907342 - Make navigation from about:newtab load in the remote process

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(Firefox :: General, defect)

Description

[:Felipe Gomes (needinfo for replies!)]

Attachment: Intercept clicks in about:newtab

With our e10s setup, the about:newtab page is loaded in the parent process. When a user clicks on one of the thumbnails, that navigation happens directly through the page (because it uses simple <a> links), and that means the page is also opened in the parent.

What this patch does is to prevent the direct navigation (only when e10s is enabled) and instructs the browser to load the target URL in the current tab, which will make it properly take the path to call _updateBrowserRemoteness()

Long term we will probably need to have a channel listener to stop the load in the parent and automatically start it again as remote, but we're not there yet. So that's why I've named this function with "E10s" to remind it should be gone in the future.

Comment 1

[Tim Taubert [:ttaubert] (inactive)]

(In reply to :Felipe Gomes from comment #0)
> Long term we will probably need to have a channel listener to stop the load
> in the parent and automatically start it again as remote, but we're not
> there yet. So that's why I've named this function with "E10s" to remind it
> should be gone in the future.

We have plans and patches to make about:newtab unprivileged and e10s friendly as well. They're currently blocked by prioritization and failing tests, unfortunately. We should definitely push in that direction for about:newtab but I'm guessing you need that mechanism for other chrome pages anyway.

Comment 2

[Tim Taubert [:ttaubert] (inactive)]

Comment on attachment 793011 [details] [diff] [review]
Intercept clicks in about:newtab

Review of attachment 793011 [details] [diff] [review]:
-----------------------------------------------------------------

::: browser/base/content/browser.js
@@ +2373,4 @@
>  }
>  
>  /**
>   * Handle command events bubbling up from error page content

That comment should probably be adjusted.

@@ +4311,3 @@
>  
>      // Attach a listener to watch for "click" events bubbling up from error
>      // pages and other similar page. This lets us fix bugs like 401575 which

Nit: mention about:newtab here.

Comment 3

[:Felipe Gomes (needinfo for replies!)]

Thanks Tim!

https://hg.mozilla.org/integration/fx-team/rev/9b78d0aa8249

Comment 4

[Tim Taubert [:ttaubert] (inactive)]

https://hg.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/rev/9b78d0aa8249