515410 - Allow links from external applications to not replace open tabs, when Firefox is set to block target=_blank pop-ups

Status: NEW

(Firefox :: Settings UI, enhancement)

Description

[Jesper Kristensen]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.0; da; rv:1.9.1.2) Gecko/20090729 Firefox/3.5.2 (.NET CLR 3.5.30729)
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.0; da; rv:1.9.1.2) Gecko/20090729 Firefox/3.5.2 (.NET CLR 3.5.30729)

(From Mike Beltzner's suggestion in bug 469082 comment 19)

I would like Firefox to not override/replace an open website/tab when handling a link from an external application, even when Firefox is set to not allow pop-ups created by web sites with <a target="_blank">.

The current values for browser.link.open_newwindow are:

1 = current window/tab
2 = new window
3 = new tab in most recent window

I would like to add a new value:

4 = current window/tab, except if the link comes from an external application, then use a new tab in most recent window instead

If possible, i have seen the following values requested by others, so I would also like to add those:

5 = current window/tab, except if the link comes from an external application, then use a new window instead
6 = new tab in most recent window, except if the link comes from an external application, then use a new window instead

If that is not possible, I would like to just add the new value of 4.

I would like to stress that I do NOT want to revert bug 324164. That bug was a good change overall. Only some of the side effects of the bug removed functionality wanted by me and obviously many others.

For the history of this, see bug 469082, bug 324164 and MozillaZine threads.

If this is accepted, I am willing to write the patch.

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Set browser.link.open_newwindow to 1 in about:config, so that Firefox does not open popups on links with target=_blank, such that the back button always works correctly.
2. Open a link from an e-mail or another extarnal application.

Actual Results:  
The current tab is replaced with the new link, and any information on that page may or may not be lost.

Expected Results:  
The link opens in a new tab or window. Leaving all of your currently open web sites intact.

(Please anybody avoid destructive "me too" comments and complaints)

Comment 1

[Aaron Adams]

Why not just add a new preference to suppress target="_blank" behaviour? It achieves all of the above (except the destructive no. 1 and the likely-lost-forver no. 6) and maintains the simplicity and consistency that is apparently the reason these preferences were unified in the first place.

Comment 2

[Jesper Kristensen]

(In reply to comment #1)
> Why not just add a new preference to suppress target="_blank" behaviour? It
> achieves all of the above (except the destructive no. 1 and the
> likely-lost-forver no. 6) and maintains the simplicity and consistency that is
> apparently the reason these preferences were unified in the first place.

Because Mike suggested that the the solution in comment 0 actually might be accepted, which is better than nothing.

Comment 3

[John Darrow]

The "likely-lost-forver no. 6" is exactly the behaviour I prefer, which demonstrates why simply adding a couple more values for what is truly a two-dimensional (at least 3x3) choice is a relatively poor option.

Comment 4

[atzaus]

100% behind this. I don't want new tabs to open because people used _blank on all links without thinking about usability or wanted their page to stay open for ad serving purposes and I use a desktop feed reader and open a lot of external links. Overwriting the same tab again and again...I know there is tabmixplus but this IMO should be in the browser like it was in 3.0.x series.

Comment 5

[Aaron Adams]

(In reply to comment #3)
> The "likely-lost-forver no. 6" is exactly the behaviour I prefer, which
> demonstrates why simply adding a couple more values for what is truly a
> two-dimensional (at least 3x3) choice is a relatively poor option.

Well, yeah, having made the original change at all was silly from the perspective of user experience. And putting it back the way it used to be would make the most sense, because it offered the most flexibility without sacrificing simplicity.

So ultimately I do agree with you; but at any rate I'd just like them to do *something* before they stop updating 3.0.x. Otherwise I'll have to switch browsers or find and thoroughly test an extension; I'd rather not have to go to all that trouble.

(If there's a good Firebug replacement out there that works with Safari, of course, I'd love to know about it. If you know of a viable replacement, please contact me by e-mail!)

Comment 6

[Jesper Kristensen]

Please halt, comment 4 and comment 5. You are off topic for bugzilla.

Comment 7

[Elmar Ludwig]

Confirming, this is a valid enhancement request (although this may end up as wontfix).

Comment 8

[Emil Ivanov]

If external links opens in new tab instead in current tab when target _blank is prevented would be very nice.

Comment 9

[Emil Ivanov]

In bug 469082 comment 19 by Mike Beltzner:

> If you want to create a value of 4 that acts differently for external
> applications, I'd consider that patch, but that's a different bug than this
> one, which is claiming that we're behaving incorrectly.

Comment 10

[John Darrow]

Just to point out the absurdity of the developers' resistance to restoring the separate built-in option for browser.link.open_external, I've now found myself making use of an extension called "Tabs Open Relative (Modified)" not because I want the behavior named by the extension - I happen to detest it - but because, now that the named behavior has been added as built-in option browser.tabs.insertRelatedAfterCurrent, the extension's only actual function is to restore the open_external option!

Comment 11

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

Not blocking, but would happily approve a patch for Firefox 4.