Recently Closed button

[GoogleCodeExporter]

There's no "Recently Closed" button in the new tab page. Can this be fixed?  
The Recently Closed button was the best part of Chrome's new tab page in my 
opinion, and the fauxbar extension is so good that I wish there could be both. 

Original issue reported on code.google.com by samny...@gmail.com on 1 Oct 2011 at 10:30

[GoogleCodeExporter]

Sure, should be able to do this. I don't think a tab can be reopened with its 
back/forward history navigation still intact, but I'll try to imitate it. Can 
at least track the last URL of a closed tab easily enough.

In terms of where this would be located... I'm leaning towards adding a toolbar 
at the top of the New Tab page, or somewhere at least. As well as a sporting a 
menu for recently closed tabs, I'm envisioning menus for apps, bookmarks, 
extensions, history, and possibly other options.

I'm working on Fauxbar Lite at the moment but I'll tackle this after that.

Original comment by fauxbar....@gmail.com on 2 Oct 2011 at 4:35

• Changed state: Accepted
• Added labels: Type-Enhancement, Version1
• Removed labels: Type-Defect

[GoogleCodeExporter]

Is there a way to make the Fauxbar page open in a page other than chrome's new 
tab page?  For an example, the session buddy extension 
(https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/edacconmaakjimmfgnblocblbcdcpbko) 
opens in a new page when its toolbar icon button is clicked.  The new page that 
displays session buddy is different than chrome's new tab page.  Perhaps 
something similar can be done with the Fauxbar so that the Fauxbar page doesn't 
replace the new tab page. 

I'm only asking becaues I don't want to lose the Reopen Closed button with its 
back/forward history navigation in chrome's new tab page.  Thanks!

Original comment by samny...@gmail.com on 2 Oct 2011 at 9:33

[GoogleCodeExporter]

btw the new page that the session buddy toolbar icon button directs to is:
chrome-extension://edacconmaakjimmfgnblocblbcdcpbko/m.html 

Just to clear up my last post if it didn't make sense, my main question is: Can 
a new page be created solely for the Fauxbar so that it doesn't replace 
chrome's new tab page?  Issue #51 also seems to suggest that he/she doesn't 
want chrome's new tab page to be replaced.  

Original comment by samny...@gmail.com on 2 Oct 2011 at 9:40

[GoogleCodeExporter]

Maybe have an option to either have Fauxbar replace chrome's new tab page or 
have Fauxbar open in its own new page.  Fauxbar own's new page site could open 
when a toolbar button is clicked or some other better way you may know of.  

Sorry for leaving so many comments and thanks for creating such a great 
extension. 

Original comment by samny...@gmail.com on 2 Oct 2011 at 10:23

[GoogleCodeExporter]

Fauxbar's page is:
chrome-extension://hibkhcnpkakjniplpfblaoikiggkopka/fauxbar.html
So for now, you could add this as a bookmark or set it as Chrome's home page.

I've just added a comment to issue #51 related to this. My aim now is to have a 
button beside the Omnibox like you've mentioned.

I'll take care of issue #51 first still, and then will see what I can do for a 
recently-closed menu after that.

Also, Ctrl+Shift+T is very handy ;)

Original comment by fauxbar....@gmail.com on 2 Oct 2011 at 10:36

[GoogleCodeExporter]

For now I’ll use Ctrl+Shift+T.  Adding Fauxbar's page as a bookmark 
wouldn’t work because chrome's new tab page would still be overrided by 
fauxbar anyway.  And I love the idea you have of disabling the overide for your 
upcoming release.

Cant wait for Fauxbar Lite and thanks for considering my suggestions.

Original comment by samny...@gmail.com on 3 Oct 2011 at 3:52

[GoogleCodeExporter]

As Fauxbar Lite has been released, this issue only really concerns Fauxbar 
users now (though this feature will still be present in both).

It's impossible for a Chrome extension to re-open a closed tab, unfortunately.

I think the next best option is to have a menu displaying recently-closed tabs, 
with sub-menus displaying each URL you visited on each tab. So you would hover 
over a tab menu item and then select the page to visit. Not quite the same, but 
should let you quickly re-access a page you recently closed.

It *would* be possible to create a tab and have Fauxbar update the tab's URL 
over and over again with each page you visited (to enable back-button 
functionality), but this would be a waste of bandwidth and would not be aware 
of any POSTed forms, not to mention falsifying history visits for every URL 
visited in the tab (which could be automatically removed, but...). I think it 
would be rather messy. I might try it out but I have my doubts.

Will integrate one of these methods with issue #57.

Original comment by fauxbar....@gmail.com on 31 Oct 2011 at 7:30

• Changed state: Started

[GoogleCodeExporter]

I'll be releasing v1.2.0 soon (hopefully within a day or three) with a new 
menubar.

I won't be including the recently closed tabs menu in this update, but will do 
shortly after (probably for v1.2.1). I've half-started it so shouldn't be too 
far away.

