329601 - remove link from throbber

Status: VERIFIED FIXED

(Firefox :: Toolbars and Customization, defect)

Description

[Axel Hecht [:Pike]]

As discussed on mda.firefox, it's a good idea to remove the link function of the
throbber. It's leftover, it's undiscoverable, and we don't have a really good use
for it.

Comment 1

[Axel Hecht [:Pike]]

Taking.

I'm a bit reluctant to remove goClickThrobber, too, as I don't know if any
extensions might (ab-)use it,
http://lxr.mozilla.org/mozilla1.8/search?string=goClickThrobber shows that
inside browser, there is only one use.

Comment 2

[Mike Beltzner [:beltzner, not reading bugmail]]

As mentioned elsewhere, unless someone can provide me with a *really good reason* to keep this function, I say we toss it. No other major browser seems to do this anymore either.

Comment 3

[Mike Kaply [:mkaply]]

The CCK allows you to change the throbber image and have it link to another page...not sure how useful that is - I just did it to copy from Netscape.

Comment 4

[Pascal Chevrel:pascalc]

I think the possibility to do it it should be kept (even if there is no link set in the default build). Companies who would want to deliver their own firefox based browser with their machines (like a custom wallmart/Carrefour branded browser included with all the computers they sell under their own name) would probably want the throbber icon to be their company logo and use it as a link to the company's site or online shopping center.

Comment 5

[Robert Accettura [:raccettura]]

I'm going to agree with comment #4.

IIRC Speakeasy, or some other ISP who has an extension to customize firefox redirects it to their website.  I think we may want to ensure we don't break or hinder such efforts.

As far as turning it off for normal Firefox 2.0 users?  I don't see a problem with that.  I doubt anyone really lcicks it on purpose.

Comment 6

[Simon Paquet [:sipaq]]

(In reply to comment #4)
> I think the possibility to do it it should be kept (even if there is no link
> set in the default build). Companies who would want to deliver their own
> firefox based browser with their machines (like a custom wallmart/Carrefour
> branded browser included with all the computers they sell under their own name)
> would probably want the throbber icon to be their company logo and use it as a
> link to the company's site or online shopping center.

I severely disagree. Changing the default URL for the home button and just having a different image for the throbber is the sensible thing to do here. 

As someone said in a reply to Axel blogpost, this is a functionality that can be easily reclaimed by a simple extension.

Comment 7

[Mike Kaply [:mkaply]]

(In reply to comment #6)
> I severely disagree. Changing the default URL for the home button and just
> having a different image for the throbber is the sensible thing to do here. 

You have missed the point.

The throbber going to a URL is a permanent change to the browser. The home URL can be changed.

This is very useful.

The throbber for IBM is the IBM w3 logo and clicking it always goes to w3.

I can't rely on the home button.

Comment 8

[hansen]

I might be way off, but does this has anything to do with bug 309371 ?

Comment 9

[Axel Hecht [:Pike]]

A bit detail on the patch:

I'm going to keep the throbber as button, for two reasons:
- it would be a pretty drastic themeing change
- you can reanimate the throbber by an extension

Note, this is related to bug 245947, in that it's not possible to actually give
the throbber tooltip a good value. Doing that via a localizable pref seems like
overarchitecturing it, as an extension to make the throbber link to something
could set the tooltip to something reasonable as it goes.

This bug is not really related to bug 309371, that is really just about
getting the values for all occurences, one of which I intend to remove in 
another bug, in the case of Thunderbird.

Comment 10

[Felix Miata]

I use it for an alternate home page. Since SeaMonkey doesn't have a home button in its two standard themes, I'm used to hitting it when I want home, and forget to even try the FF home button.

Comment 11

[Axel Hecht [:Pike]]

Attachment: unlink the throbber, remove the pref

This removes the pref and the link from browser.
(Thunderbird has this pref, but it really uses messenger.throbber.url, so this
one can die already, together with the 1.0.x update url.)

Comment 12

[Mike Beltzner [:beltzner, not reading bugmail]]

Axel, out of curiousity, what's the advantage of totally removing this potential function vs. making it so that if no preference is set (which would be the default) the button does nothing, yet allows people to extend it as per comment 4 and others here?

Comment 13

[Axel Hecht [:Pike]]

Attachment: proof-of-concept MIT-licensed extension to add it back

One problem with the existing throbber is the hardcoded tooltip. If you set the
URL to something of your choice, the tooltip still talks about going to the 
firefox homepage.

I attached a proof-of-concept extension that re-enables the throbber link on my
patched build while setting the tooltip to "Phone Home!". Both to show that it's
a simple thing to do, that it works, and that folks can actually just do it by
taking my sample, setting the tooltip and url in the overlay.xul and be done.

Not doing the pref dance is more of a feature to me ;-)

Comment 14

[Mike Beltzner [:beltzner, not reading bugmail]]

Comment on attachment 216343 [details] [diff] [review]
unlink the throbber, remove the pref

Convinced by comment 13.

Comment 15

[Ben Goodger (use ben at mozilla dot org for email)]

Comment on attachment 216343 [details] [diff] [review]
unlink the throbber, remove the pref

I would say this doesn't go far enough. Can we remove the code that handles clicking on the throbber too, then?

Comment 16

[Mike Kaply [:mkaply]]

(In reply to comment #15)
> (From update of attachment 216343 [details] [diff] [review] [edit])
> I would say this doesn't go far enough. Can we remove the code that handles
> clicking on the throbber too, then?
> 

Please leave that code in here. I really want an extension to be able to override this easily.

This is a great way for companies to customize firefox and have a way to return to a "home page" even if the user has changed their home page.

