1565978 - Request list keyboard navigation: consider unbinding the Left and Right arrow keys

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(DevTools :: Netmonitor, defect, P3)

Description

[Florens Verschelde :fvsch]

Currently the request list's selected item can be changed with the following arrow keys:

• Previous item: Left and Up
• Next item: Right and Down

Using the Left and Right keys might be a problem because their meaning is only correct in left-to-right locales. Currently in RTL we still use the Right key for "next", and in my quick test it felt wrong.

Another related issue is that we use the Left and Right arrow keys in tree structures for "expand" and "collapse" actions.

I'm wondering if we should:

1. Not bind the Left and Right keys at all in the requests list
2. Or bind them to "Show request details" and "Hide request details"
3. Or keep them, but make sure we interpret Left and Right depending on the text direction

Yura, do you have an opinion on this maybe?

Comment 1

[Yura Zenevich [:yzen] (please use "needinfo")]

(In reply to Florens Verschelde :fvsch from comment #0)

Currently the request list's selected item can be changed with the following arrow keys:

• Previous item: Left and Up
• Next item: Right and Down

Using the Left and Right keys might be a problem because their meaning is only correct in left-to-right locales. Currently in RTL we still use the Right key for "next", and in my quick test it felt wrong.

Another related issue is that we use the Left and Right arrow keys in tree structures for "expand" and "collapse" actions.

I'm wondering if we should:

1. Not bind the Left and Right keys at all in the requests list

I agree, I very much prefer not to use left/right for these purposes.

2. Or bind them to "Show request details" and "Hide request details"
3. Or keep them, but make sure we interpret Left and Right depending on the text direction

Yura, do you have an opinion on this maybe?

Comment 2

[BugBot [:suhaib / :marco/ :calixte]]

The priority flag is not set for this bug.
:Honza, could you have a look please?

For more information, please visit auto_nag documentation.

Comment 3

[Jan Honza Odvarko [:Honza] (always need-info? me)]

Here is the place where we handle keyboard events:

https://searchfox.org/mozilla-central/rev/0ffa9e372df56c95547fed9c3433ddec4fbf6f11/devtools/client/netmonitor/src/components/RequestListContent.js#244

Honza

Comment 4

[Alex J Garcia]

I see this is still actual. Mind if I take a stab at this?

Comment 5

[Florens Verschelde :fvsch]

Hi Alex. Still something we want to do. :) I'll assign you to the bug.

To get started building Firefox, you can follow this guide:
https://docs.firefox-dev.tools/getting-started/build.html

After checking out the mozilla-central repository, I recommend creating a mozilla-central/mozconfig file with this content before trying to build Firefox for the first time:
https://docs.firefox-dev.tools/getting-started/build.html#building-even-faster-with-artifact-builds

Comment 6

[Alex J Garcia]

Attachment: Bug 1565978 - Stop changing the currently selected row in Network with left and right keys. r=fvsch!

The switch cases for the left and right arrow keys within the onKeyDown handler were removed so as not to assign a value to delta var when they trigger an event.

Comment 7

[Alex J Garcia]

Hi Florens, I've submitted my first, possibly naive, solution to this bug. It is in Phabricator now.

Comment 8

[Florens Verschelde :fvsch]

Added some comments in the patch.

possibly naive

No it looks just right. :)

Comment 9

[Alex J Garcia]

Sounds good, thank you.

I will get to work on FrameListContent.js and running the tests. Regards.

Comment 10

[Alex J Garcia]

Revision in Phabricator has been updated. Automated tests were run; all passed. Individual tests were attempted; none exist.

Comment 11

[Florens Verschelde :fvsch]

Thanks Alex, this is working well indeed.

I took the liberty to change the commit message to reflect the intent of the fix more than the implementation details.

Comment 12

[Pulsebot]

Pushed by [e-mail]:
https://hg.mozilla.org/integration/autoland/rev/122109471f12
Stop changing the currently selected row in Network with left and right keys. r=fvsch

Comment 13

[Alex J Garcia]

Thanks for the opportunity, and for your mentorship. Regards.

Comment 14

[Dorel Luca [:dluca]]

https://hg.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/rev/122109471f12