Add additional feature names to window.open()

[foolip]

https://html.spec.whatwg.org/multipage/browsers.html#dom-open
https://drafts.csswg.org/cssom-view/#the-features-argument-to-the-open()-method

Together these define "left", "top", "width", "height" and "noopener". Blink also has:

• "screenx" and "screeny" as aliases of "left" and "top"
• "innerwidth" and "innerheight" as aliases of "width" and "height"
• "menubar", "toolbar", "location", "status", "fullscreen" and "scrollbars"

There is a potential interop issue here, in https://codereview.chromium.org/2773573002/ tests were written for when a new window is opened vs. a new tab, and those tests don't pass everywhere.

@zetafunction

[annevk]

Shouldn't a browser be in a control over what it does with these to a large extent? We can't really dictate a windowing system as that has big UX implications.

[zetafunction]

I changed Chrome's behavior to match Firefox: the main UI difference between a popup and a tab is whether or not the toolbar is enabled. So this is now the only window feature we consult before determining how to style the new window.

Many of the other window features that Chrome used to check (resizable, menubar, status, scrollbars) are things that aren't configurable anymore: popups are always resizable, with no option of hiding the status bar, Chrome has no menubar, and scrollbars shouldn't affect whether or not the window should be styled as a popup.

I do think it'd be useful to specify the other window features; they're essentially a de facto standard, but not actually covered anywhere atm.

[zcorpan]

So to be clear, specifying toolbar=yes opens a popup with the toolbar; any non-empty feature argument without that will open a popup without the toolbar? And missing or empty feature argument opens a tab? (https://www.w3.org/Bugs/Public/show_bug.cgi?id=25685)

[zcorpan]

PR for aliases at w3c/csswg-drafts#1128

[zcorpan]

The new Chromium behavior introduced in https://codereview.chromium.org/2773573002 will open a new tab rather than a popup if the toolbar feature is enabled (or if features is the empty string). This is different from at least Firefox in that Firefox will open a new window (with the specified size/position) if toolbar is enabled (with address bar/back button etc). Firefox only opens a new tab if features is the empty string.

I tried to analyze the impact of this change in httparchive, see: https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=82522#c113 - in some cases it seems unexpected but in other cases it seems like it would improve the user experience.

I wonder if other vendors would be willing to adopt the new Chromium behavior and open a new tab rather than a new window if toolbar is enabled (even if left/width etc are also specified)?

A benefit from doing that is that it is possible to open a new tab or a new window with the noopener feature; in Firefox this will always result in a new window.

cc @cdumez @jgraham @miketaylr

[smaug----]

Sounds a bit hackish, especially the part to use toolbar to overcome limitations of noopener.
Why toolbar is special?
How does one then open a new window with toolbar and all? (whatever toolbar means these days, but the more complicated UI)

[smaug----]

What does Chrome do if you first open a new window (no toolbars) and then open a new window from that with 'toolbar' ?

[zcorpan]

Discussion in #whatwg http://logs.glob.uno/?c=freenode%23whatwg&s=12+Apr+2017&e=12+Apr+2017#c1025657

