1800499 - WebExtension toolbox is forced to open in a separate window instead of a tab

Status: NEW

(DevTools :: General, enhancement, P3)

Description

[zyzoweva]

User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64; rv:106.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/106.0

Steps to reproduce:

Upgrade to the latest versionon fedora 36.

Actual results:

I used to have devtools docked into the main window. On upgrade the devtools is now a separate window and there is no way to reattach the two windows.

Expected results:

I should be able to dock the window how II like and specify if I want the windows to be attached or dettached.

Comment 1

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

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

Comment 2

[zyzoweva]

On further investigation this only happens when inspecting temporary extensions. When opening a normal tab and pressing F12 will load devtools properly and clicking the ellipsis will show all docking options. However, when loading a temp extension => about:debugging => This Firefox => pressing Inspect will load the devtools in a seperate window. Pressing the ellipsis does not show any docking options.

Comment 3

[Julian Descottes [:jdescottes]]

(In reply to zyzoweva from comment #2)

On further investigation this only happens when inspecting temporary extensions. When opening a normal tab and pressing F12 will load devtools properly and clicking the ellipsis will show all docking options. However, when loading a temp extension => about:debugging => This Firefox => pressing Inspect will load the devtools in a seperate window. Pressing the ellipsis does not show any docking options.

To be clear, WebExtension toolboxes never had any docking option, but previously they were opened in a tab.
This was problematic to debug webextensions with popups, as the popup would usually overlap the toolbox.

This behavior was added changed in Bug 1780912. We are interested to know how developers feel about this change. For now we are forcing the WebExtension toolbox to be in a window, but maybe we should make that optional.

zyzoweva: Can you share a bit more why you have an issue with the WebExtension DevTools being in a window? Was this inconvenient for your workflow, or were you just surprised by the unexpected change?

Comment 4

[zyzoweva]

It should be optional, since I am condemned to one monitor and now I have to alt+tab between 2 more windows. For multi monitors the current set up would be more preferable however.

Comment 5

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

The severity field is not set for this bug.
:Honza, could you have a look please?

For more information, please visit auto_nag documentation.

Comment 6

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

The severity field is not set for this bug.
:Honza, could you have a look please?

For more information, please visit auto_nag documentation.

Comment 7

[Julian Descottes [:jdescottes]]

We can add an option in about:debugging to change the behavior.