Continue last session, but don't load pages until tab is activated

This is a new feature in the firefox 8 beta, and I can barely believe this wasn't done before on any browser.

+1

Originally posted by Moorg:

I can barely believe this wasn't done before on any browser.

Been requested before though.

Isn't it better to use sessions if you have 50 billion tabs open?

As soon as you've got more than a couple of pages open you can't immediately really do anything because everything's still loading. It doesn't need to not load the pages: simply loading them in a more restrained manner (i.e. not all at once and of course with emphasis on the active page) would do the trick just fine, or alternatively loading everything from cache might be even better. I'm not really sure what kind of usage of sessions you have in mind that would do anything to alleviate such issues. The loading everything at once thing might apply just as well if I open 20 links from a page at once*, or indeed if I were to insert a session or open a folder of bookmarks.

I don't do this unless I know I'll be away from the computer for a couple of minutes; I open a few at a time, wait a few seconds, then open another few and do that three or four times. That way everything loads faster because it's not all trying to at once. This kind of task seems to me to be precisely the kind of thing a program might do for a user to make life easier.

Originally posted by kapsi:

Isn't it better to use sessions if you have 50 billion tabs open?

It's not quite the same. Using sessions requires the user to save groups of windows manually. Also, it does not help if Opera crashes and the user didn't get a chance to save the session.

Originally posted by Frenzie:

+1

Originally posted by Moorg:

I can barely believe this wasn't done before on any browser.

Been requested before though.

It works especially good with this addon - Load Tabs Progressively: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/load-tabs-progressively/

And I like the way Firefox restores from a crash now by letting you select which tabs to reopen, it would be great if you could use that on every start and select to save or switch session.

Really the session interface is very outdated.

Two other things I'd like to see.

1. I have noticed after trying the Firefox nightly builds is that you can reopen the last tab by right clicking on any tab, Opera forces you to go to the trash can.

2. It is possible to save the closed tabs list when you close Firefox, it may be an addon, not sure. But it would be nice to have that list saved.

Originally posted by toyotabedzrock:

Really the session interface is very outdated.

Agreed. I believe it was the first, but I don't think it's changed since Opera 6 or 7 (that is, over 10 years).

Originally posted by toyotabedzrock:

1. I have noticed after trying the Firefox nightly builds is that you can reopen the last tab by right clicking on any tab, Opera forces you to go to the trash can.

You can use a keyboard shortcut (ctrl+z by default I believe?) or customize your menu.ini.

Originally posted by toyotabedzrock:

2. It is possible to save the closed tabs list when you close Firefox, it may be an addon, not sure. But it would be nice to have that list saved.

Agreed. It's part of the session in a sense. However, it seems quite reasonable to restrict the number of saved closed tabs to 20-30 or so. That's not at all related to this topic though, and should be in its own thread (but one may already exist).

I agree with the "don't load page until tab activated" idea, or the alternate of a less aggressive page loading.

Also, I would like to have the option of having tab reload the last cached version *without checking the web*

What this means:

Sometimes I have a page(s) open that is showing data retrieved from a site I am logged into.
When I restart Opera, say after having restarted the computer, often times I will get the web sites login in screen rather than the data I previously had open.
Sometimes it behaves inconsistently though, sometimes I get the data I was viewing, sometimes I get the login screen.
I think if I could set a tab to *reload the page from cache only* and *not refresh/update on startup* this would solve this.
I don't see an option that would set "always reload page from cache - manual refresh only"

This is related to this thread because it affects how tabs/pages load on startup from continue last session.

+1 need this option.

+1 but only as optional feature

Minus 1 from me. Here is why: Knowing i got 45 opened tabs from yesterday - I'll just go make some tea in time of opening them all .

Look at the problem basis - if the connection is fast, there is no need for both Firefox and Opera to change the solution - both are similarly good. If the connection is slow then again for Opera - no need to switch to Firefox solution... but there is added time saved when Firefox solution is changed for Operas one.

In other words - the proposed feature is not outperforming current one in any real life situation, and at the same time its worse in some scenarios.

Originally posted by gdveggie:

Originally posted by unitedstatesofeurope:
...at the same time its worse in some scenarios

...I must be missing what you're trying to say here, but I just don't see where/how the proposed solutions would be worse.

unitedstatesofeurope is probably talking about the Fx implementation as described by the OP, without taking the other comments into account. Still, the behavior described there could be useful on a mobile connection where data is expensive. In most cases I'd definitely want all tabs to load, but I want the tab(s) I've got active to load first and foremost without having to wait until it randomly decides it's time to start loading them. The extension linked by toyotabedzrock sounds perfect. Since my connection is reasonably fast (allegedly 12Mbit, but in practice mostly around 6) increasing the number of simultaneous connections does help a bit.

