1831104 - Bookmarks and History search suggestions pre-filled in the search bar are not accessed when hitting enter

Status: VERIFIED FIXED

(Firefox for Android :: Search, defect, P1)

Description

[Delia Pop (Android QA)]

Attachment: Bookmarks and History search suggestions pre-filled in the search bar are not accessed when hitting enter.mp4

Steps to reproduce

1. Have some pages bookmarked and home browsing history.
2. Tap on the dropdown menu from the Google search engine icon.
3. Select the Bookmarks/History search engine.
4. Type in a valid search term (related to the saved bookmarks/browsing history).
5. Tap the pre-fill arrow displayed at the end of any search suggestion.
6. Once the URL for the desired search suggestion is pre-filled in the search bar, tap Enter/Go on the keyboard.

Expected behavior

The link should be opened in a new tab.

Actual behavior

The keyboard is dismissed, but the link is not opened.

Device information

• Firefox version: Nightly 114.0a1 from 05/03
• Android device model: Lenovo Yoga Tab 11, Google Pixel 7
• Android OS version: Android 11, Android 13

Any additional information?

This issue can also be reproduced when performing the search from Settings > Bookmarks/History menus.

Comment 1

[Verdi [:verdi] Best to slack me]

The pre-fill arrows should only be on the search engine suggestions. They are meant to fill the suggestion and allow you to add to your query either by typing or by selecting a longer suggestion with another pre-fill arrow. These don't make sense on a url. We should remove them from all url suggestions.

Comment 2

[Chris Peterson [:cpeterson]]

The pre-fill arrows should not be shown on previous searches, bookmarks, or history.

Comment 3

[Mike a [:mavduevskiy]]

:cpeterson
Previous searches? Like if I enter "chocolate muffin" and search for it, the next time I enter "ch" we should not show a prefill error? In that case it will become an engine suggestion and, given Verdi comment, should have a pre-fill arrow. But they won't be shown by tabs, bookmarks and history search engines because those show only FIrefox sugges (which are URL's).
Should we just remove pre-fill arrows from the Firefox suggests (URL's) and keep it for search suggestions we get from engines?

:verdi :cpeterson
I like the idea of removing the pre-fill arrows. They don't make much sense with URL's. But aren't we still leaving the user with an GO action button that doesn't do what is expected of it? As I can understand from the initial requirements, we don't want search/tabs/bookmarks to load URL's. What if we change the action button on the keyboard depending on the search engine to telegraph user what's the action expected here?

We have the default engine that search or loads URL's, other engines that search and don't load URL's and application level engines that just display a list of items. Could use GO & SEARCH & DONE ime for them respectively :)

Comment 4

[BMO Github Automation]

Attachment: [mozilla-mobile/firefox-android] Bug 1831104 – keep pre-fill arrows only for search engine suggestions (#2190)

Comment 5

[Verdi [:verdi] Best to slack me]

If I understand this correctly what I meant with that requirement is that if you are in bookmarks search, for example, and type mozilla.org and then go we will execute the search for bookmarks that match mozilla.org and not take you directly to mozlla.org. Then when you tap on one of the results from the list we will load the URL.

Comment 6

[Mike a [:mavduevskiy]]

:verdi In the example you have given, the search for bookmarks will be executed the moment we finish typing "mozilla.org" in. The go button effectively does nothing, except hiding the keyboard. But because it's a "GO" action, users expect it to DO something. So in the second part of the comment number 3 I was suggesting changing the action buttons. So, with bookmarks search it will be just "DONE" button – so people would know that it won't do much.

Comment 7

[Mike a [:mavduevskiy]]

:verdi
oh, one more thing. while removing the arrows I have noticed that spacing of the elements with arrows and without are different. At this point it's quite difficult to figure out if it's the intentional design decision or not, so I would just ask you if I should file a follow up bug to make the search result suggestions with pre-fill arrows and without the same size.

Comment 8

[Verdi [:verdi] Best to slack me]

(In reply to Mike a [:mavduevskiy] from comment #6)

:verdi In the example you have given, the search for bookmarks will be executed the moment we finish typing "mozilla.org" in. The go button effectively does nothing, except hiding the keyboard. But because it's a "GO" action, users expect it to DO something. So in the second part of the comment number 3 I was suggesting changing the action buttons. So, with bookmarks search it will be just "DONE" button – so people would know that it won't do much.

Got it. That's the same behavior we've had for a while now. We should talk to Emily about your idea for changing the button copy but I don't think it's required for this bug.

(In reply to Mike a [:mavduevskiy] from comment #7)

:verdi
oh, one more thing. while removing the arrows I have noticed that spacing of the elements with arrows and without are different. At this point it's quite difficult to figure out if it's the intentional design decision or not, so I would just ask you if I should file a follow up bug to make the search result suggestions with pre-fill arrows and without the same size.

The new spacing is correct - the info should expand to include the space taken up by the arrows that are now gone. Now it will match iOS! :-)

Comment 9

[BMO Github Automation]

Authored by mike a
https://github.com/mozilla-mobile/firefox-android/commit/d02be08d578084452c1572e6b4e165bb53e8b968
[main] Bug 1831104 – keep pre-fill arrows only for search engine suggestions

Comment 10

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

The patch landed in nightly and beta is affected.
:mavduevskiy, is this bug important enough to require an uplift?

• If yes, please nominate the patch for beta approval.
• If no, please set status-firefox114 to wontfix.

For more information, please visit BugBot documentation.

Comment 11

[Andrei Mocirean]

Tested this issue on the latest Nightly (115.0a1) from 2nd of June 2023.
The suggestions can be tapped and are opening a new tab when tapped. The arrow is no longer present in the History/Bookmarks search of Unified Search.
Although, when the user is getting a link suggestion in the url bar, after tapping the "Go" button from the keyboard, the keyboard is dismissed and no tab is opened. Is that the correct behaviour?
Tested on Google Pixel 7 Pro (Android 13).

Thank you!

Comment 12

[Mike a [:mavduevskiy]]

Hi, Andrei! Thanks for the feedback. Could you please give me more context about the use case? What does "getting a link suggestion in the url bar" mean? As I understand, the user should not get link suggestions at all, suggestions should be just a part of the search engine suggestions. Or do you mean, we put a url into the search, switch to bookmarks, hit the "go" action – and nothing happens? If latter is the case, that it's the expected behaviour, you can see comment 8 where Verdi addressed my suggestion to change the action button in this situation.

Comment 13

[Andrei Mocirean]

Hello, Mike!
The behaviour is the one described in comment 8.
Marking the issue as verified & fixed.