850284 - UI Option to set New Tab page same as Homepage

Status: RESOLVED WONTFIX

(Firefox :: Settings UI, enhancement)

Description

[sys.sgx]

User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.0; rv:22.0) Gecko/20130312 Firefox/22.0
Build ID: 20130312031046

Steps to reproduce:

I believe there should be an option (in the Options menu) to be able to set a new tab's address to the homepage.

For example, if someone wants to have google.com as his homepage, opening a new tab should display the google page, and leave the focus free so that the page can place the cursor where the page wants.

Comment 1

[Tyler Downer [He/Him]]

You can do this by going to about:config, and setting browser.newtab.url to www.google.com (or whatever you want). Now if you want this to be a UI Option, that's another issue. I'll change the bug to reflect that

Comment 2

[sys.sgx]

@Tyler:
Thanks for the quick reply, though please note that it's not the same thing through the browser.newtab.url. This is a known "issue"-topic that has lead to the development of an addon for a very specific reason: if you change the new tab loading url by about:config, the focus stays on the address bar (see screenshot) and is not available for the webpage to use. The user should be able to open a new tab and have the cursor right at google's search element.

In addition, as also shown in the screenshot, by about:config the address bar does not contain the google.com address.

I think it's reasonable for a browser to be able to set the new tab url through the options. :)

Btw, wanted to ask you, if you search in google through the "search-bar", where are the cookies stored? Are they cleared by using Clear All?.

Thanks

Comment 3

[sys.sgx]

Attachment: new tab url

Comment 5

[Mathew Hodson]

Attachment: Screenshot of IE tab settings 1

(In reply to David E. Ross from comment #4)
> In SeaMonkey, the Preferences window allows you to select one of the
> following for a new tab and separately for a new window:  a blank page, your
> home page, or the last page previously visited.  This is found on the
> Browser pane.  For "Display on", there is a pull-down selection list for
> Browser Startup, New Window, and New Tab with radio buttons for your choice.
> 
> 
> Is this not a Firefox capability?  If not, consider switching to SeaMonkey.

Internet Explorer also has this feature, so I think it would be useful in Firefox.

IE has three options in a dropdown for when a new tab is opened: "A blank page", "The new tab page", and "Your first home page".

Comment 6

[Mathew Hodson]

Attachment: Screenshot of IE tab settings 2

Comment 7

[Mathew Hodson]

Attachment: Firefox Preferences mockup 1

I created a mock-up of what the UI might look like.

Comment 8

[Mathew Hodson]

Attachment: Firefox Preferences mockup 2

Here's a mock-up showing the three options in the drop-down.

Comment 9

[u529383]

(In reply to mathew.hodson from comment #8)
> Created attachment 8627050 [details]
> Firefox Preferences mockup 2
> 
> Here's a mock-up showing the three options in the drop-down.

The mock-up is functional, easy to understand and to use. This should go forward.

Comment 10

[Douglas]

With the recent removal of browser.newtab.url, this NEEDS to be implemented

Comment 11

[Mark Hammond [:markh] [:mhammond]]

Comment on attachment 8627050 [details]
Firefox Preferences mockup 2

Steven, what do you think of this?

Comment 12

[Mathew Hodson]

Attachment: new tab patch (try 1)

Here is my first attempt at a patch. Is this the right strategy?

Comment 13

[Justin Dolske [:Dolske]]

I'm a bit dubious about the value of this. IE and Safari have such an option, but Chrome doesn't and (notably) Edge does not either.

Seems like this would also need to be exposed on the existing newtab page options (the gear icon in the upper-right corner), so we don't have 2 different ways of changing similar-but-different settings. And that makes this even more unappealing (by adding more options to a more visible UI).

These are pretty old concepts (tabs and homepages), and unsurprisingly there are some old Firefox bugs considering something that this that were WONTFIX'd. And so still feels like something that's squarely in Addons territory (especially given that there are plenty of other built-in ways to open a new tab with a web page, eg middle-clicking a bookmark / home button or using the search box directly).

Given the context in bug 1118285, which seems to have spawned this, I'm further disinclined to add this. Especially because you re-adding the spamware vector that bug removed (a spamware modified prefs.js that changes your homepage and makes newtabs use it).

(In reply to sys.sgx from comment #2)

> This is a known "issue"-topic that has lead
> to the development of an addon for a very specific reason: if you change the
> new tab loading url by about:config, the focus stays on the address bar (see
> screenshot) and is not available for the webpage to use. The user should be
> able to open a new tab and have the cursor right at google's search element.

Note that Firefox's own newtab page, which has a search box, also does not take focus. (Presumably because we expect people opening a new tab to actually enter a URL or use the awesomebar.)

I think the right approach is what bug 1118285 comments 1-9 discuss -- this kind of functionality should be provided by an addon, but if we need to add further hooks to make this reasonable for an addon to do, then that's a more interesting thing to do in Firefox itself.

Comment 14

[Douglas]

(In reply to Justin Dolske [:Dolske] from comment #13)
> I'm a bit dubious about the value of this. IE and Safari have such an
> option, but Chrome doesn't and (notably) Edge does not either.
> 
> Seems like this would also need to be exposed on the existing newtab page
> options (the gear icon in the upper-right corner), so we don't have 2
> different ways of changing similar-but-different settings. And that makes
> this even more unappealing (by adding more options to a more visible UI).
> 
> These are pretty old concepts (tabs and homepages), and unsurprisingly there
> are some old Firefox bugs considering something that this that were
> WONTFIX'd. And so still feels like something that's squarely in Addons
> territory (especially given that there are plenty of other built-in ways to
> open a new tab with a web page, eg middle-clicking a bookmark / home button
> or using the search box directly).
> 
> Given the context in bug 1118285, which seems to have spawned this, I'm
> further disinclined to add this. Especially because you re-adding the
> spamware vector that bug removed (a spamware modified prefs.js that changes
> your homepage and makes newtabs use it).
> 
> (In reply to sys.sgx from comment #2)
> 
> > This is a known "issue"-topic that has lead
> > to the development of an addon for a very specific reason: if you change the
> > new tab loading url by about:config, the focus stays on the address bar (see
> > screenshot) and is not available for the webpage to use. The user should be
> > able to open a new tab and have the cursor right at google's search element.
> 
> Note that Firefox's own newtab page, which has a search box, also does not
> take focus. (Presumably because we expect people opening a new tab to
> actually enter a URL or use the awesomebar.)
> 
> I think the right approach is what bug 1118285 comments 1-9 discuss -- this
> kind of functionality should be provided by an addon, but if we need to add
> further hooks to make this reasonable for an addon to do, then that's a more
> interesting thing to do in Firefox itself.

This should be a default Firefox feature. I'm sick of installing addons just to retain features Firefox has had for years. I want my new tab page to be an ACTUAL blank page. I hate the about:newtab page. Firefox is getting worse and worse with every new update.

Comment 15

[Mathew Hodson]

(In reply to Justin Dolske [:Dolske] from comment #13)
> These are pretty old concepts (tabs and homepages), and unsurprisingly there
> are some old Firefox bugs considering something that this that were
> WONTFIX'd.

Are there other bugs about this feature? Could you link them?