Firefox 25+ will probably break TabGroups Manager

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What steps will reproduce the problem?
Firefox 25+ uses a new API to handle some internal variables. Extensions using 
old undocumented ways of importing and exporting information and managing some 
internal variables will be broken.

System Info:
What version of TabGroups Manager are you using?
Lastest stable one.
What Operative System are you using? 32 or 64 bits?
Win7 32 and 64 bits.
What version of Firefox are you using?
Firefox 25+

Please provide any additional information below and screens capture if
possible.

Need to setup a new VMWare with Firefox 25+ and check for errors.
The code will probably need a lot of changes.

*Links:*
http://blog.mozilla.org/addons/2013/05/27/major-compatibility-changes-coming-for
-firefox-25/
http://dutherenverseauborddelatable.wordpress.com/2013/05/23/add-on-breakage-con
tinued-list-of-add-ons-that-will-probably-be-affected/
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=874381#c0

Original issue reported on code.google.com by miguelro...@gmail.com on 11 Jun 2013 at 10:38

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When we get to TGM + FF25, is it better to patch or rewrite? Is there an 
argument that it might be better to rewrite it for FF25+? 

Reasons why we might want to:

 - It's big and complex, and we have nobody in the team who really understands the code. Xtrm_xtrm will have a huge job just taming existing code, let alone fixing and improving it. Rewriting from new might be simpler, more reliable, and allow wider participation in an Open Source spirit.

 - FF25 also introduces lots of changes to requirements/structures anyway, so we might have a lot of work to "fix" the current TGM

 - Firefox has a lot more capabilities nowadays, that weren't there for the original TGM; in particular it was written to handle groups ("Panorama"). While Panorama is going to move to an extension, the code base to do it is still present. (In other words, a rewrite might be simpler as the extension framework's more powerful than when TGM was first written)

 - The original TGM has functionality that it probably doesn't need (eg custom session handler) so we can probably ditch it and reduce compatibility issues in future, if we rewrite.

 - We could probably do it cleaner and it may be easier for developers

 - We can probably also do it better - TGM is good as it stands, but has restrictions that some of those interested in this project may really want to move beyond (such as allowing nested groups, or more efficient handling, or tab styling conflict handling, etc) 

 - TGM has immense potential; the best way to realise that is to engage other users, which means making it good, and perhaps a bit more flexible and forward-looking.

I'm not suggesting ignoring the need for a working TGM, but at some point we 
have to decide how much to work on fixing the historic TGM, and whether it's 
easier or faster to take the concept and interface, and rewrite for this team.

The smaller fixes for FF20-24 need doing. But once they're done, FF25 presents 
choices:

1. Maintain/incremental improve same codebase. 2nd part is very limited as it's 
stuck with existing inherited code.

2. Advise users who need TGM, to stick with FF24, and use the next few months 
to start specifying and writing a new TGM-2 to supersede it for FF25+.

Worth discussion. I have some ideas how a successor TGM-2 might work if we want 
to fork this question to a new thread :)

Original comment by Stilezy on 12 Jun 2013 at 7:39

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I agree that we should focus our efforts on the long-term and drive toward a 
fully new TGM-2 release.

With as minimal time as everyone seems to have available, supporting an older 
version based upon the old architecture of the add-on seems like a waste of 
that time. Better to produce a new version and release it in a way that makes 
the public super-excited, instead of just dragging along the old one.

Original comment by j...@brandloyal.com on 13 Jun 2013 at 12:32

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I totally agree with Stilezy and jon comments.
I do prefer a new version.

Original comment by ssalg...@gmail.com on 13 Jun 2013 at 1:24

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Original comment by Stilezy on 13 Jun 2013 at 2:23

• Added labels: Milestone-FF25

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Original comment by Stilezy on 13 Jun 2013 at 2:27

• Changed state: Accepted

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Original comment by Stilezy on 13 Jun 2013 at 2:32

• Changed state: New

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In case we choose to begin from scratch a new TGM extension:
http://www.firebreath.org/display/documentation/FireBreath+Home
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4913123/cross-browser-extensions-api

Original comment by miguelro...@gmail.com on 13 Jun 2013 at 2:26

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Firefox/Jetpack is cross platform. You'd be looking at cross-browser as well 
(chrome, safari, IE, etc)? 

No objection if it would work :) although I'm a bit surprised that their 
extension models are not so different that it's very hard.

As an aside it also solves any licensing issue that might exist (see issue 12)

Original comment by Stilezy on 13 Jun 2013 at 6:43

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See: https://code.google.com/p/tabgroupsmanager/wiki/DeveloperResourcesAndInfo

Original comment by Stilezy on 15 Jun 2013 at 10:16

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Original comment by Stilezy on 18 Jun 2013 at 12:33

• Changed title: Firefox 25+ will probably broke TabGroups Manager (includes: improve TGM or write TGM-2?)
• Added labels: Planning

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Original comment by Stilezy on 18 Jun 2013 at 12:34

• Removed labels: Planning

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Normally i would say we need only a interface for panorama based on the actual 
TGM interface. But Mozilla is sadly not reliable for such an step they are 
planning to source out their panorama code to an extension again. So we have no 
other choice as to handle also in the future tab management complete under TGM 
own control.

Axel had at that time to do a massive rewrite of the extension code to deal 
with panorama. Suspect the same will happen if Mozilla will remove the panorama 
code.

