PM 28.20 Still cannot open external links in same page/tab

[AndTheWolf]

Starting with PM 28.0 I have been unable to open external links in the same page/tab. I hoped this would be fixed in 28.20, but it was not. Moonchild, will this be fixed in a future release?

[New Tobin Paradigm]

Did you check your extensions? Why not provide useful troubleshooting info? Why have you waited three months (more like six if you count the unstables) to report this?

Also, there is no such version as "28.20" There is a version 28.2.0, however.

[satrow]

What do you have on your right-click menu?

RtClickImageLinkMenuPM28.2.0.jpg

[thosrtanner]

Mine says 'open link here' for reasons i'm not entirely sure about

[Moonchild]

I'm sorry but this is by design and will not be changed. External links will always be opened in a new tab or new window, depending on the CLI parameters provided.
The reason is that the browser's structural design simply doesn't allow for a new launch to specify exactly what the target document should be. To implement this would either mean adding an ugly hack or completely rewriting how the browser's launch internals work, neither of which are desirable.

Also, I don't understand why you created a new and duplicate topic while being aware of the original since you have started it and posted there. Please don't.
Like I had to point out to someone on Github today also: unless an issue has been worked on and has been resolved, it will remain present -- these things do not "magically disappear". If it's not in the release notes and isn't something trivial or internal only, you should not expect behavior to have been changed.

[AndTheWolf]

Actually I have opened this issue a few times. The first time, which you referred to, I did a bad job of describing the problem, so I decided to start over. Then, I had to demonstrate that the problem was real, and not an error on my part. Finally, when someone else was able to reproduce the problem I would again ask if there were any plans to fix this. After which, I heard nothing. So I tried again with the next release. The last time, https://forum.palemoon.org/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=20492&hilit=browser.link.open_newwindow. , I waited two weeks after asking the question the second time, then asked a third time and finally, Moonchild, you replied

I'd like to know if the same issue happens with Basilisk or not. If it doesn't then there's a front-end issue. If it does, it'll be toolkit.

. It took me a while to test this, since I don't use Basilisk, but after installing Basilisk I was able to say that

In Basilisk everything works as documented, so I guess that makes it a front-end issue.

I never got a reply, So when 28.2.0 came out I decided to try again. I apologize, I probably should have just extended the previous thread.

I'm surprised that the structural design of 28.x is that different both from 27.x and from Basilisk, but so be it. Since it is by design you might want to change the source comment for browser.link.open_newwindow.override.external to make it clear that open is same tab is not an option.

[digitalaudiorock]

Wow...I just noticed behavior today that really surprised me and I'm interested to understand if it's the same thing being discussed here:

If a page in an application has an anchor tag that expressly has something like target="some-target-name", and that name has already been used as a target tab, does palemoon ignore that and just open a new tab? If so that seems almost stunning to me and would seem to be something that would cause serious problems in some applications? Is that the case?

EDIT to add: I get this behavior in palemoon under Linux and Windows, and not with any other browser as far as I know.

Thanks in advance.
Tom

[therube]

Do you have a sample page that exhibits this behavior?

[Moonchild]

Wow...I just noticed behavior today that really surprised me and I'm interested to understand if it's the same thing being discussed here:

If a page in an application has an anchor tag that expressly has something like target="some-target-name", and that name has already been used as a target tab, does palemoon ignore that and just open a new tab? If so that seems almost stunning to me and would seem to be something that would cause serious problems in some applications? Is that the case?

EDIT to add: I get this behavior in palemoon under Linux and Windows, and not with any other browser as far as I know.

Thanks in advance.
Tom

If other browsers direct you to an already-opened tab at the url with reference, then we are the only ones doing it correctly. Anchors should only work on the same document, never across documents.

[illiad]

pardon me, but grammar fails sometimes.... or maybe my UK one is different...

"open external links in the same page/tab" does that mean the same as "open links from other applications" as in tabmix plus?

I have also seen some 'dubious' website that manipulates page opening - (I quite often open many pages in background for reading later) they force this page to the front!!

[Tomaso]

In relation to opening links, Mozilla is working on a new security feature (rel=noopener for target=_blank):
https://www.ghacks.net/2018/11/30/firef ... get_blank/

When completed, is this something that should be implemented in Pale Moon?

[yami_]

This could probably be implemented as an add-on.

[illiad]

https://addons.palemoon.org/addon/tab-mix-plus/ (click that, page opens, overwriting this page... ) what you want??
('force to open' is NOT ticked)


also full help
http://tabmixplus.org/support/viewtopic.php?t=3

[business_user]

This is a very serious usability flaw in the browser. After spending several hours manually setting up bookmarks and other configuration tasks, now I find out that this flaw is "by design". No other browser that I can think of has this design defect. It's just poor tab management to be continuously opening new tabs. For someone who works with a lot of links stored in an external program or spreadsheet, this design flaw results in the user having to continuously refocus their attention to a different tab and close tabs before they get out-of-hand. There should at least be some type of over-ride in the configuration settings.

[Moonchild]

This is a very serious usability flaw in the browser.

"This" being... what exactly?

[profdlp]

I'll let business_user speak for himself, but I find this to be a serious usability flaw as well. (And yes, I have a thread open on this subject, but the response directed me here.)

I'm on a number of forums and sometimes get a dozen or more "topic updated" email notices. To have every single one open a new tab or new window is kludgy to say the least.

[Moonchild]

Sorry for not understanding the exact issue until now.
Filed Issue #971 (UXP)

[AndTheWolf]

I don't think this has been fixed in 28.4.0, although the release notes say "Added a potential fix for external links not opening in the current window/tab (untested)". I still cannot make external links open in the current window/tab no matter what setting I use with browser.link.open_newwindow.override.external.

Moonchild, does the code in 28.4.0 require some other means to get external links to open in the same tab?

[Moonchild]

It should have fixed it but I guess it's back to the drawing board if it didn't.
If anyone has ideas of the cause or time to research it, please comment on the github issue.

[therube]

On the chance that browser.link.open_newwindow (in addition to browser.link.open_newwindow.override.external) may have played some part in this, I checked combinations of both Prefs, but in no case would external links open in the same tab - only in a new tab or window.