297786 - History sidebar loses focus after item is clicked

Status: RESOLVED INACTIVE

(Firefox :: Bookmarks & History, defect)

Description

[Jamax]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.7.8) Gecko/20050524 Firefox/1.0.4
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.7.8) Gecko/20050524 Firefox/1.0.4

When an item in the history list is clicked, the corresponding web page is
loaded and given focus.  This makes it difficult to use the keyboard to edit /
navigate the history list.

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Open history side-panel (set to Last Visited)
2. Click on an item


Actual Results:  
Page loads and gets focus

Expected Results:  
Page loads, history panel still has focus.

It is still possible to manipulate the history list using the keyboard by either
tabbing to the panel or by starting to drag a link and then canceling by dopping
immediately (since you can't drop into the history panel), which retains focus
in the history list.  Then arrow + shift keys can be used to multi-select,
repeated delete, etc.

I gather that the single-click was a design decision, but it seems ridiculous
that you cannot delete a history item without reloading the page again unless
you know some special wizard-level tricks.  A good compromise is for the history
panel to retain focus when it loads the page, which conceptually makes more
sense anyway since the user actively clicked in that panel, so it should have
focus.  The user should then be able to use arrow keys for navigation and
shift-click to select multiple history elements.

I'll note that the bookmarks sidebar does not lose focus on click, although it
still doesn't allow multiple-select.  IMO both should be able to do
multi-select, but at least history should retain the focus.

Comment 1

[Jorge Villalobos [:jorgev] (he/him)]

Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.7.8) Gecko/20050511
Firefox/1.0.4
I confirm and agree. Both side panels should have consistent behavior and keep
focus, which seems like the best solution. Right-clicking for deletion is a
not-quite-wizard-level workaround.

Comment 2

[Gervase Markham [:gerv]]

This is an automated message, with ID "auto-resolve01".

This bug has had no comments for a long time. Statistically, we have found that
bug reports that have not been confirmed by a second user after three months are
highly unlikely to be the source of a fix to the code.

While your input is very important to us, our resources are limited and so we
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Comment 3

[Jorge Villalobos [:jorgev] (he/him)]

Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9a1) Gecko/20050927
Firefox/1.6a1 ID:2005092707
This can still be reproduced.

Comment 4

[Raphael Segun Awoseyin]

I was able to replicate this bug using Firefox on a Win XP Pro (Service Pack 2) system. Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8.0.1) Gecko/20060124 Firefox/1.5.0.1

The History sidebar looses focus and so does the Bookmarks sidebar. You can delete an entry by right-clicking rather than left-clicking. Overall, I agree. This should be a double click function rather than single click. It does get annoying as it is somewhat unexpected when sorting through history entries. Also, perhaps the items selecting the history should open in a separate tab for convenience.

Comment 5

[u63580]

Is this at all related to bug 288943?  The whole behaviour seems odd to me for sidebars, but for some reason I can't find a bug on it.  There must be one - any one know where it is?

Comment 6

[Cem Kaner]

Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8) Gecko/20060219 Firefox/1.5

I replicate the issue as described, but think it is correctly described. When I click on a menu or toolbar item (including items on the Go menu and on the bookmarks menu or toolbar), a single click takes me to the thing selected. Focus doesn't stay on the menu or toolbar. If I want to operate on the toolbar itself, rather than on the item that the tool shortcuts to, I right-click. This is how the sidebar is operating and it is fully consistent with my expectations.

Comment 7

[Stephanie Daugherty [:sdaugherty]]

I see this on
Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.9a5pre) Gecko/20070528 Minefield/3.0a5pre

Comment 8

[BMO Automation]

Per policy at https://wiki.mozilla.org/Bug_Triage/Projects/Bug_Handling/Bug_Husbandry#Inactive_Bugs. If this bug is not an enhancement request or a bug not present in a supported release of Firefox, then it may be reopened.