573438 - mousewheel (middle) click in tab bar should open empty tab

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(Firefox :: Tabbed Browser, enhancement)

Description

[Thomas Nielsen]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.9.2.4) Gecko/20100527 SUSE/3.6.4-2.2 Firefox/3.6.4
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.9.2.4) Gecko/20100527 SUSE/3.6.4-2.2 Firefox/3.6.4

Hi 
This "should" not be a duplicate.
I am so used top clicking the mousewheel, to get content in a new tab, that suddenly i found myself mousewheel cliking on the empty part of the tab bar, and nothing happens. Would be cool if mousewheel clicking on an empty space in the tab bar opened en empty tab. For sure, I can right click and choose new tab, but adding the mouse wheel thing would be cool. 
Just an idea. If you ddon't like/agree, just throw in bin :-)
Thomas

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. click mousewheel on empty space in tab bar
2. observe "The URL is not valid and cannot be loaded."
3. would be better just to open an empty tab
Actual Results:  
"The URL is not valid and cannot be loaded."

Expected Results:  
would be better just to open an empty tab

Enhancement request

Comment 1

[Dão Gottwald [:dao]]

Attachment: patch

Comment 2

[Dão Gottwald [:dao]]

http://hg.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/rev/ab8f9bebe2cb

Comment 3

[Daniel C]

Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.9.3a6pre) Gecko/20100626 Minefield/3.7a6pre

Just noticed that this has a side-effect.

If you try and middle-click-close a background tab and miss slightly, hitting the thin gap between the top of the tab and the edge of the tab bar, then you get a new tab springing up in the foreground.

This is on Linux, not sure if it's the same elsewhere.

Not sure if it's easy to respond only in the area of the tab bar to the right of the last tab.

Comment 4

[Please Ignore This Troll (Account Disabled)]

why not make middle click on the tab bar have another function like undo close tab?
there is already a double left click on the tab bar that opens a new tab, why duplicate functions?

Comment 5

[Thomas Nielsen]

Very sane argument indeed.
My initial thought was that clicking mouse wheel on the page opens the link in a new tab. And some day I out of habbit for a new tab clicked mousewheel on the tab-bar. I had completely forgotten the double-left click did the same. From a logic point of view I still like the idea, that click mouse-wheel always open a new tab. But beginners to firefox may not understand and prefer the more windows-like double-left click. 
It was just an idea anyway.

Comment 6

[Alex Faaborg [:faaborg] (Firefox UX)]

>why not make middle click on the tab bar have another function like undo close
>tab?

for ux-consistency with middle clicking on a hyperlink.

Comment 7

[Please Ignore This Troll (Account Disabled)]

(In reply to comment #6)
> for ux-consistency with middle clicking on a hyperlink.

it's senseless, you can explain with that phrase everything:

why not make middle click on the tab bar have another function like undo close tab?
-for ux-consistency with middle clicking on a hyperlink

why not make double left click have the function of undo close tab?
-for ux-consistency with old behavior

then what we get?
-duplication of functions

Comment 8

[antonnio94]

Totally agree with comment #7. 

Currently there are too many ways for opening a new tab. You have the file menu-->new tab, right click in tab bar-->new tab, the new tab button, double clicking in the tab bar, and now, middle clicking in the tab bar. 

But you have only two ways to undo closed tab. Right click in the tab bar-->undo closed tab, or Ctrl+Shift+T. Any of them is useful and fast enought. I think middle clicking in the tab bar is much more intuitive, fast and useful, and it ins't unconsistent at all with the "open link in a new tab" behaviour. It's just another function.

There are lots of FF extensions related with the tabs that include the functionality of undoing closed tab with a middle click in the tab bar. In fact, currently I'm using an extension just to have that function, because there's no easy way to do it natively with FF.

I think many users feel the same and would like a lot being able to undo closed tab with a fast middle click instead of searching throught menues or with a 3 keys shortcut.