Added by Brian Toole almost 7 years ago. Updated almost 3 years ago.
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Description
It would be great to have an option to move the URL/Omni bar from the top of the app to the bottom. This would be nice and convenient for one-handed browsing. Some people also like the aesthetics of that over keeping it at the top of the page.
I will look into the feasability of doing this.
I will plan to implement this in the second half of the 2.x series.
I am going to put this off until the 3.x series for consideration. The idea of moving the URL bar is falling out of fashion (Google Chrome tried it in a beta but decided against the feature). Some users really like the idea, so I am not completely rejecting it. But I plan on implementing tabbed browsing first and then deciding how practical it is to add a bottom URL bar as an optional layout.
Any implementation of this would have to be an optional interface setting, with the default remaining at the top. For as many people who really like the idea of having the app bar at the bottom of the screen, there are twice as many who really don't want it there.
For those who might not know, it is very complicated to build an interface as tricky as Privacy Browser's that has the option of having the app bar in either location. For example, the scrolling of the app bar is designed based on the webview and the app bar scrolling in the same direction. Scrolls are passed first to the app bar and then on to the WebView when the app bar is done with them. Moving the app bar to the bottom complicates the system because the app bar would need to scroll in the opposite direction as the WebView. It isn't really obvious this should even work from a GUI perspective. Perhaps it would should simply appear and disappear if it is at the bottom. However, coding that is complex, especially trying to avoid these types of security scenarios: https://jameshfisher.com/2019/04/27/the-inception-bar-a-new-phishing-method/
If this can be done well, the option should also move the header of the bookmarks drawer to the bottom of the screen as well as the app bar in all the other activities.
Implemented in commit https://gitweb.stoutner.com/?p=PrivacyBrowser.git;a=commitdiff;h=cd609c9888924549c03cd6509ed889cdb052d5bb.
Unfortunately, when the app bar is at the bottom, if app bar scrolling is enabled this implementation is susceptible to JavaScript spoofing of the app bar.