1673971 - Add a pref to show search suggestion while IME composition

Status: VERIFIED FIXED

(Firefox :: Address Bar, enhancement, P3)

Description

[Kagami Rosylight [:saschanaz] (they/them)]

Chrome/Edge currently shows search suggestion when doing IME composition (with the candidate window initially suppressed) while Firefox does not.

Per https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1632597#c10 I thought it would be more complex, but I recently found that <input type=search> on Gecko already shows the same IME behavior as it does on Blink. Which suggests that this might be easier to implement.

Comment 1

[Kagami Rosylight [:saschanaz] (they/them)]

BTW, the Firefox URL bar also intermittently shows Chrome-like behavior, probably a bug.

Comment 2

[Marco Bonardo [:mak] (Away Apr 25 - May 5)]

https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1632597#c8 is still relevant here, may need coordination with UX?

Comment 3

[Masayuki Nakano [:masayuki] (he/him)(JST, +0900)]

Well, on Windows, we could detect whether there is a UI which is created by IME. Then, our chrome UI can consider whether it's time to open its own popup or not.
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/api/msctf/nn-msctf-itfuielement

But I don't see similar API on the other platforms (including IMM on Windows).

Comment 4

[Kagami Rosylight [:saschanaz] (they/them)]

may need coordination with UX?

True. I think the Chrome way provides the traditional Windows UX, as even Internet Explorer shows the same IME behavior. Do you know who is the best person to handle this?

But I don't see similar API on the other platforms (including IMM on Windows).

Maybe we could limit this behavior to Windows and keep the current behavior on other platforms.

Comment 5

[Kagami Rosylight [:saschanaz] (they/them)]

BTW, when you type Japanese in this example page does the candidate list automatically open on macOS? It does on Ubuntu using ibus-mozc, which means we have platform-dependent behavior on <input type=search>. 🤔

https://mdn.mozillademos.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTML/Element/input/search$samples/Basic_example?revision=1648194

Comment 6

[Masayuki Nakano [:masayuki] (he/him)(JST, +0900)]

I don't see any difference between macOS and Unbuntu 20.10. When I type kana or alphabet as composing character, autocomplete does not show the popup. When commits a character, it shows a popup to list up which includes the character.

Comment 7

[Marco Bonardo [:mak] (Away Apr 25 - May 5)]

I'd have no problem having a different behavior on Windows if it's an improvement for users, it's still the platform with the most users.

Comment 8

[Kagami Rosylight [:saschanaz] (they/them)]

Attachment: Tabキーで選択 on Ubuntu 20.10

Thanks Marco!

(In reply to Masayuki Nakano [:masayuki] (he/him)(JST, +0900) from comment #6)

I don't see any difference between macOS and Unbuntu 20.10. When I type kana or alphabet as composing character, autocomplete does not show the popup. When commits a character, it shows a popup to list up which includes the character.

So you mean you don't see this 'Tabキーで選択' until you commit it? On my machine it opens a popup immediately after I type anything. Not sure what I did wrong...

If you meant the URL bar behavior, what does Safari do here? Does it also show the same Firefox URL bar behavior?

Comment 9

[Masayuki Nakano [:masayuki] (he/him)(JST, +0900)]

No, I just said about whether our autocomplete behavior is same or different on macOS vs. Linux. Not the IME specific UI.

Safari shows autocomplete list even when IME shows a popup, but it's overlapped by the IME's popup. I.e., not usable actually.

Comment 10

[Marco Bonardo [:mak] (Away Apr 25 - May 5)]

So, I'm thinkin to introduce an urlbar pref for now, that will pretty much allow to keep the urlbar panel open during IME. I filed bug 1680801 to investigate a better approach for the future, but at least the pref will allow us to experiment with the different behavior and find bugs sooner, and will allow users of IME not opening panels, like Korean, to have a (hopefully) better experience.

Comment 11

[Kagami Rosylight [:saschanaz] (they/them)]

Can I add pref check to https://phabricator.services.mozilla.com/D78801 then? 👀 (Or would it be more complex?)

Comment 12

[Marco Bonardo [:mak] (Away Apr 25 - May 5)]

there's a little bit more and the test needs to be adapted, I have the patch almost done anyway.

Comment 13

[Kagami Rosylight [:saschanaz] (they/them)]

Yay, I'll happily drop it then.

Comment 14

[Marco Bonardo [:mak] (Away Apr 25 - May 5)]

Attachment: Bug 1673971 - Add a pref to show search suggestions during IME composition in the address bar. r=adw

Depends on D98768

Comment 15

[Pulsebot]

Pushed by [e-mail]:
https://hg.mozilla.org/integration/autoland/rev/7792ae96b5bb
Add a pref to show search suggestions during IME composition in the address bar. r=adw

Comment 16

[Andreea Pavel [:apavel]]

https://hg.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/rev/7792ae96b5bb

Comment 17

[Marco Bonardo [:mak] (Away Apr 25 - May 5)]

Release Note Request (optional, but appreciated)
[Why is this notable]: For IME users the pref we're adding here may largely improve their experience. We cannot enable this globally or automatically because it depends on the specific locale, platform and IME layout, whether it opens a picker panel or not.
[Affects Firefox for Android]: no
[Suggested wording]: Experimental support to keep the Address Bar panel open during Input Method composition of a grapheme can be enabled by setting the preference browser.urlbar.imeCompositionClosesPanel to false. Note that the Input Method picker panel may cover the Address Bar results, thus for now this is only suggested for Input Methods not opening a picker panel.
[Links (documentation, blog post, etc)]: nope

Comment 18

[Cristian Comorasu, QA [:ccomorasu], Releae Desktop QA - Please contact [e-mail]]

I can confirm this enhancement, I verified it on Windows 10 x64, Ubuntu 20.04 LTS and macOS 10.13 using Fx 86.0a1(2020-12-30) and Fx 85.0b4.

Comment 19

[Pascal Chevrel:pascalc (PTO until April 26)]

Hi Marco, If this is an experiment, should that be added to the nightly experiments section of about:preferences? Usually we tend to not direct users too much to about:config tweaks that they forget afterwards

Comment 20

[Marco Bonardo [:mak] (Away Apr 25 - May 5)]

It is not exactly an experiment, but we could still do that.
We know this is a better experience for some users, the problem is we can't detect automatically when to enable it, since it depends on specific keyboard layouts and OS (some open a picker, some don't). The reason for my relnote request was mostly to spread awareness this exists, because if your IME doesn't open a picker, then using this pref you can get a better experience.
It's possible that adding to the experiments section would be enough to spread awareness for now. I also agree it may not be great to suggest users to go to about:config, in general.
I'll file a bug to do add that pref, thanks.

Comment 21

[Pascal Chevrel:pascalc (PTO until April 26)]

Once we have it in the Nightly experiments section, I think this release note request would fit fine in Nightly Release notes. Mentioning it as well in the These Weeks in Firefox blog posts on the Nightly blog would also raise awareness.

Comment 22

[Amy Churchwell [:amy]]

Attachment: Bug 1673971- Add a Nightly Experiment option to search during IME composition. r?harry

Comment 23

[Phabricator Automation]

Comment on attachment 9198024 [details]
Bug 1673971- Add a Nightly Experiment option to search during IME composition. r?harry

Revision D102347 was moved to bug 1685991. Setting attachment 9198024 [details] to obsolete.

Comment 24

[Pascal Chevrel:pascalc (PTO until April 26)]

Note added to 87 Nightly release notes only + tweet on the FirefoxNightly twitter account to raise awareness about the feature in Nightly Experiments.