Need to allow multiple apps to handle the same url patterns

[Michał Sawicz]

Steps:
* install gmail and dekko apps

Expected:
* when using a mailto: URL (see bug #1351222) URL, the user should be asked which app to open (and cache the response optionally?)

Current:
* not sure what would happen ;)

________________Design resolution _________________________

Case 1: If no email client is installed and a user clicks on a 'mail to' link, the user should be prompted to download the Dekko app.

Case 2: If the user has Dekko installed, then clicking on the 'mail to' link should open the Dekko client --> compose mail screen to the 'mail to' address.

Case 3: If the user has Dekko and Gmail installed, the 'mail to' link by default should open in the Dekko client. However, the user can change their mail client preferences in system settings.

Case 4: If the user has Gmail and another mail client installed, the 'mail to' link should default to the first client that was installed on their device (which would be the default mail client preference in system settings - this can be changed by the user via system settings).

Notes:
1. Wherever the user has not actively changed a mail client preference and Dekko is installed on their device, the default 'mail to' client should be Dekko.
2. When clicking on a 'mail to' link, the user's expectation is to have this link open in a relevant client (unless it is case 1), therefore this should be the case and any mail preference choices the user can perform via system settings rather than being presented with multiple choice options of which client to open the URL in.

<https://wiki.ubuntu.com/URLDispatcher>: "Whenever the URL dispatcher is called on to open an address that multiple apps have registered for, it should open a “Use App” dialog, with a centered grid of labelled buttons with the icon for each applicable app, followed by a “Cancel” button."

[Giorgio Venturi (giorgio-venturi-deactivatedaccount)]

In my mind we should use the content hub in this instance

[Michał Sawicz (saviq)]

Agreed, it does feel like the url dispatcher should just grow into the content hub. After all, you can easily say that urls are content :)

[Ted Gould (ted)]

We're going to interpret that as "show the same UI as content hub" and inherit those designs for the urldispatcher.

[Ted Gould (ted)]

I'm going to reopen the design task here because that doesn't take into account "always use this app" which is important for URLs, but not as much for content. We'll also need settings UI to handle the cases of reshuffling which URL patterns should be preferred if the user does select "always use." I think though, that we could do a version one without that feature.

[Michał Sawicz (saviq)]

Any reason why to keep the two separate, especially when you say "show the same UI", "inherit those designs"?

[Giorgio Venturi (giorgio-venturi-deactivatedaccount)]

I removed myself from the UX task, as I am not responsible for the content hub

[Bill Filler (bfiller)]

To be clear, we need design input on what to display to the user when multiple apps are registered for the same url scheme (i.e. mailto:). There should be a prompt of some sort asking user to pick which app to use and whether to prompt every time or remember the choice.

[Renato Araujo Oliveira Filho (renatofilho)]

We be useful a "remember" on the UI to avoid show the dialog always.
And we will need a way to clear the "remember" option if the user want to choose a new app.

[Michał Sawicz (saviq)]

Agreed, the latter likely belongs to settings app, added a task.

[Ted Gould (ted)]

I'd argue that remember is a much larger task and should perhaps be split out. We could do the dialog, which would solve a bunch of user problems without doing remember, which will be a whole new settings interaction.

[Femma (femma)]

Upon investigation, I have made the following discoveries.

If you have a mail to link and gmail installed and set up, when you click on the 'mail to' link nothing happens (this assumption should also hold if you have no mail client installed).

If you have Dekko installed and set up, when you click on the 'mail to' link, the user is taken to the Dekko app and a new email screen to the 'mail to' email address.

I shall post a UX solution to this hopefully today.

[Ted Gould (ted)]

A few questions that the design leaves:

 * How do we know that Dekko should be the default instead of GMail? How do we handle apps that don't have a default bias? (i.e. two registrants for "foo")
 * What does the system settings UI look like?
 * How do we know that "mailto" translates to "Default Mail Client"? Does that include "imap" as well? Or can you set those independently.

[Femma (femma)]

From a UX and design point of view Dekko should be the Ubuntu phone eco-system's client of choice. We are currently working on making this happen from the conversations I have had.

The system settings UI would need to be updated to reflect this.

By default mail to including imap should translate to default mail client, unless specified by user in system settings.

I hope this helps.

[Femma (femma)]

We may have to create a new project from this.

[Matthew Paul Thomas (mpt)]

Specification updated. <https://wiki.ubuntu.com/URLDispatcher?action=diff&rev2=12&rev1=11>

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.