Use case or problem
I’d love to use the Web Viewer core plugin for a specific task but there are missing options that prevent me from doing so: The ability to silently open web pages in the same tab every time.
I use Obsidian for multiple purposes, one of which is as a jukebox/music player. Over time, I’ve referenced quite a few URLs (especially from YouTube) and launch their respective service when clicking on them.
On mobile, it opens the app or falls back to a web page if the app isn’t installed. It’s not ideal but I can’t do much to improve that. On desktop though, the current Web Viewer behavior doesn’t fit that use case very well.
To solve this issue, I disable the Web Viewer and use the Surfing community plugin instead to open URLs in the background. To clarify, when I click on a link for the first time, it opens the Surfing tab. Then, I drag and drop the tab to open it as a standalone window, which I minimize on a second screen. After that, when I click on other links, they open in the same minimized window, and the audio plays directly without focusing on the tab.
This method works fine, but the plugin hasn’t been updated since the release of Web Viewer (understandably), and it doesn’t detect URLs in certain contexts, such as when rendered in custom views:
- File Properties tab
- Bases files/embeds
- Virtual Content sections
- etc.
For this reason, among others, I’d prefer to use Web Viewer instead.
Proposed solution
Two new options would be available:
-
Reuse same tab when opening(default: false) -
Focus on tab when opening(default: true)
When toggling them both (true & false), then clicking a link anywhere in the app would open the web page in the current tab holding the web viewer without focusing on it.
Current workaround (optional)
What I’ve described with Surfing plugin
