Beta testing for version 5

[Pauan]

Originally reported on Google Code with ID 163

Version of Tab Organizer: 4.3
Version of Google Chrome: Version 22.0.1229.94 m
Version of operating system: Windows 7 64 bit

Please describe the problem you are having, or the feature you want added:

When you mouse-over a tab entry, the Web page icon is replaced by the "Favorite this
tab" icon. This is unhelpful if you are using the icon to decide what tab to select.

Suggestion: Place it over by the close button.

Reported by gordonrossmacgregor on 2012-10-15 22:37:05

[Pauan]

Ah, yes, the infamous "favorites" system... I'm actually getting rid of it in version
5. So this won't be an issue anymore. Don't worry, existing favorites will be moved
into a "favorites" group or similar.

Reported by pcxunlimited on 2012-10-16 09:34:09

• Status changed: Assigned
• Labels added: Type-Confirmed
• Labels removed: Type-Unconfirmed

[Pauan]

Why can't you just change the Favorite star button to create Chrome bookmarks in a single
"Tab-Organizer Favorites" folder similar to the way those "read-it-later" extensions
do?  It wouldn't be quite the same effect as being able to save and restore a tab with
it's current state and cookies retained, similar to the Reopen Closed Tab (Ctrl+Shift+T)
function because it would just be saving the URL like a bookmark without state information.

As a work-around, I supposed I can move all the tabs I want to bookmark to a single
window and then use Chrome's Bookmark All Tabs function, but that's a lot of steps,
and it seems like the extension could perform those steps for me.

That's my input.  Honestly, this is the ONLY feature that I have found to be irritating
and felt that it should have been included.  The fact that you have a Favorites list
and use the same star icons like Chrome uses in the URL bar for creating bookmarks.
 Also, I had to do a lot of searching to find out ANYTHING about your Favorites feature!
 The FAQ only mentions it as a special search term, is:favorited.  Finally I found
a review that mentioned the Favorites are listed in the Tab-Manager options screen,
but there is absolutely nothing you can do with the list at this point!

I hope my input might help refine your good idea into a more workable feature for your
fine extension.  (c:

Reported by BSwasHERE on 2013-03-18 09:34:25

[Pauan]

Yeah, I thought about the bookmark solution. Unfortunately, Chrome imposes some extremely
strict limits on how much extensions can use the bookmark system. There's a quota,
so if you try to create more bookmarks than the quota allows, Chrome will block it.
And the quota is *extremely* low.

Instead, my plan is to make all tabs virtual, so they're saved in Tab Organizer. That
way there's no limits to what I can do with it, which ultimately results in more features
and less bugs for users. An additional benefit of this system is that because the tabs
are stored in Tab Organizer, you can close them in Chrome, but the information will
still be in Tab Organizer. So this lets you "save a tab for later" in a very easy way,
without actually using the bookmark system. This helps a lot with that common use case.

Also, I can easily add in a feature where you can select tabs in Tab Organizer and
then use the dropdown menu to bookmark them.

The reason why the Favorites system isn't mentioned much is because I threw it in quickly
to solve a problem I had at the time, but ended up not using it very much. Making tabs
virtual solves the problem I was trying to solve with the Favorites system, but does
it in a *much* better way.

Reported by pcxunlimited on 2013-03-19 00:11:33

[Pauan]

P.S. Unrelated to this issue, but I'm going to reply to your review. I'm aware that
the Favorites system is flawed, and the reason for that is because Tab Organizer has
not been updated since April 9, 2012. There are many things I wish I could fix with
Tab Organizer, but I haven't had enough motivation to do so.

Ultimately, the solution will be Tab Organizer version 5, which I'm currently working
on, but will take a while to finish. I might be able to go in and quickly hack up a
solution just to make the Favorites system usable in the meantime, but it won't really
fix the problem.

As for freezing tabs... Chrome doesn't currently allow extensions to do that. However,
you can use Shift+Escape to open Chrome's Task Manager. You can use the Task Manager
to kill individual tabs. And in Tab Organizer version 5, you will be able to unload
tabs, meaning that the tab is closed in Chrome, but is still available in Tab Organizer.
Unfortunately, those are the only two solutions I'm aware of.

Reported by pcxunlimited on 2013-03-19 00:28:42

[Pauan]

Thanks for explaining.  I didn't realize the last update was almost a year ago.

I really like your idea for the easy feature addition of bookmarking selected tabs.
 That would really make me happy until you get the virtual stuff going.  And let me
say that your plans for version 5 sound fantastic, more like what I was looking for.

I used Firefox for a long time before getting into Chrome, and some of the session
restore type extensions for Firefox allow you to freeze tabs or save them and restart
them later with pretty much all the same state information intact, including history.
 But I'm seeing more restrictions in Chrome, which is good, because it was way too
easy to mess up Firefox with such extensions!

Not having enough motivation is something I can identify with, but I want to tell you
that this is by far one of the most useful extensions I've found for Chrome, even being
1 year old.  Also, your replies to comments and responsiveness to user requests really
impresses me.

I haven't gotten into writing extensions, but I have a lot of programming experience
and would be happy to help you as much as I can, even if it's only to be a cheerleader
and beta tester.

Anyhow, keep up the good work.  I'm really excited about version 5 now!  KUDOS!

Reported by BSwasHERE on 2013-03-21 18:20:50

[Pauan]

Actually, I really *could* use a beta tester. Version 5 works right now and I've been
using it for months, but it's not polished enough to release yet. Of course, the usual
caveats apply: it might crash, it WILL have bugs, it WILL have missing features, you
MIGHT lose your data, etc.

But I can set it up so that version 5 is separate from version 4, so that if you lose
any data, it'll only affect version 5. FYI, even though I've been using version 5 for
months, I haven't had a single instance of data loss, because I'm always *extremely*
careful with user data. To me, losing user data is the most terrible thing a program
can do. But I have to give the usual caveat, so that there's no surprises or disappointment.

As for actually helping with programming... I hope you know HTML, CSS, and JavaScript,
because that's what Tab Organizer is written in.

Reported by pcxunlimited on 2013-03-22 02:37:28

[Pauan]

Do you still want to beta test?

Reported by pcxunlimited on 2013-03-30 01:23:07

[Pauan]

Yes, I'd still like to help beta test.  Sorry I've been a little preoccupied with a
work project, but that should be finished today.

I did spend some time looking around at the project pages and I found the instructions
to download the current build files and to install the unpackaged extension into Chrome,
but haven't done so yet.  I will in the next couple of days.

After reading just a smidgen of the issues and notes, I decided that it would be counterproductive
for me to offer suggested features until I see what all you've done with the new version,
especially because I've already found your notes that cover all of the ideas I've had
so far!

Let me know if there is any particular area you'd like me to torture test.  I'm used
to losing documents and such while testing and will take appropriate steps.  As I understand,
I can have the existing version and the new version both installed as long as only
one is active at a time, so I will plan on switching to the old version if I'm working
on more critical stuff.

I'll try to be more responsive.  Will touch base once I have things setup for testing
here.

Reported by BSwasHERE on 2013-04-01 19:21:46

[Pauan]

Two corrections:

Version 5 is not publicly available (not even on this repository), it exists only on
my harddrive. The reason is because it's a complete rewrite that started as a side-project,
and I haven't bothered to upload it here yet. So I'll have to upload it and give new
instructions on how to install it and such.

You can have version 5 and version 4 installed at the same time and *running* at the
same time: they're completely separate.

Reported by pcxunlimited on 2013-04-01 22:37:14

[Pauan]

Thanks.  I'm glad I read this before installing the wrong test bed.  I'll try to wait
patiently for new instructions.  (c:

Reported by BSwasHERE on 2013-04-01 23:37:44

[Pauan]

Alright, download this file:

http://paaru.pbworks.com/w/file/fetch/65013638/rewrite.zip

Then unzip it. Careful, the zip contains the files, not a folder, so make sure to unzip
it into a new folder.

