Additional data to pass at init:

• popupCastButtonLabel: ReceiverView cast buttons
• extensionName: May as well use as window title for consistency

Create an HTTP server in the native app to stream local media files to the receiver.

When the *.deb package is installed, if the user does ANYTHING with apt/dpkg through the command line, dkpg throws this error:

dpkg-query: warning: parsing file '/var/lib/dpkg/status' near line 53457 package 'fx-cast-bridge':
 missing maintainer

If the *.deb package is built using some sort of helper tool such as Debreate then this should be easy to fix. If this is being built in a more manual method then it may be more involved.

When casting a video, audio is not being played on the device being cast to. Same issue on YouTube, Netflix, and VRV. Others may potentially have that issue as well. This may also be a Linux specific issue. Unsure about that part.

The Chrome/Android/iOS sender API libraries implement device authentication to prevent unauthorised cast devices, but fx_cast can run chrome sender apps without the authentication opening up the possibility of creating a custom generic Chromecast emulator without app-specific workarounds.

PoC demo:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hWVsYcUSAzw

Either a separate button or an <option> that triggers a file picker dialog. Will need to change the way media casting is triggered since there's no calling page for the cast API, either allowing cast API to be called from privileged contexts or making a new interface to the bridge.

• chrome.cast.addReceiverActionListener
• chrome.cast.precache
• chrome.cast.removeReceiverActionListener
• chrome.cast.requestSessionById
• chrome.cast.setCustomReceivers
• chrome.cast.setPageContext
• chrome.cast.setReceiverDisplayStatus
• chrome.cast.Session#addMediaListener
• chrome.cast.Session#removeMediaListener
• chrome.cast.Session#queueLoad
• chrome.cast.media.Media#editTracksInfo
• chrome.cast.media.Media#getEstimatedBreakClipTime
• chrome.cast.media.Media#getEstimatedBreakTime
• chrome.cast.media.Media#getEstimatedLiveSeekableRange
• chrome.cast.media.Media#queueAppendItem
• chrome.cast.media.Media#queueInsertItems
• chrome.cast.media.Media#queueJumpToItem
• chrome.cast.media.Media#queueMoveItemToNewIndex
• chrome.cast.media.Media#queueNext
• chrome.cast.media.Media#queuePrev
• chrome.cast.media.Media#queueRemoveItem
• chrome.cast.media.Media#queueReorderItems
• chrome.cast.media.Media#queueSetRepeatMode
• chrome.cast.media.Media#queueUpdateItems
• chrome.cast.media.Media#supportsCommand

Message passing between the different destinations is fragile and difficult to understand.

Destinations:

• Background script (main)
• Shim content/page script
• Receiver selection popup
• Bridge app
• Options page (TODO #5)
• Media control popup (TODO #10)

Need some way to handle this cleanly. Possibly a separate library or util class that allows for registering a destination with a callback for sending messages. Needs to provide a message handler function to be called from runtime.onMessage / port.onMessage.

Should also document existing messages and order in which they're sent during initialization.

Should forward any subtitles defined as <track> elements to the MediaInfo passed as part of the media load request.

For local media, should try to detect if there are subtitles present in the same directory and convert if necessary (from SRT to WebVTT).

• Remote media
• Local media

Support for Firefox on macOS.

I can't find this issue already reported, so if it's already reported, please correct me.

On the FF 66.0b14 (Dev Edition) on MacOS 10.14.3 I've got this popup:

I see in other screenshots that it's not supposed to be like that. So what could be wrong?

When the user agent whitelist is enabled, the user agent applied to YouTube is deemed incompatible with YouTube's "New Look," as determined by the page youtube.com/new.

While it doesn't harm actual casting functionality, it is a bit annoying to not be able to use dark mode on YouTube.

The match pattern I applied for YouTube is https://www.youtube.com/*.

This issue does not persist if the whitelist is disabled.

In case it helps, Firefox v67.0.1 w/ extension, bridge v0.0.3.

