295098 - Add UI for the "browser.tabs.loadBookmarksInBackground" pref (select new tabs opened from bookmarks)

Status: NEW

(Firefox :: Settings UI, defect)

Description

[Francois Ingelrest]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8b2) Gecko/20050521 Firefox/1.0+
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8b2) Gecko/20050521 Firefox/1.0+

Users can choose in the preferences if new tabs should be automatically selected
or not. This applies to links in web pages, but not to tabs opened by
middle-clicking on a bookmark in the bookmarks toolbar, these tabs are always
automatically selected. I think the same behavior should be used.

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Go to Options -> Tabs, and uncheck 'select new tabs opened from links'
2. Middle-click on a bookmark in the bookmarks toolbar

Actual Results:  
A new tab is opened and automatically focused

Expected Results:  
The new tab should not be automatically focused to respect the preferences

Comment 1

[:Gavin Sharp [email: [e-mail]]]

You can control the bookmark behavior by toggling the
browser.tabs.loadBookmarksInBackground pref.

I think it's very unlikely that UI is added for this, but it's a valid request.

Comment 2

[Francois Ingelrest]

I don't know if a specific UI should be added for bookmarks, but perhaps the
same UI could be used for both links and bookmarks? They are both about opening
new tabs, so why not?

Comment 3

[:Gavin Sharp [email: [e-mail]]]

(In reply to comment #2)
> They are both about opening new tabs, so why not?

Because people want to have different settings for both.

Comment 4

[Jorge Villalobos [:jorgev] (he/him)]

Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.7.8) Gecko/20050511
Firefox/1.0.4
I'm not sure if this was introduced with the latest version of Firefox, but
there's a "Select new tabs opened from bookmarks or history" option right below
the "Select new tabs opened from links" on the Options->Tabs menu.

Comment 5

[Francois Ingelrest]

Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8b2) Gecko/20050522
Firefox/1.0+ is the latest version. It seems that this pref has gone on trunk
builds...

Comment 6

[Chris Blore]

(In reply to comment #5)
> Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8b2) Gecko/20050522
> Firefox/1.0+ is the latest version. It seems that this pref has gone on trunk
> builds...

There is still the <!ENTITY loadBookmarksInBackground.label  "Select new tabs
opened from bookmarks or history"> label in the tabs.dtd locale file.
I believe this was removed with the new prefs window that Ben Goodger landed a
few months ago.

Comment 7

[Phil Ringnalda (:philor)]

*** Bug 309005 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 8

[Seairth Jacobs]

Attachment: Adds checkbox for bookmarks in background option

Okay.  Here we are.

Comment 9

[Seairth Jacobs]

With the patch above, the prompt says:

Load middle-clicked bookmarks in the background

However, it turns out that this behaviour isn't quite right.  This only works as
labeled if "Load middle-clicked URLs in new tabs" is checked.  It would make
more sense to move the checkbox below "Select new tabs created by links" and
re-label it:

Select new tabs created by bookmarks

Comment 10

[Seairth Jacobs]

Comment on attachment 199890 [details] [diff] [review]
Adds checkbox for bookmarks in background option

Given the prior comment, it does not make sense to review the current patch
just yet...

Comment 11

[Seairth Jacobs]

Okay.  It was probably a good idea to check if I had a tabbar-related extension
installed before getting into this one.  Well, I have now disabled it.  And what
do you know! The unaltered preferences actually looks "right".  More
specifically, the default label is:

Select new tabs opened from bookmarks or history

Now, the "or history" part really should be a separate option, but for now this
is a step in the right direction.

So, can we go with the above patch?  I'd like to re-request review but want to
know if this works for others first...

Comment 12

[Andrew Rose]

So, it's a year to the day since there was any activity on this bug and things have moved on slightly.  In Fx2 RC3, the relevant preference is...

"When I open a link in a new tab, switch to it immediately".

However, it still only changes the behaviour regarding links but I agree with those who feel it should change the behaviour regarding bookmarks as well.  I understand Gavin's point that there should be two settings because some people want to be able to set them differently.

To avoid UI clutter, how about having the UI change both the underlying settings?  If power-users want to have the settings set to different values then they can still use about:config to override.

Is this a reasonable approach that would satisfy the various groups?

Comment 13

[Ria Klaassen (not reading all bugmail)]

*** Bug 356974 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 16

[Pedro Côrte-Real]

To avoid UI clutter, how about having the UI change both the underlying settings? If power-users want to have the settings set to different values then they can still use about:config to override.

I think this would be a good solution for this. And at the very least defaulting browser.tabs.loadBookmarksInBackground to true would be good to have consistency with normal links.