[ENHANCEMENT] Create a custom onboarding #290

celenity commented 2026年05月17日 23:49:19 +02:00

Due to recent changes in Phoenix’s structure/design, it’s now finally viable for us to create an onboarding so that users can configure important settings/behavior (ex. like we have for IronFox).

Creating this issue to keep track of progress on this and what needs to be done.

If anyone has any suggestions for preferences/behavior we should add to the onboarding, please share them here!

Due to recent changes in Phoenix’s structure/design, it’s now finally viable for us to create an onboarding so that users can configure important settings/behavior *(ex. like we have for IronFox)*. Creating this issue to keep track of progress on this and what needs to be done. If anyone has any suggestions for preferences/behavior we should add to the onboarding, please share them here!

GW72 commented 2026年05月24日 19:27:48 +02:00

I wasn't sure what is meant by onboarding in this context, but if you mean the toggles to enable/disable settings in the Ironfox settings options, many of the same found there would be useful in FF, for starters.

One idea might be to also include access (with edit capability) to phoenix-specialized.cfg from inside FF, assuming 1. it would pose no security risk and 2. it would not be incredibly difficult to develop (I've little idea about effort required).

Also a direct 1-click link to opening of about:config into a new tab might be useful (to adjust phoenix settngs). Obviously these are fluffy suggestions but if the effort to produce this kind of functionality is not great, it would be kind of nice to have this menu page function as a sort of main control-panel for different aspects of phoenix settings in FF.

I wasn't sure what is meant by onboarding in this context, but if you mean the toggles to enable/disable settings in the `Ironfox settings` options, many of the same found there would be useful in FF, for starters. One idea might be to also include access (with edit capability) to `phoenix-specialized.cfg` from inside FF, assuming 1. it would pose no security risk and 2. it would not be incredibly difficult to develop (I've little idea about effort required). Also a direct 1-click link to opening of about:config into a new tab might be useful (to adjust phoenix settngs). Obviously these are fluffy suggestions but if the effort to produce this kind of functionality is not great, it would be kind of nice to have this menu page function as a sort of main control-panel for different aspects of `phoenix` settings in FF.

koru commented 2026年05月25日 13:24:31 +02:00

@GW72 wrote in #290 (comment):

onboarding

I think that means starter/initial screen/setup.

@GW72 wrote in https://codeberg.org/celenity/Phoenix/issues/290#issuecomment-15799358: > onboarding I think that means starter/initial screen/setup.

celenity commented 2026年05月25日 21:10:58 +02:00

@GW72 wrote in #290 (comment):

I wasn't sure what is meant by onboarding in this context

Yeah, @koru is correct - what I mean by onboarding here is an initial set-up (similar to the onboarding on stock Firefox, and IronFox on mobile). So the goal would be for it to cover important/commonly overridden settings by users.

To start at least, similar to IronFox's onboarding, I think I'll definitely add DoH-related settings and locale spoofing.

but if you mean the toggles to enable/disable settings in the Ironfox settings options, many of the same found there would be useful in FF, for starters.

Unfortunately, I don't think there's currently a way we can implement a custom settings panel like this directly, though it would be nice if we could. It'd probably be possible if we disabled the AutoConfig sandbox, but I'm not particularly comfortable with that from a privacy and security perspective.

One idea might be to also include access (with edit capability) to phoenix-specialized.cfg from inside FF, assuming 1. it would pose no security risk and 2. it would not be incredibly difficult to develop (I've little idea about effort required).

I don't think this would be possible either, for similar reasons.

Also a direct 1-click link to opening of about:config into a new tab might be useful

This might be possible - at least we could probably add it as a default bookmark or pin it to the browser homepage by default. I think it may be worth adding about:support as well.

Thank you for sharing your ideas/suggestions here! Much appreciated as always.

@GW72 wrote in https://codeberg.org/celenity/Phoenix/issues/290#issuecomment-15799358: > I wasn't sure what is meant by onboarding in this context Yeah, @koru is correct - what I mean by onboarding here is an initial set-up *(similar to the onboarding on stock Firefox, and IronFox on mobile)*. So the goal would be for it to cover important/commonly overridden settings by users. To start at least, similar to IronFox's onboarding, I think I'll definitely add DoH-related settings and locale spoofing. > but if you mean the toggles to enable/disable settings in the `Ironfox settings` options, many of the same found there would be useful in FF, for starters. Unfortunately, I don't *think* there's currently a way we can implement a custom settings panel like this directly, though it would be nice if we could. It'd probably be possible if we disabled the AutoConfig sandbox, but I'm not particularly comfortable with that from a privacy and security perspective. > One idea might be to also include access (with edit capability) to `phoenix-specialized.cfg` from inside FF, assuming 1. it would pose no security risk and 2. it would not be incredibly difficult to develop (I've little idea about effort required). I don't think this would be possible either, for similar reasons. > Also a direct 1-click link to opening of about:config into a new tab might be useful This might be possible - at least we could probably add it as a default bookmark or pin it to the browser homepage by default. I think it may be worth adding `about:support` as well. Thank you for sharing your ideas/suggestions here! Much appreciated as always.

GW72 commented 2026年05月26日 08:25:26 +02:00

Thanks for the clarifications!

A bit off topic perhaps, but couldn't you simply make a phoenix browser based on FF, in the same spirit as ironfox? Again, this could require an enormous effort (and pose licensing issues???), I've no idea, but would that not solve a few problems?

Thanks for the clarifications! A bit off topic perhaps, but couldn't you simply make a `phoenix browser` based on FF, in the same spirit as `ironfox`? Again, this could require an enormous effort (and pose licensing issues???), I've no idea, but would that not solve a few problems?

degausser commented 2026年05月26日 16:06:10 +02:00

@celenity is the browser.preonboarding.enabled change from defaultPref() in 2026年04月27日.1 to user pref() in 2026年05月21日.2 related to this? will phoenix (somehow?) use the about:welcome modal for onboarding?

@celenity is the `browser.preonboarding.enabled` change from [`defaultPref()` in 2026年04月27日.1](https://codeberg.org/celenity/Phoenix/src/tag/2026.04.27.1/linux/phoenix.cfg#L347) to [`user pref()` in 2026年05月21日.2](https://codeberg.org/celenity/Phoenix/src/tag/2026.05.21.2/phoenix-unified.cfg#L440) related to this? will phoenix (somehow?) use the about:welcome modal for onboarding?

celenity commented 2026年05月26日 19:06:13 +02:00

@degausser wrote in #290 (comment):

@celenity is the browser.preonboarding.enabled change from defaultPref() in 2026年04月27日.1 to user pref() in 2026年05月21日.2 related to this?

No, that actually looks like a mistake - will fix for next release, thank you for catching this!

will phoenix (somehow?) use the about:welcome modal for onboarding?

Yes, that is the intention. My understanding is we can customize its contents with the browser.aboutwelcome.screens pref.

@degausser wrote in https://codeberg.org/celenity/Phoenix/issues/290#issuecomment-15908477: > @celenity is the `browser.preonboarding.enabled` change from [`defaultPref()` in 2026年04月27日.1](https://codeberg.org/celenity/Phoenix/src/tag/2026.04.27.1/linux/phoenix.cfg#L347) to [`user pref()` in 2026年05月21日.2](https://codeberg.org/celenity/Phoenix/src/tag/2026.05.21.2/phoenix-unified.cfg#L440) related to this? No, that actually looks like a mistake - will fix for next release, thank you for catching this! > will phoenix (somehow?) use the about:welcome modal for onboarding? Yes, that is the intention. My understanding is we can customize its contents with the `browser.aboutwelcome.screens` pref.