7-19-08 A newer Firefox 3 compatible version of this extension has been released.
2-16-08 Before I began developing this extension (my first) I did an extensive search to be sure one didn't already exist with similar functionality. Not until I was ready to upload it to Mozilla did I learn of the add-on sandbox. After registering I searched the sandbox for a similar extension, and one did indeed exist: Tab Kit. I tried it but it didn't seem to work so I felt better and made this original post. Not long after, however, I tried it again without Tab Mix Plus and it worked beautifully. I have this to say: Tab Kit is fantastic. It is amazing, and it has every feature I had planned for my own extension and beyond. I would be lost without it; I love it. Do yourself a favor, and download Tab Kit instead. If you'd like something simpler but less featured, use mine described below.
See this nifty screencast for a demonstration.
Features
- Sorts your tabs by domain/host name, or last browsed date. (More to come.)
- Optionally space out groups of tabs. (You can color the spacers too, but it's not very pretty. ;)
- Intelligently handles tab restoration, only sorting when all tabs have been restored.
- Intelligently handles the opening of multiple tabs at once, only sorting when the URL of all opened tabs is known.
- Sorts tabs immediately upon navigating to a different URL, prior to full page load.
- You can freely drag and drop tabs to other groups.
Requirements
- Firefox 2.0 (I may lower this to 1.5, I haven't decided yet.)
Known Limitations
- Currently the entire host before the first / is matched when comparing host names, so sites with different subdomains (like addons.mozilla.org and developer.mozilla.org) will not be grouped together. This can be undesirable with certain URLs (such as img161.imageshack.us and img299.imageshack.us). The ability to customize this behavior will be in the next version.
Combine this extension with Justin Dolske's ChromaTabs for the elegant tab coloring seen in the screenshot and screencast.
Also, combine this extension with the 'Close Similar Tabs' feature of Tab Mix Plus (and some others) to close all of the tabs from one site at once via the tab context menu.
Install "Sort Tabs By ..." v1.0