1149826 - Mac "text replacement" feature does not work in forms

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(Core :: DOM: Editor, enhancement, P3)

Description

[Jesse Ruderman]

1. Verify your settings [System Preferences > Keyboard > Text]
2. Focus a textbox in Firefox
3. Type "omw "

Expected: replace "omw " with "On my way! "

This makes it hard to repeatedly enter long or difficult-to-type things. For example, http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2014/05/the-best-way-to-type-__/371351/ recommends using this feature in order to enter ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ without having to use the clipboard each time.

Comment 1

[TheOtherGuy]

I can confirm this unexpected and inconsistent (with regard to the overall OS user experience) behavior. I don't want to call it a bug yet, as I don't know if maybe it's by design.

Moreover, not only Forms (HTML input fields), but also text input fields of the Firefox application itself are affected (e.g. bookmarks, or the URL address bar). The behavior is reproducible and can be tested.

Test Preparation:
 Go to "System Preferences → Keyboard → Text". Define a substitution, e.g. "EURO" (the string) → € (the currency symbol). Quit System Preferences.
Test Procedure:
 In Firefox, open "Bookmarks → Show All Bookmarks". Chose an arbitrary bookmark, or create a new one. In the "Name" field, enter "EURO", followed by a blank to trigger the text substitution.
Expected result:
 The string is being replaced with the currency symbol.
Actual result:
 The string is not being replaced with the currency symbol.
 Identical behavior if the string is entered into the field "Tags"
 Identical behavior if the string is entered into the Address Bar

Counter test:
 In Safari, open "Bookmarks → Edit Bookmarks". Select an arbitrary bookmark, or create a new one.
 Right-click on the bookmark, select "Rename" from the context menu. Enter the string "EURO" in the input field, followed by a blank to trigger the text substitution.
Expected result:
 The string is being replaced with the currency symbol.
Actual result:
 The string is being replaced with the currency symbol.
 Identical behavior if the string is entered into the bookmark manager window's Search Bar ("Search or enter website name").
 Identical behavior if the string is entered into Safari's Browser Address Bar.


-- 

OS X 10.10.4 (14E46)  Kernel Version:	Darwin 14.4.0

Firefox 39.0 about:buildconfig
Build Machine bld-lion-r5-061
Source Built from https://hg.mozilla.org/releases/mozilla-release/rev/d3b3e57e8088
Build platform target x86_64-apple-darwin11.2.0
Build tools Compiler 	Version 	Compiler flags
/usr/local/bin/ccache /builds/slave/rel-m-rel-m64_bld-000000000000/build/clang/bin/clang -arch x86_64 	3.3.0 	-Qunused-arguments -Wall -Wdeclaration-after-statement -Wempty-body -Wpointer-to-int-cast -Wsign-compare -Wtype-limits -Werror=char-subscripts -Werror=comment -Werror=endif-labels -Werror=enum-compare -Werror=ignored-qualifiers -Werror=int-to-pointer-cast -Werror=multichar -Werror=nonnull -Werror=pointer-arith -Werror=pointer-sign -Werror=return-type -Werror=sequence-point -Werror=trigraphs -Werror=unknown-pragmas -Werror=non-literal-null-conversion -Wno-unused -Wno-error=uninitialized -Wno-error=deprecated-declarations -isysroot /Developer/SDKs/MacOSX10.7.sdk -std=gnu99 -fno-strict-aliasing -ffunction-sections -fdata-sections -fno-math-errno -pthread -DNO_X11 -pipe
/usr/local/bin/ccache /builds/slave/rel-m-rel-m64_bld-000000000000/build/clang/bin/clang++ -arch x86_64 	3.3.0 	-Qunused-arguments -Qunused-arguments -Wall -Wempty-body -Woverloaded-virtual -Wsign-compare -Wwrite-strings -Werror=endif-labels -Werror=int-to-pointer-cast -Werror=missing-braces -Werror=parentheses -Werror=pointer-arith -Werror=return-type -Werror=sequence-point -Werror=switch -Werror=trigraphs -Werror=type-limits -Werror=unused-label -Werror=non-literal-null-conversion -Wno-invalid-offsetof -Wno-c++0x-extensions -Wno-extended-offsetof -Wno-unknown-warning-option -Wno-return-type-c-linkage -Wno-error=uninitialized -Wno-error=deprecated-declarations -isysroot /Developer/SDKs/MacOSX10.7.sdk -fno-exceptions -fno-strict-aliasing -fno-rtti -ffunction-sections -fdata-sections -fno-exceptions -fno-math-errno -std=gnu++0x -pthread -DNO_X11 -pipe -DNDEBUG -DTRIMMED -g -O3 -fomit-frame-pointer
Configure arguments

