1623856 - Shift-clicking the refresh button does not duplicate page in a new window

Status: REOPENED

(Firefox :: Tabbed Browser, enhancement)

Description

[Lionel Wong]

User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Ubuntu; Linux x86_64; rv:73.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/73.0

Steps to reproduce:

Shift-click on the Refresh button.

Actual results:

The page refreshes and nothing else.

Expected results:

The page should be duplicated in a new window.

Why is this expected? Ctrl-click on the Refesh button predictably duplicates the page in a new tab. Both ctrl-click (open in new tab) and shift-click (open in new window) work as expected on various browser elements: Home, Back, Forward buttons, bookmarks and bookmark folders.

Comment 1

[Xidorn Quan [:xidorn] UTC+10]

So it seems that shift-click reload button actually triggers a different behavior that reload skipping cache, which matches the behavior of shift-ctrl-r. It's not clear to me which behavior is more useful and which one user would expect.

I'd prefer we switch it to open in new window as it matches the behavior of other buttons around it. People aware of cache mechanism and wants to trigger it can still use the shortcut or via devtools.

Comment 2

[Xidorn Quan [:xidorn] UTC+10]

Attachment: Bug 1623856 - Make shift-click reload button open a new window. r?dao

Comment 3

[Xidorn Quan [:xidorn] UTC+10]

In addition to being consistent with other buttons around, I think duplicating page in a new window can also be used more frequently for certain users than cache-skipping reload (developers may need the later more, but they can easily have that behavior via devtools).

My use case for this is that I want to have my note-taking app which I pinned duplicate in a separate window, so that I can drag it to a different monitor and take note while I'm reading an article. There is currently no easy way to do that, and I have to duplicate it then move it to a new window.

Comment 4

[Dão Gottwald [:dao]]

While I agree with your reasoning, this will probably irritate a few users that are used to the current behavior. Can you please make sure we add a release note for this?

Comment 5

[Xidorn Quan [:xidorn] UTC+10]

(In reply to Dão Gottwald [::dao] from comment #4)

While I agree with your reasoning, this will probably irritate a few users that are used to the current behavior. Can you please make sure we add a release note for this?

Could you suggest how I can do that?

Comment 6

[Xidorn Quan [:xidorn] UTC+10]

Release Note Request (optional, but appreciated)
[Why is this notable]: it changes the behavior of shift-clicking the reload button
[Affects Firefox for Android]: no
[Suggested wording]: Shift-clicking the reload button now duplicate the current page in a new window, matching the shift key behavior on buttons around it, rather than reloading with cache skipped. Cache-skipping reload can still be triggered via the keyboard shortcut Ctrl-Shift-R.
[Links (documentation, blog post, etc)]: n/a

Comment 7

[Pulsebot]

Pushed by [e-mail]:
https://hg.mozilla.org/integration/autoland/rev/809409c1751f
Make shift-click reload button open a new window. r=dao

Comment 8

[Andreea Pavel [:apavel]]

https://hg.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/rev/809409c1751f

Comment 9

[drJeckyll]

I have to use mozregression to discover this bug and see that long time behavior is changing.

Still I struggle to find any reason whatsoever why refresh button will open new tab or window. Refresh action is for CURRENT opened site/page. It doesn't move you from/to another page or site. It just do a page refresh. Shift+refresh was working that way since ... forever. Now it open new window. Why?

"Ctrl-click on the Refesh button predictably duplicates the page in a new tab." - Never knew it do that (my fault). But I see no reason why it should do that too. Why anyone will be thinking that if holding Ctrl down and clicking on refresh will get duplicate tab? No reason. "shift-click (open in new window) work as expected on various browser elements: Home, Back, Forward" - all these move you away from current page. But Refresh doesn't.

Also if you right click on tab there is "Duplicate tab" - predictable and how it must be done. End of story. No real need to put un-intuitive actions hidden somewhere. May be must be considered keyboard shortcut for Duplicate tab.

Now back to Shift+refresh. Yes I know that Shift+Ctrl+R works, but please enlighten me where I can find that same action in menus or context menu? Then we have F5 which do Refresh, but ... Shift+F5 is opening Performance monitor. Ahaa you think when Shift+F5 don't to full refresh, then it must be Shift+Refresh. Right? No. Doing it no matter if it is from toolbar or context menu will open you a new window. Very "intuitive". It looks like now only way to do full refresh is with Shift+Ctrl+R which require to do a funky motion with your hand, or use both hands. No way to do full refresh with mouse or mouse and keyboard.