Now, in Chrome, go to Menu -> Tools -> Extensions and make sure "Developer mode" is
checked. Then click "Load unpacked extension..." and navigate to the folder that you
unzipped it.

Warning: version 5 currently operates in "sidebar mode" like Tree Style Tabs, but since
Chrome doesn't support sidebars, I fudge it by resizing all Chrome windows. If you
don't want your Chrome windows automatically resized, tell me and I can disable it.

Reported by pcxunlimited on 2013-04-01 23:55:50

[Pauan]

By the way, what I'm most interested in is if anything seems out of place, or doesn't
behave as you expect. Version 5 is very different from version 4, and I worry the change
might be too much. So, if tabs behave funny, in any way shape or form, I'd like to
hear about it.

Also, I'd love a screenshot, so I can see if the "sidebar mode" works correctly or
not. The screenshot should be taken right after opening the Tab Organizer popup, before
doing anything else.

Reported by pcxunlimited on 2013-04-02 00:07:20

[Pauan]

I would be interested in beta testing as well, since I really love your work. Since
I need to finish some work now, I have set myself a reminder to come back here tomorrow.
 I also have a neat trick I'd like to share of how to create a custom Window in Windows
7 like shown here: http://i.imgur.com/NQPvjXF.png

I hope I can still reorganize tabs (drag-and-drop, select multiple tabs,...), since
I used this feature heavily. 

Until tomorrow!

Reported by didnotlearn@hotmail.de on 2013-04-02 03:24:49

[Pauan]

You can't drag-and-drop or select multiple tabs yet, but it's planned! On the other
hand, version 5 can automatically organize tabs based on time, name, and URL. So I've
found that I haven't needed to do much manual organization.

Reported by pcxunlimited on 2013-04-02 04:34:32

[Pauan]

Oops, spoke too soon: it *is* possible to select multiple tabs, but the implementation
is pretty rough. And the only things you can *do* with tabs right now is unload them
and close them. If there's some feature you want ASAP, please tell me so I can prioritize
it.

Reported by pcxunlimited on 2013-04-02 04:40:05

[Pauan]

If you haven't already got the stasis stuff done for storing a tab and removing it from
memory to be restored later, that would be very high on my list.  Still got a few more
hours of work to do tonight, but hopefully I can start testing tomorrow.

Reported by BSwasHERE on 2013-04-02 06:08:41

[Pauan]

Oh no, that part is *definitely* done. It was one of the first things I did. That's
what "unloading" a tab does: closes it in Chrome, but it's still available in Tab Organizer.

Reported by pcxunlimited on 2013-04-02 06:47:34

[Pauan]

OK, I got it install on my machine and made the screen cap as requested.

Clipboard01.png - It might have been confused by my task bar being on the right side
of the screen and Chrome wasn't maximized.

Clipboard02.png - Maximized Chrome and opened pop-up again.  Positions properly, but
doesn't resize base window out of the way.

Clipboard03.png - Put my task bar back on bottom of screen, Chrome not maximized.

Clipboard04.png - Taskbar on bottom, Chrome maximized.

NB:  I have Aero disabled.

Gotta go run errands, but will play more later.

Reported by BSwasHERE on 2013-04-02 09:22:14

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• Attachment: Clipboard02.png
  
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[Pauan]

Another wish-list item would be dealing with duplicate tabs.  Should have options to:
 * play a sound when a duplicate is opened
 * change Chrome icon when duplicates are open
 * auto-close old duplicates when new tab opens
 * switch to existing tab rather than open duplicate and close old one
 * manual remove duplicates command (if not auto-blocked)

Reported by BSwasHERE on 2013-04-02 09:28:46

[Pauan]

Eesh, it's even worse than I thought. I'll try to fix that, thanks.

