1266670 - Search suggestions option should not be available for engines that don't support them

Status: RESOLVED WONTFIX

(Firefox :: Search, defect)

Description

[Cornel Ionce [:noni] [Hubs QA]]

[Affected versions]:
- Firefox 43
- Firefox 44.0.2
- Firefox 45.0.2
- Firefox 46.0RC build 5
- Firefox 47.0a2
- Firefox 48.0a1

[Affected platforms]:
- Windows 10 x86
- Windows 7 x64
- Mac OS X 10.9.5
- Ubuntu 14.04 x64

[Steps to reproduce]:
1. Open Firefox with a clean profile.
2. Go to about:preferences#search
3. Select a Search engine that does not support search suggestions (e.g. Twitter)
4. Focus the location bar and enter any character

[Expected result]:
- The search suggestion prompt should not be displayed, since Twitter does not support them.

[Actual result]:
- The search suggestion prompt is displayed.

[Regression range]:
- This is not a regression, it reproduces back to Fx 43 when search suggestions were implemented.

[Additional notes]:
- Also, the "Show search suggestions in location bar results" should be grayed out in about:preferences#search when a search engine that does not support them is selected.

Comment 1

[[e-mail]]

In research the issue need change preference panel in browser/components/preferences/in-content/search.js
and where The search suggestion prompted (I haven't found it yet)

Will add check code if current engine support search suggestion, via `engine.supportsResponseType(SEARCH_RESPONSE_SUGGESTION_JSON)` , or wrap it as a search.engine function

https://dxr.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/source/toolkit/components/search/SearchSuggestionController.jsm#141

Comment 2

[Panos Astithas (he/him) [:past] (please ni?)]

One aspect of search suggestions that often gets overlooked is that we have a single preference that is applied to every search engine. So when we ask the user 'do you want to see search suggestions', the question is about the feature, not the particular implementation with the current default search engine. If the user wants search suggestions, we show them to her, if we have them.

If we decided to make the question and pref apply only to the current default search engine, then we would have to ask the user again when they select another engine. Nagging the user like this is problematic for a number of reasons. Not asking again would make the feature invisible to the users who started off with an engine that didn't support suggestions. Therefore overall the current trade off makes the most sense.

So in summary, thanks for filing this bug, but I think we should not fix this.