232172 - Make link modifiers work on the home button

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(Firefox :: Toolbars and Customization, enhancement)

Description

[Steffen Wilberg]

I'd like the home button to behave somewhat like a bookmark on the bookmarks
toolbar: It should open a new tab (or several, if you have multiple homepages)
upon middle-clicking or ctrl-left-clicking.

Comment 1

[Steffen Wilberg]

To be complete and consistent, shift-left-click that button should open a new
window just like ctrl-n does.

Comment 2

[Steffen Wilberg]

Attachment: patch

Use the new function BrowserHomeClick to take care of mouseclicks.
I also simplified the loadOneOrMoreURIs function: It's not necessary to check
if there are multiple homepages. The code used for those works fine for single
homepages as well.

loadOneOrMoreURIs is called from BrowserHomeClick in case of simple
left-clicks.
Upon shift-left-clicks, OpenBrowserWindow() is called, that's just like
pressing ctrl-n.
Upon middle-clicks or ctrl-left-clicks, BrowserHomeClick uses code that is
derived from loadOneOrMoreURIs. It adds a new tab for your homepage, or
multiple tabs if you have more than one.

I don't think it's worth respecting "browser.tabs.opentabfor.middleclick". It's
set to true by default on all platforms and I can't imagine anyone setting that
to false.

Do Macs use different buttons?

Comment 3

[Steffen Wilberg]

Comment on attachment 139891 [details] [diff] [review]
patch

>+  if (aEvent.button == 1 || (aEvent.button == 0 && aEvent.ctrlKey)) { // middle-click or left-click and ctrl
I'll replace "left-click and ctrl" with "ctrl-left-click" in the next revision.

Comment 4

[Steffen Wilberg]

Comment on attachment 139891 [details] [diff] [review]
patch

Pierre, what do you think?

Comment 5

[Jesse Ruderman]

This is a dup of bug 197304.

Comment 6

[Simon Paquet [:sipaq]]

*** Bug 197304 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 7

[Pierre Chanial]

Wouldn't it be possible to reuse/refactor the code that loads what's in the urlbar?

Comment 8

[Steffen Wilberg]

Pierre, I don't think so. When you submit an url in the urlbar by hitting enter
or clicking the go-button, handleURLBarCommand is called, which calls
canonizeUrl and BrowserLoadURL, all in browser.js. These functions don't support
opening multiple pages at once, which is what we need for multiple homepages.
And BrowserLoadURL only checks for alt-enter to open a new tab. But we need
middle-click and ctrl-left-click here.

I thought about bookmarks code, but bookmarks don't support multiple pages
either. And we don't need that support in bookmarks, do we?

Comment 9

[Steffen Wilberg]

Comment on attachment 139891 [details] [diff] [review]
patch

Blake, what do you think?

Comment 10

[Josh]

My only problem with this is that it introduces a rather large UI inconsistency.
The Home button would support Middle click/shift click, ect, but the other
navigation toolbar buttons would not. I personally think that if open in new
tab/new window functions are going to be added to Navbar buttons, it should be
done to all of them (like MozFBRH does) or none of them (left to extensions). 

Comment 11

[Gids Goldberg]

I am in agreement with Comment 10, though if the devs agree I think we should
either change the summary of this bug to cover all navigation bar items, or
create a new bug to cover buttons other than the home button.  
What do people suggest?

Comment 12

[Daniel Jackson]

I think this behaviour would be fantastic for all the buttons -- and also the
back/forward drop-downs.  

I've used MozFBRH extension and think this is exactly the sort of tiny
improvement that the base browser should have, every user should benefit! (In
particular, Shift+left-click refresh acts like Ctrl+N in IE, forking your
browser session from the current page).

One thing to note, is that Ctrl+click refresh already means "force reload" --
(have to use Shift+Ctrl+click instead?)

Comment 13

[Petey]

I am in full agreement with comment 12 and would like to add that the throbber
(which links to the firefox site) should have this function as well.

Comment 14

[Steffen Wilberg]

I can implement this for other buttons as well, but I'd like to a word from a
dev first that this would be acceptable (not wontfix). My patch for the home
button is already 2 months old.

Comment 15

[Simon Paquet [:sipaq]]

The throbber is no navigational toolbar item (even though it links to the
firefox page by default). It is a branding item, which also shows loading activity.

Do not add middle-click, ctrl-left-click and shift-left-click action to the
throbber.

Comment 16

[Max Spicer]

*** Bug 239437 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 17

[Jesse Ruderman]

*** Bug 240624 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 18

[Steffen Wilberg]

Attachment: patch v1.1

The comment change I promised in comment 3.

Comment 19

[Steffen Wilberg]

Comment on attachment 149227 [details] [diff] [review]
patch v1.1

Ben, this makes the home button behave like a bookmark on the bookmarks
toolbar. Also works for multiple homepages. It doesn't change anything visual,
it just makes the button more powerful.
Explanation is in comment 2.

Comment 20

[Walter K.]

Bug 198028 is requesting similar functionality for Go button.

Comment 21

[Steffen Wilberg]

Comment on attachment 149227 [details] [diff] [review]
patch v1.1

I want to make use of the functions Jesse proposed in his patch for bug 246719.
-> Removing review request.

Comment 22

[Steffen Wilberg]

Adding dependency to bug 246719 therefore.

Comment 23

[Steffen Wilberg]

Attachment: patch v1.2 - use new functions

This patch uses whereToOpenLink() and mimics openUILinkIn(), introduced by
Jesse in bug bug 246719. All the link modifiers work for single and multiple
homepages. I limited saving to the first homepage though.

Comment 24

[Steffen Wilberg]

Attachment: patch v1.3 - fix js warning: redeclaration of var urls

I hate these js strict warnings, so I shouldn't introduce another.

Comment 25

[Steffen Wilberg]

Attachment: patch v1.4: fix oops

Comment 26

[Steffen Wilberg]

Trunk checkin: 2004-07-16 09:32
Branch checkin: 2004-07-16 09:39
Fixed!

Comment 27

[Ryan Polk (Quark)]

*** Bug 262432 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***