Duplicate tabs are a bit tricky. Tab Organizer already merges duplicate tabs so they
show up as a single tab in Tab Organizer, and closing it in TO closes all the duplicates.

You can use the search query "is:duplicated" to find duplicate tabs. I do like some
of your ideas, though, and I can put them in as options.

Reported by pcxunlimited on 2013-04-02 10:23:12

[Pauan]

Ugh, I just took a look at Sidewise (https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/sidewise-tree-style-tabs/biiammgklaefagjclmnlialkmaemifgo)
and it seems they have problems with their sidebar implementation too. What a pain.
Chrome really needs a sidebar API, but they dropped it, claiming it "wasn't important
enough"... I really hate dealing with the Chrome team.

Reported by pcxunlimited on 2013-04-03 01:39:01

[Pauan]

Ah! So that's how they do it... why didn't I think of that... okay, I should be able
to fix this no problem. It'll be a little hacky, but it'll work.

Reported by pcxunlimited on 2013-04-03 01:44:57

[Pauan]

Also, I've noticed that it keeps leaving multiple residual copies of the Tab Organizer
window behind my Chrome window.  Maybe it happened when I clicked on the 'Extensions'
tab in Tab Organizer (representing the Tab Organizer window, I'm assuming), but not
sure if it left them when I was doing other things as well.

My guess is that your Eureka moment and the forthcoming implementation will solve this
or at least circumvent the circumstances currently occurring.

Reported by BSwasHERE on 2013-04-03 01:52:06

[Pauan]

This is interesting...my old Tab Organizer icon has a badge showing 4 tabs open but
there is only one tab in one window, as you can see by my taskbar.  Also as you can
see on the old Tab Organizer, it's showing a 'New Tab', which is not there.

Probably just fallout from the broken sidebar issue, so I'll check it out again and
try to recreate it on the next build.  Will keep you posted.

Reported by BSwasHERE on 2013-04-03 02:14:55

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• Attachment: Clipboard01.png
  

[Pauan]

Okay, new version:

http://paaru.pbworks.com/w/file/fetch/65013638/rewrite.zip

Unzip it into the same folder as the old version, overwriting everything. Then go into
Menu -> Tools -> Extensions, find Tab Organizer 5.0 in the list, and then click "Reload"

As before, I would like some screenshots to see if it works or not.

P.S. The "multiple copies of the popup" is known and is a completely separate issue,
but I did fix it in this version.

Reported by pcxunlimited on 2013-04-03 02:18:07

[Pauan]

As said before, version 4 is completely separate. In fact, it runs in a separate process.
Chrome has been updated a lot in the past year, and some of the updates have broken
various things in Tab Organizer version 4.

Reported by pcxunlimited on 2013-04-03 02:20:24

[Pauan]

Well, that and you also have no idea what combination of extensions I have installed,
much less what background programs and services and drivers combinations could be at
play here.  But, it's not really a big deal, just thought I'd pop it up here since
it happened.

Do I need to close out Chrome and exit the Chrome background desktop icon before replacing
the Tab Organizer files?  I'm guessing your answer is no, but methinks my computer
has something residual hanging around in Windows somewhere...ghosts and zombie processes...at
least on Unix you can find and clean them up!  Just don't ask me to try Windows 8...EVER!

Will report back after trying out the new one, but probably tomorrow.  Bravo on kick-starting
your failing motivation!  Talk to you in a day or two.  (c:

Reported by BSwasHERE on 2013-04-03 03:05:24

[Pauan]

It's... complicated. Chrome runs each extension in a separate process, so theoretically
you shouldn't have to restart Chrome. But in practice, Chrome sometimes screws things
up so that multiple extensions go into a single process... I'm guessing to save memory.
And so sometimes you DO have to restart Chrome. It's a *huge* pain when developing
extensions.

Reported by pcxunlimited on 2013-04-03 03:09:51

[Pauan]

And it seems even more so when you're using the Chrome background desktop icon.

