118387 - Bookmark Properties 'Description:' field should behave like normal text box

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(SeaMonkey :: Bookmarks & History, defect, P3)

Description

[Joe Infla]

From Bugzilla Helper:
User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:0.9.7+)
Gecko/20020104
BuildID:    2002010403

When typing into the Description field of a bookmark's properties dialog, the
text doesn't wrap to lower lines.  Instead, a horizontal scrollbar forms and you
just keep typing away on the same line.  The description isn't even wrapped when
you save the bookmark & reopen it.  Also, hitting enter in the description field
both inserts a carriage return and closes the properties window.

Reproducible: Always
Steps to Reproduce:
1.  Open the properties dialog for a bookmark.
2.  Type a long sentence into the Description: field.  Notice it doesn't wrap text.
3.  Hit enter somewhere in the middle of the sentence.  The properties dialog
will close.
4.  Reopen the same properties dialog and see that a carriage return has been
inserted where you pressed enter.

Actual Results:  Text doesn't wrap, and hitting enter does two things: inserting
carriage return, and closing properties window.

Expected Results:  Text wraps as you type, or is wrapped upon saving the
bookmark.  Hitting enter does only one thing (probably close properties window).

Comment 1

[Chris Lyon]

The problem of Enter closing the dialog is bug 113146.

Besides that, I think what you're describing in this bug is intended behaviour.
Suggest WONTFIX.

Comment 2

[Joe Infla]

Attachment: PNG - 3 lines of text in description field

I think wrapping would be better than horizontal scrolling, but that's just me.


If it's intended behavior, then I would expect the description field to look
just like the name and location fields, i.e. enough vertical space for only one
line of text that's scrollable only by highlighting text or using left & right
arrow keys.  
The way it's organized right now, two lines of text are visible even with a
scrollbar, but putting more than two lines of text into the box doesn't pop up
a vertical scrollbar (see attachment for example).  If there's one scrollbar
showing extra content horizontally (where cut-off sentences and words are
pretty easily spotted), then there really should be a scrollbar showing extra
vertical content (where you might have no idea that extra content exists).

The bottom line is, the size of the Description field sets up an expectancy of
normal textbox behavior, and that behavior isn't realized.

Comment 3

[Chris Lyon]

Resummarizing based on reporter's last comments.

Comment 4

[Joe Infla]

Alright, it's my first foray into the source.  I've found the following line
which seems likely to be the culprit for this bug (once it's confirmed, ahem):

http://lxr.mozilla.org/seamonkey/source/xpfe/components/bookmarks/resources/bm-props.xul#84

This line has:  wrap="virtual"
. . . Which should be something else.  Other values I found in lxr include soft,
hard, true, and flow.  I dont' know which would apply, but I'll guess "true" or
"hard".

Second thing to mention:
It would be a different bug (one that I haven't filed or searched for), but a
nearly identical fix:  

http://lxr.mozilla.org/seamonkey/source/mailnews/addrbook/resources/content/abCardOverlay.xul#320

This points to the Notes textbox on the "Other" tab of an address card, which
has the same "virtual" wrap properties, and (IMHO) shouldn't.  

Next time, maybe I'll work up to actually fixing the bug instead of just
identifying where to fix it.  But I hope this helps.

Comment 5

[Pierre Chanial]

Joe: go ahead with the patch!

Comment 6

[Joe Infla]

Attachment: Change wrap="virtual" to wrap="soft"

I have not the slightest clue if this is valid format for a patch, but here it
is, diffed off of bm-props.xul revision 1.45.  
I changed wrap="virtual" to wrap="soft", and added a cols="32" attribute.  This
is because of bug 50633, which turns wrap off if cols isn't specified, and
makes wrap="soft" if cols is specified.  Not an ideal solution, but the desired
behavior should survive even when that bug is fixed.

Comment 7

[Joe Infla]

Attachment: actually change "virtual" to "soft"

carelessness . . . prior comments apply to this.  The first had wrap="true"
which might change behavior upon bug 50633 being fixed.

Comment 8

[Alan]

Im still having the same problems mentioned above, im using the latest nightly
builds.  
having enter closing the dialog is not fixed yet and I have a lot of bookmarks
and i would really like the description to have only vertical scrolling.    
 

Comment 9

[Joe Infla]

Attachment: same one-line patch, diff-u format

This is the diff-u format for the patch.  The one-line change sets the
description field of the bookmark properties to line-wrap.  Cols attribute was
added to bypass the wrapping limitation noted in bug 119915.  

Anyone reading, review would be nice.  I've tested in the 1.0 branch with no
prolems.

Comment 10

[Joe Infla]

This bug is fixed, apparently as a consequence of bug 164641.