Embedded iframe players or scripts on CDN domains won’t inherit the user agent string that the main page has and won’t load the cast API.

webRequest.onBeforeSendHeaders listener can get document URL, but the current request filter only allows for the listener to be called on URLs matching the whitelist match patterns.

Check performance on expanded filter vs temporary additional listeners, if at all significant.

• View and edit site whitelist
• Manage native app installation/update
• View receiver debug info

Can cause long delay between user action and popup opening before any serviceUp events.

Regression introduced in #70

Like Chrome, should default media source to any initialized sender apps when casting without using in-page cast buttons.

I don't find any way to remove the bridge in macOS.

Host a site at https://hensm.github.io/fx_cast

Re #4

Options:

• WiX (in wine for macOS/Linux)
  http://wixtoolset.org/
• NSIS
  https://nsis.sourceforge.io/Main_Page

Best way to distribute?

• AMO for the extension or bundled with the application?
• Squirrel (mac/win)
• Custom install scripts with manual updates

I installed the bridge, as well as the extension. But it never seems able to actually cast. No cast button appears on any media, and trying to use the toolbar button never populates the list of chromecast devices, nor can I ever enable casting.

I tried fiddling with the various addon options but nothing seems to help. What am I doing wrong?

I'm not sure if this is because SmartScreen tried to block the .exe but the installer doesn't automatically try to run as administrator, which makes the install fail since it doesn't have the permissions to write the files to the Program Files directory. Manually running the .exe as admin works fine though.

When installing as described in the README

Transaction check error: package fx_cast_bridge-0.0.1-1.x86_64 is intended for a different operating system

Hi,
I want to help with translating the extension into spanish. I'm part of the es-CL localization team from Firefox.
Can I send a PR?

Thanks

• https://developers.google.com/cast/docs/chrome_sender_setup
• https://developers.google.com/cast/docs/reference/chrome/cast.framework

When casting on Wi-Fi latency is extremely high (about 2 seconds). This of course will vary with internet speeds, but with the internet speeds I deal with, normal latency when casting from Android or a Chromium-based browser is usually below a quarter of a second. Issue found on YouTube, VRV, and Netflix.

• Auth
  Entirely HTTP-based so can be done from within extension. Should look at removing node module dependencies.
• Device discovery
  Same as with CC discovery, will want to modify bridge to report back multiple types of devices and split extension StatusManager into device/status handling.
• Receiver selection
  Modify receiver selection process to handle multiple types of receivers and conditions where different device types are valid selection targets.
• WebKit JS AirPlay API
  Can be implemented fine. Doesn't seem like sites actually check the UA, so will work fine with Chrome UA and no need for more complex mixed whitelist behaviour.
• Media sender support
  Either adding a separate sender code path that calls AirPlay API or (for an interesting experiment) faking the default media receiver and translating into AirPlay API calls indirectly from the CC sender.
• Mirroring sender support
  Current screen capture methods not sufficient for AirPlay mirroring. Can't implement protocol in extension either way.

Fix to work with castv2/protobuf.

The current state of things

Right now the extension is looking for the bridge under /opt/fx_cast/ but inside a snap, Firefox is unable to read such directory.

A possible approach

Under Linux, when /opt/fx_cast/bridge fails to be found, could it be possible to look for the bridge under a user-owned directory (like $HOME, for example)? Maybe a symlink could make the trick in such case.

Another possible approach

Give the user the option to indicate the path under which the bridge is located.

Note

I'm not by any means a Linux nor a Firefox extensions expert. But I'd like to try fx_cast without giving away the option of using Firefox as a snap (I like it to has limited access to my system).

I installed fx_cast_bridge-0.0.3-x64.exe too. https://imgur.com/Ai4NR3Y

I'm using version 0.0.3, trying to cast YouTube to a Fire TV stick with AirPlay&UPnP app.
This app support miracast, chromecast, airplay and other services and works fine normally.
Just when I try to cast with fx_cast I get an error on the Fire TV stick that the app isn't supported.