OK, I unloaded Chrome and closed all my other programs, in preparation for rebooting
in a few minutes.  Then I unzipped and replaced the files and started Chrome and it
did a bunch of stuff adjusting Chrome's window size and position and wound up with
the window appropriately narrower and out of the way of the Tab Organizer window.

Just occurred to me, I should have done a screen capture when I first started up before
I opened the Tab Organizer side-window.  Basically just the same except for just showing
the desktop where the Tab Organizer window went.  Let me know if you want to see those
screenshots as well in future.

Also, just a stray thought...it'd be awesome if it would minimize the Tab Organizer
window when you minimize the Chrome window, and then restore it (if it's still open)
when you restore the Chrome window.

It's starting to remind me of Microsoft Office's help window and how it resizes the
application window and puts it's own modal window in the space.  Not that it relates
to this much, but I'm sure glad you aren't putting in a help agent character like the
infamous Paperclip!  Sorry, guess I'm rambling.

Catch up with you later, buddy!

Reported by BSwasHERE on 2013-04-03 03:25:29

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• Attachment: Clipboard01.png
  

[Pauan]

Awesome, glad it's working! I don't really need a screenshot of before opening the popup,
but thanks for offering.

As nice as it would be to keep the popup synced with the Chrome window, I just can't.
Chrome fires events at extensions when stuff happens, like a tab opening/closing. But
there's no event fired when a window is minimized/unminimized. So I have no way of
knowing when that happens.

Reported by pcxunlimited on 2013-04-03 05:23:48

[Pauan]

New version:

http://paaru.pbworks.com/w/file/fetch/65013638/rewrite.zip

Warning: I changed the way user data is stored. I did my best to migrate the old data,
but it's not perfect. This means that despite my best efforts, there is the possibility
that all user data (tabs, groups, and settings) will be lost. I really hate dealing
with IndexedDB...

Anyways, new feature: groups. You can activate it by going to Menu -> Group tabs by...
-> Group. Now you can right click on a tab to move it into/out of groups.

Reported by pcxunlimited on 2013-04-04 16:24:28

[Pauan]

New version:

http://paaru.pbworks.com/w/file/fetch/65013638/rewrite.zip

It has to migrate user data *again*. But this should be the last time, since I got
rid of IndexedDB.

Please tell me if the user data got migrated successfully. If it didn't, you will have
lost your tab/group/settings information.

This version is mostly minor tweaks and major internal cleanup. No new features yet,
sorry.

Reported by pcxunlimited on 2013-04-06 12:13:38

[Pauan]

Please forgive me for not replying back like promised. My family urgently needs me for
a job they can't finish without my help.

I had some feedback prepared but being a perfectionist I wanted to add more info. Unfortunately
my PC crashed again because of my tab addiction (4GB of RAM are not enough for hundreds
of open tabs across days and days. :) )

So in a nutshell I lost my prepared feedback, but I still have a screenshot.
From what I can remember I had somewhat similar problems like Bruce. 

In addition I had the problem that every time I clicked your extension icon a completely
new window opened (without closing or refreshing the old window)
And only the newest tab or latest refreshed tab showed any changes when opening or
closing tabs.

In my attatchment you can see multiple Tab Organizer open (They were of course over
each other; I spread them out for you to see them) As you can see they all show different
tab states and showing tabs I closed a long time ago. I even had the problem of showing
old tabs after completely closing all tabs and Chrome and then starting Chrome again-->
It still showed old tabs. When I hit F5 the tab situation is correctly updated though.

I haven't had time to look at your new version or your conversation though.
And I tested your extension in Google Chrome Canary. 

I will stop by and help beta-test and give feedback if I have more time.
All the best. 

Reported by didnotlearn@hotmail.de on 2013-04-09 13:33:56

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• Attachment: [tab organizer.JPG](https://storage.googleapis.com/google-code-attachments/tab-organizer/issue-163/comment-33/tab organizer.JPG)

[Pauan]

Yeah, all those problems should be fixed in the new version, which is right above your
post.