Original comment by micha.go...@arcor.de on 6 Jul 2013 at 4:42

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Just tested TGM prerelease version .002 in Firefox 25 alpha1 in a new profile. 
It "seems" to work perfectly. 

Some minor visual issues like panel tab panel overlapping with TGM panel. 
Nothing to worry about.

Groups and Tabs and Hidding tabs (with "collapsed") works.
TGM Sessions:
- Manual Saving session and loading works. 
- Session on close and open Firefox works.
- Sessión by timer works.

Suspended groups and tabs also seem to work.

Seems to be good results, if we only have minor issues with TGM in Firefox 25, 
seems we are not going to need to make another TGM from scratch.

Original comment by miguelro...@gmail.com on 11 Jul 2013 at 12:49

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Original comment by tgmj...@gmx.com on 9 Sep 2013 at 4:20

• Changed title: Firefox 25+ will probably break TabGroups Manager

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Original comment by tgmj...@gmx.com on 25 Sep 2013 at 11:56

• Changed state: Accepted

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Original comment by tgmj...@gmx.com on 25 Sep 2013 at 11:57

• Added labels: Type-Planning
• Removed labels: Type-Defect

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comment to comment #15:
It may have worked for FF 25 alpha 1 but, not the final release of FF25.
A big issues I have is the suspended groups does not return after closing and 
reopening.  Another thing is that FF25 is making a double screen shot for the 
season as FF25 closes.

Original comment by teksean...@gmail.com on 13 Nov 2013 at 5:15

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It doesn't work for me on Firefox 25 either.  One crucial problem is that tab 
scrolling doesn't work except in the "main" or "start" group.  I.e., if I have 
three tab groups, I can use the mouse wheel to scroll in the first one, but not 
the others.  This makes it basically unusable because I need to scroll tabs in 
any group.

Also, it seems to cause problems with Tab Mix Plus.  I realize Tab Mix Plus is 
a separate extension, but it's another critical one, so for me not playing nice 
with TMP is a hard dealbreaker.  When I enable TGM, the TMP multi-row tab bar 
starts acting weird, either not displaying all the rows, or having the tab bar 
take up the entire browser window with no room for the actual web page.

Original comment by brenb...@gmail.com on 20 Nov 2013 at 9:10

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The basic functionality of reloading a saved session and seeing the tab groups 
restored works for me in Firefox 25.  The number of tabs you can successfully 
save & restore appears to be limited by your available memory.  (That quits 
working if you have too many tabs.  For me that's somewhere around 2000 tabs.)

Original comment by patrick....@gmail.com on 29 Dec 2013 at 3:27

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TabGroups Manager does not reload my saved session into multiple TabGroups in 
Firefox 26.  I see about half of the tabs I expected and none of them are 
grouped.  I returned to version 25.0.1 at this link:
https://download-installer.cdn.mozilla.net/pub/firefox/releases/25.0.1/win32/en-
US/Firefox%20Setup%2025.0.1.exe
Now the same session file loads OK.

Original comment by patrick....@gmail.com on 31 Dec 2013 at 4:30

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Stilezy, the only problem I experience with TGM is, that it seems to be unable 
to load all the tabs belonging to a tab group, when dragging the .tgmg file 
into the FF menu area. It restores the group name, but not the tabs. Or is 
there any other way to restore all the tabs of that group with TGM?

I am asking this, because my FF crashed and there is not even any possibility 
to restore the previous session with the FF History features. I lost over 100 
tabs. Lucky me, I regularly backed up all tab groups with TGM, and TGM is now 
my only hope.

Please assist.

Original comment by jamaica_...@yahoo.com on 27 Feb 2014 at 2:45

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I believe restoring an exported group via dragging works for me on FF 27. 
However my session regularly corrupts, so I have TGM do hourly backups and 
monitor those for this issue. The corrupted ones are much smaller than the 
working backups, so when it happens I restart it, delete the corrupt backups, 
and restore the last working one.

Original comment by luck...@gmail.com on 3 Mar 2014 at 7:43

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FF28: Hibernation loses all tabs on reactivation.

Original comment by rah...@mail.com on 4 May 2014 at 8:25

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WE WANT TABGROUBS MANAGER !
FF is changing in ways, which make users jump to Chrome and even IE.
The look and feel of FF 30 is like all possible collected bells and whistles in 
one creamy pie packet. It might be looking good in your eyes, but it is awfull 
to use in everyday production use.

Original comment by ptmu...@gmail.com on 4 Aug 2014 at 7:15

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Hi,

Not sure if my comment will be usefull but here I can find a place to expose it.

I used TGM since a lot of years and it's a very cool extension, thanks a lot 
for this.

but since a few week and probably a particular version of FF, TGM have a 
problem:

 - now if i create a new tab, this tab appears on all the tabgroup (and if I close the tab on one group, the same tab on the others groups will close.
 - I discovers that these problematic tabs are different than the no problematic tabs : when I do a right click on them, I don't have the TGm menu "send to other group", etc...)

thx

Original comment by vin...@gmail.com on 30 Oct 2014 at 8:44

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#31: I resolved that by using the latest beta instead of the 2013 version.

Original comment by vcu...@gmail.com on 5 Nov 2014 at 10:32

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THx a lot for this fix, I don't have the pb anymore.

This is really great add on, hope this will be supported for a while^^

Original comment by vin...@gmail.com on 5 Nov 2014 at 2:20

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Just want to second that last comment - I am incredibly grateful for the work 
you guys are doing. Please keep it up!

Original comment by dan...@binau.net on 5 Nov 2014 at 2:57