As a user I want to clear recent history

[st3fan]

Desktop has a nice UI for this but I think we could probably simplify it ...

This is what Safari shows ...

... which is probably an easier 1.0 start for us.

Basics of clearing history:

• HistoryStorage concept needs a "delete history" interface android-components#1373 Add deletion into concept-storage
• Gecko Engine: Clear data android-components#1798 Add clear engine data options
• Support for history deletions mozilla/application-services#317 Add deletion support to the places lib
• Add UI for clearing history #205 Add UI for clearing history

[thomcc]

Note that for sync the user probably should be asked if they want to clear only local history vs remote history too.

[davismtl]

Linking to issue in Application Services repo:
mozilla/application-services#317

[pocmo]

For reference that's the same screen in Fennec:

[pocmo]

And the browsingData WebExtensions API may be a good starting point when designing the internal engine component APIs: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Mozilla/Add-ons/WebExtensions/API/browsingData

[st3fan]

Note that for sync the user probably should be asked if they want to clear only local history vs remote history too.

Can @thomcc or @davismtl explain what the client behaviour should be in as much detail as possible? The above has been a constant source of confusion in Firefox for iOS and I think we still do not do the right thing there.

Can we actually see the difference between local and remote history?

Or .. is this logic part of the history component?

[pocmo]

The above has been a constant source of confusion in Firefox for iOS and I think we still do not do the right thing there.

Afaik in Firefox for Android too. Depending on the use cases users seemed to have different expectations (delete only locally vs. delete everywhere) and there didn''t seem to be just one right option.

[grigoryk]

Can we actually see the difference between local and remote history?

I think it's worth noting that this distinction between 'local' and 'remote' isn't strict or accurate. It holds true only if you never logout and login again, or re-install the app. Once you do, all of your history is, more or less, "remote" - since it will be downloaded from Sync. Our data model isn't rich enough to actually annotate visits with origins that we can map to devices, and so we get this hack instead which originated on Fennec.

This distinction is mostly useful for things like Top Sites and awesomebar results. I wouldn't rely on it for features that delete data.

Mainly, I'm somewhat skeptical that we can things like "delete remote history" in a non-confusing way. E.g. imagine a device which syncs, and has a bunch of "local" history which user is familiar with. User then re-installs their browser, and logs into sync. All of the history comes back. Except, at that point, all of their it-was-local-2-minutes-ago history is now considered "remote". If they will then proceed to clear "remote only" history, it will actually clear all of their history, including what they likely thought of as "local" - e.g. generated on the current device 10 minutes ago.