Testing experimental browser features on Linux - Is Linux supported?

#webdev #linux

I was exploring new HTML and CSS feaures yesterday, a new proposal called Invokers (InvokeEvent API) caught my attention. According to caniuse, invokers are available in the following browsers as an experimental feature:

Chrome - Available in Canary build only
Firefox - Can be enabled by setting dom.element.invokers.enabled to true
Safari - Can be enabled by setting InvokerAttributesEnabled to true

On my linux workstation, I looked to install Chrome Canary. I couldn't find it in an app repository. When I looked at the Chrome Canary website I saw that Linux is not supported. That's a shame!

I moved onto Firefox to enable the experimental setting. You can open the config settings by typing about:config in the omnibar. There I searched for the setting and enabled it.

I tried out an invoker demo (codepen) from Brecht De Ruyte's article on the topic, but it did not work! 😒 I tried the codepen in debug mode. Recently, Ubuntu has shifted to a snap as its default installation for Firefox.. Sometimes there can be gotchas around snaps. I installed Firefox through the Apt package to see if it made a difference, then tried again. No dice.

Since Safari is OS X only, bar some devilish tricks to force an installation on Linux, that puts the kibosh on my experimentation!

I don't know if I am just unlucky with my system configuration not to at least get Firefox to cooperate. It is sad that Linux is not given the same level of support as other Operating Systems in this regard.

Written by Rob O'Leary

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