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    Opera Air is beauty but I have some issues with it

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    tab grouping vertical tabs duplicate tabs open new tab extensions
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    • salimalbitar
      salimalbitar last edited by

      I used to love Opera browser/s, but I haven't used them in a long time.

      so when I read about Opera "Air" I was like this could the reason I go back to using it.

      when I 1st downloaded and installed it, I was mesmerized by it beauty and design!
      i was like that looks pretty good,
      and with brain boosting music, I was like, Nice!

      but under that beautiful exterior, it was awful!

      the thing that pissed me off the most was not being able to properly utilize chrome/chromium extensions
      most extensions I wanted to use weren't functioning properly,

      I tried chrome store alternatives extensions, most of them had the same problems, I even created my own extensions to see what's wrong, they worked on chrome just like other extensions

      but it seems that Opera was preventing those extensions from working
      only extensions from the opera store would work
      and that store barely has any useful extensions

      so I result I had the following problems:

      1. I couldn't open tabs next to the current ones,
        new tabs always open at the end of the tab bar.

      2. there's no good opera extensions to duplicate tabs, that have keyboard shortcut features which means
        we can't use keyboard shortcuts to duplicate tabs so we can overcome the new tabs problem!

      3. tab islands feature isn't available and we can't create tab groups!
        the opera extension isn't good enough!

      4. vertical tabs extension is a joke so we can't really say we have vertical tabs!

      the things is, if you want to create an
      eye catching almost-useless browser, be my guess but don't prevent us from making it better or at least functional

      it's like having a nice house, but with many of the essentials not being there and with NO WAY of bringing stuff from outside!

      if those things aren't available because it's "in Beta"
      then why put chains on it?!
      and if you did those things to make things "better"
      or to make us "more productive"
      then you couldn't be more wrong!

      Mozilla's Firefox doesn't support chromium extensions, but at least the alternatives are there!

      speaking of which I'm going back to Zen browser

      let me know when opera Air isn't full of hot air!

      until we rant again!
      Salim.

      Reply Quote 0
        Mlipka 1 Reply Last reply
      • Mlipka
        Mlipka Opera @salimalbitar last edited by

        Hi @salimalbitar

        Thanks for taking the time and sharing your thoughts. We appreciate the feedback. We'll analyze it.

        In the meantime, can you share exactly which extensions work for Chrome but doesn't work for Opera? This way, we can investigate the root of the problem.

        Both browsers use chromium as their engine, and extensions from Google store should work exactly the same in both browsers.

        Reply Quote 0
          salimalbitar 1 Reply Last reply
        • salimalbitar
          salimalbitar @Mlipka last edited by

          @Mlipka said in Opera Air is beauty but I have some issues with it:

          Hi @salimalbitar

          Thanks for taking the time and sharing your thoughts. We appreciate the feedback. We'll analyze it.

          In the meantime, can you share exactly which extensions work for Chrome but doesn't work for Opera? This way, we can investigate the root of the problem.

          Both browsers use chromium as their engine, and extensions from Google store should work exactly the same in both browsers.

          Hey @Mlipka
          thank you for your reply it shows that you guys care ❤️
          this makes sure Opera Air doesn't suffer the same fate as Opera's crypto browser lol

          Can we assume that
          most chrome extensions don't work on Opera?
          because it seems like Opera Air is
          restricting certain (most) Chromium APIs!

          at 1st I thought
          it just does not support the chrome.tabs.group API
          because it may conflict with the tab island feature (that's not even introduced to Opera Air yet)
          (which doesn't make much sense, but ok..)

          but then I found out that the same problem is happening with other extensions as well

          here's why I think that Opera Air is restricting Chromium APIs:

          since "Tab islands" are supported.. yet.
          (please add the feature to Opera Air soon)
          I was like it's ok.. I'll just use a tab grouping extension from the store
          but after all the tab grouping didn't work,
          I created my own extension to see what's wrong

          then I got this error

          Error creating group: Grouping is not supported by tabs in this window.
          Context
          background.js
          Stack Trace
          background.js:43 (anonymous function)
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          // Listen for when the extension icon is clicked
          chrome.action.onClicked.addListener((tab) => {
          // Get the current window's tabs
          chrome.tabs.query({ currentWindow: true }, (allTabs) => {
          if (chrome.runtime.lastError) {
          console.error("Error querying all tabs:", chrome.runtime.lastError.message);
          return;
          }

          // Find the active tab in the current window
          const activeTab = allTabs.find(t => t.id === tab.id);
          
          if (!activeTab) {
            console.error("Active tab not found.");
            return;
          }
          
