Lull The Tabs (BarTab successor)

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JustOff

Lull The Tabs (BarTab successor)

Unread post by JustOff » 2018-02-10, 20:17

Lull The Tabs is designed to unload inactive tabs to free up browser memory (manually or automatically).

This add-on is the full-featured successor of the BarTab / BarTab Heavy (Tycho) / BarTab Lite (X) extensions family. It uses modern APIs to ensure maximum performance and no conflicts with built-in browser functions and other extensions.

Here is a small comparison table:
—————————————————————————————————————————————————————
                                                                    BarTab Heavy             BarTab Lite X          Lull The Tabs
—————————————————————————————————————————————————————
Hook  into  Progress  Listeners           on every tab                on every tab                    no
Hook  into  Web  Navigation                on every tab                        no                                no
Hook  into  Session  Manager                      yes                                 yes                               no
Conflict  with  "Find  in  page"                     yes                                  no                                no
Auto  unload  inactive  tabs                         yes                                  no                                yes
Support  wildcard  whitelisting                    no                                   —                                 yes
Support  IDN  in  the  whitelist                     no                                   —                                 yes
Restartless                                                        no                                  yes                               yes
—————————————————————————————————————————————————————

If you used BarTab, then its whitelist will be automatically imported at the first start. To add a wildcard domain to the exception list, hold down the Ctrl key while clicking on the corresponding context menu.

This add-on was created for my own needs, but questions, suggestions and bug reports are welcome, as always.
Last edited by JustOff on 2018-02-10, 20:33, edited 2 times in total.

Aube Bleue

Re: Lull The Tabs (BarTab successor)

Unread post by Aube Bleue » 2018-02-11, 00:55

Finally, an unloading extension made for Pale Moon! :clap: For the past year, I have been using the combination BarTab Heavy + BarTab Lite X, but it was pretty buggy, indeed. :-( So far, Lull The Tabs works correctly for me.

If I may, here are three options I would really like to have eventually, please:
  1. When opening tabs in the background: don't load them.
  2. When closing a tab: select the previously selected tab (instead of the nearest).
  3. When switching to an unloaded tab: let the user load it (instead of loading it immediately).
Thank you very much, JustOff, for this must-have extension of yours! Good job, as always.
Last edited by Aube Bleue on 2018-02-11, 01:10, edited 1 time in total.

JustOff

Re: Lull The Tabs (BarTab successor)

Unread post by JustOff » 2018-02-11, 12:14

Aube Bleue wrote:Finally, an unloading extension made for Pale Moon!
Actually, there is also BarTab Tycho, but in fact it's just BarTab Heavy (with all its shortcomings) rebranded for Pale Moon, which always unloads pinned tabs.
1. When opening tabs in the background: don't load them.
This will most likely to require hooking into Web Navigation, which I'd like to avoid for performance and stability reasons. I'll see if there are other ways to do this.
2. When closing a tab: select the previously selected tab (instead of the nearest).
This is the default behavior of the browser. Do you mean you want to have an option to switch to the nearest loaded tab?
Well, there can be three options when closing a tab (browser defaults, previously selected or nearest loaded) and two options when unloading (previously selected or nearest loaded). I think it will be quite easy to implement.
3. When switching to an unloaded tab: let the user load it (instead of loading it immediately).
I've never seen such an option in other extensions and even can't imagine how this can be achieved at all. What kind of magic should trigger the tab loading in this case? ;)
Last edited by JustOff on 2018-02-11, 13:36, edited 2 times in total.

JustOff

Re: Lull The Tabs (BarTab successor)

Unread post by JustOff » 2018-02-11, 15:53

Lull The Tabs 1.0.4 has been released:
  • Add options to choose which tab will be selected when unloading and closing tabs

Aube Bleue

Re: Lull The Tabs (BarTab successor)

