Yahoo Links Ignoring "Force Links That Open New Windows

[DVDerek]

I have my Tab preference set to open links that open in a new window in a new tab instead. Yet while browsing my fantasy baseball leagues on Yahoo, many links open in new windows. If a control-click these links, they open in a new background tab as expected. For an example, visit the following link, and click on one of the "MLB Headlines" in the lower right of the sidebar.

http://baseball.fantasysports.yahoo.com/b1

[Old BushVenom]

Opened in a new tab for me, using Tab Mix Plus. What tabbed browsing extension are you using, and what exactly are your settings for opening links?

[Alice]

I have my Tab preference set to open links that open in a new window in a new tab instead. Yet while browsing my fantasy baseball leagues on Yahoo, many links open in new windows. If a control-click these links, they open in a new background tab as expected. For an example, visit the following link, and click on one of the "MLB Headlines" in the lower right of the sidebar.

http://baseball.fantasysports.yahoo.com/b1

Same thing happens to me (Firefox 1.5.0.1) and I also have Tools > Options > Tabs > Force links that open new windows to open in ... "a new tab" selected. (I don't have any tabbed browsing extensions installed!)

After a bugzilla search I found that the preference browser.link.open_newwindow.restriction is set to "2" by default in Firefox 1.5. If you modify it to "0" in about:config the "MLB Headlines" links will open in a new tab.
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=314721
The option "Tools > Options > Tabs > Force links that open new windows to open in:" no longer works.

------- Comment #1 From Guenther Starnberger 2005-11-02 04:00 PDT [reply] -------
I do have the same problem. Since the upgrade to RC1 normal HTML links which
target a new window work fine (they open in a new tab), while some windows
which are opened by JavaScript open in a new windows (instead of a tab as in
the last beta). Schrade/#firefox pointed out that it seems that windows which
are resized get opened in a new window.
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=313300 seems to be the reason for
this bug. When I set browser.link.open_newwindow.restriction to 0 it works fine
again.

This preference is supposed to restrict how certain links are opened if special window features are specified using JavaScript and it seems that the Yahoo links fall into this category, for whatever reason.

[Old BushVenom]

Alice, that was an outstanding piece of investigative work...

[Alice]

Thanks, b

For the record, I was wondering before what "special features" the MLB links include. The browser.link.open_newwindow.restriction - MozillaZine Knowledge Base article says:

Oftentimes when a new window is opened from JavaScript, it’s a small popup without all of a usual browser window’s features—e.g., the back/forward/reload buttons are hidden, the status bar is hidden, the size is purposely smaller, etc. Usually in this situation, the window is designed specifically as a popup, and opening it in a tab actually makes it less useful. This preference can let these types of links open as new windows while opening all other types as new tabs.

and I found a more complete list at http://msdn.microsoft.com/workshop/auth ... open_0.asp

I did notice that the new window opened by the Yahoo "Top MLB Headlines" links eliminates my bookmark toolbar items, so maybe that's the "special feature". HTML and JS aren't my strong points.

[Old BushVenom]

I did notice that the new window opened by the Yahoo "Top MLB Headlines" links eliminates my bookmark toolbar items, so maybe that's the "special feature". HTML and JS aren't my strong points.

Not allowing the Bookmarks Toolbar to show is just one of the things a web site author can do with popups. You can prevent almost all these types of changes in popups with the about:config entries dom.disable_window_open_feature.*. There are 11 entries and are listed here:

http://kb.mozillazine.org/Firefox_:_FAQ ... ig_Entries#DOM..2A

To quote from the Knowledge Base article:

"Web Page authors can disable many features of a popup window that they open. Setting these preferences to true will override the author's settings and ensure that that feature is enabled and present in any popup window."

Setting all these preferences to "true" is probably not desirable (only 1 of the 11 has a default value of "true"). Experiment.

[Roger77]

The <a href="http://users.blueprintit.co.uk/~dave/web/firefox/jsoptions/index.html"><u>JavaScript Options</u></a> extension will let you play with dom.disable_window_open_feature.* settings and maybe a few more.

[Alice]

Not allowing the Bookmarks Toolbar to show is just one of the things a web site author can do with popups. You can prevent almost all these types of changes in popups with the about:config entries dom.disable_window_open_feature.*. There are 11 entries and are listed here:

http://kb.mozillazine.org/Firefox_:_FAQ ... ig_Entries#DOM..2A

Thanks for the pointer.

I found that toggling dom.disable_window_open_feature.directories to "true" prevents the bookmarks toolbar from being hidden.

[Old BushVenom]

Thanks for the pointer.

My pleasure...