1167970 - Provide keyboard shortcuts for common actions

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(Firefox for iOS :: Browser, defect)

Description

[Boris Dušek]

Keyboard shortcuts should be provided for e.g. users of iPad with connected bluetooth keyboard, for their better efficiency. Safari for iOS does this to some extent (did not test with Chrome for iOS).

A list of some actions that could be available as shortcuts (actual shortcuts were taken from Safari on OS X):
- Cmd-L: Start editing location bar address
- Return: Confirm opening of address entered in URL bar
- Cmd-[ and Cmd-]: Go Back/Forward
- Cmd-T: Open new tab
- Cmd-W: Close current tab
- Cmd-R: Reload
- Cmd-.: Stop
- Shift-Cmd-[ and Shift-Cmd-]: Switch to next/previous tab.
- Shift-Cmd-\: Show tabs
- Shift-Cmd-R: Show/hide Reader View
- Shift-Cmd-D: Add to Reading List
- Esc: Stop, or hide Reader View, or cancel URL bar editing mode (based on context)
- Shift-Cmd-+/-: Increase/decrease font size (in Reader View)
- Cmd-D: Add to/Remove from Bookmarks
- Cmd-,: Go to Settings
- (Opt-)Cmd-1 through 5: Show Top Sites - Show Reading List (home panel items) - Safari has Opt-Cmd-1 for Top Sites and Opt-Cmd-2 for History, and Cmd-1 through 9 for opening n-th most recent bookmark

An action from the above list could also have Firefox-specific shortcut too (i.e. one action could have both a Safari-like shortcut and Firefox-like shortcut). E.g. Cmd-arrow left/right for Go Back/Forward. Conflicts between the two shortcut "worlds", if present, would have to be worked out somehow, though.

Some shortcuts are interesting in that they go around more than one step if done manually. E.g. Cmd-T would do analog of first pressing the tabs button, then pressing the + button to add new tab. Similarly for "Shift-Cmd-[,]" , "Cmd-," and "Shift-Cmd-+/-". Or the (Opt-)Cmd-1-9 shortcuts. These would probably require most adjustments and testing.

Comment 1

[Karim Benhmida [:karim]]

Attachment: Link to Github pull-request: https://github.com/mozilla/firefox-ios/pull/780

Comment 2

[Brian Nicholson (:bnicholson)]

Comment on attachment 8636899 [details] [review]
Link to Github pull-request: https://github.com/mozilla/firefox-ios/pull/780

Since there are lots of shortcuts and your PR deals only with adding tabs, do you mind filing a separate bug blocking this one and moving your PR there? Then we can transform this into a meta bug that tracks all of individual the keyboard bugs.

Comment 3

[Brian Nicholson (:bnicholson)]

Also, unless we're able to pull together all of these keyboard shortcuts before release, we probably don't want this for v1 since no keyboard support is better than half-baked support. That said, we can still work on this in anticipation for v1.1 or 2.0.

Comment 4

[Karim Benhmida [:karim]]

Yes, I'm fully aware this won't make it to 1.0 which is why I'm only working on it part-time.

Comment 7

[Aaron Train [:aaronmt]]

Probably want to track this for iPad Pro keyboard users coming from Safari which supports all shortcuts. Quality of life issue which would probably drop users.

Comment 8

[Jacob White]

https://github.com/mozilla/firefox-ios/pull/1757

Here's what I've got so far.
cmd+r reload tab
cmd+[ go back
cmd+f find on page
cmd+l open location
cmd+t new tab
cmd+shift+p new private tab
cmd+w close tab
ctrl+tab next tab
ctrl+shift+tab previous tab

Comment 9

[Boris Dušek]

(not reviewer or staff): If I may, I think it would be great to also support Safari shortcuts in addition to the Firefox ones for the tab-switching actions: Cmd-Shift-] in addition to Ctrl+TAB, and Cmd-Shift-[ in addition to Ctrl+Shift+TAB. Firefox on OS X already supports both of these - "yours" for compatibility with Firefox for Windows, and "mine" for compatibility with Safari on OS X.

Comment 10

[Stefan Arentz | :st3fan | ⏰ EST | he/him]

Attachment: PR: https://github.com/mozilla/firefox-ios/pull/1757

Comment 11

[Emily Toop (:fluffyemily)]

Sorry to take so long to look at this Jacob.

The items you have look good, I've added a comment about some wording changes, as has :st3fan.

The only thing I think is missing is:

Cmd ] for going forward. This is the same as going back but the other direction. Would need the same kind of checks you have added for goBack, i.e. canGoForward etc.

Return - for submitting a search into the URL bar.

Comment 12

[Emily Toop (:fluffyemily)]

also, if you want to, :dusek's suggestion above that we also support the safari keyboard shortcuts for the same items would be great. 

What you have done already is an excellent start though, so we can always add the safari shortcuts later so that it does not prevent this set from being accepted if you would rather.

Comment 13

[Jacob White]

https://github.com/jacobwhite/firefox-ios/commit/7d3b16cfdcfddd1f1b8d61f1d15346d0e85efe0a

Everything's in there except for the Safari compatible shortcuts.

Comment 14

[Jacob White]

(In reply to Jacob White from comment #13)
> https://github.com/jacobwhite/firefox-ios/commit/
> 7d3b16cfdcfddd1f1b8d61f1d15346d0e85efe0a
> 
> Everything's in there except for the Safari compatible shortcuts.

https://github.com/jacobwhite/firefox-ios/commit/e536c49782682729fef8e9ff6bf94cf3651c6b7c
Fixed some strings I missed.

Comment 15

[Jacob White]

https://github.com/jacobwhite/firefox-ios/commit/418fe2186640bb6585f5f1666a9c79b534b81326
Not sure how I missed this one.

Comment 16

[Emily Toop (:fluffyemily)]

Jacob this is looking really good now. 

Can you please rebase against the latest master and then we'll merge this in? It should go in to version 5.0.

I've created another bug for adding in Safari shortcuts for these. https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1272229

Comment 17

[Jacob White]

> Can you please rebase against the latest master and then we'll merge this
> in? It should go in to version 5.0.
Okay, I think I've got it.

Comment 18

[Emily Toop (:fluffyemily)]

Thanks loads Jacob. I have now merged the patch into master and it will be included in version 5.0.

Comment 19

[Biraj Karmakar [:biraj]]

Hi all,

Can you help me to test this feature? 

I am kind of confused here. Actually I will one Support article base on this. 

I mean I could not find cmd also in keyboard.

Comment 20

[Aaron Train [:aaronmt]]

(In reply to Biraj Karmakar [:biraj] from comment #19)
> Hi all,
> 
> Can you help me to test this feature? 

This is in v5.0 which is not yet released and is currently under Apple TestFlight beta testing [1].

[1] Sign up here: https://docs.google.com/a/mozilla.com/forms/d/1VG9pOntPVhfZWH18ETAZDOahyA6SCbNEpCxBVI-XNJM/viewform 

To test you will need to configure a bluetooth keyboard or use an adapter to your iOS device.