Attached is a screenshot of what it's looking like so far. This isn't final, 
and the menubar needs some styling which I've yet to do, but you can get an 
idea of the functionality.

It sort of works like, when you close a tab, the tab gets added to the list on 
the menu.
The last page visited on the tab acts as the tab menu's top-level page, and 
then you can expand its sub-menu to view all the URLs you visited on that tab, 
acting as individual links.

Will also probably have an option to have Recently Closed Tabs be its own 
top-level menu. And since it's just a menu that appears, it could be accessed 
anywhere on the page, really; just thinking ahead for future layout changes and 
possibilities...

I've still yet to try completely imitating Chrome's tab-reopening feature 
(minding the network/resource usage mentioned in my previous post), but the 
expanded list should be useful one way or another.

Original comment by fauxbar....@gmail.com on 8 Nov 2011 at 12:28

Attachments:

• recent.png

[GoogleCodeExporter]

Unmarking this as started while I take a break. (haven't really touched this in 
a few days anyhow)

Original comment by fauxbar....@gmail.com on 12 Nov 2011 at 4:00

• Changed state: Accepted

[GoogleCodeExporter]

Resuming work on this.

Original comment by fauxbar....@gmail.com on 17 Dec 2011 at 2:25

• Changed state: Started

[GoogleCodeExporter]

Issue 95 has been merged into this issue.

Original comment by fauxbar....@gmail.com on 6 Jan 2012 at 10:37

[GoogleCodeExporter]

Haven't worked on this in months, gonna put it in the "too hard" basket for now.

I had it roughly working at one stage (code is available upon request) but I 
never got around to finishing it because it was leaving a bad taste in my 
mouth. The inability to fully replicate Chrome's "Reopen closed tab" feature 
makes subpar imitations feel half-baked.

Maybe one day...

Original comment by fauxbar....@gmail.com on 3 Jun 2012 at 11:23

• Changed state: Accepted
• Added labels: Priority-Low
• Removed labels: Priority-Medium, Version1

[GoogleCodeExporter]

I don't use 'Recently closed' list but as far as i know it is a simple list of 
closed tabs / group of tabs (windows).

While chrome's extension api do not make this easy to implement, it's still 
possible.

Tracking the opened tabs (including other necessary info, url, tab id, window 
id) and when a tab or window is closed, move the entry/entries over to the 
recently closed list.

http://code.google.com/chrome/extensions/tabs.html#event-onCreated
http://code.google.com/chrome/extensions/tabs.html#event-onUpdated
http://code.google.com/chrome/extensions/tabs.html#event-onRemoved
http://code.google.com/chrome/extensions/windows.html#event-onRemoved

At the moment though, these api's are flaky / buggy. Not much interest from the 
chrome team to fix them.

Original comment by laboboL...@gmail.com on 5 Jun 2012 at 3:29

[GoogleCodeExporter]

Would just the last URL each closed tab had open be sufficient?

Because I was thinking about this some more, and I guess the detailed list of 
closed tabs I had, with each tab's URL history listed as a sub-menu, made it 
feel really complex, messy, and confusing at times, like it was too much.

So would a more simplistic list of only the last URL of each closed tab be okay 
instead? Like how Chrome's default New Tab page has it, but without the 
back/forward history of each tab available when the tab gets reopened.

I guess I like the sound of making it more simplistic. And you could still 
Ctrl+Shift+T or browse/search your history for pages that were further back.

Yay or nay?

Original comment by fauxbar....@gmail.com on 13 Jun 2012 at 7:13

[GoogleCodeExporter]

I find the navigation history of a closed tab to be important.
For example: You close the tab when you meant to 'go back' in history of that 
tab.
Have happened to me a few times.

Could start with the simplistic version and if the users want the navigation 
history it can be added at that time. But i would expect users to find it 
unexpected and annoying that the navigation history is not restored too. I 
would.

The Ctrl+Shift+T only restores a single tab/window at a time and you can't 
selectively restore tabs.

The history page (Ctrl+H) [chrome://chrome/history/] while handy can be a mess 
when trying to find where you have been.
Works very well when you only use one tab but when you have several tabs open 
and navigate in them at random the history gets messy.
Navigation pattern example: tab1, tab2, tab3, tab1, tab3, tab3, tab2. The 
history will be in this order. No way of distinguish which tab navigated to 
which url.

I do not have any info on how many users actually use Ctrl+Shift+T and history 
page successfully.
For a non-technical person a 'recently closed' menu with tab history would be 
very useful, i think.

I've filed a bug report to see what the chrome team thinks about implementing 
an api for this.
https://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=132696

Hope this helps in your decision.

(I've attached a screenshot of chrome's recently closed menu just for 
reference.)

Original comment by laboboL...@gmail.com on 14 Jun 2012 at 2:52

Attachments:

• chrome_recently_closed_list_example.png