ABP | Add parameter to control create_tab opening behavior

Background / User story

The standard, user friendly tab opening logic waits for the user to open a blank new tab before opening an IPM new tab. ABP pioneered this logic to improve UX but it has two known short comings that were deemed acceptable:

1. it introduces a time delay between the extension receiving the command and actually presenting the new tab which effectively extends the time required to reach a certain % of the overall target user segment
2. it will not reach as many users no matter how long the command is active (potentially due to users never opening blank new tabs or other extensions that can change blank new tab behavior so our extension never sees a blank new tab.

The original AdBlock tab opening mechanism (which is still used in "manual update campaigns") forces a new tab as soon as the user gets an extension update. We would like to add a parameter to the create_tab command that provides the option to use the "force a new tab immediately" logic that AdBlock uses.

Relevant Links

• Asana task
• AB issue
• create_tab documentation

What to change

• Design: N/A
• Research: N/A
• Spec: create_tab documentation
• Legal: N/A
• Development: Implement v3 of create_tab

Hints for testers

This adds a method parameter the create_tab command to describe the creation method of the new tab. It has two values: default and force.

default: Wait with tab creation until the user opens a new, blank tab (just as we used to do it, no change in behavior).

force: Create the tab as soon as the command is processed.

This new parameter is optional. When omitted, the extension should behave as if the default value had been passed.

Hints for translators

Nothing to translate.