Reported by pcxunlimited on 2013-04-09 18:17:35

[Pauan]

Ok, great! Your warning about user data worries me a bit. If I simply uninstall your
old version and install your newest version, do I have to worry about it messing up
my CHROME data (bookmarks, recently closed tabs, history, settings, cookies,...) or
is only TAB ORGANIZER data affected?

Reported by didnotlearn@hotmail.de on 2013-04-09 18:36:44

[Pauan]

No, it won't affect Chrome data at all, only Tab Organizer data.

Also, in order for the Tab Organizer data to be migrated, you shouldn't uninstall it,
but rather follow the directions here:

https://code.google.com/p/tab-organizer/issues/detail?id=163#c25

Reported by pcxunlimited on 2013-04-09 19:25:01

[Pauan]

Yes, sorry! I obviously didn't read your update. I now have reread the whole thread
though.

What I did was I simply uninstalled it from Chrome and installed your new version by
following your original instructions for the first download:
(https://code.google.com/p/tab-organizer/issues/detail?id=163#c11)
(I didn't have any valuable settings or data in Tab Organizer on THIS PC which I could
loose.)

Now for some feedback:
Is there a way to turn off this behaviour: When I have my Chrome window anything other
than maximized, it automatically maximizes it (((to the maximized state with the Tab
Organizer window to the left)))

But I like how - when closing the Tab Organizer window - the main window automatically
becomes (truly) maximized (reclaiming the Tab Organizer window space.).

I haven't had much time yet to study your new extension in detail though. 

Also consider leaving two separate Tab Organizer versions (4 and 5) in the Chrome Store.

Looking forward to follow your great work! :) I hope Bruce can still help Beta-test
since I will still be busy for some days.

Reported by didnotlearn@hotmail.de on 2013-04-09 20:41:46

[Pauan]

Are you asking about the ability to turn off the sidebar mode? If so, then yes, there
will be an option for that.

Unfortunately, you can't have separate versions in the Chrome Store. I will be adding
in some options that make version 5 more similar to version 4, for the people who prefer
the way version 4 works.

Reported by pcxunlimited on 2013-04-09 21:20:05

[Pauan]

It is definitely important to have options to turn off the sidebar mode.

I have to correct my previous sentence because somehow parts of it got lost:

"Is there a way to turn off this behaviour:
When I have my Chrome window anything other than maximized, clicking the TabOrganizer
icon  automatically maximizes the Chrome window(((to the maximized state with the Tab
Organizer window to the left))).
Here is a short video showing the situation: http://youtu.be/0htXg2mOzFU"

Reported by didnotlearn@hotmail.de on 2013-04-10 11:08:12

[Pauan]

Another thing: Sometimes clicking the TabOrganizer extension icon doesn't open the Tab
Organizer window! It just resized the Chrome window to the maximized position with
the space left for the Tab Organizer window. [UPDATE: My mistake! The TabOrganizer
window was just minimized. Is it possible to 'deminimize'/restore the Tab Organizer
window when clicking the extension icon?

Reported by didnotlearn@hotmail.de on 2013-04-10 11:10:54

[Pauan]

Another thought:
Maybe add an option to disable the automatic reordering of tabs in TO when you click
any already open tab. Maybe it could be set under "sort by: manual". And if you then
manually drag-and-drop tabs in Tab Organizer you could have an option to "only move
the tab in Tab Organizer" or to "move the actual Chrome tab to this position as well".

In the past I always used to use Tab Organizer to reorder tabs (one or multiple selected)
(and of course to find tabs, search for tabs, search for duplicates, close tabs and
other features)

Update: And another thing: Add an option to "when closing a tab in Tab Organizer, close
the actual Chrome tab as well". 

I think it would add huge value if you had these options.

