618243 - Ensure TabGroup Restore is discoverable on upgrades

Status: RESOLVED DUPLICATE of bug 589665

(Firefox Graveyard :: Panorama, defect, P3)

Description

[Vish]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux i686; rv:2.0b8pre) Gecko/20101208 Firefox-4.0/4.0b8pre
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux i686; rv:2.0b8pre) Gecko/20101208 Firefox-4.0/4.0b8pre

Continuing from Bug 588217 (starting comment #21), Where I was left wondering why TabGroups I had saved the previous session were not restoring the next time. (Which turned out to be due to old Startup settings of Firefox 3.6)

There also seems to be some confusion among other users regarding this > http://support.mozilla.com/en-US/questions/758762 . (But, Paul O'Shannessy mentions "The top answer there is wrong. That data is restored and AFAIK has been since before b6. I know it is for b7+")
Though I can only speculate that a few of them might have the same problem of 'Saved Tab Groups not restoring' due to wrong prefs. It would be reasonable to expect the same problem, of wrong prefs, in atleast a considerable section of the user-base when they upgrade to FF4 and try the new TabCandy feature.

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Sort, Name and Save TabGroups when using Panorama
2. Ensure Startup preference for Firefox is either "Show my Home page" or "Show a blank Page".
3. Quit and Open Firefox again.
Actual Results:  
All saved TabGroups are lost.

Expected Results:  
TabGroups are available in Panorama, in Firefox's next session.

While we cannot change the user preferences, when we upgrade, there maybe a few ways we could prevent this:

1: When user has 'wrong' prefs, If user is saving and organizing tabs, unobtrusively prompt user that these TabGroups would not saved for the next session. Prompt to save TabGroups. (maybe something similar to how Thunderbird prompts for attachments when it notices keywords?)

2: Improve the wording for the options in the 'Startup' preferences. There is no mention of "TabGroups" in the third Option. 

3: Split and place the option somewhere discoverable. (maybe in the Tabs subsection?) [probably not a good choice]

A combination of 1 & 2 seems a good way to make TabGroups enjoyable.

Comment 1

[Kevin Hanes]

I am kind of intrigued by the idea of wanting to save your groups between sessions but not the tabs themselves. If you want to save everything (groups and tabs) changing the preference form "show my home/blank page" would suffice.

Alternatively, you could close your tabs (except one blank one) and have FF save your session.

Comment 2

[Vish]

(In reply to comment #1)
> I am kind of intrigued by the idea of wanting to save your groups between
> sessions but not the tabs themselves. 

No, I dint mean that. Tabs being saved is not a problem. (In fact I'm finding it quite useful with the tab groups feature)

I meant i dint realize that the TabGroup option is something related to "Save windows and tabs". There is no mention of tab groups anywhere and there is no hint regarding where to change/set this option.

Comment 3

[Kevin Hanes]

That is because they are not related. You can use Panorama without saving your tabs between session and you may have session restore enabled without using Panorama.

I agree the utility of both of them is enhanced when both are used, however.

Comment 4

[Vish]

(In reply to comment #3)
> That is because they are not related. You can use Panorama without saving your
> tabs between session and you may have session restore enabled without using
> Panorama.
> 

OK, Now I'm totally confused. 
If Panorama+session restore can be used without saving tabs, why can it /not/ be a fourth option in the startup preferences?
From what you mention it seems like FF4 is already doing the work, but we are not exposing the option easier.
(this maybe starting to sound like a support question, but surely you can see that the particular option is less discoverable, which IMO is what can be fixed. This bug is only about making it easier to discover and use Panoroma)

Comment 5

[Kevin Hanes]

Ah, what you're asking for is better highlighting of session restore, specifically in Panorama.

Assigning to Faaborg, as this seems like a question that's larger than just Panorama.

Comment 6

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

dupe of Bug 589665?

Comment 7

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

In particular this mockup from that bug: https://bug589665.bugzilla.mozilla.org/attachment.cgi?id=497934

Comment 8

[Kevin Hanes]

(In reply to comment #6)
> dupe of Bug 589665?

yup.

Comment 9

[Vish]

(In reply to comment #6)
> dupe of Bug 589665?

Yup. Except that I mentioned /prompting to save/ the Panorama , while you have mockup about /restoring/ panorama.

Prompting to save would be better, because the user would know while sorting panorama whether he wants those changes saved.

Whereas if user is restoring(1hr/1daylater), they might not really remember exactly what they are restoring. It would just be a blind restore