--with-macos-sdk=/Developer/SDKs/MacOSX10.7.sdk --enable-crashreporter --enable-release --with-ccache --enable-application=browser --enable-update-channel=release --enable-update-packaging --with-google-api-keyfile=/builds/gapi.data --with-google-oauth-api-keyfile=/builds/google-oauth-api.key --with-mozilla-api-keyfile=/builds/mozilla-desktop-geoloc-api.key --enable-warnings-as-errors --enable-official-branding --target=x86_64-apple-darwin11.2.0 --with-unify-dist=../i386/dist

Comment 2

[Lisa Brewster [:adora]]

I have this exact same use case of frequently needing to type ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.  This bug is a real burden on my productivity.

Comment 5

[Roland Crosby]

This would be a great improvement - it's one of the few things that I miss from Safari. Chrome recently implemented this, though it hasn't made it to stable yet. Their main bug for this issue is #42434; this commit contains their initial implementation of the feature.

Comment 7

[argelius.123]

This would seem like an old bug. Sure hope it gets some new love and attenthion.

Comment 8

[Jonathan]

Just to give some insight into why this functionality is valuable—I use it heavily in order to type special characters. For instance, I find myself wanting to type "→" a lot, so I set up a keyboard shortcut in macOS's System Preferences to replace instances of "==>" with "→". This is much faster than using the special character picker.

I could use a Firefox extension, but then those shortcuts would only work in Firefox and not other Mac apps—I'd have to manually keep the two in sync. I really miss having working text replacement in Safari.

Comment 9

[firefox]

hey with all respect and gratitude for the software i've consistently used longest so far across OSes, I'm surprised that text replacement hasn't been implemented on macOS since five years. also to pick up on jonathan's post above: I can't recall how many times ive used the OS-search function to bring up text files containing a single string like an account # only to cmd+a cmd+c cmd+q and alt+tab back to firefox. just typing "myiban" into an form would be so much more straightforward. i hope this bug gains some traction and thanks everyone for your work!

Comment 10

[bogdanvitoc]

Like others here, this is one of the features I miss most from Safari (after playback controls were implemented, thanks for that). I use text replacements from all sorts of things ("g@@" fills my gmail, I have special characters mapped such as "&shift;" => ⇧ for writing technical docs, "&dis;" => ಠ_ಠ). This feels like one of the last remaining features for FireFox to appear fully integrated with macOS (in my book at least).

Comment 11

[alex]

Also expected this to work and came here to find out that it is not and that I am not the bug. :)

Comment 12

[Shiv]

+1, one of the only things holding Firefox from being my daily driver. Please please please implement this feature. Made an account just to say this.

Comment 13

[Emilio Cobos Álvarez (:emilio)]

Markus, should this be tracked somewhere for the ongoing macOS effort?

Comment 14

[fatihbulut]

I want to use Firefox, but I can't. Because I have many shortcuts that I use every day. Unfortunately, this is the only thing that blocks me.

Comment 15

[Liberty]

I also want to add my voice to those saying that this is kind of a show-stopper.

Any power-user who uses a lot of system-wide text replacements expects them to work everywhere, and Firefox not allowing them just feels broken. There's no good reason for it.

I would love it if this was fixed. Thank you.

Comment 16

[Makoto Kato [:m_kato]]

Attachment: WIP: Bug 1149826 - WIP

Comment 17

[Makoto Kato [:m_kato]]

Attachment: Bug 1149826 - Support Text substitution on macOS. r=masayuki

Text substitution is one of macOS features to replace text by system settings (System Preferences - Language & Text - Text).

Also, quote substitution and dash substitution are disabled by default since Chrome and Safari are disabled.

Comment 18

[Jatan Mehta]

Writing in to add that just like several others here, I'd also very much like this feature to work in Firefox. It's the only blocker keeping me from using Firefox as my default browser.

Comment 19

[Café MegaByte]

Just created an account to add my voice here. :) I love FireFox so much and I'm using it as my primary desktop browser. But not having standard MacOS text replacements is a real pain in everyday use. As many have already written, I'm using text replacements heavily for certain shortcuts. According to this bug thread it's now 7 years old. Dear contributors, please PLEASE don't let us wait another 7 years...

Comment 20

[weitzman]

Same here. I love Firefox - except this issue. Thanks for your efforts.

Comment 21

[Marat]

This is a huge blocker! Please let me know if you need help with that.

