509404 - Restore Previous Session missing

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(SeaMonkey :: Help Documentation, defect)

Description

[:Hb]

SM2 has the option Restore Previous Session for the preference "Display on: Browser Startup". The description for this option is missing in Browser Preferences - Browser.

Code is in
http://mxr.mozilla.org/seamonkey/source/browser/components/sessionstore/src/nsSessionStartup.js#61

Additionally nothing is found in Help Contents when searching "session".

Comment 1

[Jens Hatlak (:InvisibleSmiley)]

Attachment: proposed patch

IMO the session topic itself deserves an own bug (including discussion whether/where/how to describe it). The attached just addresses the core of this bug.

Comment 2

[Stefan [:stefanh]]

(In reply to comment #1)
> Created an attachment (id=395169) [details]
> proposed patch
> 
> IMO the session topic itself deserves an own bug (including discussion
> whether/where/how to describe it). The attached just addresses the core of this
> bug.

I think what you've written looks fine. However, I think we could add a few lines about session restore as well. I don't think it's that much work and I'd appreciate if you did it here since the bug report also covers this. The "Specifying a Starting Page" section could be a candidate here. That could be renamed to something that will fit session restore as well. Or we could add a section "Restoring Previous Session" under "Specifying how SeaMonkey Starts Up". Whatever we choose the text doesn't have to be that long, it should be enough with a couple of lines and then a index entry or two, so you'll find it when you search. What do you think?

Comment 3

[Jens Hatlak (:InvisibleSmiley)]

Attachment: patch v2

Comment 4

[Stefan [:stefanh]]

+<h3 id="session_restore_crash_recovery">Session Restore (Crash Recovery)</h3>
+
I think "Session Restore" might be enough (multiple places).

+<p>&brandShortName; periodically saves your browsing session (open windows
+  and tabs, including form data) to disk. When you exit &brandShortName; or in
+  the event that it crashes, &brandShortName; can restore the previous session
+  the next time it is started. &brandShortName; automatically restores the
+  previous session if you selected "Restore Previous Session" under "Display on
+  Browser Startup", or after a crash&mdash;unless you disabled the
+  confirmation that appears when you try to close a browser window while
+  multiple tabs are open. In that case, or if &brandShortName; crashes
+  repeatedly, you will be presented a screen asking you whether to restore
+  the previous session or to start a new session. There you can choose for
+  each window and tab of the previous session whether it should be restored
+  or not.</p>
+

I've been looking a this and I have an alternative text which you could modify according to what you think:

"&brandShortName; periodically saves your browsing session (open windows and tabs, including form data) to disk. When you start &brandShortName; with Session Restore enabled, windows and tabs you had opened in your previous session will be displayed. This is especially useful if you've visited a website that forced &brandShortName to unexpectedly crash or quit. &brandShortName; automatically restores the previous session if you have selected "Restore Previous Session" under "Display on Browser Startup". If you have chosen to not be warned when you close a browser window with multiple tabs opened,  &brandShortName; will launch a window from where you can choose which windows/tabs from the previous session you want to restore."

Thoughts?

You might need to incorporate the changes in bug 385141.

Comment 5

[Jens Hatlak (:InvisibleSmiley)]

Attachment: patch v3

(In reply to comment #4)
> I think "Session Restore" might be enough (multiple places).

Fine with me; I mainly wanted "crash recovery" to be findable which it still is after the change (due to the addition to the index which I kept).

> Session Restore enabled, windows and tabs you had opened in your previous
> session will be displayed. This is especially useful if you've visited a

I replaced "displayed" by "restored" since that's what happens. "displayed" sounds a bit like "previewed" for me (like in a thumbnail view).

> website that forced &brandShortName to unexpectedly crash or quit.

I think there are too many possible reasons for a crash, and a faulty website is not necessarily the most common one: the computer can crash or any part of the suite other than the browser (e.g. MailNews). Thus I rewrote that in a more general way and provided two examples.

> &brandShortName; automatically restores the previous session if you have
> selected "Restore Previous Session" under "Display on Browser Startup". If you
> have chosen to not be warned when you close a browser window with multiple tabs

I used past tense here since I think perfect is wrong here. If you object we should ask a native speaker.

> opened,  &brandShortName; will launch a window from where you can choose which
> windows/tabs from the previous session you want to restore."

I added the repeated crash case.

> You might need to incorporate the changes in bug 385141.

I referred to the Tabbed browsing panel (the description next to the checkbox will be almost the same as in the paragraph so I figured duplicating it would be too much repetition).

Comment 6

[Stefan [:stefanh]]

Comment on attachment 400380 [details] [diff] [review]
patch v3

Looks fine, just 2 things:

+  &brandShortName; to terminate). &brandShortName; automatically restores the
+  previous session if you selected "Restore Previous Session" under "Display on
+  Browser Startup".

I first thought of adding "if you have", but after having a talk with IanN where he suggested '&brandShortName; will automatically restore the previous session if "Restore Previous Session" under "Display on Browser Startup" has been selected' I propose the same ;-)

+  restore. The same will happen if &brandShortName; crashes repeatedly.</p>


 I don't think the last sentense is needed. Won't this happen anytime seamonkey crashes (we already mention crashes earlier)?

Comment 7

[Stefan [:stefanh]]

Or do you mean to say that crashes always shows this?

Comment 8

[[e-mail]]

If SeaMonkey crashes, it will automatically restore the previous session.
If SeaMonkey crashes repeatedly (depending on preferences) it will show the about:sessionrestorepage allowing you to restore part of the previous session.
If when quitting SeaMonkey you choose to save session and quit, a special preference to restore the session once will be saved. This preference is also used by some windows that restart the browser e.g. Add-Ons Manager.
If when quitting SeaMonkey you choose to save session and quit, and also check the "Do not ask me again" checkbox, it will change the startup type to "Restore previous session", or you can do that manually via preferences. In this case you will no longer be prompted about closing multiple tabs when you quit.

Comment 9

[Jens Hatlak (:InvisibleSmiley)]

Attachment: patch v3a [Checkin: Comment 10]

(In reply to comment #6)
> +  restore. The same will happen if &brandShortName; crashes repeatedly.</p>
> 
>  I don't think the last sentense is needed. Won't this happen anytime seamonkey
> crashes (we already mention crashes earlier)?

As Neil confirmed, the page allowing to select which windows/tabs to restore appears only after repeatedly crashing or if more than six hours have passed, cf.
<http://mxr.mozilla.org/comm-central/source/suite/browser/browser-prefs.js#359>
and
<http://mxr.mozilla.org/comm-central/source/suite/common/src/nsSessionStore.js#2440>

I had already checked everything when I wrote patch v2 so I'm pretty sure that at that time the about:sessionrestore page also appeared when all the *warn* prefs were set to false. However I can neither reproduce that now nor find a trace of that behavior in the code (see above). Strange. :-/ Can you?

Comment 10

[Serge Gautherie (:sgautherie)]

Comment on attachment 400405 [details] [diff] [review]
patch v3a
[Checkin: Comment 10]


http://hg.mozilla.org/comm-central/rev/69157b3fbafc