Enable Users to Group Tabs using Layers

[AllanOricil]

I would like to group tabs using Layers. A layer defines a set of tabs that must be visible at a given time. Layers can be switched with keyboard shortcuts (configurable). It must work with Webviews as well, and not just editor panels.

The current selected layer name must be visible somewhere near the tabs. My suggestion is to place this information above the tabs, and to the left, because there is a bunch of empty space in that region.

When clicking on the name of the layer, a picklist input appears so that users can switch between layers.

Some benefits

• users could group tabs per workspace when using the multi-root workspaces feature.
• users could place files that aren't in the current working directory in a separate layer.
• users would no longer need to "Lock" a webview panel because webviews can just be placed into a separate layer.
• it could also remove the need for scrolling horizontally while fetching a tab.
• webviews would have more space to display its content. Users would no longer need to keep resizing or closing/opening webviews. Each layer would store the state of the panels, like the order each panel appears and their sizes
• It allows placing webview_a and webview_b same layer because they provide features that are often used together.

[abnerfcastro]

I like the idea of grouping tabs. To avoid the Chrome-like implementation, the groups could go inside the "Open Editors" section of the Explorer.

[vscodenpa]

This feature request is now a candidate for our backlog. The community has 60 days to upvote the issue. If it receives 20 upvotes we will move it to our backlog. If not, we will close it. To learn more about how we handle feature requests, please see our documentation.

Happy Coding!

[zm-cttae-archive]

Shouldn't we be posting this mockup in #100335 and have the community give their feedback there?

[AllanOricil]

@M00TSDNS thank you

[RokeJulianLockhart]

How are these different to any other notion of “tabs”, and most importantly, why avoid Chrome's implementation, @abnerfcastro? #100335 certainly demonstrates that such a thing is desirable.

[AllanOricil]

How are these different to any other notion of “tabs”, and most importantly, why avoid Chrome's implementation, @abnerfcastro? #100335 certainly demonstrates that such a thing is desirable.

@RokeJulianLockhart tabs and layers can be combined. Layers would help to save the state (size, position, width) of a particular group of tabs. This is good when working with multiple webviews. Users won't need to close, lock or resize Webviews just to see the files they are editing.

[zm-cttae]

The UI/UX world "loves to hate" tabber style groups because they "hide" content, but there is a nuance:

Tabs aren’t bad UX. Tabs are a design pattern that can result in bad UX when used to separate and/or conceal content a user’s narrative might need.

You can set up different groups for different development activities - it comes across as a better fit to VS Code's use case.

[AllanOricil]

It is probably going to be dropped just because it did not get enough votes :/

[zm-cttae-archive]

Chrome's group tabs don't solve the dearth of horizontal real estate. They also don't improve tab navigation without a mouse i.e. laptop. This design does it all!

It just needs a group label next to the arrows, or at the left/start of the tab list..

[vscodenpa]

This feature request has not yet received the 20 community upvotes it takes to make to our backlog. 10 days to go. To learn more about how we handle feature requests, please see our documentation.

Happy Coding!

[vscodenpa]

🙁 In the last 60 days, this feature request has received less than 20 community upvotes and we closed it. Still a big Thank You to you for taking the time to create this issue! To learn more about how we handle feature requests, please see our documentation.

Happy Coding!

[RokeJulianLockhart]

@VSCodeTriageBot, reopen.

[zm-cttae]

You would need a UI/UX team member to do that
@daviddossett @miguelsolorio is this UX idea worth your buy-in?