Comment 22

[David Hsu]

Just chiming in here! Considering how many years-long bugs they recently fixed to improve experience on macOS, I hope this one is not too far away. (Please don't be like that 22 years old "native context menu" bug…)

Comment 23

[Makoto Kato [:m_kato]]

https://treeherder.mozilla.org/jobs?repo=try&revision=cb3d8ee8f1c7ecffc9ccf5e88c04ea75fa3cb9b9

Comment 24

[Shiv]

Firefox is so close to greatness for me. It's only the fact that Firefox doesn't allow for native MacOS features that makes it awfully frustrating. I frankly wish I knew C++ to be able to contribute to this myself. I hope there's some progress on this and using native MacOS context menus ("lookup" is still missing).

Comment 25

[BugBot [:suhaib / :marco/ :calixte]]

The severity field for this bug is relatively low, S3. However, the bug has 3 duplicates.
:m_kato, could you consider increasing the bug severity?

For more information, please visit auto_nag documentation.

Comment 26

[Makoto Kato [:m_kato]]

The severity field for this bug is relatively low, S3. However, the bug has 3 duplicates.
:m_kato, could you consider increasing the bug severity?

This is enhancement bug.

Comment 27

[Makoto Kato [:m_kato]]

Also,

• This feature breaks an event order in Blink.
• WebKit seems to use sync IPC to implement it. We cannot accept it.

Comment 28

[ian.d.leighton]

Please fix this bug — it is really frustrating and breaks expected behavior on macOS. I don't think it can be classified as an "enhancement" in that context. (…former Apple designer here.)

Comment 29

[[:nick]7171737AA7]

I do find it odd that FF can take over the function 'fn' keys to control my media, but can't seem to solve a bug so it seems, from eight years ago. I just checked if it would work in Chrome and Safari. Both are capable of doing so. Would be sad to leave FF cause it's not meeting my requirements.

Comment 30

[aiemaboy]

This is the first reason not to use Firefox as your main web browser.

Comment 31

[thefunkyjoint]

I can't believe 9 years after this bug still is not fixed ! Firefox is loosing customers due to this, come on folks, let's move it !

Comment 33

[jmac.atx]

I am abandoning Firefox and probably switching to Chrome or Safari because of your attitude about not even caring to fix this for nearly a decade. This is a major quality of life feature in Mac OS and it's ridiculous you don't support it.

Comment 34

[Shiv]

(In reply to jmac.atx from comment #33)

I am abandoning Firefox and probably switching to Chrome or Safari because of your attitude about not even caring to fix this for nearly a decade. This is a major quality of life feature in Mac OS and it's ridiculous you don't support it.

Yup, I abandoned FF a long time ago and have been really enjoying my time with Arc. The entire point for me to use FF was to move away from Google and with Arc I get the benefits of Chrome + No Google. Plus they just added some cool AI features you should check out. At this rate FF will keep losing it's most dedicated users and eventually die out.

Comment 35

[Timo]

I switched to Firefox from Brave, and the lacking text engine is one of the major disadvantages that seriously hamper my productivity (the other being the unflexibility of search engine definitions compared to Brave/Chrome that just lets me use keywords for whatever the URL template). As a Mac user, simple text editing is just cumbersome in Firefox. It’s not just replacement. For instance, it does not let me choose from the emoji/glyphs pop-up using a shortcut.

Maybe Apple should force Mozilla into using the system text engine.

Comment 36

[Jon S]

This is also requested on Connect. Thread here: https://connect.mozilla.org/t5/ideas/support-macos-text-replacement/idi-p/15219

Comment 37

[Alastair Leith]

So Firefox can now edit PDFs in the native browser window (well, not quite, don't believe the hype, it can fill pout forms, not true PDF editing), but FIrefox still cannot implement a core macOS efficiency and accessibility feature that has been around for over a decade and requested by mac users in Firefox for almost as long.

There are a heap of PDF editing tools available today, countless almost… including Open Source but our kind FF developers have thought to prioritize forms in PDFs over a nine year standing FR that is seen by many as implementing a core macOS efficiency and accessibility feature.

Odd priorities… subjective I know. But just noting I still cannot make FF my default browser, just as soon as I get to like it I'm hamstrung by not having access to the dozens of text replacements that I have shared across my macOS, iOS and iPadOS devices.

Can we crowd fund for this FR? Would that make a difference?

