190563 - Enter in listbox should submit form

Status: REOPENED

(Core :: Layout: Form Controls, defect)

Description

[John Keiser (jkeiser)]

Pressing enter in a listbox (<select multiple>) or a non-dropped-down dropdown
should submit the form in the same manner as other form controls (see bug 104449).

Note that this is *not* IE parity; but since Enter doesn't seem to do anything
else useful there, we can reserve the right and be more accessible:)

Comment 1

[John Keiser (jkeiser)]

Attachment: Testcase

Comment 2

[John Keiser (jkeiser)]

Now that I have filed this bug, I would like to note that it is questionable
whether or how it should be fixed because:
(a) Enter on a non-dropped-down dropdown could be bad, since a user could
accidentally hit enter twice and submit the form, which would be a shame.
(b) Listboxes might want to reserve Enter for just firing onchange for
navigational listboxes--but that would make Enter do different things for
different controls, which might be a shame.  I leave that judgement to aaronl,
our kickass accessibility guru.

Comment 3

[timeless]

imo this is a really bad idea :-), i already have enough problems with backspace
doing different things based on where focus randomly lands.

Comment 4

[Aaron Leventhal]

Timeless, I don't understand your objection -- Enter already submits a form
where it doesn't do something else specific to the focused form control. We're
not talking about adding an entirely new behavior for Enter. Usually when Enter
isn't used for something else in the form control, it submits the form. 

If hitting enter currently fires onchange for these listboxes, it could be that
web pages use that, but I doubt it.

This could be a good thing, I run into this in bugzilla query, where I expect
enter to submit my query, but then I realize that enter doesn't do anything for
listboxes.

I don't have a problem with this for listbox where size>1, I'd say it makes
pretty good sense. I don't think it's a huge deal either way, because listboxes
of size>1 are pretty rare, and an argument could probably be made for either case.

Comment 5

[John Keiser (jkeiser)]

Per conversation with aaronl on IRC (hitting enter twice could be bad), WONTFIX.

Comment 6

[Tim Powell]

I'm reopening this because this was the primary issue I had in bug 104449 (see 
my comments about slashdot). Since that is now a meta-bug, I figured this was 
the correctly place to comment about this.

My reasoning for why I'd like this to be fixed is that it is correct behavior 
on the Windows platform: application dialogs are completed when you press Enter 
in any form element, including non-dropped-down dropdown lists. (Try it in the 
Programs tab for the internet options in IE, for example.) Having HTML forms 
not behave this way is confusing from an accessibility standpoint and makes web 
applications stand out more than they should. Since the vast majority of users 
already need to be careful about this in Windows dialogs, I don't see why 
they'd be any worse off if HTML forms behaved the same way. I believe they'd 
actually be better off to have the consistent ability to submit a form by 
pressing Enter.

I believe there's already some expectation that it should work. Aaron's comment 
#4 says "I run into this in bugzilla query, where I expect enter to submit my 
query, but then I realize that enter doesn't do anything for listboxes."

I believe that too much importance is being placed on the concern about hitting 
Enter twice: If focus is moved to a HTML listbox using the keyboard (by 
tabbing), it does not drop down. You can switch items in the box using the 
arrow keys, and changes are shown immediately. (No Enter press is needed.) And 
if you've dropped down the list with the mouse, it seems much more likely that 
you'll pick the item with the mouse. (Again no Enter press.) Add to this the 
fact that Mozilla's own prefs dialog completes when you press Enter in a non-
dropped-down list box, and I find it pretty compelling that Enter should submit 
forms when pressed in a non-dropped-down listbox.

Please reconsider. Thanks.

Comment 7

[Timwi]

I agree 100% with Tim Powell, and I would like to add a bit of prose about
standard Windows control behaviour with respect to multi-select list boxes:

In order to select multiple entries, the Space key is used in Windows, not Enter.
In other words, in order to select the first and third entry, I press:
Space, Ctrl-Down, Ctrl-Down, Space.
This already works in Mozilla, and it should be kept this way. Enter should be
used for submitting the form.

(I ran into the same problem on the query page ;-) ).

As for drop-down lists, I also agree that Enter should submit the form simply
because it would make behaviour consistent with other controls. That, and
Alt-Down should open the drop-down list :-) (Bug 211846)

Comment 8

[John Keiser (jkeiser)]

The enter-twice problem is a real one.  Even a keyboard user may want to drop
down the list, and then Enter means something different for each of two
subsequent keypresses.  This would be irresponsible inconsistency.

I have no problem with it being done for listboxes with size>1.

Windows behavior in dialogs has the enter-twice problem already; but on webpages
IE does *not* do this, suggesting they specifically disabled it for some reason.

Comment 9

[Timwi]

Can we at least make it so Ctrl+Enter will always submit a form, even on a drop-down? (cf. Bug #102539)