7 ms·

I keep lots of tabs open because of "projects". For example, let's say I'm planning a trip. I will have tabs open for Google Flights, Airbnb, Trip Advisor, Goo

I keep lots of tabs open because of "projects". For example, let's say I'm planning a trip. I will have tabs open for Google Flights, Airbnb, Trip Advisor, Google Maps and so on. A single window is one "project". It doesn't make sense to have those tabs open all the time -- just when I need them. Yet I have to keep them open because browsers don't have a way to treat a single window as a kind of persistent tab set. The best browsers can do right now is to bookmark multiple tabs as a folder and then later restore them. That's not too useful since there's no way to update this folder the same way. What I'd like is to have windows be "named". I want to save my window as "Puerto Rico trip" and close it. Later I want to open it again and continue where I was. At all times my tabs and history are associated with the same "project". I've been longing for this feature for maybe 10 years now. I started developing it as a Safari extension once, but ran into limitations in the API's support for opening windows.

youwishboye 8y ago
similar functionality: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/panorama-view/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/panorama-view...
tpamula 8y ago
I actually wrote a plugin that aims on solving similar kind of problem. It lets you name windows and has session persistence. No ability to save/reopen windows, but it's a neat idea. If you're interested it's Window Titler: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/window-titler/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/window-titler...
- atombender 8y ago
  Cool, but not sure how that helps. The whole point is being able to close a (named) window without losing its state, then later restoring it.
maccard 8y ago
I found a chrome extension a year or so back called workona [0]. It _kind of_ did this, but was fairly limited and I gave up on it. Might be worth taking a look at for your use cases [0] https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/workona-tab-manager-produ/ailcmbgekjpnablpdkmaaccecekgdhlh?hl=en https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/workona-tab-manage...
epanchin 8y ago
Doesn’t quite solve your issue, but creating a bookmark folder “trip planning” and saving all relevant sites into it and the folder onto your bookmarks bar - then right click on the new folder and click open all. I have a few sets of pages I load like this.
- theelous3 8y ago
  Such a load of hassle though. Double clicking a name section on the title bar and closing it would be way better. Have references to windows all autosave and be accessible from any other window in a window menu.
untangle 8y ago
Try the Onetab extension. Invoke it on one of your project windows and then name the resulting link group and make it a favorite. Message the Onetab preferences to your liking first. Very clean solution.
- atombender 8y ago
  Thanks. It's unclear if Onetab does what I want because the UI is so horrible: - I open a bunch of tabs. - I click the Onetab icon. It closes all my tabs. What? - It's now showing me a page listing the tabs I had open. Ok, I can name this group. I name it "Foo". Then I hit "Restore these tabs". - I now have my tabs back. Great. - I click the Onetab icon. It closes all my tabs again, and this time my named group is gone, replaced with an unnamed group containing the tabs as they were. What? - I restore the tabs again (sigh). - I open another window with some tabs. Maybe I can save this window as a separate group. I click the Onetab icon. It closes all my windows! It's completely nonsensical. From what I can tell, Onetab is designed to wrap all your current windows into one group that can be saved and then restored later, but restoring it actually deletes the saved group. It's as if you had a photo scrapbook in real life that disappeared when you opened it, leaving you only with the photos. Then, when you want to put the scrapbook back on the shelf, you get a new scrapbook and put everything back in.
iicc 8y ago
Create a new profile for each project?
- atombender 8y ago
  No, I want my logins, browser history, etc. to be the same between all my windows.
loa-in-backup 8y ago
There's a Firefox addon called Tab Session Manager. It's fully functional and does exactly what you say you want. It could use some UI improvements though.
- atombender 8y ago
  I've tried it. Maybe it's buggy, but it doesn't do what I want at all, unfortunately. Tab Session Manager doesn't have a link between your windows and the session state. All it does is snapshot the state of your browser. For example, say I open a few tabs and save the window as the session "My trip". Then I open a new tab in the same window. This new tab doesn't get added to the session. The only way to update it is to go into the session list and click "Add to session" from the context menu. In fact, it's profoundly stupid: With the default settings, if you open a session, then close a window, it will save a copy of your window state as a new "auto saved" session. You'll end up with an endless list of copies. What I want: Once I've opened a session as a window, it should track all the activity. Opening a tab should add it to the session; removing a tab should remove it. Closing the window and then click on the session from the list should revive the window as it was when it was closed. In other words, a window's set of tabs is the active session at all times, and the tabs are persistent. It should be transparent, no need to click on things to micromanage it.
hawski 8y ago
That's the reason for me to use Totally Not Panorama [0], but it seems that Panorama Tab Groups [1] development is more active. I can have a separate named tab group for every project and also for work. It could be integrated with container tabs. It's like old Tab Groups/Panorama that was once built in Firefox. It is a bit manual, because one has to move groups and tabs around, but it's quite intuitive. [0] https://addons.mozilla.org/pl/firefox/addon/basic-panorama/ https://addons.mozilla.org/pl/firefox/addon/basic-panorama/ [1] https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/panorama-tab-groups/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/panorama-tab-...
- atombender 8y ago
  Thanks, I just tried them both. They don't work well, sorry. Aside from the terrible UI, if I open a bunch of tabs and give them a name, then close the window, and open a new window, the groups are gone. This makes no sense. The groups must be persistent. Once named, they must never disappear. If I open a bunch of tabs as a named group, then open a new, blank window, then enter the extension's UI, the list of groups only has my current window. Makes absolutely no sense. The "group" state has to be global (and visible on all devices, which I doubt this does). The extensions also seem to be doing something weird by hiding tabs, which Firefox was warning me about.
  - hawski 8y ago
    I understand. I don't mind, because I keep single window and use those groups like windows. But I've been lucky with not stumbling upon weak persistency, so I get how it could be frustrating. Warning about tab hiding is normal. I assume that something that you would find perfect also would have to use tab hiding. They need more work or something separate, because the manual resizing of groups seems like a busy-work. I would like something more like Simplified Tab Groups, but with good syncing as you said. I'm not sure how would it work with current Firefox APIs though. If extension shows you the same group for two separate widows, what would happen if you would select the group in both of them? It would have to create additional tabs so they would not be shared. Also I'm not sure if tab hiding API allows to mix tabs from different windows. I think that what you want is not possible currently as an extension.

