398244 - Add an option to close the browser tab/window when launching on a file which is not handled directly by Firefox

Status: NEW

(Firefox :: File Handling, enhancement)

Description

[Mauro Molinari]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.0; it; rv:1.8.1.7) Gecko/20070914 Firefox/2.0.0.7
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.0; it; rv:1.8.1.7) Gecko/20070914 Firefox/2.0.0.7

It would be nice if it were an option to make Firefox close the opened tab/window when you start it from the shell on a file which is not handled directly, like Internet Explorer does.

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. suppose you don't have any particular plugin to handle .wav files in Firefox
2. suppose you have a file called Popeye.wav in che current directory
3. on a command prompt, type:

<install-dir>\Firefox2\firefox Popeye.wav
Actual Results:  
A new Firefox blank window is opened. Firefox asks to open or save the requested file. Whichever is your choice, the blank window stays open.

Expected Results:  
If it were an option like "close blank window when opening Firefox on an external file from the shell", I could check it so that, in the described scenario, while opening the "Open/Save as" dialog, the blank useless Firefox window would be closed. Internet Explorer works in this way.

The reported example could not be so meaningful, but there can be other more interesting scenarios.
For instance, suppose you have a Sun JRE installed and you have properly configured Firefox to open .jnlp files with Java Web Start.
Moreover, suppose Firefox is your system default browser. If you start Firefox on a .jnlp file, from the shell, a useless blank window stays open while Java Web Start starts the Java app: it would be nice if that window could be closed automatically.

We have a web application with some client applications delivered using Java Web Start, and each one can launch URLs to other .jnlp files to open other client applications (we must pass through the server because of the need to get some configuration/authentication information from it): if Firefox is the system default browser, we have this annoying side effect of the blank windows remaining open.

Comment 1

[Jesse Ruderman]

I wonder why the fix for bug 241972 didn't take care of this case.  Is it because your window is created from the command line?

Note that trying to close the window wouldn't be the best thing in this case on Windows, because it would result in a dialog giving you a choice between "Don't quit" and "Cancel download".  On Mac, it would be fine ;)

Comment 2

[Mauro Molinari]

(In reply to comment #1)
> I wonder why the fix for bug 241972 didn't take care of this case.  Is it
> because your window is created from the command line?

Yes, the problem is basically the same, but in my case the problem might be that I'm opening a new window from the command line, and not via HTML or JavaScript.

> Note that trying to close the window wouldn't be the best thing in this case on
> Windows, because it would result in a dialog giving you a choice between "Don't
> quit" and "Cancel download".  On Mac, it would be fine ;)

I'm not sure if I understood it correctly, but if you close just the new blank window, it shouldn't give you the question dialog, as soon as you don't try to close the whole Firefox (suppose you have other Firefox windows open...).
I think the best choice is to emulate a CTRL+W on the newly opened window: close the tab and, if it's the only one in the current window, close that window.

Comment 3

[Jesse Ruderman]

True, the "closing the window might prompt to cancel downloads" concern only applies if you don't have other Firefox windows open when you do this.

Comment 4

[Tyler Downer [He/Him]]

This bug was originally reported on Firefox 2.x or older, which is no longer supported and will not be receiving any more updates. I strongly suggest that you update to Firefox 3.6.8 or later, update your plugins (flash, adobe, etc.), and retest in a new profile. If you still see the issue with the updated Firefox, please post here. Otherwise, please close as RESOLVED > WORKSFORME
http://www.mozilla.com
http://support.mozilla.com/kb/Managing+profiles
http://support.mozilla.com/kb/Safe+mode

Comment 5

[Mauro Molinari]

I can still reproduce with Firefox 3.6.8.

Comment 6

[Robert Strong (they/them - no direct email)]

Shell integration just registers file handlers, etc. - it doesn't determine whether or not a particular file can be handled which is closer to the file handling code so moving over there

Comment 7

[Manuela Muntean [Away]]

Mauro, do you still reproduce this issue?

Comment 8

[Mauro Molinari]

I'm leaving for vacation tomorrow. I will be able to check if I can still reproduce when I'll be back (around August 19th). Please note I'm using Firefox ESR (17.0.7 right now), so I hope the test will be significant for you even if I'm not using the very latest Firefox version.

Comment 9

[Mauro Molinari]

Here I am. I can still reproduce on Firefox 17.0.8.

Comment 10

[KLB]

I could replicate the issue in FF24. I'd agree that it would be nice if FF would automatically close the blank tab provided there were multiple tabs open.