1962200 - Pressing Option + Up / Down should open unified search button

Status: VERIFIED FIXED

(Firefox :: Address Bar, enhancement, P2)

Comment 1

[Daisuke Akatsuka (:daisuke)]

Hi Dale!
I tried to implement this one, but it might be impossible to do on the current element we are using.

My approach was to add the key event listener to the component and scroll when we detect the event.
We changed the popup component from <panel> to <menupopup> in bug 1934410 though, it seems that we can't detect key events for the menupopup element. Also, looks like there is no way to change the scroll behavior for inside of menupopup.
Thus, I don't think we can do it by my approach, but do you have another approach?

Comment 3

[Martin]

Well this is bad. In Firefox 140 the url/search is broken. Can't use the Alt+Up/Alt+Down to quickly switch between search providers

Comment 4

[Martin]

There's an additional problem with the new url/search bar when using mouse.

When I paste a text I want to search I can't use Shift+left button click to search using different search engine. It used to be so easy and quick.

The new url/search is just so much worse to use than the previous one. What's the point?

Comment 5

[gui97cham]

Same bug, (slightly) broader scope :
Like the current search menu works, pressing the Up and Down arrow keys should seamlessly navigate between search suggestions and the list of search engines
(As not every keyboard user is a power user, keyboard navigation of the search menu should not require previous knowledge an obscure shortcut like Option + Up/Down)

Comment 6

[Grey cloud]

(In reply to gui97cham from comment #5)

Same bug, (slightly) broader scope :
Like the current search menu works, pressing the Up and Down arrow keys should seamlessly navigate between search suggestions and the list of search engines
(As not every keyboard user is a power user, keyboard navigation of the search menu should not require previous knowledge an obscure shortcut like Option + Up/Down)

I agree, this is a very important aspect. 👍 Just plain up/down would also return the keyboard shortcut feature to how it was before 138, thus making it easier for users.

Comment 7

[Dale Harvey (:daleharvey)]

Hey Daisuke

Apologies for taking so long to get to this, so I think if we want the wrap around behaviour here we probably need to talk to someone more familiar with the popup / menulist components.

However I am not sure the wrap around behaviour is the most important part, I think one of the main benefits here is to open the unified search popup while the urlbar is focused without having to alt+tab to the actual button, once the popup is open then up / down can be used to scroll the engines and the OPTION is ignored. I think that code is somewhere around https://searchfox.org/mozilla-central/source/browser/components/urlbar/UrlbarController.sys.mjs#304

I think that along is worth fixing, dropped the ball here so happy to pick it up if unless you want to go again? Cheers

Comment 8

[Dão Gottwald [:dao]]

(In reply to Dale Harvey (:daleharvey) from comment #7)

I think that along is worth fixing, dropped the ball here so happy to pick it up if unless you want to go again? Cheers

Hey Daisuke, are you going to pick this up again?

Comment 9

[Daisuke Akatsuka (:daisuke)]

Hi Dão, thank you very much for your ping!

Dale, if it is possible to do this after fixing realtime suggestions, I want to do this.
If this is urgent, could you take this one, unfortunately?

Comment 10

[Dão Gottwald [:dao]]

(In reply to Daisuke Akatsuka (:daisuke) from comment #9)

If this is urgent, could you take this one, unfortunately?

From my perspective, it would be nice to have this in preparation for the new search bar implementation where we intend to also bring in the unified search button instead of one-off search buttons.

Comment 11

[Dale Harvey (:daleharvey)]

No worries I will give it a shot

Comment 12

[Dale Harvey (:daleharvey)]

Attachment: Bug 1962200 - Open unified search panel with Option + Up/Down. r=daisuke

Comment 13

[Pulsebot]

Pushed by [e-mail]:
https://github.com/mozilla-firefox/firefox/commit/a4722fa9a71c
https://hg.mozilla.org/integration/autoland/rev/437eac4d62b3
Open unified search panel with Option + Up/Down. r=daisuke,urlbar-reviewers

Comment 14

[Norisz Fay [:noriszfay]]

https://hg.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/rev/437eac4d62b3

Comment 15

[Dana Lucaci, Desktop QA]

Reproduced with Firefox 145.0a1 (2025-10-29) on macOS 15.
Verified as fixed with Firefox 146.0a1 (20251028094950) on macOS 15, Win 10 and Ubuntu 22.