youwishboye 8y ago

similar functionality: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/panorama-view/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/panorama-view...

tpamula 8y ago

I actually wrote a plugin that aims on solving similar kind of problem. It lets you name windows and has session persistence. No ability to save/reopen windows, but it's a neat idea. If you're interested it's Window Titler: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/window-titler/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/window-titler...

atombender 8y ago
Cool, but not sure how that helps. The whole point is being able to close a (named) window without losing its state, then later restoring it.

maccard 8y ago

I found a chrome extension a year or so back called workona [0]. It _kind of_ did this, but was fairly limited and I gave up on it. Might be worth taking a look at for your use cases [0] https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/workona-tab-manager-produ/ailcmbgekjpnablpdkmaaccecekgdhlh?hl=en https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/workona-tab-manage...

epanchin 8y ago

Doesn’t quite solve your issue, but creating a bookmark folder “trip planning” and saving all relevant sites into it and the folder onto your bookmarks bar - then right click on the new folder and click open all. I have a few sets of pages I load like this.

theelous3 8y ago
Such a load of hassle though. Double clicking a name section on the title bar and closing it would be way better. Have references to windows all autosave and be accessible from any other window in a window menu.

untangle 8y ago

Try the Onetab extension. Invoke it on one of your project windows and then name the resulting link group and make it a favorite. Message the Onetab preferences to your liking first. Very clean solution.

