Receiver Internals: New Mobile Experience with Receiver for HTML5 2.0

The new Receiver for HTML5 2.0 enhances the support for browsers on touch enabled devices. This makes Receiver for HTML5 as a viable option on mobile and tablet.

Now you can access the remote app and desktop with full touch support that includes gestures, multi touch access and soft keyboard. It can be Chrome browser on Android, Safari on iPad/iPhone or MS Edge Windows 10 mobile.

Here’s is a quick summary of the various single and multi-finger gestures supported:

Lets talk more about the gesture ‘two finger tap’ which is used to turn on/off the mouse pointer.

When the mouse pointer is turned on you can see a mouse cursor. This helps you to perform operations like left click, right click, or drag using the above-mentioned gestures. This comes in very handy where the gestures using fingers may not be comfortable. You can refer to the example in the screenshot below.

Now lets talk about Multi-touch Mode.

Multi-touch mode remotes all the gestures to the virtual desktop and app will behave based on the gesture it supports.

Image is zoomed in Multi-touch mode v/s  panning mode

Switching to Multi-touch mode: By default, the session would be in Panning mode where all the gestures are applied on the desktop. You can switch between Multi-touch mode and Panning mode using the button in the toolbar.

To switch to Multi-touch mode

To switch to Panning mode

Multi-touch is supported from Win 8.1/Win 2K12R2 onwards on the Windows operating system. If the feature is not available on the host then the button in the toolbar to toggle between Multi-touch/Panning mode will not appear.

So far, we have seen the various gestures and multi touch functionality. Next thing on top of your mind might be how to give keyboard input to the virtual app and desktop session.

Here are the options you can use to invoke soft keyboard inside the session.

1) Keyboard button in the toolbar : You can locate a button in toolbar with keyboard icon to show/hide the soft keyboard. Once the keyboard is shown, you can pan the session and click on any editable area to send keys. The same button can be used to hide the keyboard.

2) Three finger tap : Three finger tap is similar to the keyboard button in the toolbar, as mentioned above, which shows/hides the soft keyboard.

3) Auto keyboard popup: A floating keyboard icon will appear on tapping on any input field inside the session. Clicking on the floating icon shows the soft keyboard.

Admins need to enable the policy using Citrix Studio on DDC to get the auto keyboard popup functionality using the following steps.

1) Open Citrix Studio on DDC.

2) Click on Policies.

3) Click on Create Policy.

4) Search for automatic keyboard display and select the Allowed radio option.

Once the policy is enabled on the DDC, the user can choose to show/hide the auto keyboard floating button real time using the preferences option in toolbar. The selected option is remembered and applied to the  other sessions launched from the same browser.

Now that all the mobility features are covered, let us see how we can work better on devices of small form factors.

Display Resolution: Considering the various form factors of the devices on the market, the session that fits the screen size of the device may not be usable all the time especially in devices of small form factors. An option is provided in the toolbar that lets users change the resolution of the session real time. “Auto Fit Screen” would be the default option and if any other option is selected then it would be remembered and applied to the other sessions (app/desktop) launched from the same browser.

Here’s a brief explanation of the various resolution options provided.

So far, it looks like a fine experience on mobile/tablets platforms. But what if you have hybrid devices like laptops with touch screen? You can still use the touch features, but with some limitations. For example, the soft keyboard options explained earlier only work when the device is in tablet mode. Otherwise, input can be given through the device’s keyboard.

More details on other limitations per browser on such hybrid devices:

Google Chrome

• In tablet mode, soft keyboard can be invoked through keyboard button in toolbar and the floating auto keyboard button.

Mozilla Firefox

• The touch capability is not supported in Firefox browser of Hybrid devices.

MS Edge

• Before launching any app or desktop session on the Edge browse, the touch events should be enabled. To do so open ‘about:flags’ in new tab and change the touch event flag.

  

• In tablet mode, the soft keyboard does not popup in the session from the Edge browser. The workaround is to navigate to any other web page and invoke the soft keyboard. Then go to the session and use the toolbar button/ floating auto keyboard button to invoke the soft keyboard.
• If the soft keyboard is closed via “X” button then follow previous step to invoke the soft keyboard again.

Windows 10 Continuum support

Receiver for HTML5 sessions can also be launched using MS Edge on Continuum device with few recommendations. The Continuum device here is a Windows 10 phone and a dock. If you start the Receiver from mobile, and dock it then you can use it on extended monitor with keyboard/mouse attached. In case the session is started from extended monitor and you want to switch to mobile, suggestion is to re-launch the session from mobile.

Move to the new Receiver for HTML5 from your touch devices. Please share your feedback with us.