+1

there is another topic about the tab loading

http://my.opera.com/community/forums/topic.dml?id=1092452

+1

+1 infinitum

Firefox has this feature. Can not stress how good this is when reopening FF. FF starts quick and only loads the page which was open when program closed. There you go!

I was an Opera fan but then i started trialing FF. The more i use FF, the more i like it. I still use Opera at times but lately i mainly open FF as it's so quick. I would likely use Opera all the time if this tab load later feature was part of Opera. Make it selectable if you want, just do it please.

Ciao

Originally posted by pauloperafan:

I was an Opera fan but then i started trialing FF. The more i use FF, the more i like it. I still use Opera at times but lately i mainly open FF as it's so quick. I would likely use Opera all the time if this tab load later feature was part of Opera. Make it selectable if you want, just do it please.

Ciao

My problem as well. I've been using Opera less and less lately because of this.

And on an unrelated note, have you guys noticed that in the 2 months since I posted this thread, the latest Firefox beta was 8, and now it's 10?
What's the deal with the rampant version numbering?

Mozilla is going with a rolling release schedule nowadays, therefore they opened 4 development channels, nightly, aurora, beta, and release. As the naming implies; nightly is the cutting-egde implement-features-and-test-'em build channel, and release the "we consider this build stable for official release" build channel.

Back OT: add to the wish-list

1.) the option to load the tabs one-by-one automatically at start-up.
2.) load the tabs from disk cache first, then refresh when activating/clicking them.

+1

after years of using opera, i registred just to say this.
if firefox had an internal email client, i wouldn't use opera anymore. the fox is getting more and more ahead of the game.

i will try out the "tab vault" extension as workaround, but's not the same

Originally posted by joezespak:

2.) load the tabs from disk cache first, then refresh when activating/clicking them.

That sounds like it defeats the point of loading from cache.

+1 for some method of regulating tab loading at startup!

... whether it's limiting resources devoted to loading background tabs, waiting until the tab is focused/activated, or even waiting until I manually refresh a tab that has not yet loaded.

This is probably the major reason I postpone restarting Opera, even when it is lagging horribly and becoming almost impossible to use. If I restart the whole session at that point, Opera is likely to crash while reloading all tabs, but I have no way to selectively postpone the loading of some tabs. So I often try to reorganize and split up the session, but by then Opera is already bogged down so much it can take 20-40 seconds per tab to move related tabs to a new window to save as a smaller session before closing the window. So I try to finish up all my work (reading, saving, etc.) for some groups of related tabs, but inevitably run across more relevant info to open in new tabs along the way. Etc, etc, etc. ...So sometimes it takes hours or even days before I'm finally ready to restart Opera.

If I could count on Opera closing quickly (NOT), and restarting quickly (NOT), and loading previous session pages properly from the cache instead of downloading already cached elements again (NOT), and not bogging down or crashing while reopening all my open tabs (NOT), I could restart more often than once every week or two!!!

...So any method of regulating tab loading at startup would be welcome!!!

Originally posted by unitedstatesofeurope:

if the connection is fast, there is no need for both Firefox and Opera to change the solution - both are similarly good. If the connection is slow then again for Opera - no need to switch to Firefox solution...

Not everyone has a fast connection, and even with a fast enough connection, not everyone has enough raw computing power to gracefully handle loading all the (otherwise) usable tabs at once. [For example, I have an adequate (for me) DSL connection with typically about 0.9-1.1 Mbps download connection speeds and I can (and do) regularly use 30-40 open Opera tabs on my P-III 733 MHz 512 MB RAM WinXPsp3 machine; but I can only count on Opera reliably opening 15-25 tabs without frustrating delays, temporary non-responsive tabs/windows, or outright Opera crashes.]

And if the connection is slow then I can't fathom any scenario under which loading all tabs at once would be better than loading in some restrained way or loading only when activated or manually refreshed.

Originally posted by unitedstatesofeurope:

...I'll just go make some tea in time of opening them all... ...the proposed feature is not outperforming current one in any real life situation

Hmmm... Allowing me time to go make tea/walk the dog/take a nap has never been one of my "real life" browser performance indicators

Originally posted by unitedstatesofeurope:

...at the same time its worse in some scenarios

...I must be missing what you're trying to say here, but I just don't see where/how the proposed solutions would be worse.

