266927 - perhaps window.open should not open into the same window

Status: RESOLVED WONTFIX

(Firefox :: Tabbed Browser, defect)

Description

[Dan M]

With "Force links that open new windows to open in the same tab/window" chosen,
all new windows replace the current window. I don't know whether anyone is using
this option or what their expectations of it may be, but it's been pointed out
that this would cause fewer troubles if it affected only target="_blank" - type
links, not javascript:window.open. This concern was probably originally voiced
by Thomas Rutter in bug 264395 comment 5.

At the same time, most users seem to expect both types of windows to open into a
new tab with "Force links that open new windows to open in a new tab." There are
some noisy exceptions. I believe we should keep that behaviour. Original- and
new-tab operations are both currently fine-controlled using the
browser.link.open_newwindow.restriction pref. We'd probably want separate prefs
for the two situations.

This bug is a possible alternate solution to bug 264395.

Comment 1

[alanjstr]

I want a single-window browser.  If someone chooses this, that's probably what
they wanted.

Comment 2

[Chris Kent]

Am I right in thinking that Firefox 1.0.x differentiated between target="_blank"
and javascript popups? I've just started using 1.5 and the popup blocking
behaviour isn't as good as in 1.0.6. The behaviour that I like best is that URLs
that try to open in a new window can be forced into the same tab but that
javascript popups responding to the user's request should be allowed to open.
Forcing everything into the same window renders a lot of sites less much less
usable than in 1.0.6. But I don't want to disable this feature becuase URLs that
open new windows are irritating. The old behaviour was the perfect balance.

Comment 3

[Chris Kent]

One thing that I forgot to put in the last comment - the new behaviour means
it's impossible to open a javascript-powered link without losing the current
page. Middle-clicking to open in a new tab clearly won't work and clicking now
opens it in the same page. This is very annoying in (for example) webmail
applications that open a compose page in a new window when you click on "reply".
The old behaviour still didn't give you a choice - you could only have the
javascript-spawned window as a popup. But I preferred that lack of choice to the
new one (or maybe I just got used to that). At least there should be an advanced
preference that allows different behaviour for the different types of popup.

Comment 4

[Mike Conley (:mconley) (:⚙️)]

There's been no activity, nor more useful information added to this bug in quite some time. The pref mentioned is a power-user pref that no longer has any user-facing affordance. I'm going to mark it RESOLVED WONTFIX.

Please re-open this bug if it is still an issue.