9274 - Allow opening multiple new URLs in new windows at once. (need a way to open many links in new tabs at once)

Status: RESOLVED WONTFIX

(SeaMonkey :: UI Design, enhancement)

Description

[Matthew Tuck [:CodeMachine]]

I often have a whole heap of links on a web page I want to open at the same
time.  It would be useful to be able to do this.

I think this could be done in three ways:

(a) Open all links on a page.  Quick for the user to choose a menu option, but
you might not want to open them all.
(b) Open all the links in the selection.
(c) Open all the links in a 2D drag square (like you would select files on Win95
or Mac).  This has the advantage that you have more control than with the
selection.

One example where I might want to do this is in the dependent bugs section in
Bugzilla - to open all of the dependent bugs in a new window.  (b) would be
adequate in this and the majority of situations.

Comment 1

[leger]

I don't think this is doable...don?

Comment 2

[Matthew Tuck [:CodeMachine]]

As it technically infeasible or not for this version?

Comment 3

[Matthew Tuck [:CodeMachine]]

How is this a networking issue, other than the fact it is about URLs?

Comment 4

[leger]

Bulk move of all Networking-Core (to be deleted component) bugs to new
Networking component.

Comment 5

[Jesse Ruderman]

I also think this would be useful, but often my bunches of links are in a text 
file that I have open with notepad. It would be nice to be able to dump my 
clipboard selection into something that looks for URLs and then opens a bunch 
of browser windows.

Either way (browser selection or from clipboard), mozilla should tell you how 
many windows it's going to open first.

Comment 6

[Jesse Ruderman]

*** Bug 33335 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 7

[Paul MacQuiddy]

spam, changing qa contact from paulmac to [e-mail] on networking/RDF 
bugs

Comment 8

[Jesse Ruderman]

With bug 33334 (and bug 33335, which turned out to be a dup of this bug), I was 
hoping that this feature would be available from text files as well, since text 
files are my preferred format for moving medium-sized lists of urls around.  

By the way... is there an rfe for "2D drag square" somewhere?

Comment 9

[Matthew T (active 1999-2002)]

UI bits:
* Implement an XP flag which sets the platform-specific flags in the native file
  dialogs for allowing the selection of more than one file in the file dialog at
  once.
* In the same position as a link has `Open in New Window' in its context menu, a
  selection including one or more links should have `Open Selected Links' (or
  something like that) in its context menu.

Jesse: Strictly-rectangular selection would be horribly difficult to implement, 
and given the inherent structure of HTML files I think it wouldn't really be 
necessary for this bug.

Comment 10

[don]

Move to "Future" milestone.

Comment 11

[Viswanath Ramachandran]

Since Don has left, Vishy is taking his bugs in bulk, pending reassignment.
thanks,
	Vishy

Comment 12

[Matthew Tuck [:CodeMachine]]

I won't agree that a rectangular selection would not be useful as I've seen
situations where it would be, but an open links in selection would be a good 90%
hit and much better bang for buck.

Comment 13

[Jesse Ruderman]

Here's a bookmarklet that opens links in the selection in new windows:
http://www.squarefree.com/bookmarklets/powersurfing.html#open_selected_links
Note that the current version of this bookmarklet doesn't work on framed pages.

See also bug 15176, "Enhanced context menu for selected text".  It might make 
sense to include "open all selected links" on the context menu for a selection, 
and maybe to gray it out when no links are in the selection.

Comment 14

[Blake Ross]

Taking.

Comment 15

[benc]

mass move, v2.
qa to me.

Comment 16

[benc]

Is this really a networking feature?

Comment 17

[Jesse Ruderman]

-> XP Apps, but leaving blake as the owner.

Comment 18

[Matthew Tuck [:CodeMachine]]

If bug #39042 was implemented you could do this on text files in the browser.

Comment 19

[Blake Ross]

I don't think the average user wants to do this often enough that it's worth
exposing in the UI.

Comment 20

[sairuh (rarely reading bugmail)]

see my comment in bug 4778...

Comment 21

[Matthew T (active 1999-2002)]

*** Bug 131542 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 22

[Hixie (not reading bugmail)]

Reopening since my bug was marked a dup of this one.

Regardless of all the comments above, it is still tedious for me to open 30
pages at once, something I do many times _daily_ when looking at changes in
Bugzilla.

Computers are supposed to stop things being tedious.

Comment 23

[John Levon]

*** Bug 134534 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 24

[John Levon]

The bug I just duped suggests (d) use control-click, but I don't think
this is a good idea :)

Comment 25

[Hixie (not reading bugmail)]

*** Bug 127492 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 26

[Jason Bassford]

Should add to this bug the option to open all links / multiple links in new tabs
(in addition to just new windows).

Comment 27

[Stephen Walker]

*** Bug 162105 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 28

[dcary]

I agree this would be a cool feature. Many times I'm searching for information
on Google or Teoma , and I want to open *all* the results.

Perhaps this feature should use the
``Edit | Preferences | Navigator | Tabbed Browsing | Middle-click or control-click''
preference.
In other words, if the user has middle-click set up to open in a new tab,
then when the user activates ``open-all-links'',
that causes Mozilla to open all the selected links in new tabs (rather than new
windows).

