Kong
Tabs are half baked
Expected Behavior
First of all, if I wanted tabs I would use Postman. Not having clunky tabs is one of the reasons why I love Insomnia, so please please provide an option to disable tabs.
Secondly, clicking on a folder to open/close it opens a tab on that folder. That's terrible UX, I try to keep all my folders closed and only open the ones I'm currently using otherwise I get lost, that means the tabs bar quickly gets filed with folders.
Thirdly, something changed around updating folder variables. Now if I go to a folder and update the variables and just click on anther request, these variables are not saved. The only way I've found I can make the changes to save is by making the variable changes and then click somewhere else in the json first before clicking out of the folder.
Actual Behavior
There should be a setting to allow users to disable tabs. Folders should no open a tab when the user is just expanding or contracting the folder. I would suggest that tabs should only open on double-click. Please. Folder variable changes should apply seemlessly.
Reproduction Steps
No response
Is there an existing issue for this?
- [x] I have searched the issue tracker for this problem.
Which sync method do you use?
- [ ] Git sync.
- [x] Insomnia Cloud sync.
- [ ] Local only
Additional Information
No response
Insomnia Version
11.0.0
What operating system are you using?
Windows
Operating System Version
macOS Sequoia 15.3.1
Installation method
Download
Last Known Working Insomnia version
10.3.1
I personally avoid using Bruno, Postman and any other alternative just because of the fucking tabs, adding tabs without the option to disabled it's madness. Please, at least give us the option to disabled.
I personally avoid using Bruno, Postman and any other alternative just because of the fucking tabs, adding tabs without the option to disabled it's madness. Please, at least give us the option to disabled.
I tend to agree. A lot of us have been using Insomnia for years so we're pretty used to the UX too.
I agree, I would highly like an option to disable tabs, and I personally think they should be disabled by default.
The first selling point I give when recommending Insomnia over competitors is that it doesn't have tabs, just nicely laid out persistent requests in a sidebar.
I particularly liked the tabs, being able to close the sidebar to gain more viewing space and still have shortcuts for more than one request is very good. But I agree that the option to disable them is useful.
I like tabs too but not for folders. My request since the beginning is to have options to manage it
please i need disable this feature.
I've reverted back to 10.3.1 and disabled automatic updates until I hear that this has been addressed.
I've reverted back to 10.3.1 and disabled automatic updates
I have done this as well. To me, the tab-less UI and JSON-based environment configuration are the main features that make this software distinguished from the competition.
Just my 2c - an option to enable/disable opening requests in a new tab automatically would pretty much fix tabs for me.
Thanks for all of your feedback! Some improvements for the tabs are in progress now:
-
Support temporary tabs: https://github.com/Kong/insomnia/pull/8486
Add a temporary request/folder tab by default, clicking other request/folder will replace the existing temporary tab. only double-clicking on tab&edit&send request will preserve the tab.
-
Add shortcut/mouse middle click to close a tab: https://github.com/Kong/insomnia/pull/8494 https://github.com/Kong/insomnia/pull/8482
Thirdly, something changed around updating folder variables. Now if I go to a folder and update the variables and just click on anther request, these variables are not saved. The only way I've found I can make the changes to save is by making the variable changes and then click somewhere else in the json first before clicking out of the folder.
Could you please elaborate on your operation? Currently, if you edit your environment in the editor, and the JSON value is valid, we will automatically save your env. Only invalid env will be discarded after you leave the edit page.
- Support temporary tabs: https://github.com/Kong/insomnia/pull/8486
This is a good step in the right direction, and might be the best of both worlds!
I do wonder still, for those of us who don't intend on using the tab feature at all and would just constantly use one temporary tab, if it still wouldn't make sense to just have an off switch for the tab bar/system so that it's not taking up screen real estate...or perhaps just not show the bar if only a single temporary tab is opened.
Thanks everyone for the feedback, this is a major feature and we are currently addressing the things that are being brought up on this thread. If you have more ideas/suggestions please add them to this issue.
Thanks for all of your feedback! Some improvements for the tabs are in progress now:
- Support temporary tabs: feat: temporary tabs - [INS-5088] #8486 Add a temporary request/folder tab by default, clicking other request/folder will replace the existing temporary tab. only double-clicking on tab&edit&send request will preserve the tab.
- Add shortcut/mouse middle click to close a tab: feat: add hotKey to close tab - [INS-5155] #8494 Feat/add possibility to close tabs by mouse middle click #8482
Glad to see the middle click closing tab is in the works, because not having it is a major annoyance to close multiple tabs.