Unread post by Aube Bleue » 2018-02-12, 00:06

JustOff wrote:Actually, there is also BarTab Tycho, but in fact it's just BarTab Heavy (with all its shortcomings) rebranded for Pale Moon, which always unloads pinned tabs.
Yes, but it's still pretty buggy, as you said. Your new extension, on the other hand, is specifically made with Pale Moon in mind. Maybe a warning to that effect should be made on the official page of BarTab Tycho, no?
JustOff wrote:This will most likely to require hooking into Web Navigation, which I'd like to avoid for performance and stability reasons. I'll see if there are other ways to do this.
If you can do this in a safe way, then great! I often open many links from lengthy articles, only to click on the background tabs later. If these tabs could be unloaded by default, it would be lighter on my system. The extension Suspend Tab even has the (half-broken) ability to cache the content of background tabs, which allows the titles and icons of web pages to be displayed, instead of just the URLs:
Suspend Tab Configuration.png
JustOff wrote:I've never seen such an option in other extensions and even can't imagine how this can be achieved at all. What kind of magic should trigger the tab loading in this case? ;)
Well, BarTab has such an option since v1.5. I prefer the extra click, offering more control, over the immediate loading of background tabs -- especially when clicking on them inadvertently, which then requires re-unloading them. *sigh* As for the "magic" needed to achieve this, you're the wizard, not me. ;)
BarTab preferences.png
Load bar.png
JustOff wrote:Add options to choose which tab will be selected when unloading and closing tabs
Great! The distinction between unloading and closing tabs makes it even more fine-grained. :thumbup: One small thing, though: the wording "a tab select" seems a little strange to me. I don't think the word select can be substantivised; it can only (?) be either a verb or an adjective. :think:

Anyway, your time and efforts are GREATLY appreciated, JustOff. Thanks again.
Last edited by Aube Bleue on 2018-02-12, 00:27, edited 2 times in total.

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Re: Lull The Tabs (BarTab successor)

Unread post by Moonchild » 2018-02-12, 07:44

I've been giving this a test run (mainly because of the broken find on suspended state tabs) and unfortunately it doesn't seem to unload tabs properly. My browser was left running overnight, and when I came back, aside from the active tab, there were still other tabs that were not unloaded (and no they aren't in the whitelist).

EDIT: oh.. for some reason the default is not to automatically unload on idle? (that should be default, what's the point otherwise, manually doing this for each tab?) I've now selected that option (wasn't migrated from BarTab Tycho either) and will do a short-duration test and let you know.

As for "select" i think you're just missing punctuation there: "When unloading a tab, select:"
Last edited by Moonchild on 2018-02-12, 08:18, edited 2 times in total.
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Moonchild
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Re: Lull The Tabs (BarTab successor)

Unread post by Moonchild » 2018-02-12, 08:28

I'm going to go back to Bar Tab Tycho for now (despite its broken Find -- how did you work around that, by the way?) because it fails at its primary task: it doesn't unload tabs after the specified interval. There's definitely a bug somewhere.
"Sometimes, the best way to get what you want is to be a good person." -- Louis Rossmann
"Seek wisdom, not knowledge. Knowledge is of the past; wisdom is of the future." -- Native American proverb
"Linux makes everything difficult." -- Lyceus Anubite

Aube Bleue

Re: Lull The Tabs (BarTab successor)

Unread post by Aube Bleue » 2018-02-12, 17:17

Moonchild wrote:it doesn't unload tabs after the specified interval. There's definitely a bug somewhere.
For me, it does -- but only for tabs opened after enabling automatic unloading; for tabs that were already opened, it doesn't unload automatically, indeed. I think this should be considered as a bug.

JustOff

Re: Lull The Tabs (BarTab successor)

Unread post by JustOff » 2018-02-12, 17:24

Aube Bleue wrote:I think this should be considered as a bug.
Yes, you are right. The fix is almost ready, I'll post the update later today when I reach the console.

Aube Bleue

Re: Lull The Tabs (BarTab successor)

Unread post by Aube Bleue » 2018-02-12, 17:46

Moonchild wrote:As for "select" i think you're just missing punctuation there: "When unloading a tab, select:"
Punctuation helps to clarify things, doesn't it? ;)
JustOff wrote:Yes, you are right. The fix is almost ready, I'll post the update later today when I reach the console.
Thanks for the prompt reaction!

JustOff

Re: Lull The Tabs (BarTab successor)

Unread post by JustOff » 2018-02-12, 21:48

Moonchild wrote:I've been giving this a test run (mainly because of the broken find on suspended state tabs)
Yeah, it's very annoying and was the reason why I started this work.
unfortunately it doesn't seem to unload tabs properly.
It does, but only for tabs that were visited after enabling automatic unloading. This is obviously wrong and have been fixed now.
for some reason the default is not to automatically unload on idle?
This is the safe default, exactly just like in BarTab Heavy (Tycho).
I've now selected that option (wasn't migrated from BarTab Tycho either)
Now it will do, I added more options to the migration routine.
As for "select" i think you're just missing punctuation there: "When unloading a tab, select:"
Thanks, fixed.
I'm going to go back to Bar Tab Tycho for now
I thinks it's time to give it one more shot.

