1979132 - Add option to open external links immediately next to the active tab

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(Firefox :: Tabbed Browser, enhancement, P2)

Description

[Ania]

As a user who actively switches between the browser and other applications, I want external links to open in a new tab next to my active tab, so I can avoid interruptions and forced context switching.

Acceptance criteria

1. Links open from external applications open immediately next to the currently active tab in the active window – below the active tab in vertical mode, and to the right of the active tab in horizontal mode in left-to-right languages.
2. I can turn off this behavior in about:preferences.

Blueprint link

Comment 1

[Stephen Thompson [:sthompson]]

Attachment: Bug 1979132 - open external links next to active tab based on insertExternalAfterCurrent pref r=dao,jswinarton,dwalker

With browser.tabs.insertExternalAfterCurrent enabled, open external links in a new tab next to the active tab. If the active tab is pinned, open as the first unpinned tab. If the active tab is grouped, open as the fist ungrouped tab after the group. If the user is in Firefox View, open at the end of the tab strip.

Comment 2

[Stephen Thompson [:sthompson]]

Attachment: Bug 1979132 - open external links next to active tab based on new browser.link.open_newwindow value r=dao,dwalker,jswinarton,gijs

This introduces a new OPEN_NEWTAB_AFTER_CURRENT constant to nsIBrowserDOMWindow to allow BrowserDOMWindow.openURI to open external links in new tabs next to the active tab.

I introduced Tabbrowser.addAdjacentTab rather than updating the existing Tabbrowser.addAdjacentNewTab because the latter had some specific properties:

1. opens a trusted tab, whereas I expect all externally opened links NOT to be trusted
2. notifies the browser-open-newtab-start topic, which is intended for internal new tabs only

It's possible to adapt addAdjacentNewTab, but when I tried that, it felt really muddy. I think it's clearer to have two separate methods even though they have similar names. I'm interested in any ideas for how to differentiate them better.

Comment 4

[Pulsebot]

Pushed by [e-mail]:
https://github.com/mozilla-firefox/firefox/commit/05c846fe5d1e
https://hg.mozilla.org/integration/autoland/rev/4bd084161cfe
open external links next to active tab based on new browser.link.open_newwindow value r=jswinarton,Gijs,tabbrowser-reviewers

Comment 5

[agoloman]

https://hg.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/rev/4bd084161cfe

Comment 6

[Pascal Chevrel:pascalc]

Could we get a release note addition for that? Thanks

Comment 7

[Stephen Thompson [:sthompson]]

:Ania, do you have any release-note-worthy copy?

Proposal:

With the new "Open links from apps next to your active tab" option, you can now choose to have links from other applications open next to your active tab instead of at the end of the tab strip.

Comment 8

[Ania]

Here's the final blurb with a minor edit from Laura, and I also added it to the 145 release notes.
With the new Open links from apps next to your active tab setting, you can have links from other applications open next to your active tab instead of at the end of the tab strip.