I strongly support this, there are just too many benefits to be gained from this approach.

One that would affect me the most would be the possibility to have a big collection (300 tabs) nicely grouped/stacked and waiting for me while I am still able to browse. Currently, the browser just dies or crumbles to an almost-unusable state.

Ability to not load those pages until requested would make everything perfect (except we still need tree-style tabs, or something similar ).

Also, I think many people use Opera because it's the only browser that supports better a heavy user, who likes opens many sites and must have a lot of tabs. It's annoying I open the Opera and wait to load alll those pages or I try to stop loading selecting many tabs and using the stop button on Windows Panel.

+1

I actually Googled this and found this request, i wasn't just meandering around: i sought it out! I have to use FF at work and realised this feature and thought "wow, surely it would be easy enough to implement". To be honest, i'm quite stunned it hasn't been done yet, but i'm not a programmer, so i wouldn't know.

+1

Originally posted by ozoratsubasa:

I think many people use Opera because it's the only browser that supports better a heavy user, who likes opens many sites and must have a lot of tabs.

I lost count of the number of threads where users are having problems due to using loads of tabs. Maybe they should adjust their work-flow a bit instead of looking for a fix for the problems caused by using loads of tabs? 76% of users open < 20 tabs

When the tab bar gets full, open a new window. Save each window as a session. Start from last time with a small session, and load other session only if you need them. Just how many pages can anyone read at once?

Would you open Word with 100 documents and expect it to start fast? I wouldn't be surprised if it falls over on any older PC.

That would be a nice option, but:
1) The session manager is awkward
2) Opera crashes sometimes.
When that happens a user is left with a choice of either loading all previous tabs or a (probably outdated) saved session.
3) This isn't just for people who open hundreds of tabs. Even with 5 tabs, there is no reason to all previous tabs unless the user requests it, and definitely not at the same time.
The firefox guys obviously thought it's useful.

Pesala

Why should i have to do any thing such as "open a new window. Save each window as a session. Start from last time with a small session, and load other session only if you need them".

Simple fact is Opera is deficient in respect to the subject of this thread. What is it about the expressed want for this feature you do not get.

Start FF, it opens the last used tab. If i want to view previous tabs, i click on the one i want, it loads the tab and i proceed. Simple. No jumping through hoops as you promote/suggest.

I have not used Opera since before my post on 4 December 2011. I am now a FF fan.

cheers

+1.

I actually switched back to Firefox primarily because of this reason.

When I had about 20 tabs open and I wanted to resume my browsing session, Opera would hang on the last element needed to load a tab and would consequently halt all other tabs from working.

This would happen intermittently for me and has been documented at length in this thread:
http://my.opera.com/community/forums/topic.dml?id=217224

Firefox actually innovated this feature and, for a change, I would like to see Opera adopting an idea instead of pioneering

+1
So obviously needed. Been asked before.

Originally posted by Frenzie:

Originally posted by joezespak:

2.) load the tabs from disk cache first, then refresh when activating/clicking them.

That sounds like it defeats the point of loading from cache.

True, so let me refine that and suggest "loading the tab icon/avatar/image/whatever you'd like to call it, and the tab title from disk, then refresh when activating/clicking".

1+

in my opinion that would solve the "another user is running opera" problem when it crash after opening to many pages

but since there's a opera turbo mode for slow connections there should be a memory saving mode where not only it doesnt load until you click it erases it after you click the next one but keeping the tab still there until you click it again, better yet having a "clear tab cache" type option for all the tabs except the last 2 or 3 or 10 etc. viewed plus another button type option saying "keep loaded" in the address bar in case you use the autopatchwork extension

+1

Definitely a must-have!

+1
Why not?

if it doesn't have in 12.50 or 13 version, will be a shame

Originally posted by ozoratsubasa:

if it doesn't have in 12.50 or 13 version, will be a shame

There has been an improvement in version 12 beta - tabs from previous sessions are loaded much less aggressively.
Still, no automatic loading, just on-demand would be much better.

"on-demand would be much better"

+1

+1. Only as an option, of course!

I simulate "load tabs on demand only" for quite some time some now, by the following sequence:

1. Before closing Opera, check "Work offline". (I have a button for "Work Offline" placed in the status bar.)
2. Close Opera.

later,

1. Open Opera.
2. When being told that a web address is not reachable and being asked to switch online, click "No".
3. Wait until Opera becomes responsive. This may take up to 30s. *
4. Switch to the tab I want to see right then.
5. Uncheck "Work offline".
6. Click the refresh icon to reload the page.

