565686 - The Add-ons Manager is opened in new window when I click "Manage Add-ons…" button in preferences dialog

Status: RESOLVED INVALID

(Toolkit :: Add-ons Manager, defect)

Description

[Alice0775 White]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.1; WOW64; en-US; rv:1.9.3a5pre) Gecko/20100513 Minefield/3.7a5pre ID:20100513040229
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.1; WOW64; en-US; rv:1.9.3a5pre) Gecko/20100513 Minefield/3.7a5pre ID:20100513040229

The Add-ons Manager is opened in new window when I click "Manage Add-ons…" button in Options dialog.
It should be opened in new tab of the existing browser window.

In addition to the above, it is better to implement that If I clicked the button with Shift Key then it should be opened in new window.

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Start Minefield with "NEW profile"
2. Tools > Options... > General > Click "Manage Add-ons…" button

Actual Results:
 The Add-ons Manager is opened in new window.

Expected Results:
 It should be opened in new tab of the existing browser window.

Comment 1

[Alice0775 White]

I forgot mention in comment #0

If I set browser.preferences.instantApply to true,  or use linux build.

Comment 2

[Henrik Skupin [:whimboo][⌚️UTC+1]]

See also bug 558290. The question here is, should we close the preferences dialog when the user clicks the button? On some systems the dialog is modal which stops us from open it in a new tab without closing the preferences dialog first.

I request feedback from UX.

Comment 3

[Blair McBride [:Unfocused] (UNAVAILABLE)]

Bug 565686 was a temporary fix for this. The situation is going to change once the preferences are redesigned - hopefully in a way that makes this bug invalid. 

The trouble in just closing the prefs dialog is that some OSes have instant-apply and some don't (and even then, its changeable via a hidden pref, as in comment 1) - which makes the solution a lot more complicated (and time consuming). So, IMO, there's not much point in taking time to fix this until we know whats happening with the preferences redesign.

Comment 5

[Blair McBride [:Unfocused] (UNAVAILABLE)]

So, for 4.0, the preferences are staying as-is (ie, NOT in-content). Which means this bug needs sorted out before final.

Comment 7

[Brian King [:kinger]]

And another case to throw into the mix is if the tab is already open.

Comment 8

[Dão Gottwald [:dao]]

(In reply to comment #2)
> On some systems the dialog is modal
> which stops us from open it in a new tab without closing the preferences dialog
> first.

It doesn't stop us, but the user would have to close the dialog before he could use the page. This seems worse than keeping the current behavior.

Comment 9

[Jennifer Morrow [:Boriss] (UX)]

The Preferences window should ideally stay open when the user clicks Manage Add-ons.  It should open in a new tab of the current window (if a window is open).

The reason for not closing the Preferences window is because no other current option within Preferences closes the window.  This design encourages users to try out options, looking at what Preferences are available without the risk of losing the window.  By adding only one option that dismisses the window, we'd both be inconsistent within Preferences and potentially surprise the user.  It's true that one in-content page isn't itself "consistent," but this makes it more likely that the user is not expecting it and thus isn't expecting Preferences to close.

(In reply to comment #2)
> See also bug 558290. The question here is, should we close the preferences
> dialog when the user clicks the button? On some systems the dialog is modal
> which stops us from open it in a new tab without closing the preferences dialog
> first.

Yikes - Preferences should never be modal.  Which systems are currently like this, Henrik?

Comment 10

[Dave Townsend [:mossop]]

(In reply to comment #9)
> The Preferences window should ideally stay open when the user clicks Manage
> Add-ons.  It should open in a new tab of the current window (if a window is
> open).

Do we bring the browser window that opened the add-ons manager to the front (probably hiding the options window)?

> (In reply to comment #2)
> > See also bug 558290. The question here is, should we close the preferences
> > dialog when the user clicks the button? On some systems the dialog is modal
> > which stops us from open it in a new tab without closing the preferences dialog
> > first.
> 
> Yikes - Preferences should never be modal.  Which systems are currently like
> this, Henrik?

Windows.

Comment 11

[Jennifer Morrow [:Boriss] (UX)]

(In reply to comment #10)
> (In reply to comment #9)
> > The Preferences window should ideally stay open when the user clicks Manage
> > Add-ons.  It should open in a new tab of the current window (if a window is
> > open).
> 
> Do we bring the browser window that opened the add-ons manager to the front
> (probably hiding the options window)?

Yes.  It sucks, but so does everything else.
 
> > (In reply to comment #2)
> > > See also bug 558290. The question here is, should we close the preferences
> > > dialog when the user clicks the button? On some systems the dialog is modal
> > > which stops us from open it in a new tab without closing the preferences dialog
> > > first.
> > 
> > Yikes - Preferences should never be modal.  Which systems are currently like
> > this, Henrik?
> 
> Windows.

If there's no way to make the Preferences window non-modal, then yes, we should just the Preferences window in that case.

Comment 12

[Dave Townsend [:mossop]]

> > > (In reply to comment #2)
> > > > See also bug 558290. The question here is, should we close the preferences
> > > > dialog when the user clicks the button? On some systems the dialog is modal
> > > > which stops us from open it in a new tab without closing the preferences dialog
> > > > first.
> > > 
> > > Yikes - Preferences should never be modal.  Which systems are currently like
> > > this, Henrik?
> > 
> > Windows.
> 
> If there's no way to make the Preferences window non-modal, then yes, we should
> just the Preferences window in that case.

It is very easy to make the preferences window non-modal for Windows, the question is if that is what UX want?

Comment 13

[Dave Townsend [:mossop]]

Can't really do anything here until bug 593687 is resolved one way or another I think

Comment 14

[Gian-Carlo Pascutto [:gcp]]

The erroneous and unwanted opening of the new window can easily lead to a complete loss of session if the users closes the browser windows in the wrong order.

Comment 15

[Dão Gottwald [:dao]]

The "Manage Add-ons…" button doesn't exist anymore (bug 513164).