104204 - Open url in new tab from command line

Status: RESOLVED WORKSFORME

(SeaMonkey :: Tabbed Browser, enhancement)

Description

[Kevin Wade]

It would be nice to be able to execute a command line which would open a url in
a new tab on the topmost browser window.  If no windows are opened the url would
be opened just as it is now.  Similar to the target=_blank request in bug
103823.  If this is done just slap me and tell me the paramaters.

Comment 1

[[not reading bugmail]]

do we have a tracker for tabbed browser enhancements? 

Comment 2

[Boris Zbarsky [:bzbarsky]]

Yes.  It's called the Tabbed Browser bugzilla component.

ccing blizzard since this sounds like xremote stuff.

Comment 3

[Ashley Bischoff (blog at handcoding.com)]

No dupes found. Marking NEW.

Comment 4

[Jesse Ruderman]

This should be part of the pref to switch between normal and tabbed browsing.  
We can't expect AIM to guess whether you want to open a link in a new window or 
in a tab.

Comment 5

[Captain]

What about the implementation of target="_tab" ?
This could open a new tab and if you're browsing with another browser it opens
just a new window.
Greetings, Captain / Austria

Comment 6

[R.K.Aa.]

*** Bug 105409 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 7

[Kevin Wade]

>What about the implementation of target="_tab" ?
This may be a good idea but it is covered in Bug 105409, which has erroneously
been marked as a duplicate of this one.  This bug deals specifically with
opening a new tab from the command line.  This will allow url's from other
programs to be associated with Mozilla and yet open in a new tab instead of a
new window.

Comment 8

[r0polach]

IMHO target="_tab" is not a good idea - this is not HTML standard. Page creators
does not care if user prefers "new tabs" or "new windows", and users want
control this!

Comment 9

[Grant Bowman]

However the command-line option is specified, this would be a great feature.

Comment 10

[R.K.Aa.]

*** Bug 105891 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 11

[Jonadab the Unsightly One (Nathan Eady)]

The command-line option would be great, because it would allow
for things like having a mail client other than Messenger (e.g., 
Pegasus Mail, or Eudora, or whatever) launch URLs (from those
displayed in email messages) into new tabs -- a big win.

Another possible way to achieve that would be to have a user 
preference to load URLs passed in from other apps in new 
tabs, but the commandline option is interesting in itself
because it would allow one app to utilise one behavior and
another app to do it the other way.  For example, I might
want URLs launched from Pegasus Mail to load in new windows,
but I might want URLs launched from a desktop shortcut to
use a new tab.  Or vice versa.  

Comment 12

[sairuh (rarely reading bugmail)]

spam: set your filter for "SeverusSnape" to avoid the influx of bugmail

changing QA contact of open tabbed browser bugs from blake to me. if this bug
requires a reassignment, however, feel free to change it!

Comment 13

[Niklas Mehner]

*** Bug 114406 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 14

[David Hyatt]

Reassigning to new component owner.

Comment 15

[jag (Peter Annema)]

-> future, helpwanted

Comment 16

[TGOS]

I think there should simply be a preference entry looking like that:

[_] Open URL in a new tab instead of in a new window
[_] Open file in a new tab instead of in a new window

The first is the case that applies when Mozilla is started with the -url
paramter (e.g. if you click onto an URL in an external application).  If the
option is not checked, Mozilla will open a new Window and load the page, the
same way it's doing it now. If the option is checked, Mozilla should take the
latest window (the one you opened most recently), create a new tab there and
load the page in that new tab. If Mozilla can't decide which one is the latest
window (maybe that's not possible), it may take the first window that it finds
of the currently opened ones, create a new tab and load the page there, but the
latest one would be preferable, I guess. This option applies to all URLs that
are displayed within a browser window (HTTP, FTP, etc.)

The same behavior is expected from the second option, but the second option only
applies if you open a file associated with Mozilla (e.g. HTML, XML, as well as
pictures if you have associated them with Mozilla).

Both options should be located under: Preferences -> Navigator -> Tabbed Browsing

There's an extension to IE, that enables tabs within IE and this extension seems
to work like described above for new URLs.

Comment 17

[Robert Wall]

*** Bug 148988 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 18

[Itay Kirshenbaum]

Hmmm.... Is there anything going on with this?