Another major annoyance I have not seen mentioned, is taking me out of the collection when I close the last tab. I would rather stay with my requests on the side and an empty space on the right (or better, the settings and docs of the collection ?). But right now, I keep wanting to close tabs to start from another request, and getting thrown back in the main collection selection.
Tabs is evil. I tried 11.0.1 - I'm upset( I don't want to see them in any form.
The second Insomnia updated and I saw tabs, I thought to myself - "Nooooooo!". Not these bloody things again. Same as above, I stay away from Postman because of their terrible mess, created by tabs. Please please please let us disable these. They are horrible.
Quick fix is to open DevTools (same shortcut of your chrome browser or open it using the main menu on top), select the div where tabs are in and delete it. It will not show again unless you open another window.
I'll just add from myself as spam in the conversation, i would love "Hide tabs" just like we have "Hide menu bar". I don't want tabs at all, folders do it much better
Okay, we may introduce a way to disable tabs from the preferences. + @CurryYangxx
But we will continue to improve tabs, so if there is a suggestion on how to make them better, please continue to give us that feedback.
@subnetmarco
More control would be nice. When I have one request open and switch to a different one, it doesn't automatically mean that I want two tabs. Most of the time, I'm done with the first request for now. If I want to go back to it later, I don't need tabs - I can just select it again from the menu on the left.
The only time I see tabs useful is if I explicitly decide that it would be beneficial to me to have two tabs open at that moment, because whatever I'm doing requires switching between two specific requests frequently, and I don't want to try to find them in the left pane every time I switch.
Ideally, in order to open a request in a new tab, I would need to explicitly say that I want to open it in a new tab (maybe control click on it or something) - not have every request I click on always open in a new tab. That's just annoying, and leads to confusion.
If tabs weren't the default, and we needed to explicitly open requests in tabs (by control clicking on a request), you wouldn't even need to create a disable-tabs button in the settings, as they would be opt-in, not opt-out.
A good UX is an intuitive UI, and intuition comes from familiarity. If I'm using an app that's controlled just like other apps I've used, I don't struggle to control it. Essentially 100% of your users are familiar with web browsers. Browsers don't have a disable-tabs button because they don't need one. When you click on a link in a browser, it doesn't open a new tab by default - it replaces the page you're looking at. The only time you get a new tab is if you explicitly decide to open a link in a new tab.
Exactly what @tal-zvon said!
You guys should see the fact that tabs are not the default as a differentiating factor against the competition. As mentioned before, for many of us one of the main reasons for using Insomnia vs Postman is because is simpler and has less clutter. I don't mind if you add tabs, but allow us to explicitly decide if we want to open a request in a new tab.
Downloaded 11.0.2 to see how thing have progressed and #8486 does improve things but I'd still like the ability to more explicitly be able to chose when to open a request in a new tab.
Okay, we may introduce a way to disable tabs from the preferences.
Any progress on this @subnetmarco @CurryYangxx ? I've really been trying to give these tabs a chance, but it's just not for me. Even with the improvements on the PR mentioned on the previous comment after a short while I have a mess of open tabs so I find myself having to do "tabs cleanup" multiple times a day.
Quick fix is to open DevTools (same shortcut of your chrome browser or open it using the main menu on top), select the div where tabs are in and delete it. It will not show again unless you open another window.
Seen as there's no progress on improving this I've just started doing this div trick. I wonder if this could be done from a plugin? 🤔
I found this plugin: https://insomnia.rest/plugins/insomnia-plugin-banner-remove So I installed it and modified it locally to remove the tabs div and it works.
in latest update (v11.3.0), the search feature loading too long (about 7s) when search. it was lighning fast before, start to slow when the "tabs" feature release. I usually using search api instead of looking at side bar (like vscode), and this loading is frustrate for me.
@quyennguyenvu The tab feature had been released in v11. Has this issue happened since v11 or only in v11.3? If it just happened in v11.3, it should not be related to the tab feature. Please open a separate issue to track it.
Okay, we may introduce a way to disable tabs from the preferences. + @CurryYangxx
But we will continue to improve tabs, so if there is a suggestion on how to make them better, please continue to give us that feedback.
In my opinion, tabs are redundant with the sidebar and I would like to see a way to disable them too.
I would much rather see work going into the filtering feature of the sidebar (like being about to type method:GET after my filter).
But if you want a way to make them better, WHY is the middle click still not closing them ? This is one of the most basic features. Having to target the X on tabs with various width or right click on them, is actually a productivity impediment.
And for cosmetics, how about a nice hover card when I put my mouse over a tab ? One that would show a summary like the URL, the description from the doc if it has been set, and the last status code. Maybe the status of the last test run too.