222763 - disable popup blocking if <hot key> is pressed, like google toolbar for IE

Status: NEW

(Firefox :: Keyboard Navigation, enhancement, P5)

Description

[Willian Mitsuda]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.5) Gecko/20031007 Firebird/0.7
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.5) Gecko/20031007 Firebird/0.7

It would be nice if the popup blocking can be disabled for only a specific page
by holding CTRL key down while it is loaded (only for this time!).

This feature should work like the popup blocking provided by google toolbar 2.0
for internet explorer.

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Enter a new URL
2. Hold down CTRL key while the page is loaded.
3. This URL must open some popup window that I want to see, but I don't want to
disable popup blocking for this page *always*, only for this time


Actual Results:  
The page is loaded and popup is blocked.

Expected Results:  
The popup must not be blocked, as I'm holding CTRL key down.
If I load the same page again, but not holding CTRL key down, the default action
should be taken (popup blocked, or not if it is in the "white list").

Comment 1

[Simon Paquet [:sipaq]]

You can already whitelist particular sites for popup-blocking. You can do this
in advance or after apopup has been blocked (a reload of the page brings the
popup then). Recommending WONTFIX.

Comment 2

[Pham]

this is too geeky that only about 12 will use

Comment 3

[Willian Mitsuda]

Is it so geek that google guys have implemented this in their google toolbar?

Also, if you enter a web site, and you want to see what the popup contains just
that time, you have to enter options, insert that site in the white list, reload
the page, and then, remove the site from the white list. It is very inconvenient
to not have some kind of "quick disable".

Comment 4

[Jesse Ruderman]

The Google Toolbar can say "To let an individual popup through, press the `Ctrl'
key while clicking on a link" because Ctrl+clicking a link in Internet Explorer
doesn't already mean something.  That's not the case in Firebird.

Bug 176564, "Should be able to manually open a blocked pop-up", is an alternate
way to make showing a single pop-up less inconvinient.

Comment 5

[Willian Mitsuda]

<quote>
The Google Toolbar can say "To let an individual popup through, press the `Ctrl'
key while clicking on a link" because Ctrl+clicking a link in Internet Explorer
doesn't already mean something.  That's not the case in Firebird.
</quote>

Not exactly! Despite the google toolbar site says you have to hold Ctrl while
clicking a link, you can simply click the link and then, while it is loading,
you hold the Ctrl key.

However, I agree with other forms to temporarily "quick enable" a popup

Comment 6

[Dan M]

The very popular google toolbar supports this feature. It gets good press. See
for example
http://www.bayarea.com/mld/mercurynews/business/technology/personal_technology/7082861.htm

If you're going to close this "won't fix" please do come up with a better reason
than "too geeky."

Comment 7

[Dan M]

Let me reword that. I should have said rather, in my opinion the widespread
acceptance of the Google toolbar and the press it gets which sometimes mentions
this feature explicitly, lead me to believe that it's far from too geeky to be
understood or accepted.

Comment 8

[Mike Connor [:mconnor]]

so how is this supposed to work?  if you go to a page that is loading code that
tries to open an unrequested popup, you hold CTRL during the page load?  If a
link opens a popup, this is already considered "requested"

Comment 9

[Willian Mitsuda]

If you have are using Windows and IE, you can try to install the google toolbar
(http://toolbar.google.com) and see how it works with your own eyes ;-)

Comment 10

[Jay Duhon]

Incidentally, this is the same method that Panicware uses in their product,
Pop-Up Stopper, which I use, and is pretty popular. (See
http://www.panicware.com/product_psfree.html)

I don't think it's geeky at all. In fact, in comes in pretty handy on sites that
use popups for ads AND for content. Some sites pop up ads when you first load
them (which you want to block), but then have links to popups with content
(which you would want to see). Whitelisting these types of sites is
inconvenient, since you have to remove them from the whitelist after you're done
viewing content (to prevent popup ads on your next visit). Bypassing pop-up
blocking on the fly is much simpler, and more elegant.

I think this is an excellent feature, although I don't agree the CTRL key should
be used for this (since it already has its place for opening a link in a new
tab). It's such a good idea, I'm suprised no one has written an extension yet.

Comment 11

[Willian Mitsuda]

I changed the bug summary because, as some people have replied, the CTRL key is
used for others things.

Perhaps other key/combinations?

What about:

- ALT + CTRL to open in a new tab without blocking?
- Holding ALT _AFTER_ clicking in a link to open that link in the same window
without blocking (as ALT + click should open the save as dialog)? This should
work if the user enter the address and hit ENTER too.
- SHIFT + ALT to open the link in a new window without blocking?

Also I included a mention to google toolbar to clarify the feature idea.

Comment 12

[Dan M]

With stronger popup blocking potentially going in soon (see bug 197919 comment
25), it would be nice if this were a toggle, whatever the key combination is.
That is, personally I envision surfing with every possible popup shut down. It
would be nice if I were able to do the opposite of what this bug suggests in
that case: temporarily allow a popup I know is coming, that I actually want.

Comment 13

[PikeUK]

*** Bug 259378 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 14

[Thomas Bertels]

Since Firefox 1.0 PR is out, the utility of a such enhancement become limited.
It's now possible to choice wich popup we want to open immediately.

Comment 15

[Aaron Leventhal]

Not strictly an accessibility bug, more about usability. Anyone interested in
doing it?

Comment 16

[Mike Willbanks]

I think that there definitely needs to be specific hot key to temporarily disable the popup blocker... Reason being some pages I do not want to whitelist but I would like to see the popup on an item.

This should definitely be added to builds, I believe there is an extension that can do this but it really should be added to the core functionaility.