1459512 - Keyboard input on homepage is undefined

Status: RESOLVED INACTIVE

(Firefox for Android Graveyard :: Keyboards and IME, defect)

Description

[NoName]

Attachment: Homepage.png

User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; Win64; x64; rv:59.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/59.0
Build ID: 20180427210249

Steps to reproduce:

- Open the new tab homepage (see added screenshot)
- start typing on a physical keyboard


Actual results:

When hitting space or enter: The first bookmark is opened (there is no way to navigate to other bookmarks, so it has no purpose)
When holding space or enter: long-presses the first bookmark and opens the context menu (no way to select anything afterwards)
When hitting any other key: Nothing happens.


Expected results:

The input should be written into the "Search or enter address" field.
This is the expected behaviour because there is no other typing field on the page. When opening a new tab and starting to type, of course you want to enter an address or do a search. The current weird behaviour on space/enter also makes no sense.

Comment 1

[Jan Henning [:JanH]]

Might be solved by bug 1179698 if you're using Ctrl + T to open a new tab. Can you try Nightly to see if that flow works for you?

Comment 2

[NoName]

(In reply to Jan Henning [:JanH] from comment #1)
> Might be solved by bug 1179698 if you're using Ctrl + T to open a new tab.
> Can you try Nightly to see if that flow works for you?

I downloaded the nightly and tried it, but it seems my physical keyboard doesn't actually send a CTRL key to the app when I press it.
Ctrl + T doesn't work on my keyboard, only chat manipulation keys like ctrl+a, ctrl+c, and so on.
Since I don't have a Bluetooth or USB C keyboard, I cannot test it with an external keyboard.
I use the physical keyboard of the blackberry KEYone, which is a physical keyboard fixed underneath the phone screen.
This allows me to start typing at any time, but it does not count as an "external" keyboard, so it still has autocorrect and no sends characters not keystrokes.

Sadly I'm no developer, but I know how other apps solve this problem. WhatsApp and Discord for example "focus" or "activate" the input field right away, so that there is a blinking caret inside of it, but without actually causing a keyboard to open until you click it.
See https://i.imgur.com/7C7fC2Q.png
This allows the user to start typing at any time and it will appear in the URL bar, but without forcing the keyboard open. It opens only when tapping it or starting to type with a physical keyboard.

Comment 3

[Firefox Bug Husbandry Bot]

Closing per https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1473195

Contact :susheel if you think this bug should be re-opened