Feature Request: A permanent URL for the inner dashboard page

[gdh1995]

Description

I'm an author of the Chrome extension "Vimium C". While my extension overrides the default newtab page (to make it configurable on my extension's options page), one user of Vimium C has asked me for re-enable the default dashboard as the new tab page: https://github.com/gdh1995/vimium-c/issues/28#issuecomment-482473420 .

After I searched in the source code of brave-core, I found it only maps the https://github.com/brave/brave-core/blob/master/components/brave_new_tab_ui/brave_new_tab.html to "chrome://newtab/". So the user's request is impossible up to now.

Considering that Chrome has a permanent inner page just looking like the default newtab page: chrome-search://local-ntp/local-ntp.html , I think the brave browser should also assign a URL for the beautiful dashboard page.

Steps to Reproduce

1. install Vimium C on the brave browser
2. open Vimium C's options page, and set "New tab URL" to "chrome-search://local-ntp/local-ntp.html"
3. press "Ctrl+T", and then the brave opens the Chromium inner new tab page (ntp).

Actual result:

1. but there's no URL pointing to the inner dashboard page
2. if forcing Vimium C to set its "New tab URL" to "brave://newtab/", "Ctrl+T" will cause a dead loop

Expected result:

An extension can use a URL (like "brave://inner-newtab") to open the dashboard page, whether the new tab page is overridden / changed or not.

Brave version (brave://version info)

0.62.51 Chromium: 73.0.3683.103 (正式版本) （64 位）

e82a658d8159cabbd4938c1660f9bb00b4a82a23-refs/branch-heads/3683@{#902}

Windows 10 OS Build 17763.379

V8 7.3.492.27

Reproducible on current release:

• Does it reproduce on brave-browser dev/beta builds?
  • Yes

Website problems only:

• Does the issue resolve itself when disabling Brave Shields?
  • No
• Is the issue reproducible on the latest version of Chrome?
  • No

[srirambv]

cc: @jonathansampson

[tony-scio]

Same situation here.

I have an extension that allows the NTP override to be "disabled." Since the extension API doesn't provide a mechanism for this, in Chrome it works by redirecting to chrome-search://local-ntp/local-ntp.html. But in Brave, this results in the user being taken to the Google NTP instead of the Brave NTP like they expect.

I think fixing this is as easy as adding an entry here: https://github.com/brave/brave-core/blob/1cb5818aa0b70666c6aeea5ea9c06cc4e712171a/chromium_src/chrome/common/url_constants.cc

[gdh1995]

BTW, Chrome 85+ has a new inner URL of chrome://new-tab-page/, and then this page allow extensions' content scripts to work on it, when the browser flag #extensions-on-chrome-urls is enabled .

[vardhman-singh-glean]

Bumping this up, Looks like brave://new-tab-page/ goes to the default chrome page and not the dashboard page, so its not the ideal solution as there's still no way to redirect the dashboard inner page using a url.

[kirillzakharov]

Bumping this up. Same issue here with Unsplash Instant.

Defaulting to chrome://new-tab-page/ for now.

[jtbrown3]

Bumping this one. Would like to see: chrome-search://local-ntp/local-ntp.html supported in Brave and properly redirected to the Brave NTP. 👍