Vimium - ⇧F opens link hint in same page

Fortrikka

Bug Report

Steps to reproduce:

Press F, or <shift+f> then type any key that corresponds to two letters with an outbound link beside it highlighted in yellow
See that it does not open in a new tab but instead in the same tab.
Expected behavior:
Open that link in a new tab. That is, create a new tab with the middle click simulated.

Orion/macOS:
0.99-107.8
Mac OS 12.0.1

Image/Video:

For example, pressing JL will still open it in the same tab and not a new tab.

ti250

This is a problem for me as well. I've noticed that open in new tab works in vim vixen (but that has its own problems with tab switching and scroll animations so I'd prefer vimium), perhaps this is a problem with how Chrome webextensions are implemented?

Vlad

In general it looks like we should take a closer look at vimium, the only problem is that the number of users using it does not justify us prioritizing it right now.

aeros281

Vlad I mean other browsers do not have this issue. I'm not talking about the like of Chrome or Firefox but something like Edge + Vivaldi + Brave. I know it because the first thing I do when jumping to another browser is install Vimium.

I do not demand dev to fix this issue ASAP possible because this is a niche use. But it could be a hint that there's something in Orion that is different from others to break this feature, and it can break other extension with the same functionality (open the new tab). What do you think?

ti250

That makes sense, is there anything we can do with regards to more precise reports etc. that could help speed up the process?

Vlad

ti250 Right now if you do a search of vimium or vimium-c related cards there are a large number of them which makes it hard to begin anywhere (specially since we are not vimium users and do not understand the workflow or expectations)

What would help is if you and @Fortrikka got together and created a single card for these extensions and then listed features/fixes in priority order of importance knowing that it may take several weeks between we act on each so chose order carefully. Each request should be properly documented (how to reproduce, what the expected behavior is) and contain a reference to existing card on the site (so we can deduplicated/remove it).

That is what comes to mind.

ldams

The shortcut "F" does not open a new tab, but opens the link in the current tab.
Steps to reproduce:

Install Vimium extension from https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/vimium/dbepggeogbaibhgnhhndojpepiihcmeb
Open a link via the "F" (Shift + f) shortcut

Expected behavior:
A new tab is created for the opened link

Orion, OS version; hardware type:

Version 0.99.111.2-rc (WebKit 614.1.2)
macOS 12.2 (21D49)
MacBook Pro (16-inch, 2019)

ben

This is a blocker for me, cannot use Orion until this is fixed!

Vlad

aeros281 Orion's extension support is not 100% complete. Thisis clearly stated to the users the first time they try to install an extension.

southp

Hey 👋
I think it might help to demonstrate what shift+F to open a new link does by a screencast here.
Below is a screencast I recorded on Edge:

It's like so:

On a webpage, I pressed shift+F. Vimium showed "hints" for each anchor. You can see that "Orion Browser by Kagi" is "SM" in this case.
I then pressed "S" followed by "M", then browser.kagi.com was opened in a new tab for me.

Now the same thing done in Orion:

browser.kagi.com was opened in the same tab instead of a new tab.

Does that help? Orion has been a booster for my remote working style by saving a ton of battery life, so I'm sticking with it even though this important workflow is not yet working 🙂 If there is anything I can help further, please let me know.

eirk

btw there is a sponsor issue button now where u can use to help support the developers, and request them to focus on this

southp

eirk
Oops. It says donations to the receipient aren't supported for where I am. What a pity :/

southp

For what it's worth, after some digging I'm pretty sure it's an expected behavior of webkit rather than a bug.

Vimium simulates a click by firing a series of synthesized events her: https://github.com/philc/vimium/blob/master/lib/dom_utils.js#L341. The way that it opens a link into a new tab is by setting metaKey to true for the mouse click event, like clicking a link while pressing the meta key, which will open the link in a new tab. However, on a webkit-based browser like Safari or Orion, while I can't find an official documentation about it, I believe it's intentional that the browser will reject creating a new tab this way. It's likely for a valid security reason.

For example,

Go to https://example.com
Run document.querySelector('a').dispatchEvent( new MouseEvent( 'click', { bubbles: true, cancelable: true, composed: true, view: window, detail: 1, metaKey: true } ) );
The link will be opened in a new tab.

However, doing the same in Safari or Orion will open the link in the same tab.

I've created a workaround diff as a GH gist if anyone is interested. Here is how:

Clone https://github.com/philc/vimium somewhere
Apply the diff
Run make.js inside your vimium directory. You will need to install deno beforehand if you haven't.
Go to Orion's extension management screen.
Click "Install extension" and pick "Install from disk"
Choose the dist/chrome-store directory inside your vimium directory.