Reported by didnotlearn@hotmail.de on 2013-04-10 11:18:42

[Pauan]

Last - but very important - feedback for now:

Regarding suspended tabs:
I am always worried about suspended tabs/sessions being lost in extensions either because

A) Chrome crashes or 
B) because I can't export them to an html-file or 
C) the extension or Chrome gets a complete revamp or my installation becomes corrupt
and looses all my suspended tabs and I don't have any backup of the suspended tabs.

Questions/Feedback in detail:

A) If Chrome crashes, are my suspended tabs in Tab Organizer reliably saved and are
they still there if I reopen Chrome? 
A little background story of me: I have a tab addiction and gather hundreds of different
tabs of different research areas over days and days and sometimes over a week. (I know,
I am crazy). But every now and then I max out my 8 - not 4 like previously mentioned
- GB of RAM installed in my PC and Chrome crashes. Over the last months Chrome has
really improved in that it reliably reopens all previously open tabs (including typed
text in simple text fields)

B) In many extensions there is no way to export sessions/suspended tabs/bookmarks to
an html-file. -->My question: In TabOrganizer, will there be a way to export suspended
tabs as an html-file? Periodic and manual backups would be crucial.

C) Another little background story: In the past I used to use the "Session Buddy "
extension for Chrome (https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/session-buddy/edacconmaakjimmfgnblocblbcdcpbko/details?hl=en-US).
I had dozens and dozens or even hundreds of sessions saved. There was no way to export
the sessions to an html-file. I stopped using it in the hope that it would gain an
export feature. After having the extension disabled for a year I was shocked to find
out that the extension got a big revamp and all my sessions were gone....the worst
swear words crossed my mind...
-->Same question like in B): Will Tab Organizer make periodic backups of suspended
tabs as an html file just in case my Tab Organizer installation ever becomes corrupt?

I hope I didn't drown you in feedback. :)

Reported by didnotlearn@hotmail.de on 2013-04-10 11:38:52

[Pauan]

I looked at the video, and that's intentional. It wouldn't be hard to disable it, and
I know it's a pain if you want to manually resize windows, but I think it makes sense
for the sidebar mode. I might put in an option to disable it, though.

---

"Is it possible to 'deminimize'/restore the Tab Organizer window when clicking the
extension icon?"

Ah, thanks, I just fixed it so that the TO popup unminimizes when clicking on the icon.
That fix will be in the next update which should be soon.

---

"Maybe add an option to disable the automatic reordering of tabs in TO when you click
any already open tab."

Ah, right, I should put that in. In the next update, you will be able to go to Menu
-> Sort tabs by ... -> Created.

It's really really easy to put in different tab sorting algorithms, so if you have
any suggestions, feel free to tell me.

---

"In the past I always used to use Tab Organizer to reorder tabs (one or multiple selected)
(and of course to find tabs, search for tabs, search for duplicates, close tabs and
other features)"

The suggestion of tying Tab Organizer tabs to Chrome tabs (thus allowing you to move
them around in Chrome) is actually REALLY REALLY hard. There's two problems:

1) I need to somehow associate the TO tabs with the Chrome tabs. What I mean is that,
let's say you have Chrome set to reload your previous tabs when opening Chrome. Now
you close Chrome and reopen it. TO somehow needs to know that these reloaded tabs are
the same tabs that existed in the previous session. This is really hard to do in a
robust manner.

2) Handling unloaded tabs is extremely hard as well. Ideally it would remember what
window the tab was in, so when you reload the tab, it shows up in the right window.
But that gives a whole bunch more problems...

In any case, I'm aware of this, and am thinking quite hard on a way to solve it, but
it's a very difficult problem to solve. Version 4 didn't have to worry about this because
version 4 didn't have virtual tabs.

---

"Add an option to "when closing a tab in Tab Organizer, close the actual Chrome tab
as well""

It already does this by default.