With "Open tabs on demand", the first 5 steps would vanish completely, maybe even the sixth one.

* : I don't know what it's doing in step 3, it does not access the web (AFAICT) and hardly the hard disk (or at least for such short amounts of time that I don't see any more than very rare, very short flashes of the HD LEDs) but there is still a time (5-20 seconds) where it does not react to a mouse click. During this time it tends to have over 90% of CPU usage.

Usually I have more than 100 tabs "open", some grouped in tab groups. And I even use Tab Vault on top of that.
I don't visit all of the "open" tabs within every browsing session, but we all know that session management is too crude = too inconvenient to switch between several saved session files within one browsing session. The next (far) better thing turned out to use hundreds of tabs within one session (OK, it becomes "limited" by browser performance at some point).

unfortunately the above solution is no that good anymore.

i upgraded today to opera 12 from opera 11.01 just to find out that when i start opera now it ask me if i want to go online at each tab.

just imagine that i have to hit - NO- like 25 times. Before i was hiting - no- just one time.


So the feature - load tab only when active or ondemand - is very neccesary. +1.

I also use sessions, but this is unrelated.
Also another good thing in firefox is that dashboard where you can group related tabs (panorama) and just activate one group at a time. The other groups are not loaded and does not have tabs on tab bar.

if i think well this think is somehow like sessions but it has a graphical interface where you can see each session as a group( a rectangle with mini tabs inside). you can move around these groups and also move tabs from one group to another.

Oh dear! This issue still prevails. It's all academic for me now as i have totally moved to Firefox and have no intentions of coming back to Opera (which will surely devastate the Opera developers-not).

Seriously, if this issue is truly an issue for Opera users, move on. Why keep banging on about the issue (and banging your head against the wall). The add-on's alone available for Firefox are reason to move.

I will continue to get post updates sent to me out of interest, not concern that it may be resolved.

Have a good one.

+1

Originally posted by paurot:

i have totally moved to Firefox and have no intentions of coming back to Opera

give what we really want, Opera

+1 as option

Load pages from cache is not the best idea. Many sites do not allow you to store pages in the cache. In my opinion is better to load the page when you access it (as is done in Firefox). In this case, is not wasted CPU time and memory for unused tabs (I have an average of 700MB with 50 tabs, and sometimes more). It is also noticeable loading time (does not help even disabling images on the unused tabs).

Pinned tabs should always be loaded.

Really looking forward to this feature.

just wanted to create such a theme!
in session 50 + tabs. I want to open the opera but do not load the tabs.

I solve this problem this way: unplug the Ethernet cable run opera, turn the cable back)

this can be stimulated by stop all button.

try this : http://my.opera.com/community/forums/topic.dml?id=260492 or this http://my.opera.com/dude09/blog/how-to-reload-all-or-stop-all-pages-at-once

+1

Seriously need this, often have many tabs open related to various different projects that I leave and come back to at different times. I do not want these tabs loaded when I'm not interested in them since it only eats up memory uselessly. Furthermore reducing opera start up time and increasing responsiveness are very welcome.

No, I do not use sessions, since they are archaic and cumbersome. Additionally at any given time you are never working on just one thing, you have your one or two projects du jour, you have your sites that you visit regularly all the time and you have your spur of the moment searches all of which are unrelated but you do not want to have to keep switching between sessions. But on the other hand a week later you have switched to another project, but you still want to have the sites you visit regularly and any spur of the moment thing your were looking at to remain available. In short, there is no strict separation between the sites/tabs used at any two given times, which makes sessions a major pain in the behind.

Alternatively I don't want to keep sets of bookmarks because per project the set of sites that I wish to keep around is highly fluctuating and keeping the bookmarks up to date is way to labour intensive. Also it is very inconvenient to have to restart your project by having to open several tabs from your collection of bookmarks every time, having the tabs in just the same layout as you left it is so much more convenient.

One alternative that I might see working is the possibility to activate and deactivate tabs and tab stacks, which would mean that when activated they behave as they do now, loading on opera start up (though still the loading needs to be better streamlined), and when inactive they do not get any further loading or activity, that includes halting all scripts, aborting any active loads, and not initiating any loads when a tab is inactive. Which upon opera start up would mean that inactive tabs do not get loaded at all. One might even go one step further and offer a setting in the preferences to force a deliberate purge of a tab from memory upon setting a tab to inactive. This would be very welcome to reduce memory footprint with any memory hog sites where you do want to keep the tab around, but don't need the tab at the moment.

