Future browsing context group dependency hint

[kjmcnee]

WebKittens

@annevk

Title of the spec

Future browsing context group dependency hint

URL to the spec

https://github.com/explainers-by-googlers/future-browsing-context-group-dependency-hint

URL to the spec's repository

https://github.com/explainers-by-googlers/future-browsing-context-group-dependency-hint

Issue Tracker URL

No response

Explainer URL

No response

TAG Design Review URL

https://github.com/w3ctag/design-reviews/issues/979

Mozilla standards-positions issue URL

https://github.com/mozilla/standards-positions/issues/1059

WebKit Bugzilla URL

No response

Radar URL

No response

Description

This proposal extends the use of the "opener" rel type to same-window navigations to signal to the browser that the destination page will open a new window and the referring page expects to be able to access it. Some user agents perform browsing context group changes on navigation that aren't strictly necessary for security in order to improve performance. This results in named window reuse not being possible across a back navigation. Annotating an anchor element with "opener" will signal to the user agent that performing a browsing context group change would break a future opener relationship.

Regarding specification, this proposal would consist of a patch for the html spec. See here for details: https://github.com/explainers-by-googlers/future-browsing-context-group-dependency-hint?tab=readme-ov-file#specification-changes

Note that I put @annevk as the potential reviewer given previous activity on relevant issues such as: https://github.com/whatwg/html/issues/4198 https://github.com/whatwg/html/issues/313 https://github.com/whatwg/html/issues/5350

Thanks.