472968 - Open All in tabs should either first close all the current tabs, or close the tabs that are not reused

Status: NEW

(Firefox :: Tabbed Browser, defect)

Description

[mmortal03]

Using "Open All in tabs" in a Firefox window is very confusing to a user when there are tabs already present, because some tabs are reused and keep their past back-forward histories, while other tabs that outnumbered the new number of bookmarks are just left alone.  This resulting mixture of old and new tabs and back-forward histories is disorganized and confusing.

It has been suggested that we should either first close all current tabs and then open the new ones, or just close the tabs that were not reused. I have described these two possibilities below for fixing this bug, the ramifications on Undo, and finally my opinion on the matter:

1.) We have "Open all in tabs" reuse any existing tabs (like it currently does) but also close any remaining left overs (and the previous back forward history of the reused tabs would remain)
2.) We have "Open all in tabs" close all existing tabs in the current window FIRST before opening the selected folder's contained links into new tabs. (no back forward history for any previous tabs remain)

Either way, there will be an impact on how Undoing these closed tabs would work, so it's easier said than done.  I would argue that number 2 would be counterintuitively better to implement, as even though it is seemingly more different than number 1 compared to what we currently have, it would also solve the current confusing behavior of having reused tabs' back-forward history remain, and also having other unreused tabs left alone.  Furthermore, the Undo logic for number 2 would be MUCH easier to implement as well as for the user to understand. Undoing number 2 would just either open back up all the closed tabs at once, or do it one at a time, so there would furthermore be no confusing nonsense of having to roll back any reused tabs' back-forward histories like you might with number 1. 

Also regarding Undo behavior for number 2, it would be smart to not touch the new tabs that have just been opened, and just append the undone tabs that were initially closed instead, because it would be opening up a can of worms to have Undo involve the actual closing of tabs, especially if the user has browsed further in on one of these new tabs.

Comment 1

[Landon Curt Noll]

I am particularly interested in option 2.  See bug 395024 comment 55.

Comment 2

[Patrick]

Can I suggest option 3: open all in NEW tabs with no recycling nor closing.

I happen to have just used that function with a big bunch of tabs I had open. I lost them all with, AFAIK, no option to recover them. This is quite frustrating.

Comment 3

[Michael Kohler [:mkohler]]

IMO Patrick's solution sounds better.

Comment 4

[oleksandr korneta]

(In reply to comment #2)
> Can I suggest option 3: open all in NEW tabs with no recycling nor closing.
> 
> I happen to have just used that function with a big bunch of tabs I had open. I
> lost them all with, AFAIK, no option to recover them. This is quite
> frustrating.

can I add [+] to this one? I happen to have just accidentally clicked on that f**king button (which I never was going to, have no idea what is it for after all) and it wiped out my whole 30-tabs session. And the word "frustrating" is too soft to describe what I think about you all. Thank you for the nice product and keep up the good job!

Comment 5

[mmortal03]

(In reply to comment #2)
> Can I suggest option 3: open all in NEW tabs with no recycling nor closing.
> 
> I happen to have just used that function with a big bunch of tabs I had open. I
> lost them all with, AFAIK, no option to recover them. This is quite
> frustrating.

Option 3 is already built in to the browser. To do that, you simply hold down Ctrl when you click "open in new tabs", or hold down Ctrl when clicking directly on a folder on the bookmarks toolbar.  The devs aren't interested in changing the default behavior.  So, what this bug is proposing is to work within what the devs might consider changing, to deal with fixing the confusing nature of when you DON'T hold down Ctrl, because a lot of people DO want such a "replace tabs" feature, but they don't like how it currently replaces and handles the tab history. By fixing this bug as I stated above, it would have allowed you complete recourse to undo your mistake.

Comment 6

[Daniel Beardsmore]

Option 3 MUST be the default.

Re-using tabs is almost logical (since it follows from the behaviour of a single bookmark), but this command blows away every other tab that you had open in that window. This is illogical. Clicking a single bookmark does not close some random tab for no reason. If I want to view a set of bookmarked pages, it does not follow that I would no longer want to view anything else that's open in that window. It can only be argued that I am no longer interested in the page that I'm viewing.

I find the entire behaviour of this to be ill-advised. The only way back from this mistake is to use JSON pretty printers to merge the current sessionstore.js file with the last backup on your PC, e.g. from Previous Versions if you have Vista and 7, but not Windows 8.

Sometimes, even coldly logical behaviour should be eschewed in favour of ensuring that both accidental invocations, and user exploration, don't do something extremely disruptive. I don't even know what tabs I destroyed earlier -- just that 20 or 30 are gone and I will never get back a record of exactly what I had open (a lot of research tabs).

It took me a while to even figure out what the program did, and a lot more time to patch back together some semblance of my session history.

Comment 7

[off]

I just lost all my (about 25) open tabs after clicking on "open all in tabs" to open 3 tabs. Firefox closed all my tabs illogically and without any warning. "Open all in tabs" suggests that tabs will be *opened*, not closed! And I could only restore 10 tabs thanks to the history "restore closed tabs" menu.

As Daniel said above, option 3 must definitively be the default…