Originally posted by zedlord:

this can be stimulated by stop all button.

try this : http://my.opera.com/community/forums/topic.dml?id=260492[/URL" target="_blank">http://my.opera.com/community/forums/topic.dml?id=260492]http://my.opera.com/community/forums/topic.dml?id=260492[/URL] or this http://my.opera.com/dude09/blog/how-to-reload-all-or-stop-all-pages-at-once[/URL" target="_blank">http://my.opera.com/dude09/blog/how-to-reload-all-or-stop-all-pages-at-once]http://my.opera.com/dude09/blog/how-to-reload-all-or-stop-all-pages-at-once[/URL]

The problem with this is that if you have a good amount of tabs open, opera becomes completely unresponsive just after starting up.

Don't Load Tabs Until Selected
Please for the love of god, Desktop Opera Devs, please include tab loading on click as an option.
This is the only thing preventing me from entirely switching from Firefox to Opera.
I have 5 tab groups with anywhere from 8 to 40 tabs in them. In Opera I only keep it as my default browser, in USB mode, as I use Firefox portable, because USB mode is officially supported in Opera and is great for those installs that auto run your browser after. I have only 10 or so tabs in Opera because it loads them all on startup, unlike Firefox's "Don't Load Tabs Until Selected". It used to be a plug in called BarTab, then Firefox incorporated it into their build.
You Opera must do the same, I love the speed of Opera, and the fact that it is USB installable by default, but just can't use it fully because of this lacking feature of tab/bandwith/memory option.
So please Devs I beg you to put this option into Opera, Don't load my tabs until I click them.

Useful feature, but not implemented yet after all those posts and a year. Sad.

I think Opera somehow lost my sessions.

So I guess the answer to that is "no"?

Might had switched between next and not next though.

Also when the browser is non-responsive you don't really want to try bother with bookmarks or sessions because it so freaking annoying and slow in the first place so you'd rather just kill the son of a bitch and start all over.

But with Opera it's still just as shitty once it come back up again

Hello, guys!
I see the thread has been started more than year ago, therefore excuse me but my question is:
Has anyone found any solution for this issue (whatever extension, addon or built-in feature) ?

I need solution for this too because I'm still using pretty slow ADSL connection so it makes Opera not responsive at startup with more than 20 tabs. Depends on sites saved in session it is possible to catch total computer hanging while Opera is loading. Kinda annoying. Generally I don't understand why it is still not implemented as a browser's native feature.

sad, our issue stay's only in our dream

there are a few solutions but nothing elegant.

1. Use Tab Vault extension....This will keep the tabs saved in a vault and they will not load until you select them.
2. use work offline option and when opera starts just keep pressing "no, do not go online" until all tabs are finished and your mouse break.
3...start with your connection offline, then after opera cant load any of the tabs, connect to the internet...This work on broadband dial-up PPOE.

4. Go to firefox....Firefox has this option implemented...and also has something much better then anything else.....A panorama mode with graphical sessions whee you keep sessions with tabs....When you click a tab, that specific sessions loads, and only the clicked tab loads. Go back to panorama mode and click another tab from another session if you want to work with other sessions....(group of tabs). This is exactly like opera sessions , only with graphical view, each session is represented by a rectangle full of thumbnails , each thumb is a tab. You can also move tabs form one group to another. Absolute perfection.

+1

What else is there still to add?


BiB

+1

Although I used Opera exclusively while M$-based since 1997, since I switched to Linux, (6 years ago) I have been using Opera less and less. As someone else noted in this thread, if Firefox had a built-in email client, I also now would probably not bother using Opera.

I googled this specific problem before hitting this thread, and am kind of amazed that, 1) this trivial, essential and easily implemented feature is not available with Opera, and 2) that in the year since this tread was opened, nothing has changed.

I hate to say it but Opera is falling further and further behind FF. With only 15 or so tabs in total open, Opera presently crashes about 50% of the time at startup. Another real bug-bear is its use of flash - as I type, the 'flashplug' is maxing out one of the cpu-cores for unknown reasons, the only solution being to kill it from the system monitor. This is and always has been a regular 'feature' of Opera - my question, WHY? - FF uses flash as well but is rarely effected in this way! Add to that, vertical screen-scrolling speed with Opera is abysmal when compared to FF. Now if only FF had that oh-so-useful ability to group tabs like Opera does, it would definitely be a case of "Sayonara Opera.."

+1

Lack of this feature and frequent crashes in Opera really make me think about switching to Firefox...

+1

Lack of this feature and frequent crashes in Opera really make me think about switching to

chrome (for me)