handle our webpage just fine now. Whatever was preventing the page from loading in 80.0.1-beta.2 is resolved now.
But I am curious about the remote debugging tools. Those could be some fun.

[clientenq]

View page source should be part of any webbrowser via default functionality. A webbrowser is a tool for rendering content, not a magic solution disabling user need to view raw resources. Making view page source only available to users who comply with extra hardware and software requirements via debug tools is not user friendly and does not give users enough control over content and www resources.
We should not release or develop like users have minimal control or knowledge over resources they request when using firefox for android.

[jayaddison]

A browser has to retrieve the HTML source of a page before it can render it, and similarly anyone who would like to create their first web page benefits by seeing how web pages are built (including their own, if they happen to start by using software or a service that generates it for them).

It may be a rarely used feature for the average person but it is an essential feature for the curious technical explorer.

[bjorn3]

To provide my own usecase for view-source: Github only shows who reacted with an emoni when hovering over it. On a phone it is not possible to hover over any element, so using view-source instead is a workaround I often used.

[lnicola]

@bjorn3 tapping the emoji sometimes shows who reacted, but this no longer seems to work for me lately. Desktop mode also used to make it easier.

[dadeke]

view-source:https://github.com

Firefox PC: It works! 😀️👍️

Firefox for Android: "Cannot Complete Request" 😐️

[abramclark]

I'm rather disappointed in Firefox for removing this in a public release

[cadeyrn]

I'm rather disappointed in Firefox for removing this in a public release

It was not "removed". The new Firefox (79+) is a completely new developed browser and it has to be re-implemented. Of course it's a matter of prioritization whether / when this will happen. If you want to see this feature in the new Firefox it would be more helpful to tell the developers why do you think this feature is more useful than using the remote debugging tools.

[B0pol]

As a workaround, you can install View Page Source (mobile) on Nightly

[Oymate]

@B0pol doesn't install

[B0pol]

@Oymate follow this to install it on Firefox Nightly https://blog.mozilla.org/addons/2020/09/29/expanded-extension-support-in-firefox-for-android-nightly/

[Idesmi]

Please reintroduce it, I used to read the source regularly on Fennec. The need of a second computer to do that is a hassle, when it could already be done on mobile alone.

[wyatt8740]

@B0pol The fact that I need to create an account in order to install the add-on (to create the collection) is also a bit of a dealbreaker for me, personally. More and more hoops to jump through.

Previously, I could use the view-source: trick to get the .xpi file for the extension I wanted to add, even if AMO didn't want me to install it on my device.

Despite all of these regressions (and lack of features, like a tab bar on tablet devices), the app is still about 40% larger than it used to be. What was the reason for this rewrite, anyway?