1295072 - Awesomebar doesn't get focus when creating tab from chrome.tabs.create()

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(WebExtensions :: Frontend, defect, P3)

Description

[Shing Lyu [:shinglyu]]

STR:

  Create a tab using WebExtension's chrome.tabs.create({})

Expected:

  A new tab opens up, the focus is on the address bar (awesomebar)

Actual:

  The focus is not on the address bar

Notes:

  Tested on Chromium, the focus will be on the address bar.

Environment:

  Firefox 50.0a2
  Ubuntu 16.04 64bit

Comment 1

[Ben Basson]

Could this be made optional / parametrised, or otherwise controllable via API? 

For my New Tab Homepage add-on (which loads the user's homepage instead of about:newtab) one of the most requested features is to place focus with the page content, i.e. so if their homepage is Google, the search field will receive focus instead of the Awesomebar. 

I've never implemented this because it was tricky to get right, but the New Tab Override add-on does solve this problem and would presumably need the same functionality.

Comment 2

[Tomislav Jovanovic :zombie]

Attachment: Bug 1295072 - Focus urlbar after opening an empty new tab

Review commit: https://reviewboard.mozilla.org/r/104946/diff/#index_header
See other reviews: https://reviewboard.mozilla.org/r/104946/

Comment 3

[Tomislav Jovanovic :zombie]

(In reply to Ben Basson from comment #1)
> Could this be made optional 

It doesn't need to be.  This is only meant to focus the urlbar when opening an "empty" tab.  And even then, the content can take the focus with a simple <input autofocus> field, or using javascript .focus() method.  In fact, that's the only way this could work.

Comment 4

[Ben Basson]

I'd be fine with that if it works. The current implementation doesn't seem consistent in its behaviour, judging by my inbox full of support emails.

All my add-on does now is override the new tab page using nsIAboutNewTabService (previously NewTabURL.jsm) and I get mixed reports of Google taking focus vs. the URL bar.

Comment 5

[Tomislav Jovanovic :zombie]

Well, that's a different bug then.  While working on this, I tested your use case: content is able reliably to take focus via methods described above.

The ability for web extensions to override the newtab page is being worked on in bug 1234150.  Once that lands, if this is still a problem, please file a bug.

Comment 6

[Kris Maglione [:kmag]]

Comment on attachment 8827184 [details]
Bug 1295072 - Focus urlbar after opening an empty new tab

Shane, can you look over this?

Thanks.

Comment 7

[Shane Caraveo (:mixedpuppy)]

Comment on attachment 8827184 [details]
Bug 1295072 - Focus urlbar after opening an empty new tab

https://reviewboard.mozilla.org/r/104946/#review108758

Looks straightforward. f+

::: browser/components/extensions/test/browser/browser_ext_tabs_create.js:192
(Diff revision 1)
> +
> +  // Test urlbar is focused after opening an empty tab
> +  extension.sendMessage("create", {});
> +  const tab2 = yield extension.awaitMessage("result");
> +
> +  is(document.activeElement.tagName, "html:input", "Input element focused");

Do we need to be this granular, or can we just check gURLBar.focused?

Comment 8

[Tomislav Jovanovic :zombie]

Comment on attachment 8827184 [details]
Bug 1295072 - Focus urlbar after opening an empty new tab

Review request updated; see interdiff: https://reviewboard.mozilla.org/r/104946/diff/1-2/

Comment 9

[Tomislav Jovanovic :zombie]

Comment on attachment 8827184 [details]
Bug 1295072 - Focus urlbar after opening an empty new tab

https://reviewboard.mozilla.org/r/104946/#review108758

> Do we need to be this granular, or can we just check gURLBar.focused?

We don't, it's obvious I was strugling a bit to to find the right check, thanks.

Comment 10

[Shane Caraveo (:mixedpuppy)]

(In reply to Tomislav Jovanovic :zombie from comment #9)

> > Do we need to be this granular, or can we just check gURLBar.focused?
> 
> We don't, it's obvious I was strugling a bit to to find the right check,
> thanks.

yeah, this code base is a continual struggle.  Once you think you know something, someone else rewrites it.

Comment 11

[Kris Maglione [:kmag]]

Comment on attachment 8827184 [details]
Bug 1295072 - Focus urlbar after opening an empty new tab

https://reviewboard.mozilla.org/r/104946/#review110832

Comment 12

[Tomislav Jovanovic :zombie]

Comment on attachment 8827184 [details]
Bug 1295072 - Focus urlbar after opening an empty new tab

Review request updated; see interdiff: https://reviewboard.mozilla.org/r/104946/diff/2-3/

Comment 13

[Pulsebot]

Pushed by [e-mail]:
https://hg.mozilla.org/integration/autoland/rev/70253d6678af
Focus urlbar after opening an empty new tab r=kmag

Comment 14

[Phil Ringnalda (:philor)]

Backed out in https://hg.mozilla.org/integration/autoland/rev/951bab16551a for https://treeherder.mozilla.org/logviewer.html#?job_id=74613184&repo=autoland (so far, all e10s, Linux32 opt, Linux64 opt, Linux64 debug)

Comment 15

[Tomislav Jovanovic :zombie]

Comment on attachment 8827184 [details]
Bug 1295072 - Focus urlbar after opening an empty new tab

Review request updated; see interdiff: https://reviewboard.mozilla.org/r/104946/diff/3-4/

Comment 16

[Tomislav Jovanovic :zombie]

(In reply to Shane Caraveo (:mixedpuppy) from comment #7)
> Do we need to be this granular, or can we just check gURLBar.focused?

Sigh, testing for gURLBar.focused doesn't seem to work on Linux for some reason.

Checking document.activeElement seems to work as expected cross-platform, and since this is just test code, I reverted the test to my original patch (r=testonly).

Comment 17

[Pulsebot]

Pushed by [e-mail]:
https://hg.mozilla.org/integration/autoland/rev/2b5a94ac86a6
Focus urlbar after opening an empty new tab r=kmag

Comment 18

[Carsten Book [:Tomcat]]

https://hg.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/rev/2b5a94ac86a6