Comment 17

[Axel Hecht [:Pike]]

I left that funcion in there for exactly that purpose. I just wonder, do
companies really want to use a pref for this, or would they just enter the
URL directly? Like I did in my example extension.

Comment 18

[Mike Kaply [:mkaply]]

I don't know if companies do it directly, but I do it in my CCK and I'd like the function in my CCK to be as straightforward as possible.

Today I do it with a XUL overlay for the tooltip, browser.throbber.url pref change to point to the new value in my properties file and a CSS overlay to change the image of the throbber (if someone wants to do that)

Comment 19

[Axel Hecht [:Pike]]

Ben, could you revisit this? Do comments 16-18 help?

Comment 20

[Simon Bünzli]

Comment on attachment 216343 [details] [diff] [review]
unlink the throbber, remove the pref

This leaves the throbber visually clickable and just removes the action which might confuse those who didn't expect it to react to clicks (it behaves like a button) and also those who expect it to do so (it doesn't do anything). Why not set it disabled="true" additionally or instead?

Comment 21

[Axel Hecht [:Pike]]

Attachment: disable the button

I disabled the button, too. I didn't do the code removal, as mkaply would like
to keep it. Enabling the button via the overlay works without problems, so I added
that.

Comment 22

[Axel Hecht [:Pike]]

Attachment: full diff, with l10n

I had too many patches in my tree, apparently, patch make is my friend now.
Complete diff, with removal of prefs and l10n string, and disabled button.

Comment 23

[Mike Connor [:mconnor]]

Comment on attachment 224416 [details] [diff] [review]
full diff, with l10n

Ben's right, we should kill it all the way.  The CCK can easily add its own function just like it can add its own oncommand handler/tooltip/image.  Please remove goClickThrobber and throbber.tooltip and be done with it.

Comment 24

[Axel Hecht [:Pike]]

Attachment: remove goClickThrobber, too.

That's the vote on goClickThrobber, then.

Comment 25

[Mike Connor [:mconnor]]

Comment on attachment 225268 [details] [diff] [review]
remove goClickThrobber, too.

r+a=me if you can remove the tooltip string as well from http://lxr.mozilla.org/mozilla/source/browser/locales/en-US/chrome/browser/browser.dtd#96

Comment 26

[Axel Hecht [:Pike]]

Checked in with mconnor's fix, gonna add a full patch for reference.

Comment 27

[Axel Hecht [:Pike]]

For reference, I'm giving a whitecard a=[e-mail] for removing the throbber
line from region.properties.

Comment 28

[Axel Hecht [:Pike]]

Attachment: final patch checked in.

Comment 29

[Mel Reyes]

Ok, I usually don't chime in on bugs that have been closed/fixed, but this is absolutely ridiculous.  For 7-8+ years I have been clicking on that damned throbber to either get me to the homepage of the app I'm running, whether it was Navigator, Communicator, Mozilla Suite, Phoenix, Firebird, Firefox, Seabird, Thunderbird, blah blah.

And now because IE and Opera don't mimic this and because we obviously have no better use of programmers time we are removing it?  This is just absurd.  First it was the Check Mail and Compose Email links which were removed, thus changing the user experience, which I was kind of ok with, now I have to code an extension to replace functionality that I and tons of other users have relied on for years, this sucks.

It would have been better time spent to just check if the pref has a user value, if it did then give it a tooltip of the url.

Who is actually voting of these kinds of decisions?  Minor changes to browser functionality like this is getting to be incredibly annoying, just my 5 cents.

I think DOM Inspector is probably on the chopping block from being distributed with the installer, which again I don't mind since it's really already an extension, but the Throbber common man!!

While we are at it, let remove the following because they have nothing to do with Web Browsing and are fluff for most users:
- Sidebar
- Talkback
- Report Broken Link Web Site
- Error Console

oh yeah just move Import to the Options panel, it's so seldomly used why waste the menu space in the File menu.

Comment 30

[Axel Hecht [:Pike]]

This has been discussed at length at http://groups.google.com/group/mozilla.dev.apps.firefox/browse_frm/thread/85a8c60c5b9a3f93/48fcd112698b080f?q=throbber&rnum=1#48fcd112698b080f

Comment 31

[Peter S.]

I'd vote for keeping it.  It provides an easy link back to the Mozilla site, which (as we know) includes forums, news, and other Mozilla products, not to mention a lot of other stuff.

OTOH, If people want it gone, why not create an extension that gets rid of it automatically?  If you want it gone, it's not too hard to download an extension and restart the browser, is it?

If companies want their logo there, or a link to their website, why not do it that way?  There could be differences between Firefox: WallMart Edition and "real" Firefox, right?

If someone wants to search for extensions, browser updates, or new products, it's a LOT easier to "click on the little circle" rather than type in the URL.

What happened to "one click internet" anyway?

Comment 32

[Mel Reyes]

I'm tired of trying to fight for features, this one was small but had a lot of meaning from a historical stand point and I used it tons of times every day.

I kind of like the fact that no other browser had this feature, so I've already added functionality to my Local Install extension to enable/disable as well as to allow setting of the url.  It will read the url from all the current permutations available and allow you to keep or change it. The next release will include this update.

Comment 33

[Aaron P]

There is an extension to bring back the throbber link in Firefox 2 and later:
Throbber Button - https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/2821/

Comment 34

[Steve England [:stevee]]

*** Bug 358002 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 35

[Stephen Donner [:stephend] Not actively reading bugmail]

Verified FIXED using today's trunk Minefield on:

Mac OS X 10.4
Fedora Core 7
Windows Vista.