          // Filter tabs that are to the right of the active tab
          const tabsToGroupIds = allTabs
            .filter(t => t.index > activeTab.index)
            .map(t => t.id);
          
          if (tabsToGroupIds.length === 0) {
            // Notify the user that there are no tabs to group
            console.log("No tabs to the right to group.");
            chrome.notifications.create({
              type: 'basic',
              // iconUrl: 'icons/icon48.png', // Removed as icons are not provided
              title: 'Tab Grouper',
              message: 'No tabs to the right of the current tab to group.',
              priority: 0
            });
            return;
          }
          
          // Get the current group counter from storage
          chrome.storage.local.get({ groupCounter: 0 }, (data) => {
            let groupCounter = data.groupCounter + 1;
          
            // Create a new tab group with these tabs
            chrome.tabs.group({ tabIds: tabsToGroupIds }, (groupId) => {
              if (chrome.runtime.lastError) {
                console.error("Error creating group:", chrome.runtime.lastError.message);
                return;
              }
          

          I was chatting with Manus AI about the tab grouping error I got and it told me that:

          "This error message:
          "Error creating group: Grouping is not supported by tabs in this window."
          is very specific and tells us exactly what the problem is.
          It means that the browser you are using (Opera Air, in this case) is explicitly reporting that it does not support the chrome.tabs.group API for extensions in the current window.
          While Opera browsers are built on Chromium (the same base as Chrome), they may choose to implement or restrict certain Chromium APIs.

          Opera's "Tab Islands" is a native, core feature of their browser, and it's highly likely that they have disabled or not implemented the standard Chrome Tab Grouping API for extensions to prevent conflicts or to maintain control over their own tab management system.

          What this error means for your extension:

          • The code itself is likely correct for a standard Chrome browser.
            *The limitation is with Opera Air.

          The browser environment you're running the extension in is telling you that
          it doesn't allow extensions to create tab groups using this method."

          and since I tried the extension on chrome:
          this confirms that:

          The limitation is specifically with Opera Air's implementation of these APIs

          Reply Quote 0
            salimalbitar 1 Reply Last reply
          • salimalbitar
            salimalbitar @salimalbitar last edited by

            and when I tried extensions to open tabs next to the current one instead of at the end of tabs bar i suffered a similar fate:

            I received a "race condition" error which prevented tab from opening next to the current one

            i tried to find any wiggle room, but I couldn't

            • I've already tried introducing a delay (setTimeout).
            • I've tried explicitly activating the tab (active: true).
            • There's no "force move" flag in the chrome.tabs.move API.
            • I cannot inject code directly into Opera's core browser process to disable its native tab placement.

            as for the tab duplication extension:

            there's a tab duplication extension in the store, but it doesn't have any shortcut keys
            (like other chromium extensions on the chrome store)

            but just to be sure, here are the extensions I've tried
            (and didn't work):

            1. always right:
              https://github.com/autonome/always-right

            2. duplicate-tab:
              https://github.com/zertosh/duplicate-tab

            3. duplicate-tab:
              https://github.com/stefansundin/duplicate-tab

            4. open-tabs-next-to-current
              https://github.com/sblask/webextension-open-tabs-next-to-current

            alongside the extensions I created myself:
            https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1Lz_L_Gmu2WGtRRrh2myVQhE-c_6C0p_I?usp=sharing

            I tried all the tabs above in other chromium based browsers, and they're working fine

            thank you again for the follow up and the work
            now and later on 🙏

            and once Opera is ready to be used again
            (tab islands introduced and/or chromium extension are supported)
            I'll happily make the switch.

            P.S.
            try taking a few notes from sidekick browser
            (the adding tasks for example seems like a good idea to implement)

            Reply Quote 0
              Mlipka 1 Reply Last reply
            • Mlipka
              Mlipka Opera @salimalbitar last edited by

              @salimalbitar Wow! Thanks for all the details and such diligent investigation.
              I'll pass it to the team and investigate deeper. This might take some time, I will return once know more.

              Reply Quote 0
                salimalbitar 1 Reply Last reply
              • salimalbitar
                salimalbitar @Mlipka last edited by salimalbitar

                @Mlipka said in Opera Air is beauty but I have some issues with it:

                @salimalbitar Wow! Thanks for all the details and such diligent investigation.
                I'll pass it to the team and investigate deeper. This might take some time, I will return once know more.

                yeah, I did everything I can do from my part lol

                and I'll be patiently wait for your reply ❤️🙏

                Reply Quote 1
                  1 Reply Last reply
                • twisstedfr
                  twisstedfr last edited by

                  i feel you. in my case i just switched to normal opera, got rid of everything in the app thing sidebar except aria , decluttered the awful speed dial and went on to enjoy a little, i get you, this is beautiful but awful to use , im really hoping opera actually improves on this, then i might finally switch

                  Reply Quote 0
                    1 Reply Last reply
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