Firefox Support Sprint - UK Virtual [June 3-9, 2018]

[david_ross]

Ready to show the power behind a FOSS community? Come help us win on Android.

We’re testing a brand new customer support tool. Join us to help people with their burning questions right where they ask them - in the Play Store.

Full event details being done right now. In the mean time more details can be found over on the Official website.

We’ll be sprinting the whole week (Sunday to Saturday) and collaborating asynchronously, so everyone will get a chance to contribute. Yes the official website says Saturday, but we’ll be having fun at the PICNIC!

You can connect with us each night by using IRC (channel #UK), or Matrix, even ping us a message below. On Thursday night (June 7), between 18:00 and 20:00, we’ll use ZOOM to video call.

We’ll provide you with support and trouble shoot along with you. Many of us will be trying this for the first time, so there’ll be plenty of guidance.

[david_ross]

To get you started, here’s the super fresh onboarding video for the Firefox User Support Tool:

[david_ross]

Step 1: Sign up for a support account - you’ll need a name, email address, and the languages you can understand so the support app can serve you with appropriate languages.

Step 1.1: Follow the instructions on the Firefox Support sprint website.

If you hope to get more technical with your support levels, please continue to the next step…

[david_ross]

Step 2: Grab an Android device to test Firefox on.

Step 2.1: If you don’t have an android device you can run a virtualised version of Android called Android Studio.

Step 2.2: If you’re on Linux you can install Android Studio via Snaps

Step 2.3: In Android Studio you’ll be asked to download an SDK (Software Development Kit). The latest Android version is named Oreo (version 8.1) and this is the default SDK shown in the setup wizard. Many users will using much older versions though.

Step 2.4: if you need another option try Genymotion. It’s strictly for personal manual use only, without signing up for a license, so I won’t go into this one in any detail.

[david_ross]

Step 3: Download Firefox for Android (aka Fennec) via the wiki. There is a link to an APK (Android Package Kit) for those of you running Android Studio - look out for the section: download the Firefox APK file directly from our download server on that page.

Step 3.1: In Android Studio I was told we need to Import an Android code sample. I forget WHY, but I’m just going with it for now. It may be unecessary? Being into Privacy & Security I added Confirm Credential - but you could choose any random code sample.

[david_ross]

Step 4: install Firefox

Step 4.1: in Android Studio select Profile or Debug APK and locate the Fennec APK file you downloaded from Step 3.

Step 4.2: now build an Android virtual device:

• select - Tools
• select AVD Manager
• (going to have to come back to this tomorrow as my laptop froze up!!) - basically it went add a new virtual device, I selected Pixel 2, then next, then the system image I left as previous so Oreo 8.1, then x86 (match the sysem image and either x86 or x86_64 for 64 Bit image… etc.)

Step 4.3: click on what looks like a play button in the AVD Manager “Actions” (launch this AVD in the emulator)

Boom!

[david_ross]

hmm but this does NOT load Firefox. Back in a bit…

Error I currently have running Android Studio via a Snap: Error: Please select Android SDK. I tried changing the folder permissions ~/Android/ and still no luck.

[plwt (Paul Wright)]

You may need to install the SDK platform tools from here.

Aside from possibly being required by AS, ADB is a “swiss army knife” for working with Android apps.

[david_ross]

Hey I need to take a break before the call tonight. Back on at 7pm BST