Given that the user has already copied a fistful of URIs out of some text
editor, I think the most intuitive action would be for him to paste them into
the location bar and hit enter, exactly the same as just pasting 1 URI.

Comment 29

[Jason Bassford]

*** Bug 174856 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 30

[Henrik Lynggaard Hansen]

I have just found the Linky extension: http://linky.mozdev.org/

It seems to do most of what you want, so perhaps it would be better to extends
that, then trying to get this into the mozilla core.

esp. with regards to the new roadmap

Comment 31

[Hixie (not reading bugmail)]

I'm already using Linky. I still think it would be nice to have the one feature
in the core, even if the overly complex Linky is available for power users.

Comment 32

[Emad]

Attachment: jhjkdfshfhjsdfhjkhsdfk

Comment 33

[Stefan Borggraefe]

*** Bug 226683 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 34

[Jesse Ruderman]

See also bug 228110, which suggests adding this feature to Page Info's Links tab
(rather than adding it to the context menus for content-area selections).

Comment 35

[Bruce A. Wittmeier]

When you select more than one link to open, the last link is not included in the
set.  Seems the 0 - last count is 1 less than the total.

Comment 36

[Nigel McFarlane]

I just realised the workflow I've been looking for here. Use of
the current selection or of a rubberband doesn't sound right to me.

A better metaphor IMHO is picking cans from a supermarket shelf,
a sort of cherry-picking or shopping metaphor, or alternately
a sort of paint-brush touch-up metaphor. It goes like this:

1. Start the selection process, either with a modified mouse-click or
   by left-clicking a toggling toolbar icon.
2. Left click, left click, left click on links I'm interested in.
   None of them open. Clicked links gain style information.
3. End the selection process, either by clicking off-link, or by
   unclicking the toolbar toggle.
4. Mozilla then auto-opens the styled links in new windows or
   in tabs, whichever I've got as a preference.

Strengths of this approach:

* duplicates a mouse gesture users might be familiar with from
  desktop folder windows, or from word processing or image editing.

* doesn't overload the context menu.

* I can scroll down at my speed and pick links that were off-screen;
  I don't have to rely on selection-extension scrolling, which is
  sometimes a slippery beast to control. That gesture drives me
  nuts with its uncontrollability.

* I can pick non-contiguous links (the ones I really want).

* If I'm on dial-up (an ordinary user), I don't want to
  open up everything just in case it's interesting. My line
  will choke.  This gives me better selectivity.

* Could be extended to include rubber-band gestures as well.

* This would help accessibility too. Accessibility users could
  pick their links as the page is read or magnified, to be opened
  once they've considered the whole page. They don't have to
  read the whole page each time they want to find a link.

Separate bug: If I choose heaps of links or windows, and I'm on
dialup, I don't want to have to cycle through the windows to see
if they're done yet. I want progressmeters in a floating window,
like the download manager, but "always on top" until the windows
are loaded. Then it auto-closes.

"shopping trolley for interesting links" ?

- N.

Comment 37

[Gérard Talbot]

Can someone clarify the summary: as written, it's not clear (expected results)
how many links should be opened? in new windows or in new tabs?

Comment 38

[John Mellor (Jomel)]

imho the cleanest thing to do would be to replace "open link in new window" and
"open link in new tab" on the right click menu for a link which is part of a
selection containing 2 or more links (we already have a special right-click menu
for links which are part of a selection).

This would directly allow doing (b),
and indirectly allow doing (a) - just Ctrl+A to Select All then do this
(c) would be possible if ever rectangular selections were made possible, which
should be a different bug (though strangely I can't find it)
This approach would also allow you to do comment 36 style 'cherry-picking' by
Ctrl+selecting to select multiple sections of text, then doing this.
All without adding clutter.

Note I'm assuming a few things are equivalent in the Suite, but I've only
actually used Firefox.

See also the recent Firefox version of this: bug 306180

Comment 39

[Worcester12345]

(In reply to comment #5)
> I also think this would be useful, but often my bunches of links are in a text 
> file that I have open with notepad. It would be nice to be able to dump my 
> clipboard selection into something that looks for URLs and then opens a bunch 
> of browser windows.

Doesn't MS Word do this?

Comment 40

[Worcester12345]

Something like Jesse's "Thumbs" extension does for image thumbnails, only for
html links.

Comment 41

[loser23]

Related to Comment #28:
With G4 1.5 Gig Powerbook, Mac OSX 10.4.3, SeaMonkey 1, I cannot open tabbed links using the contextual menu alternative of control-click. Most likely choices in Contextual Pop-Up Window are Expand and Open in New Window, neither of which open the links in tabs. 

Comment 42

[John Mellor (Jomel)]

[e-mail], please don't use the remove CCs feature without good reason.
It applies to the whole bug, not just your post...
(everyone else, sorry to add bugspam)

Comment 43

[Worcester12345]

WONTFIX?

Comment 44

[Rainer Bielefeld]

After 21 years, due to the normative power of the factual: WONTFIX

Interesting approach might be "Writing a Firefox addon to open links on a page".

I did not find an existing FF- or SM-Addon, but my search was not very intensive.

Comment 45

[Worcester12345]

(In reply to Worcester12345 from comment #43)

WONTFIX?

(In reply to Rainer Bielefeld from comment #44)

After 21 years, due to the normative power of the factual: WONTFIX

This would have been useful. Oh well.