1270784 - Add ability to reload a tab without confirmation

Status: RESOLVED DUPLICATE of bug 1322485

(WebExtensions :: Untriaged, defect)

Description

[YUKI "Piro" Hiroshi]

This is a request for an extended WebExtensions API.

`chrome.tabs.reload()` ( https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/Add-ons/WebExtensions/API/Tabs/reload ) provides ability to reload existing tabs, but it fails when there is any user input data (to prevent data loss). The confirmation dialog is shown by Firefox itself and there is no way to bypass it from WebExtensions addons. Thus I need a new option to bypass the confirmation.

My XUL-based addon "Reload on Idle" ( https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/reload-on-idle/ ) requires the functionality, because it is needed to decrease memory usage from memory leaks from long-live tabs for internal services. The memory leak problem should be fixed by the vendor of the web service, but it couldn't be done by some reasons...

Comment 1

[Caitlin Neiman [:caitmuenster]]

To be discussed at Jan 10 WebExtensions Triage meeting. 

Agenda: https://docs.google.com/document/d/18K97o1juaHSeYEkes1iMz8AayjuVkUuIK844ErGaa-c/edit#

Comment 2

[Luca Greco [:rpl] [:luca] [:lgreco]]

The use case from Comment 0 (at least the one that the "Reload on Idle" extension seems to need) seems a reasonable and non-controversial scenario, and it also seems to fit into the feature provided by the tabs.discard[1] method (which is not yet supported but it is already tracked by Bug 1322485) and the related Tab properties.

I'm closing this as a duplicate of Bug 1322485, because it provides the feature needed for the use case detailed above, and because "providing a tabs.reload without a confirmation" is not likely to be approved. 

(But this also means that, if there are other reasonable scenarios that are not covered by tabs.discard, we are open to discuss them and open new specific bugzilla issue related to the new use cases identified).

[1]: https://developer.chrome.com/extensions/tabs#method-discard

Comment 3

[YUKI "Piro" Hiroshi]

(In reply to Luca Greco [:rpl] from comment #2)
> The use case from Comment 0 (at least the one that the "Reload on Idle"
> extension seems to need) seems a reasonable and non-controversial scenario,
> and it also seems to fit into the feature provided by the tabs.discard[1]
> method (which is not yet supported but it is already tracked by Bug 1322485)
> and the related Tab properties.
> 
> I'm closing this as a duplicate of Bug 1322485, because it provides the
> feature needed for the use case detailed above, and because "providing a
> tabs.reload without a confirmation" is not likely to be approved. 
> 
> (But this also means that, if there are other reasonable scenarios that are
> not covered by tabs.discard, we are open to discuss them and open new
> specific bugzilla issue related to the new use cases identified).
> 
> [1]: https://developer.chrome.com/extensions/tabs#method-discard
> 
> *** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of bug 1322485 ***

I've read the document of "tabs.discard()" and I thought that it provides different feature.

On my scenario, the tab to be reloaded with no confirmation is must be on the memory always. Exact usecase is: an web-based system for a call center. Each operator opens just an web page while he/she is sitting on his/her seat, to wait calls from customers. And, because the web page has a memory-leak problem. (currently I don't know it is a problem of Firefox itself or the web page itself, but even if it is a bug of the web based system, I have no channel for a feedback to its vendor.) So, sometimes Firefox (and his/her PC) is dead by out-of-memory error after he/she is back from a lunch. Thus I need a way to reload a foreground tab without any confirmation by the operator.

Is it possible to restore a discard tab automatically by regular API usage? For example: `tabs.discard(id, function(tab) { tabs.update(tab.id, { active: true}); })`