176525 - Allow auto-linking, automatic detection and linking of URLs during editing

Status: NEW

(Core :: DOM: Editor, enhancement)

Description

[saari (gone)]

Allow automatic detection and linking of URLs during editing

Comment 1

[Asa Dotzler [:asa]]

*** Bug 217577 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 2

[Mike Cowperthwaite]

*** Bug 240308 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 3

[Mike Cowperthwaite]

*** Bug 280111 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 4

[Mike Cowperthwaite]

One opinion: I do not want links active in composer or mail editor.

Comment 5

[Mike Cowperthwaite]

*** Bug 282343 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 6

[jay garcia]

(In reply to comment #5)
> *** Bug 282343 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Is this really the same bug? The "component" above says "Editor" which says to
me "Composer (html)". If it's the same bug shouldn't it say "Mailnews:
Composition" as that's the target of my RFE. And this 176525 is a 3-year old bug
that appears to be going nowhere. Just want to make sure this is in the right place.

Comment 7

[Mike Cowperthwaite]

(In reply to comment #6)
> Is this really the same bug? The "component" above says "Editor" which
> says to me "Composer (html)".  If it's the same bug shouldn't it say
> "Mailnews: Composition"?

Editor is the common component between Composer and Mail Composition.  Nobody's 
going to implement this feature just for mail.


> And this 176525 is a 3-year old bug that appears to be going nowhere.

That has no bearing on the situation.  You want faster action, start coding.

And if your defense is you don't know how to code, then you are in no position 
to be questioning disposition of your bug.

Comment 8

[jay garcia]

(In reply to comment #7)
> (In reply to comment #6)
> > Is this really the same bug? The "component" above says "Editor" which
> > says to me "Composer (html)".  If it's the same bug shouldn't it say
> > "Mailnews: Composition"?
> 
> Editor is the common component between Composer and Mail Composition.  Nobody's 
> going to implement this feature just for mail.

Point taken, I didn't know that.
> 
> > And this 176525 is a 3-year old bug that appears to be going nowhere.
> 
> That has no bearing on the situation.  You want faster action, start coding.

Didn't say I wanted faster action, was merely questioning the relevance of this
bug vs the one I entered.
 
> And if your defense is you don't know how to code, then you are in no position 
> to be questioning disposition of your bug.

My questioning of the three year old bug was in reference to it may not being
the same bug, that's all. I have every right to make inquiry as there are many
users wanting to vote on this, that's why I entered the RFE in the first place.
I'm not here to be arguing or to take condescending remarks but rather act on
behalf of the users.

Comment 9

[Mike Cowperthwaite]

*** Bug 299513 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 10

[Mike Cowperthwaite]

*** Bug 364798 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 15

[David Baron :dbaron: (⌚️UTC-4, no longer working on Mozilla)]

Could somebody who understands what this bug is please add steps to reproduce, expected results, and actual results to this bug report?

Comment 16

[Unknown W. Brackets]

I may be incorrect, but this is my understanding of this bug.

Steps:
1. Use the wysiwyg editor (designMode, Thunderbird, http://www.mozilla.org/editor/midasdemo/ etc.)
2. Type in a link, such as www.google.com or http://www.example.org/.
3. Observe the HTML source of the editor.

Expected results:
An <a> element created around the link text automatically, pointing to the actual link (in www.google.com's case, http://www.google.com/.)

Actual results:
The text remains as regular, plain text.  No link is automatically created.

Other related, possible test cases:
  - links that contain path specs, fragments, or query strings.
  - email addresses.
  - mailnews (Thunderbird, etc.) using this feature.
  - editing an existing link or entering one inside a existing <a>.
  - local file links (should file://... auto-link?)

I think this bug is mainly desired for Thunderbird/mailnews, but it wouldn't be unwanted afaik in browser wysiwyg areas either.

I have no idea whether it should be a feature only enabled when requested, in some fashion, or if it should be always present, or if a way to disable it needs to be provided.  These things should be considered, though, for compat imho.

-[Unknown]

Comment 17

[Tyler Downer [He/Him]]

For my understanding of this bug, read my dupe on bug 445424.

Comment 18

[Alfonso Martinez]

(In reply to comment #16)
> 
> I have no idea whether it should be a feature only enabled when requested, in
> some fashion, or if it should be always present, or if a way to disable it
> needs to be provided.  These things should be considered, though, for compat
> imho.
> 
> -[Unknown]

For WYSIWYG editors, the ability to turn the feature on/off should be added, because most of the people wants their links automatically detected (IE parity), but other people is annoyed with IE because they don't want the links created (specially if the text isn't a link, but just some text with a @ in the middle, example: http://www.fckeditor.net/forums/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=11298)

In my dreams the most complete solution would include an event fired whenever such a link is automatically created.

Comment 19

[Peter Ashford]

As the originator of reporting this bug long ago (or one of them)I am baffled by the complexity of what is being discussed. The problem is simple. 

When I write a hyperlink destination in anything except Firefox it shows up underlined in blue immediately on hitting Return.

When I write for example [e-mail] in Firefox and hit Return NOTHING HAPPENS.  What is bizarre is that if I save the unsent message as a draft then open from the drafts folder the magic treatment has happened!  

Why not make it happen in the first place when writing an email? ? ?

Comment 20

[Alex_mty]

Hi,

That's exactly the issue we can see in FireFox. MSIE supports the plain string convertion into a hyperlilnk once we press enter key or space bar. 

Are you guys planning to implement this feature in FireFox soon ?
Is there any other workaround (JScript, etc) so we can make FireFox to emulate that functionality ?

Thanks and best regards

Comment 21

[Tyler Downer [He/Him]]

As was already gone around in Comment #7, this bug will get fixed is it does. Marking as "Wanted ?", because it is wanted in the somewhat near future, but 1.9.1 may be coming too quick to get this in.

Comment 22

[Thomas D. (:thomas8)]

(In reply to Tyler Downer [Triage] (away) from comment #21)
> As was already gone around in Comment #7, this bug will get fixed is it
> does. Marking as "Wanted ?", because it is wanted in the somewhat near
> future, but 1.9.1 may be coming too quick to get this in.

Can somebody translate comment 21 for me?

Comment 23

[Thomas D. (:thomas8)]

(In reply to Thomas D. from comment #22)
> (In reply to Tyler Downer [Triage] (away) from comment #21)
> > As was already gone around in Comment #7, this bug will get fixed is it
> > does. Marking as "Wanted ?", because it is wanted in the somewhat near
> > future, but 1.9.1 may be coming too quick to get this in.
> 
> Can somebody translate comment 21 for me?

Tyler, clarification/status update on comment 21 would be nice. Tia.

Comment 24

[Daniel Glazman (:glazou) (not active in Mozilla any more)]

So... A few thoughts about this bug:

1. it's a common and helpful feature in email clients
2. it can be a PITA in non-MUA editors
3. it can be an automatic transformation during typing OR
   a transformation made when the email is sent
4. it should be controllable by the embedder to mitigate point 2 above
5. it could become an extension of the spell checker
6. it's probably painful to extend the nsHTMLEditor itself to do this