Brave News can suggest the current site to subscribe to #23778

petemill · 2022-06-29T20:40:56Z

When the Brave News is opted-in and enabled, we can do the following:

For any given Tab, if we detect a corresponding Publisher to subscribe to, we can offer the user to add the subscription.

This could look like a Location Bar button with the brave news icon. When clicked it would show a list of the available feeds (which would usually only be 1).

Sources of Publisher items for a Tab:

sources.json via brave_news.mojom:GetPublishers() (see note below re: site_url)
meta tags in the html with feed destinations

Implementation:

Probably a TabHelper which performs the necessary Publisher look ups when the WebContents' Url is committed.
Maybe an addition to BraveNewsController for a performant lookup of an existing Publisher.
Addition to publisher_parsing to include the site_url (and possibly feed_url) fields in sources.json
Uses RssLinkReader to get the feed url from the html.
Uses SetPublisherPref to subscribe (or unsubscribe)

Design:
TBD

Rough design:

----------------------------------------
Subscribe to this site via Brave News

--------------
[Name of feed]    ( Subscribe )
--------------
[Name of alternate feed]    ( Subscribe )
-----------------------------------------
(Don't show this again)

Location bar button (older design might not be the correct icon):
although I don't think it should be inside the brave actions area, i.e. it can just be a regular PageActionIcon

Maybe it shows expanded on first seeing it for each browser session (ignore the tooltip):

Outstanding questions

Should the button (and bubble popup) show if the user is already to subscribed to at least 1 of the feeds for the current page? It would allow users to unsubscribe.

The text was updated successfully, but these errors were encountered:

mattmcalister · 2022-07-18T12:36:30Z

Instead of 1-click unsubscribe for a feed the user is already subscribed to, I think we should offer the ability to customize from here. So, the button should be an activated color (do we have one?) and maybe the copy in the bubble popup should say "Customize Brave News" and which opens up Settings.

fallaciousreasoning · 2022-07-19T00:34:22Z

I feel like it would be a bit weird if we let people subscribe from the dialog but not unsubscribe. Like, what if a user clicks subscribe to see what happens, but there's no obvious way to undo it?

This is what my rough prototype looks like. It's not uncommon for sites to have multiple feeds on a single page.

That said, I don't have strong feelings about it, and I'm happy to defer to you on this 😄

mattmcalister · 2022-07-19T13:56:13Z

If we're using a toggle ux then, yes, I'd agree. I thought it was just a "Add to Brave News" button or something like that in which case I would think you would want it to say "You follow [Feed Name] in Brave News. You can customize your feed selections any time in Settings." Maybe that doesn't work as well with multiple feeds. I don't feel strongly about it, either. It will become more obvious when we start testing, I'm sure.

stephendonner · 2022-09-02T21:51:11Z

Verification `PASSED` using

Brave	1.44.73 Chromium: 105.0.5195.68 (Official Build) beta (x86_64)
Revision	ad13e82529051bac6a0e65f455e6d7a1e5fd7938-refs/branch-heads/5195@{#903}
OS	macOS Version 13.0 (Build 22A5331f)

Shared Steps:

install 1.44.73
launch Brave
open brave://flags/
set Enable Brave News Subscribe Button to Enabled
click Relaunch

Subscribe - PASSED

via Manage Subscriptions icon - PASSED

load planet.mozilla.org
click on the Manage Subscriptions icon in the browser URL bar
click on Subscribe
confirm the button changes to Unsubscribe
open a new-tab page
click on Customize on the bottom right
click on Brave News
confirmed Planet Mozilla title and URL (as titletip) https://planet.mozilla.org/atom.xml

`step 2`	`Loading...`	`step 4`	`step 6`	`step 7`	`step 8`

via Customize -> Brave News dialog - PASSED

open a new-tab page
click on Customize
click on Brave News
enter https://planet.mozilla.org/atom.xml into Feed URL and click Add source
load planet.mozilla.org
click on the Manage Subscriptions icon
confirm it says Planet Mozilla, and the button reads Unsubscribe
open a new-tab page and click on Show Brave News
scroll down and confirm Hello from the new developer advocate (or any feed) post in Brave News feed

`step 4`	`step 6 + 7`	`step 8`	`step 9`

Unsubscribe - PASSED

via Manage Subscriptions icon - PASSED

(continuing on from Subscribe tests, above)

load planet.mozilla.org
click on the Manage Subscriptions icon
click on Unsubscribe
confirm the button changes to Subscribe
on a new-tab page, click on Customize
click Brave News
confirm the Planet Mozilla entry is removed

`step 3`	`step 4`	`step 7`

via Customize -> Brave News dialog - PASSED

load a new-tab page
click on Customize
click on Brave News
click on the ... ellipsis to the right of Planet Mozilla
click Remove
click the X to dismiss the Customize Dashboard panel
load planet.mozilla.org
click on the Manage Subscriptions icon
confirm you see Planet Mozilla and then a Subscribe button

`step 5`	`step 6`	`step 9`

Hide and don't show this again - PASSED

(run either of the Subscribe tests, first)

load planet.mozilla.org
click on the Manage Subscriptions icon
click Hide and don't show this again
confirm the icon disappears
in a new-tab page, confirm Show Brave News button in the toolbar is Disabled / Off
restart Brave
load planet.mozilla.org
confirm there's no Manage Subscriptions icon in the URL bar

`step 3`	`step 4`	`step 5`	`step 8`

UI - PASSED

Show Brave News button in the toolbar - PASSED

load planet.mozilla.org
confirm the Manage Subscriptions icon appears, but don't click it
open a new-tab page
click on Customize
click on Brave News
confirm that Show Brave News button in the toolbar is Enabled / On
toggle it to Disabled / Off
return to the planet.mozilla.org tab
confirm the Manage Subscriptions icon disappears

`step 2`	`step 6`	`step 7`	`step 9`

Dark + Light modes - PASSED

Dark

`unsubscribed`	`subscribed`

Light

`unsubscribed`	`subscribed`

Tooltip

Manage Subscriptions

MadhaviSeelam · 2022-09-14T00:07:36Z

Verification PASSED using

Brave | 1.44.83 Chromium: 105.0.5195.102 (Official Build) beta (64-bit)
-- | --
Revision | 4c16f5ffcc2da70ee2600d5db77bed423ac03a5a-refs/branch-heads/5195_55@{#4}
OS | Windows 11 Version 21H2 (Build 22000.856)