Comment 38

[Alastair Leith]

(In reply to Timo from comment #35)

I switched to Firefox from Brave, and the lacking text engine is one of the major disadvantages that seriously hamper my productivity (the other being the unflexibility of search engine definitions compared to Brave/Chrome that just lets me use keywords for whatever the URL template). As a Mac user, simple text editing is just cumbersome in Firefox. It’s not just replacement. For instance, it does not let me choose from the emoji/glyphs pop-up using a shortcut.

Maybe Apple should force Mozilla into using the system text engine.

How could Apple force that change?

Comment 39

[Alastair Leith]

(In reply to Shiv from comment #24)

Firefox is so close to greatness for me. It's only the fact that Firefox doesn't allow for native MacOS features that makes it awfully frustrating. I frankly wish I knew C++ to be able to contribute to this myself. I hope there's some progress on this and using native MacOS context menus ("lookup" is still missing).

Lookup is the other feature absence on macOS FireFox that prevents me from it being my default browser. I'm #1 Safari (which seems to be almost as much a memory pig as Chrome) and if I need two concurrent browsers to separate my work, FF is #2 with serious regrets every time I need to enter a text replacement shortcut.

I did come across a FF plugin/extension to do text replacement, and it's a second best solution because one of the nice things about Apple ecosystem is text replacement syncs across my many macOS/iOS/iPadOS/tvOS devices. But better than nothin' I guess. Will try and relocate the plugin and mention it in a separate post.

Would love a Lookup plugin/extension for FF, I use that even more than text replacement, but the absence of text replacement is the bigger inconvenience for me.

Comment 40

[Makoto Kato [:m_kato]]

https://github.com/w3c/input-events/issues/152 will be define that autocorrect uses insertReplacementText. Safari does, but Chrome uses insertText. Until autocorrect attribute is implemented, we can implement this issue with pref=off.

Actually, Gecko's internal command event doesn't have replacement command, so I will add it by this issue. (Spellchecker already uses this type).

Comment 41

[Makoto Kato [:m_kato]]

https://treeherder.mozilla.org/jobs?repo=try&revision=18ca709216c81d065174d1c2b1eeb3f6ba2ebf1d

Comment 42

[Makoto Kato [:m_kato]]

Attachment: Bug 1149826 - Part 1. Add eContentCommandReplaceText. r=masayuki!

When using autocorrect, we should use insertReplacementText according
to https://github.com/w3c/input-events/issues/152. So I would like to
add eContentCommandReplaceText command for this.

Also, this command has an option that is source string text. When
processing text subsitution, parent process doesn't know whether
target replaced text is modified. So I add this option for check.

Comment 43

[Makoto Kato [:m_kato]]

Attachment: Bug 1149826 - Part 2. Support text substitution. r=masayuki!

macOs has the feature for auto-correction.

Other browsers already has this feature, and can control this by
autocorrect attribute [*1] that is still non-standard.

Since content script can modify source text for autocorrect by
any event handers, autocorrect is run when source text isn't
changed only.

The event order for this implementation is the following.

1. keydown event by space
2. keypress event by space
3. beforeinput event (insertText) by space
4. input event (insertText) by space
5. beforeinput event (insertReplacementText) by autocorrect
6. input event (insertReplacementText) by autocorrect
7. keyup event by space

Also, Safari's order is that input event for space is fired after
insertReplacementText. And, Chrome's is broken. When typing
"omw", "w"'s keyup is fired after dismissing a picker. And they
don't use insertReplacementText.

And, Saferi can prevent this when calling event.preventDefault()
on keypress event handler for space/enter key. But I guess that
there is no way to get event handler calls preventDefault() from
widget side on Chrome process.

*1 https://github.com/whatwg/html/pull/5841

Comment 44

[Pulsebot]

Pushed by [e-mail]:
https://hg.mozilla.org/integration/autoland/rev/1746282c1779
Part 1. Add eContentCommandReplaceText. r=masayuki
https://hg.mozilla.org/integration/autoland/rev/442ada2d693b
Part 2. Support text substitution. r=masayuki

Comment 45

[Sebastian Hengst [:aryx] (needinfo me if it's about an intermittent or backout)]

https://hg.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/rev/1746282c1779
https://hg.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/rev/442ada2d693b

Comment 46

[Tom S [:evilpie]]

Please consider requesting a release note for this.

Comment 47

[Makoto Kato [:m_kato]]

(In reply to Tom S [:evilpie] from comment #46)

Please consider requesting a release note for this.

Actually, we still turn off this by preferences until we support 'autocorrect' attribute that is still non-standard. Other browsers (WebKit and Blink) can control this feature by this attribute. I don't think to add this to a release note until we turn on it by default. But should I request this even if this requires widget.macos.automatic.text_replacement=true?