In the end all this is a big mess.

Please, consider revert that change. If you still go on with that, then please put a switch to revert original action in about:config. Or better - remove Ctrl+Refresh action, put back Shift+Refresh to do full refresh and be consistent. Still putting these actions (Ctrl+Refresh and Shift+Refresh) in about:config like two different switches will be best solution. User can decide what he prefer.

Thank you

Comment 10

[Xidorn Quan [:xidorn] UTC+10]

"Ctrl-click on the Refesh button predictably duplicates the page in a new tab." - Never knew it do that (my fault). But I see no reason why it should do that too. Why anyone will be thinking that if holding Ctrl down and clicking on refresh will get duplicate tab? No reason. "shift-click (open in new window) work as expected on various browser elements: Home, Back, Forward" - all these move you away from current page. But Refresh doesn't.

I think it's very intuitive. Reload is loading the current page (again) in the current tab, thus Ctrl-reload is loading the current page in a new tab (i.e. duplicate page), and logically Shift-reload should be loading the current page in a new window.

One thing I don't quite get is why people wants refresh with cache skipped so much. It seems to be something you would likely only use during development, while devtools have explicit option to disable cache consistently, saving the trouble of using a shortcut every time.

I also have found behavior of shift-ctrl-r confusing sometimes, as sometimes the skipping cache refresh works but a further non-skipping cache refresh may bring back the old cache, and it has (or had) some problems with serviceworkers so most of time I figured that the right thing to fix loading problem on a website is usually to go to about:serviceworkers to unregister the website...

May I ask could you explain what's your use case for "full refresh"? Why do you need it and want it to work from the reload button?

Comment 11

[drJeckyll]

"I think it's very intuitive. Reload is loading the current page (again) in the current tab, thus Ctrl-reload is loading the current page in a new tab (i.e. duplicate page), and logically Shift-reload should be loading the current page in a new window." - In my previous comment I already explain why. BTW no other browser is doing that.

"One thing I don't quite get is why people wants refresh with cache skipped so much. It seems to be something you would likely only use during development, while devtools have explicit option to disable cache consistently, saving the trouble of using a shortcut every time." - You don't need to be developer to use it. It was that way forever and in my opinion should stay that way. At least put a option to be disabled and revert to old behavior. If you are dealing with people which open page by typing it's URL in Google instead in location bar, then you may found many reasons not to brake this.

"I also have found behavior of shift-ctrl-r confusing sometimes, as sometimes the skipping cache refresh works but a further non-skipping cache refresh may bring back the old cache, and it has (or had) some problems with serviceworkers so most of time I figured that the right thing to fix loading problem on a website is usually to go to about:serviceworkers to unregister the website..." - Then fix the browser. Not hide something which you think is broken.

"May I ask could you explain what's your use case for "full refresh"? Why do you need it and want it to work from the reload button?" - No matter if you call it "full refresh" or "reload" it's the same. And it MUST be on that same button, which is called "Reload current page". For duplicate pages there is right click on tab "Duplicate tab". Well you can put on that Shift, Ctrl or whatever you want. Or put new button for tab/page duplicate. Or whatever ... just don't break something which was there since forever and put something which no other browser do with no way to be reverted (like switch in about:config).

Thank you

Comment 12

[Albert Scheiner [:alberts]]

I think it's very intuitive

I beg to differ.

"Ctrl-click on the Refesh button predictably duplicates the page in a new tab." - Never knew it do that

Neither did I.

Shift+refresh was working that way since ... forever. Now it open new window. Why?

That ...

BTW no other browser is doing that.

... and that.

(Fair to tag as #me-too and hide, but I wanted to comment after seeing the relnote tracking flag and I really, really hope this is going to get reverted before)

Comment 13

[Sebastian Hengst [:aryx] (needinfo me if it's about an intermittent or backout)]

Backed out as discussed in bug 1659473 because the old behavior is widely used by developers:

https://hg.mozilla.org/integration/autoland/rev/b20325c1336945fb04176e72b69accc156bb8776

Comment 14

[BugBot [:suhaib / :marco/ :calixte]]

The following patch is waiting for review from an inactive reviewer:

ID	Title	Author	Reviewer Status
D86464	Bug 1623856 - Make shift-click reload button open a new window. r?dao	xidorn	dao: Resigned from review

:xidorn, could you please find another reviewer or abandon the patch if it is no longer relevant?

For more information, please visit auto_nag documentation.

Comment 15

[Xidorn Quan [:xidorn] UTC+10]

Abandoned.