6

I have this problem continuously. I read MSNBC news (and other pages). I click the middle mouse button to open links in a new tab, to read later. I go to the tabs later, at it was a javascript link. The tab title is something like "javascript:vPlayer(number)," and the page is blank. I can't even use the history to find the source, Firefox doesn't add it to the history. I have to go back and search all the old pages for where the link was (it won't be highlighted as visited). If I click the left mouse button, those links work, but of course it destroys/overwrites the current page that I'm on - making me have to read/watch that link now, and then press the back button to reload the page I was on.

Is there a Firefox plug-in to fix this? I want those javascipt linked pages/videos to load in a new tab when I press the middle mouse button. This "feature" has been part of Firefox for years.

Firefox 6.02 Windows XP Pro SP3

1
  • Can you provide some example URL (I know there are plenty, but just to make the question complete).
    – jakub.g
    Sep 20, 2011 at 14:31

1 Answer 1

4

I don't use it personally, but it is said that NoScript can handle it:

Attempt to fix JavaScript links ( enabled by default): this means that NoScript will try to turn javascript: links into normal ones on untrusted sites as you click them, improving usability of the most unfriendly pages.

There used to be some standalone add-ons for this like Smart Middle Click but they were abandoned or/and deleted from addons.mozilla.org. I used to use Smart Middle Click, it is compatible with Firefox up to 3.6, haven't checked in newer versions. It is now removed from the web, but I recovered it from my disk.

To try if it works, unzip the contents to C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\<profileID>.default\extensions and in about:config add preference extensions.CheckCompatibility.6.0 = false, or override version info in install.rdf file after unzipping.

However "fixing" JavaScript link is very hard in general (I mean creating a script that would work in all occasions), it's much easier to do it per-website (see how the website behaves and provide website-specific fixes as a GreaseMonkey script for instance).

It is a sign of bad JavaScript writing if some links can not be opened via middle click, if you have some particular websites that you visited often and can't make it work, you could try to contact their webmasters to indicate it.

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .