Firefox will soon support multi-page login forms

[harlan4096]

Mozilla's Firefox web browser will soon support sign-ins on multi-page login forms. Most login forms on today's Internet have two fields that accept the username and the password as input. Some login forms have switched from the default way of signing-in to sites to a multi-page login form. These divide the process of logging-in to two forms on two different pages.

Google introduced a new sign-in experience with a multi-page login design in 2015, and changed the design again in 2017 when it launched a new unified design for Google logins.

Google offered the following explanation for switching from a single-sign-in experience to a multi-page experience:
 

• Reduced confusion among people who have multiple Google accounts.
  
• In preparation for future authentication solutions.
  
• To improve the experience for SAML SSO users.
  

Users with password managers ran into issues, as most did not support multi-page login forms at the time. Many support multi-page login flows today.

Firefox has a password manager that has not supported multi-page login forms up until now. The upcoming Firefox 91 release is the next major branch of the browser; it marks the beginning of a new Firefox ESR version, Firefox ESR 91.0, and is especially important because of that. Firefox 91 will be released on July 27, 2021 according to the browser's release schedule.

A listing on Mozilla's bug tracking website Bugzilla@Mozilla highlights the intent to release support for multi-page login forms in Firefox 91. The bug was opened two months ago and all bugs and issues were fixed in the meantime.

Mozilla's primary goal was to support multi-page login forms without sacrificing any of the functionality that Firefox's password manager offered. In particular, Firefox should support auto-fill and auto-complete for these type of forms, and support login capture when forms are submitted.

Closing Words

More and more sites and services switch from a single-page login form to a multi-page one. Password managers need to support this on today's Internet, and Mozilla adding support is a welcome addition for users who save passwords in Firefox and use the password manager for signing-in to sites.

Now You: do you use a password manager? Does it support multi-page login forms?
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