Impossible to use Window Controls Overlay with Tabbed Application Mode

[tomayac]

It's either "display_override": ["tabbed"] or "display_override": ["window-controls-overlay"], but they are mutually exclusive. Ideally there were a way to use tabbed application mode with customized window controls overlay.

[inexorabletash]

To clarify... if you specify both (it's an array!), in current implementations does the first one win?

It doesn't seem like there's anything in the spec(s) that should preclude them from both applying, and it's a matter of the UA deciding how to compose the two if they can apply.

[tomayac]

"display_override" allows you to create a custom display mode fallback chain (background article). Maybe it needs to allow something like the following, that is, nested arrays as entries to say an app wants both, tabbed application mode and window controls overlay:

{
  "display_override": [["tabbed", "window-controls-overlay"], "minimal-ui"]
}

[dmurph]

My proposal here would be to allow a site to define their own display names, where the specify exactly what they want. This is in an issue somewhere here... but it would be like:

"custom_display_modes": [
  "wco-and-tabbed": {
     "required": {
       windows-control-overlay: true
       tabbed: true
     },
    "optional": {}
  }
]

And then you can specify "wco-and-tabbed" as a display mode in display_override.

[dmurph]

See this section of my original display_overrides explainer: https://github.com/WICG/display-override/blob/main/explainer.md#custom-display-mode-names-with-display-modifiers-style-specification

[rigiddesign]

I hoped there would have been some movement on this by now, but unfortunately, not.

I'm unsure how much work is being carried out on tabs, though, as there has been the display issue with titles for well over a year

[Fleker]

I have been developing a game as a web app which has been using window-controls-overlay for a while with good success. I think adding a tabbed interface would be very useful for players to manage in-game inventories and game modes easier. I added this to the display_overrides array in my manifest but was surprised to see that nothing happens.

[rigiddesign]

Oh wow, over a year since my last comments on this. Agreed, I am still rather disappointed that this was never implemented 😿