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Librewolf and Campaign Logger

ExileInParadise

RPG Therapist
Staff member
Adamantium WoA
Wizard of Story
Hello again fearless GMs!

Today for the fun of it - I decided to try a new(-sh) web browser: Librewolf.

This is an open-source fork of Mozilla's Firefox, but with added privacy sauce to shield you from the Surveillance Web.

To see why I wanted to try it - head over to https://privacytests.org/ and take a look at that bloodbath.

But, changing browsers is painful and I wanted to start off with librewolf pretty much where I already was with Firefox - which is why I went with librewolf rather than Brave.

I backed up and hacked up my heavily customized Mozilla profile and built a new librewolf profile out of it (ask me how in DM or Discord to avoid clutter here).

Fired up my new browser and ... it worked pretty much as expected - bookmarks, saved passwords, extensions, about:config customizations all carried over.

My browser is setup to open all of my favorite sites on start... so my 4 personal web sites, the Campaign Community site and related tools all flew open.

And here we get to the point of the ramble: I am writing this post on Campaign Community from librewol - that works fine so far.

But I get an interesting message from Campaign Logger:
BrowserCheck.png

Hmmm... it seems there were some sort of privacy issues around "Service Workers" in the firefox browser which the librewolf community removed.

I have some learning to do ... but before I fell down that rabbit hole I thought I would post this up here for future reference.

I kept my full Firefox install and profile preserved, so this is no issue for me at the moment - I can use CL from a full browser.

But I know J4JL cares quite a bit about Doing the Right Thing with cookies and privacy concerns (part of why I put my money here rather than elsewheres) and so I wanted to document up that there's some sort of Lurking Horror around service workers.

Also, in case anyone else ever tries librewolf this will hopefully be here to let them know its a known incompatibility between CL and that browser.

Maybe more as I learn it...
 
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ExileInParadise

RPG Therapist
Staff member
Adamantium WoA
Wizard of Story
Ah here's the privacy issue:
ServiceWorker
The ServiceWorker API allows websites to run code in the background and store content in the browser for offline use.
If a ServiceWorker can be accessed from multiple websites, it can be abused to track users across sites.
 

JochenL

CL Byte Sprite
Staff member
Adamantium WoA
Wizard of Story
Wizard of Combat
Gamer Lifestyle
Borderland Explorer
The service worker is generally not necessary for CL.

Here is why it is there at all:

Legacy CL had offline versions. However, they were difficult to maintain for Windows, Android, and iOS, as they required additional code for wrapping the JS-based web app. In addition, the different shops had different requirements and made it hard to get everything GDPR-compliant.

When setting out for CL vNext, several users suggested creating a Progressive Web App (PWA). PWAs can be "installed" on your device for offline use. The service worker facilitates this by caching the app's files, so no internet connection is needed to start and run the app.

Currently, the app is installable - you will get an entry in the title bar when the browser thinks it is time to offer that option. However, the actual creation and editing of CL vNext data still require the server.

So, here is the decision: remove the service worker and make CL vNext an online-only app, or keep it to eventually implement the full offline capability.
 

ELF

Generator Sage
Wizard of Story
Wizard of Combat
So, here is the decision: remove the service worker and make CL vNext an online-only app, or keep it to eventually implement the full offline capability.
Please do not abandon the offline option! I would not want to commit my prep work to a solution that could randomly fail me due to network conditions or server issues.
 

JohnnFour

Game Master
Staff member
Adamantium WoA
Wizard of Story
Wizard of Combat
Gamer Lifestyle
Demonplague Author
Borderland Explorer
Offline app and offline data is my request. When I game face to face outside my home again I'll want a local data backup in case my location doesn't good connectivity. I have also received emails from subscribers over the years about their crappy internet.
 
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