1933818 - With Show/Hide set, Ctrl+B and Ctrl+H should hide rather than collapse the sidebar

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(Firefox :: Sidebar, defect, P2)

Description

[jscher2000]

For keyboard-oriented users, it is very inconvenient to change from toggling show/hide with a keyboard shortcut to being required to use a toolbar button to close the sidebar. If the user has changed from Expand/Collapse to Show/Hide, the legacy behavior of the keyboard shortcuts should be preserved.

SUMO thread: https://support.mozilla.org/questions/1476220

(In bug 1897411, there is discussion of a shortcut to expand the sidebar, but not to close it, so this is not a duplicate request.)

Comment 1

[Sarah Clements [:sclements]]

Hi, our product manager/UX designers are closely following connect/sumo feedback and we're trying to keep bugzilla clear for actual bugs (until we have concrete solutions for user feedback).

However, since you have now filed this I'll redirect the question to Ania to think about in conjuction with bug 1897411, and planned work for expand on hover.

Comment 2

[Ania]

Thank you for triaging this, Sarah.
Yulia and I propose treating the current behavior as a missing requirement that resulted in a bug and prioritizing addressing it in the following way.

STRs

1. Set the tab layout to horizontal tabs and the sidebar button setting to "Show and hide."
2. Click on the sidebar icon to hide sidebar.
3. Open, then close Bookmarks or History panel via a shortcut.

Expected result

1. When using a shortcut to close the Bookmarks/History panel, the panel is closed, and the sidebar is hidden.
2. When using the X button to close the panel (after invoking it via a shortcut), the panel is closed, and the sidebar is hidden.

So, as a rule, we should respect the visibility of the sidebar launcher at the time the panel was opened.

Actual result

1. When using a shortcut to close the Bookmarks/History panel, the panel is closed, and the sidebar is left expanded (as in the attached screenshot).

Comment 3

[Ania]

Attachment: Screen Shot 2024-12-02 at 6.52.19 PM.png

Current behavior after closing a panel via a shortcut

Comment 4

[Sarah Clements [:sclements]]

(In reply to Ania from comment #2)

Thank you for triaging this, Sarah.
Yulia and I propose treating the current behavior as a missing requirement that resulted in a bug and prioritizing addressing it in the following way.

STRs

1. Set the tab layout to horizontal tabs and the sidebar button setting to "Show and hide."
2. Open, then close Bookmarks or History panel via a shortcut.

Expected result

1. When using a shortcut to close the Bookmarks/History panel, the panel is closed, and the sidebar is hidden.

Actual result

1. When using a shortcut to close the Bookmarks/History panel, the panel is closed, and the sidebar is left expanded (as in the attached screenshot).

Ania, I want to clarify with this change for Cmd + B/H for hide/show mode is that closing a panel by keyboard shortcut only changes the behavior if the launcher was closed to begin with, correct? Otherwise we might have some inconsistency of behavior, so I think this is what we're aiming for:

• Closing a panel by clicking the 'x' button only closes the panel (launcher is shown - existing behavior)
• Closing a panel by keyboard shortcut closes only the panel if the launcher was shown to begin with - existing behavior
• Closing a panel by keyboard shortcut closes the panel and launcher if the launcher was hidden to begin with - new behavior

Kelly's work in bug 1897411 effectively gives us the same keyboard shortcut for both expand/collapse and show/hide independent of the history and bookmarks keyboard shortcuts.

Comment 5

[Ania]

(In reply to Sarah Clements [:sclements] from comment #4)

Ania, I want to clarify with this change for Cmd + B/H for hide/show mode is that closing a panel by keyboard shortcut only changes the behavior if the launcher was closed to begin with, correct? Otherwise we might have some inconsistency of behavior, so I think this is what we're aiming for:

• Closing a panel by clicking the 'x' button only closes the panel (launcher is shown - existing behavior)
• Closing a panel by keyboard shortcut closes only the panel if the launcher was shown to begin with - existing behavior
• Closing a panel by keyboard shortcut closes the panel and launcher if the launcher was hidden to begin with - new behavior

I think for the purposes of this bug the above is correct.
I also noted this (having sidebar hidden) in the STRs:

• Set the tab layout to horizontal tabs and the sidebar button setting to "Show and hide."
• Click on the sidebar icon to hide sidebar.
• Open, then close Bookmarks or History panel via a shortcut.

However, I think we will eventually need to change this behavior for horizontal tabs mode:

• Closing a panel by clicking the 'x' button only closes the panel (launcher is shown - existing behavior)

Right now, this behavior is based on the assumption that auto-expanding the panel is helpful in this case (and it is for some vertical tabs users), but I think we have a good enough signal that it's not useful for horizontal tabs users.

Comment 6

[Sarah Clements [:sclements]]

Attachment: Bug 1933818 - Sidebar panel keyboard shortcuts should hide the sidebar r=#sidebar-reviewers

*Update SidebarState logic so that opening and closing panels reverts to the correct launcher visibility for the show and hide setting
*Add a test

Comment 7

[Pulsebot]

Pushed by [e-mail]:
https://hg.mozilla.org/integration/autoland/rev/d777c5ccb30e
Sidebar panel keyboard shortcuts should hide the sidebar r=sidebar-reviewers,nsharpley,jsudiaman

Comment 8

[agoloman]

https://hg.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/rev/d777c5ccb30e