52784 - Clicking in proxy icon area should select location field contents

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(SeaMonkey :: Location Bar, enhancement, P3)

Description

[Matthew T (active 1999-2002)]

Some users expect to be able to click once in Navigator's location field to 
select the whole contents of the field. Other users find this behavior in other 
browsers to be extremely annoying.

I suggest that, as a way of making both parties happy, clicking once on the proxy 
icon area at the left side of the location bar should select the whole contents 
of the field.

This would allow users to quickly select the field's contents, without annoying 
those who want to select or edit part of the data. It would fit intuitively with 
the ability to copy the location somewhere by dragging the location field, as 
other draggable items are normally selected before they are dragged.

Notes:
* This should work whether or not the proxy icon is actually present (bug 37462).
* If this is implemented, the cursor for hovering over the proxy icon should be
  the arrow pointer rather than the hand pointer (contrary to bug 18836), as the
  proxy icon would now be useful for selection as well as dragging. (Compare with
  icons in a file manager, which have the arrow pointer instead of the hand
  pointer because they can be selected as well as dragged).

Comment 1

[Zach Lipton [:zach]]

Chaning the qa contact on these bugs to me. MPT will be moving to the 
owner of this component shortly. I would like to thank him for all his hard 
work as he moves roles in mozilla.org...Yada, Yada, Yada...

Comment 2

[Asa Dotzler [:asa]]

updating to new owner. sorry for the spam.

Comment 3

[Matthew T (active 1999-2002)]

Surprisingly, I agree with the reporter. --> URL Bar

Comment 4

[Stephen Walker]

Attachment: patch

Comment 5

[Christian :Biesinger (don't email me, ping me on IRC)]

+          <deck id="page-proxy-deck"
+                onclick="gURLBar.select();">

couldn't this be on one line?

Comment 6

[Pierre Chanial]

Stephen: I think you should not remove the grab feedback.
With your patch, no indication is provided to inform the user that he/she can
drag the proxy icon.
Having the grab cursor when one wants to select the url bar is not a problem,
since there is still the idea of grabbing the selection for future use (copy,
delete)

Comment 7

[Stephen Walker]

Attachment: patch v1.1

Pierre, it doesn't look like we use the grab cursor anywhere else to inform
users that an item can be dragged & dropped, so why should we show it for the
urlbar? If the proxy icon is present, there is also a tooltip that explains
that the icon can be used to create a link by d&d.

Comment 8

[Matthew T (active 1999-2002)]

Stephen's right.

Comment 9

[Pierre Chanial]

Stephen: 
- as an individual, of course, I don't care about the removal of the grab cursor
since I already know I can drag the proxy. Thought:
- when thinking to new users: for lists, trees or group of items, the user
already has the experience (throught the OS) that he/she can re-order or extract
an item: the grab cursor is unnecessary and would be distracting. On the
contrary, the url proxy is isolated and needs imho an extra-feedback. The reason
why the grab cursor is used in a single place in mozilla may (should) be that
the location field is the only isolated place in Mozilla where DND is possible.
(if there are other isolated draggable item, bugs should be filed). 
- users that know this feature, since there is no feedback on :hover and because
the proxy icon size is small (16x16), have to target accurately the proxy icon
and thus needs an immediate feedback to tell if dragging is possible at the
current position of the mouse. Maybe a bug 'replace the grab cursor feedback
with a :hover effect' should be filed but it would definitely be a bad idea to
let for an unknown period of time the proxy icon without feedback. Let's
restrict this bug to its subject: enabling the user to select the location
field, unless you can quickly fix the feedback problem.
Mpt: what did you have in mind when you committed this laconic me-too comment:
'stephen's right'. Does it imply that you know for this particular point what is
right and what isn't for Mozilla? You have many good ideas about Mozilla but
please, don't be arrogant when facing criticisms concerning your proposals.

Comment 10

[Jesse Ruderman]

This almost works now that bug 158364 is fixed, but it doesn't work if the
location bar has focus before you click the icon.

Comment 11

[Vaclav Dvorak]

The fix for this is included in attachment 94596 [details] [diff] [review], which is a patch for bug
111337. Now if only it were reviewed and checked in.

Comment 12

[[e-mail]]

Fix to bug 111337 checked in, which I believe also fixes this.