nwebb

Like many developers I use Firefox as my default browser. One extension I wouldn’t want to be without is Tab Mix Plus. Since installing Firefox 3 I’ve been using the dev build, but this morning I foolishly accepted the 3.0.1 browser update only to find that the extension is not compatible with that particular release.

When I’m testing my Flex apps I like the .swf to open up in the same window each time (Tab Mix Plus has a handly little option to allow this). It means I don’t end up with multiple tabs open when testing my app.

If that option wasn’t available, for testing purposes I guess I would want to automatically switch to the newly opened tab automatically, but that still means I’d end up with multiple tabs open and it is something that would drive me crazy when simply surfing the web normally (and toggling between those two options depending on what I’m doing is a non-starter!), so with TMP not currently working I did a quick search to find out how to set the “open in current tab” preference myself. Here it is in case you would like to do it:

1) Open Firefox and type about:config in to the address bar.
2) You’ll see the “Here Be Dragons!” warning. Click the “I’ll Be Careful I Promise” button.
3) Use the filter bar and type in browser.link
4) Set browser.link.open_external to 1 (this is why)

That’s it. Now whenever you test your Flex app it should open up in the current tab. If this annoys you then you can always change it back to the default (3). I guess whether you like it or not depeneds on your surfing habits. During normal surfing I tend to right-click links and select “open in new tab”, so I find setting this to 1 gives me the ideal setup.