[Ext] BackTrack Tab History

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AlexVallat
Posts: 90
Joined: September 30th, 2006, 8:53 am

[Ext] BackTrack Tab History

Post by AlexVallat »

Tab History is abandoned. Tab History Redux is abandoned. Tab Utilities is looking a little forlorn these days...

It would appear that if I want my links opened in new tabs to keep the session history from the opening tab, I'm going to have to learn how to write extensions myself.

This is my first attempt:
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/backtrack-tab-history/
https://github.com/AlexVallat/firefox-s ... /backtrack

I also added options so you can have it do the same thing for links opened in new windows too(or instead). The default is just for links in new tabs.

Please bear in mind that this is currently experimental - of course I'll do my best to address any reproducible bug reports; just post them in this thread.

Alex
Last edited by AlexVallat on October 19th, 2020, 11:10 am, edited 1 time in total.
AlexVallat
Posts: 90
Joined: September 30th, 2006, 8:53 am

Re: [Ext] BackTrack Tab History

Post by AlexVallat »

Just to bring this up to date, I've now uploaded a new version which adds some brand new additional functionality that I think might be useful.

The idea is that session history entries are now marked if they originally came from another tab that is still open. So if you open a new tab following a link, the previous entry in the list is marked with a ↶ symbol to indicate this. Then, if you navigate back to it, instead of showing another copy of the page in the current tab, it closes and switches to the original tab to show it there. This gives similar behaviour to "Back is close" where you can return from a newly opened tab to its opener. I've uploaded a diagram that tries to illustrate this: BackTrack usage

It's optional, so if you prefer to always use the current tab that still works. I've also improved handling of history within nested pages (iframes), so the copied history should work properly with those too now.
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Caspid
Posts: 582
Joined: December 18th, 2005, 4:01 pm

Re: [Ext] BackTrack Tab History

Post by Caspid »

This is great! I'd been waiting for this since Tab History died years ago. By far my most valued add-on. Thanks so much.

Minor complaint: It seems unable to go Forward in new tabs.
STR:
1. Open link in new tab
2. Hit Back in new tab.
Forward is not accessible.

Any chance that's able to be fixed?
"Know what I pray for? The strength to change what I can, the inability to accept what I can't, and the incapacity to tell the difference." -Calvin
AlexVallat
Posts: 90
Joined: September 30th, 2006, 8:53 am

Re: [Ext] BackTrack Tab History

Post by AlexVallat »

I've just replied to the review, but I think this is a more appropriate place to continue the conversation, so I'll move it to here:

Please could you give me some more details? I can then investigate if this is a bug, or explain the behaviour.

1) How are you opening the new tab (eg, middle click on a link)?
2) When you say Forward is not accessible, do you mean that the button is not visible/enabled? Or is the whole entry missing - if you right click on the Back button does it still show the entry that you expect to be able to go forwards to?
3) Does it happen with any site? Even after just starting Firefox?

In the BackTrack options:
4) Do you have the "Go back to other tab" option enabled?
5) Do you have the "Show branching history" option enabled?

Finally, which version of Firefox are you using - I'll make sure to try on the same version. If you have any other tab-related add-ons installed, that would be useful to know too.
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Caspid
Posts: 582
Joined: December 18th, 2005, 4:01 pm

Re: [Ext] BackTrack Tab History

Post by Caspid »

you know what, I think e10s may have been the culprit, as I was testing it earlier today. My mistake. Everything's working perfectly on 35.0.1 and 38.0a1 right now. I'll let you know if anything comes up. Thanks again for all your work!
"Know what I pray for? The strength to change what I can, the inability to accept what I can't, and the incapacity to tell the difference." -Calvin
AlexVallat
Posts: 90
Joined: September 30th, 2006, 8:53 am

Re: [Ext] BackTrack Tab History

Post by AlexVallat »

Ah, thanks for letting me know. Yeah, e10s is a nasty dark cloud on the horizon that I will eventually have to deal with, but I haven't done so yet. I aim to have it working by the time it hits Beta, or if it becomes enabled by default in Aurora.
AlexVallat
Posts: 90
Joined: September 30th, 2006, 8:53 am

Re: [Ext] BackTrack Tab History

Post by AlexVallat »

RE: Review "Excellent but incompatibilities with some other addons" by DenBar

The incompatibility is caused by the loadOneTab being called by PrintEdit without the params parameter. I've fixed this in the latest development channel release, but if you want to edit your own fork, then find the line:

Code: Select all

var customDataReferrerUri = params.referrerURI;

and replace it with

Code: Select all

var customDataReferrerUri = params && params.referrerURI;

That will make it robust against that parameter being missing. No need for the stringPatchCompatibility setting at all.

