Clicking a link in Thunderbird changes focus to browser

[hadarvc]

Sometime this past week, clicking on a link in Thunderbird started switching focus instantly to Brave (my default browser). Up until the recent switch, all clicked links opened in the background (as expected).

If this was a change initiated by scroll (which I think it had to be, but I'm not sure), then I think there should at least be an option to revert back to the original behavior.

[dawsers]

Yes, in 0324f48 I changed some defaults. They are documented in the manual. Among them. I changed focus_on_window_activation's default from urgent to focus. You can revert that by adding this line to your configuration file:

focus_on_window_activation urgent

The manual now says this:

focus_on_window_activation smart|urgent|focus|none

This  option  determines what to do when a client requests window activation.
If set to urgent, the urgent state will be set for that window. If set to focus, the
window will become focused. If set to smart, the window will become focused
only if it is already visible, otherwise the urgent state will be set. Default  is
focus. See also xdg_activation_force to force activation when clients don't
implement the full protocol.

[hadarvc]

Thanks for the detailed reply. I just set it to "smart", and I have the behavior I originally had. Probably, none is even more appropriate for the specific use I have with Thunderbird, but in general, I guess if the target window is visible, I'll find out if I don't mind it getting immediate focus.

I guess the issue with me not knowing this is that I assume that most updates don't require checking out the updated manual. I wonder whether there is a good way for you to announce these types of additions and enhancements?

[dawsers]

You are right, I should have been more explicit. I try not to change defaults, but this time I changed a few at the same time, so it is only a one time nuisance. When I release a new stable version, I try to give a bit more detail about the changes, but there is nothing like that for the git version. In this case, the release only included:

...
- Add xdg_activation_force option to allow focus activation when clients don't implement the full protocol.
- Change some option defaults and document them in the manual and example config.
...

The second bullet point is what included this change of behavior. But there were other options I changed, and I probably should have been more explicit. This change was motivated by the first bullet point. Now you can get automatic focus on the browser when you open a link from places where it wouldn't work before, like the terminal or some messaging applications. Some people prefer this, but I understand it is not for everyone.

[hadarvc]

This makes perfect sense. And, other than Thunderbird, I can see it being useful in some circumstances, so I'm happy to see scroll continue to evolve (not that I didn't love it already!). 😀