Do you think you could take a look at it?

It cannot be installed in Firefox 60.6, opensuse. It says it is incompatible.

Provide context menu items to construct match patterns for sites to add to the whitelist

Example:

with https://www.example.com/some/directory/with?a=file

• Add to Whitelist
  • Add https://www.example.com/* (Recommended)
  • Advanced
    • Add https://www.example.com/some/directory/with?a=file
    • Add https://www.example.com/some/directory/with*
    • Add https://www.example.com/some/directory/*
    • Add https://www.example.com/some/*
    • Add *://www.example.com/*
    • Add *://*.example.com/*

Fails to fetch updates with default CSP in production mode.

Add a way to disconnect / stop casting button / option so when we are done we can stop sharing.

Ahoi!
Great work! I would like to wire some thank-you dimes somewhere :)

Maybe because dark theme?

I cant seem to get the thing to work atm and i cant find how to uninstall it to try again.

I got this prompt from the companion app. The application name should probably be clearer, like "Fx Cast" or something like that?

Expand test suite

The media sender currently casts to a receiver and then uses the local player for playback control. Video downloads on both. Downside of this is increased bandwidth, though syncing the player state allows for audio playback on the sender device with video playback on the receiver.

• Use a dummy player by default
  Ideally we'd have the Firefox media player without the video download, but using a dummy file will remove the ability to seek (unless it's the same length, but that seems needlessly complicated).
• Custom player
  Possible, but inserting a custom HTML player into random web pages is a can of worms.
• Media controls popup
  Not as clean, but much easier to just stop playback and use controls from a popup (#10).

Normally, when casting from an Android App or Chromium-based browser, a notification pops up on any Android smartphone or tablet on the same Wi-Fi as the device that is casting. FX_Cast is not doing this.

If you could add this in it would be great, to help with controlling casting. It would also provide an easier (for the end user at least), temporary work around to Issue #50 . Otherwise, users have to have the Google Home app installed and go through that to end the casting. And even then, it only works if the device is linked somehow to your account. So doing at least this for the time being would be greatly appreciated!

This is on the latest release of the FX_Cast app and extension.

Could we get an actual icon for the extension? Possibly even with the letter Beta on it to show that it's in beta status.

Not really "critical", but it would be nice to have a actual icon.

Technically there should be four modes:

A Unavailable: While Cast receivers are not available, the Cast button does not appear. (Probably easier to make the icon red or with an X instead of the cast waves. Useful to show that there is nothing to cast to.)
B Disconnected: While Cast receivers are available, the Cast button appears. (Normal default behavior, probably all we really need right now.)
C Connecting: While the Cast receiver is connecting, the Cast button animates the waves in the icon progressively. (Not essential at this stage but should be planned for)
D Connected: While this app is connected to the Cast receiver, its Cast button appears with a filled frame shape. (Again not required at this stage but should be planned for)

Suggested fix: "sudo apt install dpkg rpm makensis" -> "sudo apt install dpkg rpm nsis"
Within the Debian/Ubuntu installation guide section.

Error below:

par@parcar-LG-Laptop:~/Downloads$ sudo apt install dpkg rpm makensis
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
E: Unable to locate package makensis
par@parcar-LG-Laptop:~/Downloads$ makensis
The program 'makensis' is currently not installed. You can install it by typing:
sudo apt install nsis
par@parcar-LG-Laptop:~/Downloads$ sudo apt-get install dpkg rpm nsis
Reading package lists... Done
...
0 upgraded, 11 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.

Implement controls for existing sessions. Should be able to view existing session status, play, pause, adjust volume and seek.

Provide support for DIAL 1st screen apps.

Currently the receiver selector does not allow (or ignores) changes to the media type once opened. Instead, it should cancel session requests if launched from a sender app and initialize an alternate sender for screen sharing or vice versa.