1731635 - Add a setting to disable split console

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(DevTools :: Console, enhancement, P3)

Description

[olaf223224]

User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64; rv:92.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/92.0

Steps to reproduce:

1. Set devtools.command-button-splitconsole.enabled and devtools.toolbox.splitconsoleEnabled to false
2. Open the web console by pressing f12
3. Press escape

Actual results:

The split console opened up

Expected results:

Nothing

Comment 1

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

The Bugbug bot thinks this bug should belong to the 'DevTools::Console' component, and is moving the bug to that component. Please revert this change in case you think the bot is wrong.

Comment 2

[Nicolas Chevobbe [:nchevobbe]]

I don't think there's a way to disable the split console at the moment

• devtools.command-button-splitconsole.enabled doesn't seem to be used
• devtools.toolbox.splitconsoleEnabled stores the state of the split console (so we reopen it at startup if it was open in the previous session)

why do you want to disable it?

Comment 3

[olaf223224]

It's annoying to have the console pop up when I press esc (which is used for all sorts of other things). Previously, I swear it was working and I was able to turn it off. I suspect something may have changed in a recent update?

Comment 4

[nezurec]

(In reply to Nicolas Chevobbe [:nchevobbe] from comment #2)

why do you want to disable it?

In my case, I want to disable the split console because I have poor eyesight, and at any comfortable zoom level, there just isn't room on the screen for it, even with the devtools in a detached, maximized window on a 27" monitor. Any time I do something that makes it open (for example, right-click on an element in the Inspector tab and "Use in Console") the screen becomes an unusable mess of squashed panels, and I have to manually close the split console and switch to the Console tab.

Automatically switching to the full Console tab would be a bonus, but just blocking the split console from opening would be a big help.

Comment 5

[Łukasz]

I don't want splitconsole! The "Open in Console" button, etc. buttons, should open the normal Console panel, not splitconsole.

I want an option that changes the action of the "Open in Console" etc buttons.

Comment 6

[Abhijeet Chawla [:ff2400t]]

Hello, I would Like to work on this. Can this be assigned to me?

Comment 7

[Abhijeet Chawla [:ff2400t]]

Attachment: Bug 1731635 Disable Split console in Devtools r=nchevobbe

devtools.command-button-splitconsole.enabled can be used to disable the Split conole in Devtools

Comment 8

[Nicolas Chevobbe [:nchevobbe]]

Thanks! It was assigned when you pushed your patch to phabricator

Comment 9

[Sebastian Zartner [:sebo]]

Looking at a comment in the patch and the comments here, there seem to be two overlapping use cases:

1. Disable the Split Console completely
   I.e. the Escape key does nothing, the different menu options that usually open the Split Console will open the normal Web Console and the entry from the global menu (aka meatball menu) is removed.
2. Stop the Escape key from opening the Split Console but keep the Split Console active
   I.e. the Escape key does nothing but the Split Console is still opened when from the different menu options and can be opened via the global menu.

I think the former should be covered by this bug. The latter is covered by bug 972662 or bug 1116951, which are meant to allow customizing (and removing) the key bindings of the DevTools.

Sebastian

Comment 10

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

The bug assignee is inactive on Bugzilla, so the assignee is being reset.

Comment 11

[Adam Fontenot]

the different menu options that usually open the Split Console will open the normal Web Console and the entry from the global menu (aka meatball menu) is removed

This is what I want, for what it's worth. I find the "use in console" option really frustrating to use on 16:9 laptop screens because it forces open the split console rather than opening the console tab.

I know nothing about Firefox internals, but it seems possible that I could take what's already been written and push it over the line if I can be pointed in the right direction. It's not clear to me exactly what still needs to be done from reading the Phabricator.

Comment 12

[Artem Manushenkov]

I'll take up the torch!

Comment 13

[Artem Manushenkov]

Attachment: Bug 1731635 [devtools] Add option to disable split console r=nchevobbe

Comment 14

[Pulsebot]

Pushed by [e-mail]:
https://hg.mozilla.org/integration/autoland/rev/622bd9520170
[devtools] Add option to disable split console r=nchevobbe,fluent-reviewers,devtools-reviewers,bolsson

Comment 15

[Atila Butkovits]

https://hg.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/rev/622bd9520170

Comment 16

[Donal Meehan [:dmeehan]]

Artem, could you consider nominating this for a release note? If you want to mention it (Process info)
We could include it in the nightly release notes.

Comment 17

[Artem Manushenkov]

Release Note Request
[Why is this notable]: Added an option to disable split console. After disabling it the escape key won't trigger the split console; "use in console" and error counter toolbox button will open the console tab instead.
[Affects Firefox for Android]: none
[Suggested wording]: added an option to disable/enable the devtools split console feature
[Links (documentation, blog post, etc)]:

Comment 18

[Donal Meehan [:dmeehan]]

Thanks, added to the Fx126 nightly release notes, please allow 30 minutes for the site to update.
Keeping the relnote-firefox flag as ? to keep it on the radar for inclusion in the final Fx126 release notes.

Comment 19

[Dipika]

About the dev-doc-needed keyword added here, I was wondering if you're planning to submit a PR for this update on mdn/content, to be published in the Firefox 126 release notes on MDN? I'm asking because Nicolas opened a PR for a DevTools release note update in a previous release.

FYI - I have an issue open to track this update: https://github.com/mdn/content/issues/33179.