1853111 - Address bar flickers when suggestions are removed after "Show less frequently"

Status: NEW

(Firefox :: Address Bar, defect, P3)

Description

[Adrian Florinescu [:aflorinescu]]

Attachment: less_freq_flicker.mp4

Found in

• 118.0b9 (treeherder)

Affected versions

• 118.0b9 (treeherder)
• 119.0a1 (2023-09-13)

Tested platforms

• Affected platforms: Windows 10, Mac 13, Ubuntu 22

Preconditions

• browser.search.region set to US
• browser.urlbar.pocket.featureGate to true for pocket suggest

Steps to reproduce

1. Open new tab, type 'tts' into address bar (for addon suggestions)
   1'. Open new tab, type 'breakfast' into address bar (for pocket suggestions)
2. Using the results menu use Show less frequently 3 times.
3. Dissmiss and refocus address bar.

Expected result

• Address bar suggestions should not contain either the addon suggestion (1) or the pocket suggestion(1')

Actual result

1. For addon suggestion the issue is more visible, since the addon suggestion flickers while it is removed from the suggestions.
   1'. For the pocket suggestion, is less visible since there is only the last row removed and repopulated with a search suggestion.

Regression range

• Not a regression.

Comment 1

[Adrian Florinescu [:aflorinescu]]

Attachment: addon_flicker.mp4

Comment 2

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

:aflorinescu, if you think that's a regression, could you try to find a regression range using for example mozregression?

Comment 3

[Adrian Florinescu [:aflorinescu]]

Maybe a bit nitty, but figured we should ask: in all the cases in which the address results are modified: not relevant/not interested/show less frequent, when the addressbar suggestions will contain one less result and the address bar is refocused, it will cause the address bar to flicker while adding the missing result -> I believe it might on the lines of the same problem fixed in bug 1852300.
Drew, thoughts? Should we add bugs for each case?

Comment 4

[Drew Willcoxon :adw]

Thanks for filing this! It's a valid bug but we won't be able to fix it for 118, and since it's only visual flicker, I think that's fine. I've updated the summary:

• This applies to weather suggestions too -- any type of suggestion with the "Show less frequently" command.
• You only need to click "Show less frequently" once, close the urlbar panel, and reopen it.

Technical details:

The problem is "Show less frequently" does not remove the row from the view or the cached query context, so when then view reopens, the suggestion briefly reappears, and then when the new search finishes and the view updates itself, it removes the row. Everything is working as designed, but unfortunately it causes flickering.

The UX spec for "Show less frequently" says the row should remain in the view immediately after using the command, along with a "thanks for your feedback" message, so we can't remove it immediately. We'll need to either wait to remove it when the view closes, or probably a better idea is to immediately tell the view not to reuse the row when it reopens.

There are two code branches to account for. The second branch uses the context cache and is easy to fix: We can immediately invalidate the cache when "Show less frequently" is used. The first branch reuses the rows as they are. I guess we'll need to add a flag to the view to tell it not to do that, I'm not sure.

Comment 5

[Adrian Florinescu [:aflorinescu]]

(In reply to Drew Willcoxon :adw from comment #4)

Thanks for filing this! It's a valid bug but we won't be able to fix it for 118, and since it's only visual flicker, I think that's fine.

Thank you Drew. We were also having second thoughts of getting this fixed so late for 118 and we're better play safe than sorry on this one. Marking 118 based on comment#4 and resetting the flags for 117 aswell.

Comment 7

[Drew Willcoxon :adw]

This applies to all suggestion types.