111539 - Command line option to open url in existing window (support -remote for Win)

Status: RESOLVED WORKSFORME

(Core Graveyard :: Cmd-line Features, enhancement)

Description

[Kevin Wade]

I would like to open a url in a current browser window from a command line. 
This way I could click desktop links or links in my non-Mozilla mail client and
have them reuse the open browser window.  If no window is open the command would
open a new one.

Comment 1

[Asa Dotzler [:asa]]

->cmd line feature

Comment 2

[John Levon]

WFM, Kevin the way to do it is mozilla -remote "openURL(http://mozilla.org)"
or similar.

If you meant something different to this, please comment. Thanks.

Comment 3

[Kevin Wade]

John, what OS are you using?  This doesn't work for me in Win2k.  I have seen
blurbs about -remote, but maybe it only works on nix boxes.  Perhaps I should
change this bug's OS to "non-*nix".

Comment 4

[John Levon]

My bad. Couldn't find a dupe (!), ->NEW

Comment 5

[Jesse Ruderman]

*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of 75138 ***

Comment 6

[Kevin Wade]

No.  Bug 75138 is wonderful and I would like to see it fixed.  This one is about
controlling the window opening behavior dynamically via the command line, not by
a pref (ie. statically.)  Reopening

Comment 7

[Jesse Ruderman]

Then I disagree with this bug.  With Internet Explorer, AIM opens links in new
windows, Outlook Express reuses windows, and mIRC has a pref whether to reuse
browser windows.  Why should an IRC client have that pref?  We should not
encourage other apps to use commands that specifically open a new window or
reuse an existing window.

Comment 8

[Kevin Wade]

>We should not encourage other apps to use commands that specifically open a new
>window or reuse an existing window.
Apps can't be encouraged; computer users can.  Why shouldn't the user decide how
these things happen?  It's not in any W3C spec I know of.  Besides, we already
do this in other areas.  In *nix versions one can use -remote.  In Windows there
is DDE.  There is no reason why I shouldn't be able to have shortcuts open in
existing windows and mail links open in new windows.  Eventually this capability
should extend to tabs as well.

Comment 9

[Jesse Ruderman]

Kevin, I think we agree that the user should have control, but disagree about
how to give the user control.  I think having an option in the browser (bug
75138) is the best way to give the user control, because it doesn't require the
user to tweak prefs in every app to get each app to cooperate.  Having
command-line options for "reuse window", etc. would make it more likely for app
authors to make /their/ personal preferences the default for their apps, and
would also make it more likely for app authors to include unnecessary options in
their apps.

Comment 10

[Brian 'netdragon' Bober]

Attachment: An example of an application giving you options

Here is a screenshot showing how an application can take advantage of multiple
command-line options. I will choose a different option based on whether I want
to save what's in the frontmost Mozilla window or not.

Please mark NEW. Get this off the uncomfirmed list.

Comment 11

[Brian 'netdragon' Bober]

I' confirming this because I believe its a valid request. If a developer doesn't
think so, then he or she can change its resolution to WONTFIX, etc, but this
doesn't belong on the uncomfirmed list.

Comment 12

[Jesse Ruderman]

Netdemon: in comment 9 I said Mozilla should disourage other apps from including
what should be Mozilla preferences in their preferences.  Your screenshot shows
an application making "open link in Mozilla" a submenu of the context menu where
each item in the context menu should be a Mozilla pref, which is even worse than
having a misplaced pref.  I don't understand why you think the screenshot is an
argument for Mozilla to support specific command-line options like "open in
existing window" or "open in a new tab in an existing window"; I think it's a
great argument against having those command-line options.

Comment 13

[Brian 'netdragon' Bober]

Sorry, I don't quite understand what you are getting at. :-(

Comment 14

[Davor Cubranic]

Jesse, I think your comment is irrelevant on Unix because this functionality is
already there through the "-remote" options in the command line. Bug 158172
addresses the lack of this functionality on other OS's.

Comment 15

[timeless]

davor: just because something has been implemented doesn't mean it was the right
thing to do. I agree with jesse, I should be able to specify in mozilla what
hpapens when an app gives mozilla an url.

The reason is pretty simple, I don't want to get five applications say aim, icq,
mirc, outlook, and realplayer each having either a pref to decide how to control
my browser or just have made the decision about how to abuse my browser.

Suppose for fun that i had two mozilla profiles, in one I like to open links in
new windows and in another I like to open links in new tabs. If you hardcode the
newtab option into the registry, then the fact that a mozilla profile wants to
have a preference won't work, because you've created a feature which causes the
external agent (like a webpage) to dictate how the web browser should behave.

we shouldn't do this. just like we shouldn't let webpages call window.openTab()
[which doesn't exist, but you can guess what it would do].

Comment 16

[Davor Cubranic]

Does this mean if on Windows an application executes something like "rundll32
url.dll,FileProtocolHandler <url>", there is a Mozilla preference whether it
will open a new window, a new tab, or reuse an existing window? That would be
useful.

And we may be talking purely about personal preferences here, because I would
prefer to have at least an option to have per-application control of how they
interact with Mozilla to open Web pages. For example, when I click on a link in
my mailer, I like to just open a new tab; but when say an IDE uses Mozilla to
browse its help system, I want it in a separate window.

It sounds like you would prefer to get this kind of behaviour through using
different profiles. I'm not too keen on that solution because other than opening
urls I want to keep all of my other preferences, bookmarks, and cache across
those profiles.

Comment 17

[Benjamin Smedberg]

External links are now handled using browser preferences.

Comment 18

[Kevin Wade]

Not that I care anymore, but external links have been handled by preferences for a long time.  That's not what this bug was about, as addressed in comment #6.  It is about telling Mozilla how to open links specified on the command-line on Windows.  More generally it would include all of the -remote options that are available on non-Windows platforms.

I won't re-open, as it should probably be closed as 'wontfix' anyway.