409693 - Drag-and-dropping multiple URLs should open them in tabs of a single window

Status: VERIFIED WORKSFORME

(Camino Graveyard :: Drag & Drop, enhancement)

Description

[Sergei Yakovlev]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; Intel Mac OS X; en) AppleWebKit/523.12.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.0.4 Safari/523.12.2
Build Identifier: Version 2007112812 (1.5.4)

Currently, when user drops multiple URLs (e.g., .webloc files from the Finder) on Camino icon, each URL is opened in a separate window. It is more convenient to have them opened in tabs of a single new window.

When the user opens multiple URLs, they are usually 1) related to each other in some context and 2) processed one-by-one. Single window with multiple tabs is better for this scenario. Multiple URLs are usually drag-and-dropped by those who prefer to use their own folder structures instead of the built-in bookmark functionality for the added flexibility. For example, such folders may have images, PDF files, text files and links (.webloc files) and usually correspond to some sort of a project. Bookmark folders do not have such flexibility. It is more convenient to open files in such folders in multiple tabs of a single window to retain the context and avoid mixing these windows with others that might be opened at the same time (mail, various reading etc.). Currently, to obtain this behavior, the user has to drag the first link, then open new tab, then navigate back to the folder that is now hidden by the browser window, drag the second link to Camino icon, repeat the process again. As an added complexity, the user has to keep track of what links she has already opened. It is much more convenient to pick-and-choose necessary link files using Command modifier in the Finder window, and then drag this selection to Camino as one transaction. Finally, it is much easier to close these links, as the user closes just one window, so it's easier to "rollback" opening multiple links.

For the less common scenario of comparing two windows side-by-side, the user will still be able to drag-and-drop these URLs separately to have them opened in separate windows. There's no need (and the screen estate) to compare 10 URLs side-by-side, so it's usually 2 or 3 windows, and they need to be re-positioned to not overlap, so there are lots of mouse movements anyway. Drag-and-dropping one-by-one is acceptable in this scenario.

I think that proposed behavior is superior in most situations and SHOULD be the default. However, in the single-window mode of operation (where all new pages open in new tabs), such behavior is expected and MUST be the default.

Reproducible: Always

Comment 1

[Derek Schrock]

I think the functionality you're looking for is possible with some user.js hacking

This might be a dup of bug 321055 ? 

Comment 2

[Stuart Morgan]

No user.js hacking is required; just set the tab pref for "Links opened by other applications", and a set of files dropped on the icon will open in tabs. Not everyone likes tabs, so we aren't going to remove the pref.