Multi-Account Containers

JohnKThomson

I just went through a Container setup in Wavebox (now named 'Cookie Containers' to better describe the functionality), and I find it very compelling and helpful.

If Vivaldi continues to provide more and more (great) features -- My vote is Yes!

vvvctr

This is definitely a functionality you can't live without once you've used it. That or just go through the pain of managing multiple profiles or different browsers.

Would love to see it implemented in Vivaldi now that some new browsers are coming with this functionality out of the box.

werty1st

Please stop the discussion and start working on it. The source is here:
https://github.com/mozilla/multi-account-containers/#readme

Just start by adding a checkbox on the Workspaces creation dialog (isolate on/off).

Later you could add features like (always open URL1 in WorkspaceX)

PS: I don't want to sound rude, but i just saw the discussion is going back and forth for five years now.

LonM

@werty1st That is the source code for a web extension for the firefox browser. With those sources you could make the extension show a button in vivaldi, but it would not do anything, because vivaldi would still need to implement all the "under the hood" mechanics to make this work.

This is not a simple task, and vivaldi doesn't have huge resources like mozilla or google, that's why these discussions have been going on for so long.

molex

I think it's very easy to implement containers in Vivaldi due to its own user interface. Vivaldi can create additional user profiles and run separate instances of the browser behind the scenes, but the user will see it all in one window. Otherwise, you don't even have to create an analog of Firefox containers, just make it possible to work in several profiles simultaneously in one browser window.

Pheador

Whilst I totally agree that this feature is a must have (and I dearly miss it), I believe that this feature is sold as a privacy enhancing thing which is not entirely true. Modern Tracking techniques include so many other things than cookies that it's almost trivial for a given company to track you. I mean, you probably connect with the same IP, Sam MAC and so on

On the other hand, this feature is so incredibly useful for just separating cookies and logins that I don't even care about its privacy enhancements, if any. If Firefox would improve its sandboxing and overall performance it would be close to perfect for my day-to-day needs. So, pretty please, consider implementing this feature, Vivaldi team!

KazuyaDarklight

It may not be easy, but at this point, out of ALL the open feature requests, this one has the most votes. It should make the cut.

biruktes

Like others have mentioned, being able to have separate profiles under one Vivaldi sync account and browser profile would be very convenient. Browser profiles are only good to sync with multiple accounts, or for trivial activities that do not need to be synchronised… anyway adding my +1 as workspaces are not useful at moment for me without the isolation of cookies/sessions.

Duthcorund

That would really be the best... and it would save me from using multiple browsers

stardepp

@Duthcorund For this purpose there are working spaces. Please read the whole article:

https://help.vivaldi.com/desktop/tabs/workspaces/

Duthcorund

@stardepp I use workspaces already, but from my understanding cookies are not separated between them, as this feature request suggest, and I would like that.

stardepp

@Duthcorund Maybe a Vivaldi expert can answer this question, if cookies are separated in Workspace or not. But multi-account containers will not exist in Vivaldi.

ctb

I imagine perhaps that workspaces exist in folders and cookies are saved in a sub-folder within that folder with no access to other folders. Each workspace could work like this and that would create the containers we all want.

Although I want to use Vivaldi as my browser of choice, I cannot because this feature is missing.

MoosMas

Cookies are not separated between Workspaces. I have asked the same question to Vivaldi employees when the feature got announced, and they (at the time) had no plans to expand workspaces to support separated cookies. I also referenced this thread in my question, because I thought Workspaces were a giant leap towards finally having multi-account containers. Separating cookies between workspaces seems like a small thing to add, since they now have added workspaces (the foundation of multi-account containers), although I understand it's still a really complicated feature to develop.

pafflick

@MoosMas said in Multi-Account Containers:

Separating cookies between workspaces seems like a small thing to add, since they now have added workspaces (the foundation of multi-account containers)

Actually, Workspaces are not related to Containers. While I'm not a dev myself, I had a few discussions internally, as I'm also a big fan of this feature (as are many of my colleagues), and it's much more complicated than that. Workspaces are built mostly in the UI layer (which is our own thing), while Containers would require a significant rework in the backend (since Chromium doesn't offer that feature natively).

Compare it to house renovation. While replacing your front door and painting a few walls is a step forward, you still need to tear down half of the house and build it from scratch. So, you're not even halfway there (this is not a 1:1 analogy of course, but it should give you some rough idea).

ctb

I kind of wonder if this could be as simple as a script built into the UI so the script does not depend on Chrome. Like this:

Workspace creation runs a script that creates a folder. Sites open in a workspace always direct cookies to said folder (following a rule from within the script).

This way. The backend still works the way Chrome does. No core changes of the functions of the default handling of cookies. All Vivaldi would be doing is directing cookies to another place when a workspace is used. It could even be an option that could be toggled on or off for people who don't care.

MoosMas

@pafflick Thanks for sharing your insights and what the devs said! Although I am a developer myself (not for Vivaldi though), my knowledge on native apps (let alone browsers) is very limited. I know it is a really complex feature to add, but in my previous comment I meant to say that people may think it's a small thing to add, since Workspaces look very similar to multi-account containers (UI-wise). I was tired when I wrote that comment, and English was hard at that moment
People might think the devs only need to add a toggle to separate cookies in the settings, but there's a lot more going on behind the scenes. Things that can't just be added to Vivaldi, but existing things that have to be redesigned, reworked, tested... I still think it's worth the effort in the end, but of course it's up to Vivaldi to decide whether it's worth spending time and resources on developing this feature.

Ayespy

@MoosMas ...keeping in mind of course that it's the browser engine that has to be modified, and then the relevant patches have to be re-installed every time the browser updates... This would be job security for some developers who haven't even been hired yet as current team members are over-committed on present tasks.

dalinar

I didn't read the whole thread, just responding to one of the first posts where the idea postulated is that "this looks similar to profiles"

multiple profiles is a great feature, and I use it extensively. However it is completely different to what I understand this request is about.

There are major downsides to multiple profiles if you don't need them..

it is a lot of work to update settings in each and every profile
Each profile is huge.. some people have limited space on their laptops (my C drive is only 256gb) .. they are huge because they need to store cache files.
I'm sure there are others

drannex42

You can do this with an already existing chrome extension,

Cookie Profile Switcher is what you are all looking for, it does exactly as it says on the tin, you switch cookies. I've been using it for years. Vivaldi really should build this into their workspaces feature.