Lull The Tabs 1.1.0 has been released:
  • Properly handle auto unload for previously opened tabs
  • Update unload timer on the fly when preferences change
  • Import more options from BarTab
  • Code and style cleanup

JustOff

Re: Lull The Tabs (BarTab successor)

Unread post by JustOff » 2018-02-15, 11:24

Lull The Tabs 1.2.0 has been released:
  • Add option to consider left adjacent tab as nearest
  • Integrate timer-related functions into the main listener
  • Handle timers in a more optimal way
  • Add the unload button in the address bar
  • Open extension options when Ctrl+Click on the button

JustOff

Re: Lull The Tabs (BarTab successor)

Unread post by JustOff » 2018-02-17, 13:40

Aube Bleue wrote:When opening tabs in the background: don't load them [..] If you can do this in a safe way, then great! I often open many links from lengthy articles, only to click on the background tabs later. If these tabs could be unloaded by default, it would be lighter on my system.
Lull The Tabs 1.3.0 has been released:
  • Add option to not load tabs that open in the background

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Re: Lull The Tabs (BarTab successor)

Unread post by _yuyu_ » 2018-02-18, 00:44

Thank you for those great adaptations and enhancements. There's an issue:
JustOff wrote:Add option to not load tabs that open in the background
When in private mode: tab that prevented to load in background by your extension loads in NORMAL mode after reload.
Last edited by _yuyu_ on 2018-02-18, 00:47, edited 1 time in total.
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JustOff

Re: Lull The Tabs (BarTab successor)

Unread post by JustOff » 2018-02-18, 17:23

_yuyu_ wrote:When in private mode: tab that prevented to load in background by your extension loads in NORMAL mode after reload.
Thank you for reporting this issue. I confirm that LTT isn't working properly with private tabs when opening them in the background with deferred load. I also found it leaves a history of visiting sites that are opened in "frozen" tabs in the background in private windows. I'll try to fix both these problems as soon as possible.

JustOff

Re: Lull The Tabs (BarTab successor)

Unread post by JustOff » 2018-02-18, 19:01

Lull The Tabs 1.3.1 has been released to immediately address a serious privacy issue with "frozen" tabs that open in the background in private windows.

Proper support for the inheritance of private status for tabs is under investigation.

UPD: Lull The Tabs 1.3.3 has been released to respect the inheritance of private status for "frozen" tabs that open in the background.
Last edited by JustOff on 2018-02-18, 20:05, edited 2 times in total.

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Re: Lull The Tabs (BarTab successor)

Unread post by Zero3K » 2018-02-21, 00:40

How about an option to change it so tabs are loaded in the background on startup when automatic tab unloading is enabled? (That or an option to change it so tabs containing any of the sites in the whitelist are loaded on startup/session restore via Pale Moon/extension).

EDIT: That and the adding the ability to add the site of the selected tab to the list by the right clicking anywhere on the page would be nice.

EDIT #2: What's the optimal time to set for having it automatically unload tabs?
Last edited by Zero3K on 2018-02-21, 06:10, edited 3 times in total.

JustOff

Re: Lull The Tabs (BarTab successor)

Unread post by JustOff » 2018-02-21, 11:16

Zero3K wrote:How about an option to change it so tabs are loaded in the background on startup when automatic tab unloading is enabled?
Unfortunately, this isn't possible since the method of unloading of tabs used by LTT relies on the tab lazy loading feature provided by the browser.
or an option to change it so tabs containing any of the sites in the whitelist are loaded on startup/session restore via Pale Moon/extension.
That and the adding the ability to add the site of the selected tab to the list by the right clicking anywhere on the page would be nice.
Sorry, but I can't imagine why anyone would need this.
What's the optimal time to set for having it automatically unload tabs?
There is no optimal time here, but only the time comfortable for you personally.

JustOff

Re: Lull The Tabs (BarTab successor)

Unread post by JustOff » 2018-02-24, 14:16

Lull The Tabs 1.3.4 has been released to fix the "ghost scrolling" of the tab strip.

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Re: Lull The Tabs (BarTab successor)

Unread post by LimboSlam » 2018-02-25, 01:48

Hello there, another great add-on you have created JustOff, thanks. However, the about:whatever (e.g, about:addons, about:reader) pages are unloaded as they are not recognized by LTT's exception list. Can we have control over these internal pages with LTT's?
Last edited by LimboSlam on 2018-02-25, 01:54, edited 2 times in total.
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