atombender 8y ago
Thanks. It's unclear if Onetab does what I want because the UI is so horrible: - I open a bunch of tabs. - I click the Onetab icon. It closes all my tabs. What? - It's now showing me a page listing the tabs I had open. Ok, I can name this group. I name it "Foo". Then I hit "Restore these tabs". - I now have my tabs back. Great. - I click the Onetab icon. It closes all my tabs again, and this time my named group is gone, replaced with an unnamed group containing the tabs as they were. What? - I restore the tabs again (sigh). - I open another window with some tabs. Maybe I can save this window as a separate group. I click the Onetab icon. It closes all my windows! It's completely nonsensical. From what I can tell, Onetab is designed to wrap all your current windows into one group that can be saved and then restored later, but restoring it actually deletes the saved group. It's as if you had a photo scrapbook in real life that disappeared when you opened it, leaving you only with the photos. Then, when you want to put the scrapbook back on the shelf, you get a new scrapbook and put everything back in.

iicc 8y ago

Create a new profile for each project?

atombender 8y ago
No, I want my logins, browser history, etc. to be the same between all my windows.

loa-in-backup 8y ago

There's a Firefox addon called Tab Session Manager. It's fully functional and does exactly what you say you want. It could use some UI improvements though.

atombender 8y ago
I've tried it. Maybe it's buggy, but it doesn't do what I want at all, unfortunately. Tab Session Manager doesn't have a link between your windows and the session state. All it does is snapshot the state of your browser. For example, say I open a few tabs and save the window as the session "My trip". Then I open a new tab in the same window. This new tab doesn't get added to the session. The only way to update it is to go into the session list and click "Add to session" from the context menu. In fact, it's profoundly stupid: With the default settings, if you open a session, then close a window, it will save a copy of your window state as a new "auto saved" session. You'll end up with an endless list of copies. What I want: Once I've opened a session as a window, it should track all the activity. Opening a tab should add it to the session; removing a tab should remove it. Closing the window and then click on the session from the list should revive the window as it was when it was closed. In other words, a window's set of tabs is the active session at all times, and the tabs are persistent. It should be transparent, no need to click on things to micromanage it.

hawski 8y ago

That's the reason for me to use Totally Not Panorama [0], but it seems that Panorama Tab Groups [1] development is more active. I can have a separate named tab group for every project and also for work. It could be integrated with container tabs. It's like old Tab Groups/Panorama that was once built in Firefox. It is a bit manual, because one has to move groups and tabs around, but it's quite intuitive. [0] https://addons.mozilla.org/pl/firefox/addon/basic-panorama/ https://addons.mozilla.org/pl/firefox/addon/basic-panorama/ [1] https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/panorama-tab-groups/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/panorama-tab-...

atombender 8y ago
Thanks, I just tried them both. They don't work well, sorry. Aside from the terrible UI, if I open a bunch of tabs and give them a name, then close the window, and open a new window, the groups are gone. This makes no sense. The groups must be persistent. Once named, they must never disappear. If I open a bunch of tabs as a named group, then open a new, blank window, then enter the extension's UI, the list of groups only has my current window. Makes absolutely no sense. The "group" state has to be global (and visible on all devices, which I doubt this does). The extensions also seem to be doing something weird by hiding tabs, which Firefox was warning me about.
- hawski 8y ago
  I understand. I don't mind, because I keep single window and use those groups like windows. But I've been lucky with not stumbling upon weak persistency, so I get how it could be frustrating. Warning about tab hiding is normal. I assume that something that you would find perfect also would have to use tab hiding. They need more work or something separate, because the manual resizing of groups seems like a busy-work. I would like something more like Simplified Tab Groups, but with good syncing as you said. I'm not sure how would it work with current Firefox APIs though. If extension shows you the same group for two separate widows, what would happen if you would select the group in both of them? It would have to create additional tabs so they would not be shared. Also I'm not sure if tab hiding API allows to mix tabs from different windows. I think that what you want is not possible currently as an extension.