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I have an AngularJS web app installed on a terminal and running in full-screen mode.

Customer asked to have 2 tabs opened at the same time on 2 different views - the 2 tabs won't be active at the same time, one will be active and focused, while the other will run in background. The users need to be able to change the active tab when pressing a button in the view - like you do with CTRL+TAB on Windows. Like i said, the web app is running in full-screen so they are not seeing the tabs on top of the browser so they can't change tabs this way.

The solution must work on the latest Chrome/Edge Chromium in addition to IE11, so extensions are out of the talk.

I spent the last hours doing researches until i found this answer which says:

It is not possible - due to security concerns.

But it was posted on april 2010, so i'm hoping something has changed.

I also saw the comment that says that there might be a way to do it with the ServiceWorker API but currently we don't have it installed in our solution and i'd like to not change the structure of the project - anyway, if it is the only possible solution i could make a proposal for that.

Luca
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    You can't control a browser from inside a website for obvious security reasons. I certainly hope nothing has changed in that matter. Applications running in browsers are sandboxed. Why do you need 2 different tabs for the same app in the first place? – Jeremy Thille Apr 19 '21 at 15:31
  • I need 2 tabs because we a view where you can see the dashboard with the data of all items and an other view with the detail of a selected item where you see more data about the said item. Everything is updated in real time, so users want to have the general overview and the detail for an item opened at the same to have a complete understanding of what is happening at the moment – Luca Apr 20 '21 at 06:36
  • But what do you need 2 tabs for? You're developing an Angular app, and Angular is made for single page apps... Just use an Angular Router, that's what it's here for – Jeremy Thille Apr 20 '21 at 10:06
  • Yes i know but it is not that simple. I already suggested to use routes but the users don't want to navigate because it would too many clicks in comparison to a tab switch, so they want "to have it there and just switch between the views in one click" (quoting them). To do so with routes we would have to redo the structure of an entire module and we don't have the time at the moment – Luca Apr 21 '21 at 14:20
  • But how are two buttons different from two tabs, from a user standpoint? Instead of switching between two tabs, they'd switch between two buttons. I really don't see what's so off-putting. Isn't "button1-button2" the same as "tab1-tab2"? You can even CSS the crap out of these buttons and make them look like tabs... – Jeremy Thille Apr 21 '21 at 14:43
  • Yes it is the same and they want that BUT they do not see the tabs because the app is running in full-screen. Quoting from original answer: "Like i said, the web app is running in full-screen so they are not seeing the tabs on top of the browser so they can't change tabs this way." This is a specific request of the customer: he doesn't want users to see the tabs on top of the screen, to make the app look like it is installed on the client. Keep in mind that the clients have touch screens, so the CTRL+TAB shortcut is not an answer – Luca Apr 21 '21 at 15:13
  • Anyway, i cannot share further informations about the project or the reasons why the customer wants this feature. If it isn't possible to switch tab using a button and JS/TS, i'll close the post – Luca Apr 21 '21 at 15:16

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