---

"I am always worried about suspended tabs/sessions being lost in extensions either
because"

This is a valid concern, but I'm always very careful with user data. I myself use TO
all the time, and I have over 1,000 tabs, so I have a very strong personal motive to
make the data as robust as I possibly can.

---

"If Chrome crashes, are my suspended tabs in Tab Organizer reliably saved and are they
still there if I reopen Chrome?"

Short answer: Yes.

Long answer: Chrome is retarded and doesn't tell me why a tab is being closed. So for
instance, TO can't tell whether the tab was closed because you closed it in Chrome
manually, or because Chrome was exited.

To work around this, when a tab is closed, I wait 10 seconds before saving it to disk.
This means that if a tab is closed and Chrome exits within 10 seconds, the tab will
still be there when you reopen Chrome.

This also applies when you close a tab manually and then exit Chrome within 10 seconds,
which means you have to close it a second time after reopening Chrome. But I think
that's a much better option than losing tabs.

---

"In TabOrganizer, will there be a way to export suspended tabs as an html-file? Periodic
and manual backups would be crucial."

Yes, it is planned, but I can't automatically make backups, due to restrictions in
Chrome. So you'll have to go into the options page, click the Export button, then save
it yourself.

---

"I hope I didn't drown you in feedback. :)"

Not at all, the whole point of this is to get as much feedback as I can.

Reported by pcxunlimited on 2013-04-10 14:28:56

[Pauan]

New version:

http://paaru.pbworks.com/w/file/fetch/65013638/rewrite.zip

The following changes were made:

* Added in an option to display Tab Organizer in a popup rather than a sidebar.

* Tab Organizer popup now unminimizes when clicking on the button.

* New tab sorting algorithm: Menu -> Sort tabs by ... -> Created.

* The ability to export/import all Tab Organizer data as a JSON file.

By the way, even though Chrome puts some pretty heavy restrictions on what I can do
with the filesystem, I *may* be able to put in some kind of "auto save your data every
hour" thing.

Reported by pcxunlimited on 2013-04-12 01:31:54

[Pauan]

New version:

http://paaru.pbworks.com/w/file/fetch/65013638/rewrite.zip

The following changes were made:

* Popup size and position can now be changed in the options page.

* Sidebar size and position can now be changed in the options page.

Reported by pcxunlimited on 2013-04-14 05:20:22

[Pauan]

Reported by pcxunlimited on 2013-04-14 06:11:39

• Labels added: Type-HelpNeeded
• Labels removed: Type-Confirmed

[Pauan]

New version:

http://paaru.pbworks.com/w/file/fetch/65013638/rewrite.zip

Lots of cleanup, not too many new features, but:

* I finally wrote the search parser, so all the special syntax in the search box works
now.

* Can now load the popup as a popup, sidebar, bubble, and tab. This has been fixed
so it should work correctly in all situations.

* A couple new options in the options page.

Reported by pcxunlimited on 2013-05-01 05:16:13

[Pauan]

New version:

http://paaru.pbworks.com/w/file/fetch/65013638/rewrite.zip

Yet another rewrite. I'll get it right eventually...!

I don't even remember all the differences between this version and the last version,
but this version does have:

* Colors!

Reported by pcxunlimited on 2013-12-06 05:17:07

[Pauan]

New version:

http://paaru.pbworks.com/w/file/fetch/65013638/rewrite.zip

This one is mostly just small tweaks and bug fixes. Don't worry, I have it planned
to implement tab drag-and-drop within a window and to other windows, but it's tricky
to implement (in the UI).

Any feedback on this version would be appreciated.

Reported by pcxunlimited on 2013-12-12 00:13:16

[Pauan]

No new version yet, just a status update.

I'm currently working on "drag tabs to rearrange them in Chrome". This is incredibly
hard to do, which is part of the reason it's taking so long (the other reason is that
I'm lazy and reading manga and playing Animal Crossing).

If you want the gory technical details, I'll gladly give them, but I doubt you're interested
in that.

Reported by pcxunlimited on 2014-02-27 13:42:31