Sync more than bookmarks: Themes, Add-ons, Open tabs, History and Settings !

[BBArikL]

Describe the feature you'd like to request

I really like floccus and the project, thanks for making it possible. However, I still feel stuck because I am still using a Firefox account to sync my other information with my other devices (namely Themes, Add-ons, Open tabs, History and Settings). I understand if goes out of scope of this project and this might require a different approach based on different browsers. Of course, each "sync option" that I present below would need to be toggled on or off depending on the preference of the user. This choice might also be device-specific.

I have been made aware that it is possible to self-host Firefox sync. This does not undermine that having that functionality in floccus would be great IMO: https://github.com/mozilla-services/syncstorage-rs

Describe the solution you'd like

Current WebExtension APIs do exist, but does not cover the full need. If this issue can push the project to sync more data, I'd still be pretty happy :

• History: Since this information changes quickly, the extension could just update the remote server every X minutes about the current history difference. This could either be a "shared/fused" history or a per-device history. Giving the user a choice between these two modes might be an implementation hassle but more choices are always appreciated. Safari does not expose this.
  • Search (get history): https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Mozilla/Add-ons/WebExtensions/API/history/search
  • Add (Or don't, just keep it in floccus history) : https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Mozilla/Add-ons/WebExtensions/API/history/addUrl
  • Delete: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Mozilla/Add-ons/WebExtensions/API/history/deleteUrl
  • onVisited: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Mozilla/Add-ons/WebExtensions/API/history/onVisited
• Tabs : Since this information changes quickly, the extension could just update the remote server every X minutes about the current tab "status" of the device is. This would also need for each device / browser (ex: Same device but 2 different browsers) to be able to be uniquely identified. That might be an "anti-feature" for some users to fingerprint their own browser!
  • Get tabs: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Mozilla/Add-ons/WebExtensions/API/tabs/query
  • Create tabs: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Mozilla/Add-ons/WebExtensions/API/tabs/create
  • onCreated: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Mozilla/Add-ons/WebExtensions/API/tabs/onCreated
  • onRemoved: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Mozilla/Add-ons/WebExtensions/API/tabs/onRemoved
  • onUpdated: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Mozilla/Add-ons/WebExtensions/API/tabs/onUpdated
• Themes / Add-ons: This data would be browser-specific. Safari seems to be the odds-one-out to not include that API at all.
  • Get all addons / themes: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Mozilla/Add-ons/WebExtensions/API/management/getAll
  • Install (Only themes, Firefox only, however for other browsers and addons, floccus could add a notification to redirect the user to go download the extension or to uninstall): https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Mozilla/Add-ons/WebExtensions/API/management/install
  • Uninstall (Funnily enough, Firefox does not support this): https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Mozilla/Add-ons/WebExtensions/API/management/uninstall
  • onInstalled: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Mozilla/Add-ons/WebExtensions/API/management/onInstalled
  • onUninstalled: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Mozilla/Add-ons/WebExtensions/API/management/onUninstalled
  • setEnabled (Firefox note: only themes...) : https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Mozilla/Add-ons/WebExtensions/API/management/setEnabled
  • OnEnabled: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Mozilla/Add-ons/WebExtensions/API/management/onEnabled
  • OnDisabled: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Mozilla/Add-ons/WebExtensions/API/management/onDisabled
• Settings: Now here this becomes... complicated. There is a "browserSettings" API, but it is pretty limited. This is understandable since browsers wouldn't extensions to change or see very sensitive data either in general or more specific configuration pages. There is still the possibility of having the user go to the settings pages and web scrape. This would need explicit acknowledgment from the user and lots of effort from the extension to keep up with all the different settings UI.

Describe alternatives you've considered

Floccus and folder sync with tools like syncthing and the like. It would not be configurable enough and would probably break when either working on 2 devices at the same time, syncing while making modifications in the browser or even casual navigation. It could also not work / be tedious to set up for multiple browsers.

[github-actions]

Hello 👋

Thank you for taking the time to open this issue with floccus. I know it's frustrating when software
causes problems. You have made the right choice to come here and open an issue to make sure your problem gets looked at
and if possible solved.
I'm Marcel and I created floccus a few years ago, maintaining it ever since. I currently work for Nextcloud
which leaves me with less time for side projects like this one than I used to have.
I still try to answer all issues and if possible fix all bugs here, but it sometimes takes a while until I get to it.
Until then, please be patient.
Note also that GitHub is a place where people meet to make software better together. Nobody here is under any obligation
to help you, solve your problems or deliver on any expectations or demands you may have, but if enough people come together we can
collaborate to make this software better. For everyone.
Thus, if you can, you could also have a look at other issues to see whether you can help other people with your knowledge
and experience. If you have coding experience it would also be awesome if you could step up to dive into the code and
try to fix the odd bug yourself. Everyone will be thankful for extra helping hands!
To continue the development and maintenance of this project in a sustainable way it is expected that you donate to the project when opening a ticket,
if you're not a donor already. You can find donation options at https://floccus.org/donate/. Thank you!

One last word: If you feel, at any point, like you need to vent, this is not the place for it; you can go to the Nextcloud forum,
to twitter or somewhere else. But this is a technical issue tracker, so please make sure to
focus on the tech and keep your opinions to yourself.

I look forward to working with you on this issue
Cheers 💙

[marcelklehr]

Yeah, this is difficult. Tabs is already implemented, but it doesn't work too well, yet. History, might be possible. Themes and settings, I think, is not doable.

[metal450]

Themes & Settings doesn't really seem to make sense to me, since they're browser-specific.

I'll put in another very emphatic vote for History tho. Rather than trying to actually "merge" all the histories (in the sense of pulling it from one browser & inserting it into the actual native history of another browser), simply extracting the history from all browsers & putting it in some Flocus-accessible panel seems like it would be very doable, & immensely useful. Essentially it could be one global, continuous history pulled from all browsers.