Prevent Duplicate Tabs Firefox Extension

The Prevent Duplicate Tabs extension for the Firefox web browser will prevent two tabs with the same URL from opening. If a new tab is opened with an URL that is opened in another tab, the old tab will be closed and the requested URL will be opened in a new tab.

This extension was developed to fix an annoyance that occurs in Eclipse based editors like Aptana, Flex Builder or stand-alone Eclipse, where clicking on the Run/Build/Debug buttons (or menu items) will always open the project in a new browser window or tab. The annoyance is that it is very easy to end up with many tabs opened to the same URL.

Instructions

The extension is very simple to operate. First, after it is installed, navigate to the Firefox Tools menu and ensure the option Prevent Duplicate Tabs has a check mark next to it. If it does the extension is enabled. If it does not, click the option to toggle checkmark.

Once the extension is enabled you will notice a small tab icon in your Firefox status bar (Fig. 1). To add a page to the whitelist, click on the tab icon. You will notice that the icon now shows a blocking overlay icon (Fig. 2). This means that this page cannot be loaded into duplicate tabs. To remove that URL from the whitelist, navigate to the page, and click the icon once again. The icon will change back to a tab without the blocking icon overlay. This means that duplicate tabs for this URL will be allowed.

Fig. 1) A page not on the whitelist. Duplcate tabs will be allowed.		Fig. 2) A page that is on the whitelist. Duplcate tabs will not be allowed.

ChangeLog

Version 0.3.2

• New UI - Firefox Statusbar now contains an icon that looks like a tab. Clicking this icon will add the current tab's URL to the whitelist of urls that cannot be opened in more than one tab. This is a toggle button - click it again to remove the url from the whitelist. If you do not see the icon, it is likely that the extension is disabled. To enable it, got to the Tools menu and make sure Prevent Duplicate Tabs is checked.
• Bug fix - problem with tabs closing on a page refresh
• Opening multiple tabs simultaneously do not randomly trash some of the new tabs. This bug was notices when restarting the browser, restoring a session and opening a bookmark folder in all tabs.
• Beginnings of an Options dialog
• Update Notifications - you will now be notified when updates are available

TODO

• Whitelist management dialog
• Whitelist by wildcard urls
• Email other suggestions/feature requests/bugs to: jim.rutherford@digitalmediaminute.com