With regards to your translated help, if you are happy for me to host it then I'm happy to do so if you give me a copy, or if you prefer a link to your hosting of it then let me know. I will include language links in the top right corner of the help page. You are welcome to add a small credit note to the bottom of your translated version.
DenBar
Posts: 13
Joined: April 10th, 2015, 10:28 am

Re: [Ext] BackTrack Tab History

Post by DenBar »

Hurrah! That's work! Thank you very much Alex for your reactivity and your kindness.

AlexVallat wrote:With regards to your translated help, if you are happy for me to host it then I'm happy to do so if you give me a copy, or if you prefer a link to your hosting of it then let me know. I will include language links in the top right corner of the help page. You are welcome to add a small credit note to the bottom of your translated version.


I succeeded to localize BackTrack. The link to download the xpi package:
http://denb10.free.fr/backtrack_tab_history-0.6.1.xpi
This includes English and French languages, help pages as well. Other languages can be added. I added an icon too.
You can do what you want with it.

PS: I think I have a bug with the development version 0.8pre3 - impossible to restore the last session of the web browser (I use Cyberfox 32.0.3 64-bit).
AlexVallat
Posts: 90
Joined: September 30th, 2006, 8:53 am

Re: [Ext] BackTrack Tab History

Post by AlexVallat »

That's really helpful, thank you. I shall use that when developing the next version!

I do rather want to get this electrolysis thing working 100% reliably first, though - I don't use Cyberfox, but I can investigate if the problem is reproducible on Firefox. Are you using automatic session restore, or the History / Restore Last Session command? Does it always happen - if you have the simple case of just a single tab with no history, would it restore that, for example? Are there any errors reported in the log when you try to restore?
DenBar
Posts: 13
Joined: April 10th, 2015, 10:28 am

Re: [Ext] BackTrack Tab History

Post by DenBar »

No automatic session restore.
1. I open 1, 2, 3, ... links in as many tabs.
2. I restart Cyberfox (command Tools>Restart Cyberfox. Result: 1, 2, 3, ... empty tabs (titled "New tab")
3. I get the same behaviour if I choose to restore previous session instead (command History>Restore previous session), except the first tab is my homepage.
Version 0.6.1 works well!
AlexVallat
Posts: 90
Joined: September 30th, 2006, 8:53 am

Re: [Ext] BackTrack Tab History

Post by AlexVallat »

I've just tried the latest version of Cyberfox, 37.0.1, and it seems to be working fine. Is there any reason you are sticking with such an old version? I don't think I can realistically support all versions of all variants of Firefox...
DenBar
Posts: 13
Joined: April 10th, 2015, 10:28 am

Re: [Ext] BackTrack Tab History

Post by DenBar »

You know what, I'm a bit fussy (crazy?)! When I install an app, I want it to be as perfect as possible. In particular, I want a full translation in French. So I touch it up to fit my desires.
The first time I installed Cyberfox, it was in version 32.0.3. And since it's long to adapt a translation, I don't have the courage to install the newer. Anyway, the time interval between the releases of Firefox or Cyberfox is too short, we can't spend the main part of our time updating!

No matter, BackTrack 0.6.1 is OK for me. When you'll release a new version, I'll take the effort to update...

Thank you very much and have a nice weekend!
AlexVallat
Posts: 90
Joined: September 30th, 2006, 8:53 am

Re: [Ext] BackTrack Tab History

Post by AlexVallat »

OK, fair enough. Thanks for letting me know. Electrolysis is a complete nightmare, I was rather hoping they'd give up on the idea, but it doesn't seem likely now. As I say in the notes, at this point I'd only recommend using 0.8 if you actually need it for running with electrolysis turned on - otherwise 0.6.1 is more stable.
xola
Posts: 5
Joined: February 12th, 2015, 8:26 pm

Re: [Ext] BackTrack Tab History

Post by xola »

Great!

But any possibility to get all the paths/links with one click?
I would like to copy them
AlexVallat
Posts: 90
Joined: September 30th, 2006, 8:53 am

Re: [Ext] BackTrack Tab History

Post by AlexVallat »

Sorry, no, exporting session history as text is not part of the functionality of this add-on. That would make more sense to do from the main history, I would have thought, rather than session history - an add-on could produce a graph or tree sort of output from it. There might already be one, I don't know.
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