616875 - Closing a window with multiple app tabs did not bring up the close verification dialog

Status: NEW

(Firefox :: Tabbed Browser, defect)

Description

[Deb Richardson [:dria] (plz NEEDINFO)]

I had 5 app tabs and 0 normal tabs open and I accidentally closed the last Firefox window due to a misclick.  I would expect this to raise the dialog to verify that I want to close multiple tabs, but it doesn't.

Comment 1

[:Gavin Sharp [email: [e-mail]]]

The warning threshold check was changed to exclude app tabs in bug 580512, but I don't understand the justification for it. It still seems possible to lose app tabs by closing a window of them, so it seems like we should still warn.

Comment 3

[:Gavin Sharp [email: [e-mail]]]

Oh, actually this was changed by the original apptabs landing (http://hg.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/rev/457ffad14bbd) for aAll==false, but bug 580512 just extended it to the aAll==true case too.

Comment 4

[:Gavin Sharp [email: [e-mail]]]

I guess what I don't understand is what exactly bug 580512 fixed. If it only saves app tabs for the last-closed window, then we should at the very least  take that into account when deciding whether to prompt. I'm not sure it's a good idea to suppress the multiple-tab closing dialog at all, since whether they will be restored isn't particularly relevant (this dialog is mostly to prevent accidental closure, and therefore doesn't take into account session restore state for normal tabs).

Comment 5

[:Gavin Sharp [email: [e-mail]]]

Attachment: patch

Comment 6

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

I believe that this behaviour is intentional (cc'ing Limi and Faaborg) though I fully agree that I think it'll be surprising, despite the fact that those App Tabs will be restored (in the case when that was the last window and thus the browser closed) or could be restored (in the case where it wasn't the last window and thus the user could invoke Undo Close Window)

As I understand it, the idea is that we want to make it so when a tab is pinned as an App Tab, it isn't like a normal tab, and is instead considered to be part of the basic set of browser UI. (This model made a bunch of sense when the Home Button was replaced with a Home Tab that was an app tab) I don't know if our current treatment of app tabs warrants this idea at present.

While I suppose it might annoy people to always have to verify that they want to close their browser window when there are only app tabs left, I think to do otherwise violates the principle of least surprise.

(Perhaps strangely, though, I feel that we shouldn't warn-on-quit, just warn-on-window-close)

Comment 7

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

This is by design, there isn't any chance of data loss, and even if the user is surprised all they have to do is open firefox again to see that app tabs are persistent.

Comment 8

[Dão Gottwald [:dao]]

Comment on attachment 511213 [details] [diff] [review]
patch

This seems right to me. Excluding app tabs is particularly problematic when the window isn't the last one, so that its app tabs will be gone just like normal tabs.

Comment 9

[:Gavin Sharp [email: [e-mail]]]

Comment on attachment 511213 [details] [diff] [review]
patch

Alex: we still show the "closing tabs" dialog for window closes with multiple tabs, and have an exposed pref that controls it ("warn me when closing multiple tabs"). Your goal may be to remove support for that pref, but until we go that far I think we should be consistent about when it applies (there's no reason to treat app tabs any differently, given their behavior in Firefox 4).

Comment 10

[:Gavin Sharp [email: [e-mail]]]

Also note comment 4: even if you think it's OK to treat app tabs differently because they are auto-session-restored (even though we don't let session-restore behavior affect prompting for normal tabs), that doesn't apply when the app tabs *won't* be auto-session-restored (i.e. when you're not closing the last window).

Comment 11

[Dão Gottwald [:dao]]

(In reply to comment #10)
> even if you think it's OK to treat app tabs differently
> because they are auto-session-restored (even though we don't let
> session-restore behavior affect prompting for normal tabs)

browser.startup.page=3 actually suppresses the warning when closing the last window.

Comment 12

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

>I think we should be consistent about when it applies (there's no reason to
>treat app tabs any differently, given their behavior in Firefox 4).

Showing this dialog when the user has app tabs feels like we are saying "warning, you are about to close a window with items on the bookmarks toolbar."  Even though we built app tabs on top of session restore (which doesn't seem like the ideal place to store them), I don't think we should expose that fact with the dialog box.  The purpose of the dialog box is to point out that tabs are not going to be automatically restored (which in the case of app tabs, isn't true).

>browser.startup.page=3 actually suppresses the warning when closing the last
>window.

Closing a secondary window (that does contain app tabs, which will not be restored since the window wasn't closed last) seems like the appropriate use of the dialog, while the last window that only contains app tabs (which will be restored) does not.  Is this how the patch works?

Comment 13

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

Comment on attachment 511213 [details] [diff] [review]
patch

Talked to gavin on irc, ui-r+ for this bug, with the caveat that we need a follow up bug to address app tabs being removed when you close the last window on OS X (but do not close the application).

Comment 14

[Will]

(In reply to comment #7)
> This is by design, there isn't any chance of data loss, and even if the user is
> surprised all they have to do is open firefox again to see that app tabs are
> persistent.

There is a 100% chance for data loss if, like me, you have Fx set to clear your private data on exit. 

I guess I just don't use App Tabs for their "intended" purpose, but I think my purpose is valid. I use them simply to save tab bar real estate in any given browsing session (which could last for hours). No matter how long my browsing session, I will almost always have my email and Facebook page pinned, and may have several more. I don't want them to persist to my next session, but I certainly want to be warned if I'm closing a window of several app tabs and 0 or 1 normal tabs.

Comment 15

[Will]

Would it be possible to add an about:config boolean that would flag whether App Tabs should be counted as normal tabs? I understand the majority of users keep their history, their App Tabs regenerate, and they are able to restore any previous session if needed. However, for anybody who is a little more strict about clearing private data after each session, the potential for data loss is very likely, and a simple boolean could save a lot of headaches.

Comment 16

[Will]

Or even better, you could base it off the already existing "privacy.clearOnShutdown.history" boolean. If that is set to true, then App Tabs will not regenerate on next session, so in those cases it makes sense to offer the user a quit warning dialog.

Comment 18

[Sylvestre Ledru [:Sylvestre]]

No assignee, updating the status.

Comment 19

[Sylvestre Ledru [:Sylvestre]]

No assignee, updating the status.

Comment 20

[Sylvestre Ledru [:Sylvestre]]

No assignee, updating the status.