447646 - click, hold and release middle button on history to open new tab

Status: RESOLVED INACTIVE

(Firefox :: Address Bar, enhancement, P5)

Description

[mouz]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.9) Gecko/2008061015 Firefox/3.0
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.9) Gecko/2008061015 Firefox/3.0

1- If you left-click on the dropdown button to the right of the URL bar, and then click on an URL, you're taken to that address.

2 - If you click on the button, then MIDDLE-CLICK on the URL, firefox opens it on a new tab.

Something I usually do is clicking the dropdown button and keep pressed, then release the button when I'm over the desired URL that allows me to perform operation no.1 with just one click.

I would like to be able to perform operation no.2 with just one click too, that is, MIDDLE-CLICKING the dropdown button and keep pressed, then release when I'm over the desired URL to open it on a new tab. But it seems middle-clicking the dropdown button has no effect at all.

This bug was originally filed by David Prieto on the ubuntu bugtracker at https://launchpad.net/bugs/239926.

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. middle click and hold the dropdown history button at the right of the URL bar

Actual Results:  
nothing happens

Expected Results:  
a. History shows (as if left mouse button was clicked).
b. Pointer can be moved down to chosen URL in the history shown, while holding middle button.
c. Releasing middle button at chosen URL opens URL in new tab.

Comment 1

[Alexander Sack]

Middle clicking on drop down buttons or menu items doesn't activate items in UI atm. But location bar has a special middle mouse semantic anyway, so I don't think this is an invalid request. confirming.

Comment 2

[Mike Connor [:mconnor]]

Not sure I have a reason to WONTFIX outright, but certainly nowhere near a priority.

Comment 3

[Adam]

Attachment: Proposed, exceedingly simple patch

All this does is adds a duplicate XBL:handler that specifies button="1".  This allows the history popup to be displayed while holding, and on release over an item it opens in a new tab.

Comment 4

[:Gavin Sharp [email: [e-mail]]]

Comment on attachment 524711 [details] [diff] [review]
Proposed, exceedingly simple patch

Rather than doing this, I'd just remove the "button" attribute on the existing handler in favor of code that checks (event.button == 0 || event.button == 1).

But I'm not sure it makes sense to do this at all, it doesn't seem like a common or discoverable UI behavior. Do any other dropdown lists behave this way on any platform or in other browsers?

Comment 5

[Adam]

Both Nautilus and Epiphany behave this way for their Bookmarks menus.  They also respond to ctrl+click, which the awesome bar already supports.  I'm not aware of this behavior on other platforms or browsers, however.

The feature fits well with the semantics of using middle-mouse to create new tabs, as well as adding consistency to the interface (wherever a user can ctrl+click, they should be able to middle-click).

There is a general need for better discovery for UI generally (as evinced by frequent  user discussions about features found by chance), but this feature does not seem to make that problem better or worse.

Comment 6

[fawer]

Bug 505236 is related if it resolves with a patch. Maybe.

Comment 7

[BMO Automation]

Per policy at https://wiki.mozilla.org/Bug_Triage/Projects/Bug_Handling/Bug_Husbandry#Inactive_Bugs. If this bug is not an enhancement request or a bug not present in a supported release of Firefox, then it may be reopened.