258679 - Search bar on toolbar no longer resizes with browser width

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(Firefox :: Toolbars and Customization, defect)

Description

[Thomas Rutter]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; rv:1.7.3) Gecko/20040909 Firefox/0.10
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; rv:1.7.3) Gecko/20040909 Firefox/0.10

The search field on the toolbar (google) no longer resizes to a reasonable size
when the browser window changes, and it is not possible to modify the size in
userChrome.css.

This is a regression in today's build (20040909).

Previously the search field resized nicely.

Reproducible: Always
Steps to Reproduce:
1. Open Firefox
Actual Results:  
Search field very small, only fits two words.

Expected Results:  
Search field around 25% of browser width.

It's not possible to modify this with the following setting in userChrome either:

#search-container {
-moz-box-flex: 400 !important;
}

Comment 1

[Ryan Polk (Quark)]

see bug 258343 comment 3 and comment 8, though I haven't seen a post on mz yet.

Comment 2

[Dave Townsend [:mossop]]

I did some digging and found this solution, not sure if its necessarily the best
way to do it, but it seems to work for most people.

/* Make the Search box flex wider */
#search-container {
   -moz-box-flex: 200 !important;
}

#searchbar {
   -moz-box-flex: 200 !important;
}

Comment 3

[Michael]

*** Bug 258730 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 4

[Dave Townsend [:mossop]]

This could also probably be fixed (i.e. reverted to the previous behaviour) by
adding a flex="1" attribute onto the searchbar element in the chrome. I've only
tested it using the dom inspector to add the attribute and am not really up to
the task of making a patch for this, perhaps someone else could oblige?

Comment 5

[:Gavin Sharp [email: [e-mail]]]

Likely caused by the following checkin:
http://bonsai.mozilla.org/cvsquery.cgi?treeid=default&module=AviaryBranchTinderbox&branch=&branchtype=match&dir=&file=browser.xul&filetype=match&who=&whotype=match&sortby=Date&hours=2&date=explicit&mindate=2004-09-07+07%3A40%3A00&maxdate=2004-09-07+08%3A00%3A00&cvsroot=%2Fcvsroot

Is this still apparent on the latest nightlies?

Comment 6

[Dave Townsend [:mossop]]

This problem is still apparent in 1.0PR.

Comment 7

[Pierre Chanial]

isn't this bug invalid?
the default themes use a constant size for the searchbar.
I guess the themes should be updated, by looking at searchbar.css and by
removing searchbar references in browser.css

Comment 8

[Robert Parenton]

I wouldn't think that it is invalid because we have allowed resizing the search
bar since at least Phoenix 0.5.  Also, in many cases, the search bar is too
small to display long queries.  Also, for people who have moved the location bar
to another toolbar, expanding the search bar is a good use of the added space on
the toolbar.

Flexibility was the whole point of being able to customize the toolbars in the
first place.  We shouldn't make it less flexible.

Also, the location bar expands to occupy whatever free space is available on its
toolbar, so the search bar should at least have the possibility to expand, even
if only via userChrome.css.

Comment 9

[Ryan Polk (Quark)]

*** Bug 261483 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 10

[Paul Furbacher]

Attachment: The circled region and the dot show where a resize control should be located

I created the image to emphasize what I think 
is the problem here.  There's no "resize control"
present, as is in Safari.  Without it, entering
long search strings is error-prone and tedious.

Comment 11

[Walter K.]

IMHO, this bug is a DUPLICATE of bug 205011.

Comment 12

[Michael]

Since we already have the adjusted information for the userChrome.css file to
allow resizing of the search bar are people wanting the ability to resize on the
fly built in.

http://dragtotab.mozdev.org/resizesearchbox/

Like what that extension provides. In which case this bug should be marked as an
enhancement bug.

Comment 13

[Thomas Rutter]

(In reply to comment #12)
> Since we already have the adjusted information for the userChrome.css file to
> allow resizing of the search bar are people wanting the ability to resize on the
> fly built in.

> In which case this bug should be marked as an
> enhancement bug.

The bug's intention is to point out that a previous feature no longer works. 
The bar used to resize to a percentage of the browser width; now it doesn't do
it anymore (without editing userChrome.css).

> IMHO, this bug is a DUPLICATE of bug 205011.

It isn't, though that bug is still worthwhile it isn't connected to this one. 
This one concerns whether the width of the search bar will be determined as a
percentage of the browser width and therefore resize accoding to the size of the
browser window, or if it is a fixed size and only the location bar should
resize.  For a short time during aviary development, it was the former and I
think it was better that way.

Here's what you need to add to userChrome.css to reproduce that behaviour now:

#search-container {
   -moz-box-flex: 20% !important;
}

#searchbar {
   -moz-box-flex: 20% !important;
}

Comment 14

[:Gavin Sharp [email: [e-mail]]]

*** Bug 329662 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 15

[Joe Hughes]

Comment on attachment 162579 [details]
The circled region and the dot show where a resize control should be located

Obsoleting irrelevant screenshot

Comment 16

[Joe Hughes]

Attachment: Put proportional flex back into searchbar

Comment 17

[:Gavin Sharp [email: [e-mail]]]

Comment on attachment 221312 [details] [diff] [review]
Put proportional flex back into searchbar

r=gavin

Comment 18

[Ben Goodger (use ben at mozilla dot org for email)]

Comment on attachment 221312 [details] [diff] [review]
Put proportional flex back into searchbar

sr=[e-mail]

Comment 19

[Mike Connor [:mconnor]]

Comment on attachment 221312 [details] [diff] [review]
Put proportional flex back into searchbar

woo, ship it!

Comment 20

[Joe Hughes]

Landed on branch, waiting for trunk to reopen.

Comment 21

[pal-moz]

screen shot : http://img302.imageshack.us/img302/8486/searchbox11qr.jpg

invisible locationbar is dangerous, if it is a phishing/scam site, I think.
what do you think?

Comment 22

[Joe Hughes]

(In reply to comment #21)
> screen shot : http://img302.imageshack.us/img302/8486/searchbox11qr.jpg
> 
> invisible locationbar is dangerous, if it is a phishing/scam site, I think.
> what do you think?

Thanks for pointing that out--though since the window-shrinking behavior is basically the same as Firefox 1.5's, I don't think it's entirely relevant to this discussion.  If you're still concerned, please open a new bug on the subject.

Comment 23

[Joe Hughes]

Marking this resolved, since it's now landed on branch & trunk.

Comment 24

[pal-moz]

Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9a1) Gecko/20060512 Minefield/3.0a1 ID:2006051208 [cairo]

http://img142.imageshack.us/img142/1149/ff20060512019cs.jpg
above:Minefield
below:Bone Echo
(1280*960 monitor)

search box on Minefield is too wide/long.
Please shorten. or make it same as Bon Echo.

Comment 25

[Joe Hughes]

(In reply to comment #24)
> search box on Minefield is too wide/long.
> Please shorten. or make it same as Bon Echo.

Pal, you'll be able to set it to whatever size you want once 205011 lands.