320408 - add pref to disable middle-click (open all in tabs) for bookmark folders

Status: RESOLVED WORKSFORME

(Firefox :: Bookmarks & History, enhancement)

Description

[Tom Edwards]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8) Gecko/20051111 Firefox/1.5
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8) Gecko/20051111 Firefox/1.5

If a bookmark folder or live bookmark is clicked with the middle mouse button, the contents of that folder will open in tabs. Because I use the Bookmarks Toolbar Folder (this could get confusing...) to hold various Live Bookmarks and folders, I will occasionally middle-click a folder there when I go to close a tab, or open a link near the top of the page in a tab. This suddenely creates a large number of tabs, bogging the browser down and effectively destroying my session.

According to this thread on MozillaZine, this functionality can't be disabled, which I think counts as a bug:

http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?t=314259

Sorry if this has been reported before, every search I tried turned up hundreds of results!

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Middle-click a folder or live bookmark.

Actual Results:  
All bookmarks in folder or live bookmark open in tabs

Expected Results:  
Depends on user preference.

Comment 1

[Peter van der Woude [:Peter6]]

why is this a bug ?


*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of 248928 ***

Comment 2

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

The summary is quite clear as to what this bug is about, I think. :)

Comment 3

[Colin S]

I have the exact problem that the submitter is reporting; I have Live Bookmarks on my Bookmarks Toolbar Folder and sometimes middle-click them instead of the tab when I am trying to close a tab. This completely destroys my session, and the site that the RSS feed belongs to probably isn't too happy with the 20-30 sudden incoming connections, either! An option to disable this 'functionality' (I /never/ use it except by accident), or perhaps a warning dialogue that would allow the user to cancel the action, would be a good idea.

Comment 4

[Daniel Quinlan]

I have made the same mistake a half a dozen times at least and is probably
the number one cause behind needing to kill firefox (kill -9 firefox-bin) from
the command line.

Basically, if you accidentally middle-click on a folder (RSS feed bookmarks,
basically) instead of the bookmark next to it on the bookmarks toolbar, all
hell breaks lose as your browser opens 50 windows all at once.  I have had to
kill firefox every time.  Middle click should simply not open all items in a
bookmark folder.  I don't even think an option is needed, but I would settle
for an option.

Comment 5

[Marco Bonardo [:mak] (Away Apr 25 - May 5)]

middle clicking a bookmark toolbar folder asks me for confirmation "you'e about to open 24 tabs,...", that should be enough to close this request, isn't it?

Comment 6

[Peter van der Woude [:Peter6]]

(In reply to comment #5)
> middle clicking a bookmark toolbar folder asks me for confirmation "you'e about
> to open 24 tabs,...", that should be enough to close this request, isn't it?
> 
That's when you have >15 bookmarks in a folder (browser.tabs.maxOpenBeforeWarn)

Comment 7

[Tom Edwards]

The bookmarks are now opened in new tabs, which is good enough for me to close this bug.

Comment 8

[kyle.ross]

Please reopen this. This is a bug, the middle click should if anything just open the folder on the bookmarks bar.