Comment 19

[Jonadab the Unsightly One (Nathan Eady)]

Kirsch:
> Hmmm.... Is there anything going on with this?

Generally when something is targeted for Future, that means 
little or nothing is currently being done with it yet.  The 
assignee may have other bugs that are more urgent.  The 
helpwanted keyword indicates that contributions from
others are welcome, if anyone else has time to work on
it before the assignee.  

Comment 20

[Kevin Wade]

Now that bug 116653 is fixed, this bug and bug 111539 could both be fixed by
simply implementing -remote on Windows (and Mac?) OSes.  I don't quite
understand why this works for X systems but not for others.

Comment 21

[Andrew Hagen]

This looks like bug 121969. That bug has 38 votes to this bug's 13. Both bugs
call for essentially the same thing: a pref that determines whether a new tab or
a new window is opened for URLs called by an external app (be that app a command
line or a GUI program).

Duping to bug 121969. 

Comment 22

[Andrew Hagen]

Duping

*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of 121969 ***

Comment 23

[Kevin Wade]

No.  This bug is about a command-line option to open in a new tab, regardless of
the pref settings.

Comment 24

[Grey Hodge (jX)]

Since Linux gets this via
mozilla -remote "openurl(http://www.mozilla.org, new-tab)"
is there really a lot of arguing and hand wringing about the Right Thing? :)

Comment 25

[timeless]

i don't think a commandline switch is a good idea.

i have a draft of a discussion on this point if people are interested in it.

being able to configure your browser to accept external links and open them in
new tabs is one thing (reasonable), allowing your browser to be inconsistently
used by a wide range of hard to configure external applications is another (...).

Comment 26

[Grey Hodge (jX)]

Granted, it opens a window for potential :abuse: but this potential is far below
the usefulness of this feature. It was implemented on Linux due to the huge
number of developers on Linux desiring an easier way to open links in new tabs.
And seeing as how we _already_ have it in the tree for one OS, there's little
valid argument to implementing it on other OSes.

Comment 27

[Stephan Jaensch]

There is a command line switch available that does just what the reporter wants
(and can do more :-), but it is Unix only:

http://www.mozilla.org/unix/remote.html

If I understand this bug correctly, it is about implementing something like this
on all supported platforms, right?

Comment 28

[Jonas Diemer]

Well, when the bug was reported, there was no "new-tab" option yet.

Comment 29

[Kevin Wade]

Stephan:
As I said in comment #20, implementing -remote for all platforms would resolve
this bug and the similar one for new windows.

Comment 30

[Joey]

It seems the primary argument against this is that the user should be in control
of thier interface, and they can have the option to enable middle-clicking to
create tabs. Well, that is just fine and dandy, _when it is a normal link_. What
about forms? I middle click on a submit button and *voila*... wait no. All that
does is cause it to gain focus.

I believe the best way is to introduce the "_tab" value of the target attribute,
and add a preference, which will decide wether it is treated as intentended, by
opening in a tab, or treated as "_blank".

Many website have messages like "This site requires Internet Explorer", and
while this is rediculous, the option should be available, atleast then a website
can have the option. In a forum, a user could then turn on an option such as
"Open threads in new tabs (requires Mozilla ...)".

I'm all for user choice, but right now, I (as a user) don't have a choice in
some cases.

Cheers,
~nog_lorp

Comment 31

[Greg]

(In reply to comment #8)
> IMHO target="_tab" is not a good idea - this is not HTML standard. Page
> creators
> does not care if user prefers "new tabs" or "new windows", and users want
> control this!
> 

Rubbish! I need control of this to improve usability of a web based admin console. I need several tabs to be kept in sync. I need to open one URL - the console - and then have that open several other tabs and keep them in sync as I navigate the console. (not all uses of browsers are for just perusing the Interweb ;o)

Comment 32

[Jens Hatlak (:InvisibleSmiley)]

(In reply to comment #29)
> Stephan:
> As I said in comment #20, implementing -remote for all platforms would resolve
> this bug and the similar one for new windows.

-remote is working for me on Windows with SeaMonkey 2 nightlies (don't know since when). If someone can confirm the same for Mac, that might qualify for closing this bug.

Comment 33

[Jens Hatlak (:InvisibleSmiley)]

Since the fix for bug 479600 there's -new-tab so this is definitely done. However -remote might have fixed this bug prior to that so I won't mark this as a duplicate but just WORKSFORME.