1205711 - Add Settings preference to control PB/normal mode of externally opened links

Status: RESOLVED WONTFIX

(Firefox for Android Graveyard :: Settings and Preferences, defect)

Description

[:Margaret Leibovic]

In bug 1065004, we added a preference to always open external links in private tabs. Let's explore making this into a tri-state pref that also has an "ask me every time" option.

I'll try making a prototype. Anthony, do you have thoughts on the UX here? Should we just use a regular system prompt? Should I just ignore how this will interact with tab queues?

Comment 1

[Anthony Lam (:antlam) Find me, @antlam on Slack!]

(In reply to :Margaret Leibovic from comment #0)
> In bug 1065004, we added a preference to always open external links in
> private tabs. Let's explore making this into a tri-state pref that also has
> an "ask me every time" option.

I'm thinking just a dialog that has 3 options inside. Similar to the "Tabs" pref under Customize

For the copy, I think this makes sense. But we can definitely revisit later.

"Open links in Private browsing"
A: "Always"
B: "Choose each time"
C: "Never"

> I'll try making a prototype. Anthony, do you have thoughts on the UX here?
> Should we just use a regular system prompt? Should I just ignore how this
> will interact with tab queues?

Yes to both for now. Since this is just a proof of concept I think this is enough.

Comment 2

[:Margaret Leibovic]

Attachment: MozReview Request: Bug 1205711 - (WIP) Add option to choose whether an external link opens in a private or regular tab

Bug 1205711 - (WIP) Add option to choose whether an external link opens in a private or regular tab

Comment 3

[:Margaret Leibovic]

I tried hacking together a brute-force solution, but I encountered a problem where it appears that the Tabs instance isn't attached to a valid context when I'm trying to create a prompt, so the app crashes.

10-05 19:38:46.093    7857-7857/org.mozilla.fennec_leibovic E/GeckoCrashHandler﹕ >>> REPORTING UNCAUGHT EXCEPTION FROM THREAD 1 ("main")
    android.view.WindowManager$BadTokenException: Unable to add window -- token null is not for an application
            at android.view.ViewRootImpl.setView(ViewRootImpl.java:566)
            at android.view.WindowManagerGlobal.addView(WindowManagerGlobal.java:282)
            at android.view.WindowManagerImpl.addView(WindowManagerImpl.java:85)
            at android.app.Dialog.show(Dialog.java:298)
            at android.app.AlertDialog$Builder.show(AlertDialog.java:993)
            at org.mozilla.gecko.Tabs$6.run(Tabs.java:873)
            at android.os.Handler.handleCallback(Handler.java:739)
            at android.os.Handler.dispatchMessage(Handler.java:95)
            at android.os.Looper.loop(Looper.java:135)
            at android.app.ActivityThread.main(ActivityThread.java:5254)
            at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Native Method)
            at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:372)
            at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit$MethodAndArgsCaller.run(ZygoteInit.java:903)
            at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit.main(ZygoteInit.java:698)

I also found that loadUrl expects to return a Tab instance, but we can't do that if we're waiting on the user to decide what type of tab to create.

Hopefully I can find some more time to investigate this week.

Comment 4

[Anthony Lam (:antlam) Find me, @antlam on Slack!]

Revisiting comment 1, I think "Open links in Private browsing" is too hard to read. It also doesn't align too well with the Google settings writing guidelines. 

I think this works better:

"Links from other apps"
A: "Open in Private Browsing"
B: "Choose each time"
C: "Open in a new tab"

Comment 5

[Anthony Lam (:antlam) Find me, @antlam on Slack!]

Thinking about this some more, I think there's still room to simplify. Also, considering that this will sit next to our other "link handling" pref "Open multiple links" under General...

Open links from other apps
 - In a private tab
 - Ask each time
 - In a new tab

Comment 6

[Sebastian Kaspari (:sebastian; :pocmo)]

We removed this setting in bug 1232467.

Comment 8

[ildar.mulyukov]

Guys, what about making _additional_ shortcut/whatever so that a user could open links in a Private Tab? People care about privacy more each year, you know.
BTW, that would make having Focus unnecessary. Having two Firefox browsers is kinda too many IMHO.

Comment 9

[ildar.mulyukov]

?

Comment 10

[Chenxia Liu [:liuche]]

Thanks for you input, ildar - the setting you're suggesting is actually the exact one that was removed in bug 1232467, I assume due to lack of use.