Firefox with "Open in new Tab" as preferred application does not show

[René Brandenburger]

Setting firefox as preferred application with the setting "open link in new tab" only works if firefox already running. If firefox is not yet running, nothing happens.
the command shown in the Preferred application Choser is

firefox -remote "openurl(%s,new-tab)"

Using Dapper beta updates applied till 27.4.2006

[Andy Price (andy-price)]

Thanks for your bug report. I'm confirming this as when firefox is not running,

firefox -remote "openurl(%s,new-tab)"

doesn't do anything.

[Andy Price (andy-price)]

I meant to replace the %s with a url in the previous comment, but you get the picture.

[Andy Price (andy-price)]

A possible fix:

firefox -new-tab %s

Might need testing though as i've tweaked my firefox settings a bit in how it opens new links.

[René Brandenburger (rene-brandenburger)]

using "firefox -new-tab %s" actually starts firefox as expected, but does not load the desired page, the default home page is shown instead.
If firefox is running everything is fine ...

tested with fixes till may 4rth applied

[Fusi (fusi)]

User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-GB; rv:1.8.1) Gecko/20061010 Firefox/2.0
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-GB; rv:1.8.1) Gecko/20061010 Firefox/2.0

when passing the commandline argument "-new-tab <url>" to firefox, the <url> will not be loaded if there is no existing browser window (browser window being the main window (tabs, webpages etc)).

the same thing happens if the download/addon/etc window(s) are open, but there is no existing browser window.

the result of passing the "-new-tabs <url>" commandline argument to firefox in these cases results in a browser window being opened to the default home page; the <url> is not loaded.

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. close all firefox main browser windows (you can leave the download/addon/etc windows open if you like)
2. run firefox with the "-new-tabs <url>" commandline (replace <url> with your favourite url ;)
3. watch your home page appear :(

Actual Results:
new browser window is created containing the users home page

Expected Results:
a new browser window should appear that contains the <url> specified on the command line

[Bugzilla-olliholliday (bugzilla-olliholliday)]

i get this too!

[Gavin Sharp (gavin-sharp)]

Created attachment 243392
patch

handURIToExistingBrowser() tries to use cmdLine (if getMostRecentBrowserWindow() returns null), but it isn't defined.

[Fusi (fusi)]

patch works here

[Gavin Sharp (gavin-sharp)]

Checked in on the trunk.

mozilla/browser/components/nsBrowserContentHandler.js 1.29

[Gavin Sharp (gavin-sharp)]

Comment on attachment 243392
patch

This fix only affects -openURL(<url>,new-tab) and -new-tab command line parameters. The risk of regression is nearly 0 (passing an extra argument to a function that already uses it to avoid throwing an exception).

[Dveditz (dveditz)]

Comment on attachment 243392
patch

approved for 1.8 branch, a=dveditz for drivers

[Gavin Sharp (gavin-sharp)]

mozilla/browser/components/nsBrowserContentHandler.js 1.12.2.14

[Jbecerra-mozilla (jbecerra-mozilla)]

Verified using steps in bug description with: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8.1.1pre) Gecko/20061130 BonEcho/2.0.0.1pre

[Alex Latchford (alex.latchford)]

Assigning this to myself while I try to figure out the correct method of opening remote tabs.

[Alex Latchford (alex.latchford)]

Okay, the correct command(s) are..

firefox -new-tab <url>
firefox -new-window <url>

I will keep this assigned to me for now whilst I try to find who to assign this too.

Thanks again, Alex.

[Gavin Sharp (gavin-sharp)]

Comment on attachment 243392
patch

This should land on the 1.8.0 branch too, it's a simple fix that causes headaches for linux users.

[Jay-mozilla (jay-mozilla)]

Comment on attachment 243392
patch

Approved for 1.8.0 branch, a=jay for drivers.

[Gavin Sharp (gavin-sharp)]

mozilla/browser/components/nsBrowserContentHandler.js 1.12.2.5.2.3

[Alex Latchford (alex.latchford)]

Assigning this to the Desktop Team, hopefully they know a little more about who can fix this properly than I do.

Thanks, Alex.

[Cbook (cbook)]

Verified 1.8.0.10 using steps in this bug description with Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.2; en-US; rv:1.8.0.10pre) Gecko/20070207 Firefox/1.5.0.10pre ID:2007020706

[Henrik Nilsen Omma (henrik)]

Still not working in Gutsy as Preferred Application still uses the wrong string. It works fine if you set a custom string and use -new-tab -new-window though. Installing Epiphany and setting this as default makes it work fine again. So this seems to be a Preferred Applications bug that hits those distros and users that do not choose epiphany as the default. Adding upstream task to Gnome.

[gnudoc (gnudoc)]

Fixed in current gutsy beta (1/10/07)
Steps to reproduce:
System -> Preferences -> Preferred Applications.
In the 'Internet' tab, under Web Browser, choose "Open link in new tab".This sets the command as `firefox -new-tab "%s"`.
Make sure all firefox windows are closed.
Find a local html file in nautilus.
Double-click the file -> firefox opens, with local file displayed.
:)