<zcorpan> smaug: do you have any opinion ? github.com//issues/2464#issuecomment-290421056
<smaug> zcorpan: using toolbar for the noopener case feels like a hack
<zcorpan> smaug: i guess. maybe noopener should have been specified in a new argument with a dictionary, but now it's implemented as a "feature"
<smaug> zcorpan: why is toolbar special?
<smaug> I would expect a new window with toolbar to be shown
<zcorpan> smaug: because it's special in firefox (it opens a "full" browser window rather than a minimal-chrome window)
<smaug> yes, sounds like FF's behavior is the expected one
<smaug> zcorpan: how does one then open a new proper window with toolbar and all?
<zcorpan> smaug: ok. in non-firefox browsers that is not possible
<zcorpan> smaug: before the recent change in chromium you'd always get a minimal-chrome popup
<zcorpan> smaug: in safari/chrome/opera/edge
<smaug> what does Edge do?
<zcorpan> smaug: and empty or missing features argument opens a tab (but then you can't use noopener if you want a tab)
<smaug> er, you said edge
<zcorpan> right
<zcorpan> edge also doesn't support noopener here
<zcorpan> afaik (maybe changed in edge15)
<smaug> I might like more some new value
<smaug> which actually tells to the API user what is probably happening
<smaug> zcorpan: does just having 'toolbar' open a tab, even with any other features like size?
<zcorpan> smaug: yes
<smaug> confusing
<zcorpan> smaug: thanks for the feedback. could you also clarify what you would like to see instead?
<smaug> zcorpan: so for API users, shouldn't it be something like openInTab
<smaug> new feature
<smaug> zcorpan: what does Chrome do if you first open a new window (no toolbars) and then open a new window with 'toolbar' ?
<zcorpan> smaug: note that all browsers already have ability to open in a new tab from window.open - http://software.hixie.ch/utilities/js/live-dom-viewer/saved/5007
<smaug> sure
<smaug> I'm not talking about that
<zcorpan> smaug: it first opens a popup and then a tab... http://software.hixie.ch/utilities/js/live-dom-viewer/saved/5008
<smaug> zcorpan: you're opening from the same window
<smaug> first open without toolbar, and then that one opens with toolbar
<zcorpan> oh, i see
<zcorpan> smaug: http://software.hixie.ch/utilities/js/live-dom-viewer/saved/5009 it opens a tab in the first window
<smaug> huh
<smaug> ok, I didn't know blink has this weird behavior
<zcorpan> it's pretty new and hasn't shipped yet
<zcorpan> CL https://codereview.chromium.org/2773573002
<smaug> but why does it open a tab in an existing window

[zetafunction]

It's because Chrome always current prefers to open a new foreground tab when toolbar=1. I think this always prefers to reuse an existing window if one exists.

It should be pretty easy to change this to prefer opening a new window when called from a popup, if people feel that is the correct behavior.

[zcorpan]

@zetafunction such a new window would then not be a full browser window, but a minimal-chrome popup, correct?

[zcorpan]

For the case of following a hyperlink with target=_blank inside a popup, both Chrome and Firefox will open a new tab in the original window, while Safari will open a new full browser window.

http://software.hixie.ch/utilities/js/live-dom-viewer/saved/5017

Also, window.open with an empty features argument has the same behavior.

http://software.hixie.ch/utilities/js/live-dom-viewer/saved/5018

@smaug---- do you think Chrome and Firefox should change their behavior for these?

[zetafunction]

@zcorpan Why should opening a toolbar=1 window from a popup window imply creating another popup window? This effectively means the toolbar feature has no effect once you're in a popup window, right?

[zcorpan]

I'm just trying to get clarified what y'all want to end up with. 😊 I thought maybe there was some reason to avoid opening a new full window...

[kkruups]

@zcorpan

The expected behavior should be a new PopUp Window when size dimensions are passed as arguments to window.open (if toolbar is enabled, then add the toolbar to the PopUp window). If no dimensions are indicated just default to opening a new tab (in this case toolbar enabled is the default).
(Btw, this is FF current Behavior (version 54.0a2)) .

Chrome Behavior (Canary 60.0.3079.0)

Opens PopUp Window to indicated dimensions
window.open("https://google.com","foo","width=800, height=780")

Opens New Tab (browsers default minimized size, ignores size dimensions)
window.open("https://google.com","foo","width=800, height=780,toolbar=1")

FF Behavior

w/Size Dimensions
Opens PopUp Window w/o ToolBar (NO toolbar)
window.open("https://google.com","foo","width=800, height=780")

Opens PopUp with ToolBar
window.open("https://google.com","foo","width=800, height=780, toolbar=1")

w/o size dimensions
Opens New Tab
window.open("https://google.com","foo")
window.open("https://google.com","foo", "toolbar=1")

[annevk]

Now that HTML defines a bunch of normalization, to what extent is this still an HTML issue and not a CSSOM issue?

[annevk]

This observation from bz at #1902 (comment) is also important:

Wouldn't CSSOM ignore unknown tokens anyway?

That doesn't match actual browser behavior (again in at least Firefox and Chrome). If I do:

window.open("", "", "yousaywhat?");

I get a browser window missing UI pieces in both.

I filed w3c/csswg-drafts#4432 to figure out how to split these between CSSOM and HTML. Perhaps all of it ought to move here given the BarProp implications, or we move all of that there too.

[domenic]

This was fixed by ab08b9b.