323966 - Users expect clearing history to clear searchbar also

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(Firefox :: Search, defect, P3)

Description

[celticone]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8) Gecko/20051111 Firefox/1.5
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8) Gecko/20051111 Firefox/1.5

The google search bar dropdown box shows searches for weeks and will not clear
even though the option is to clear all data on exit. 

Also, option in Advanced Privacy to clear history is not functional

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1.Open Firefox
2.Check google search bar dropdown history
3.

Actual Results:  
I simply reopen Firefox and check the google search bar drop down, *all* searches
remain, they *never* clear

Expected Results:  
The same searches are *always there, they *never* clear

How about *clear* the history as it's set to do

Comment 1

[Daniel Veditz [:dveditz]]

The google searchbar is saved form data. "Browsing history" refers to the list of sites you've visited--the data that appears if you view the History sidebar.

If I check the "saved form information" box on the "Clear private data" screens my search box history is cleared, just as it is in the drop-down on the Google page itself. Are you using the right option?

Comment 2

[Daniel Veditz [:dveditz]]

As originally written the bug is "worksforme" -if- you know the search field is form data. But it's not at all obvious and we've gotten several complaints along this line. Users think of that box as browsing history -- they enter things and pages open just like the URL bar it sits next to. It certainly isn't part of a web page (form).

There may be a dupe although I couldn't find it (bug 318058 is along similar lines, but describes problems even if you know it's form data you need to clear).

I'm morphing this into a UI design bug to reconsider how this works. UI that surprises people is UI that needs help.

Comment 3

[Gervase Markham [:gerv]]

Dan is right. Anything in chrome is not "form data" to the user, it's something else. Of the current options, "Browsing History" seems like the right one to put it under.

Gerv

Comment 4

[Mike Beltzner [:beltzner, not reading bugmail]]

Not a lot to add here. The right way to do this is to consider the search history to be the same thing as the browsing history (which is more or less correct even technically, since search results are part of the browsing history), or to add a separate field for Search History, although my personal feeling is that this latter solution is overkill.

Comment 5

[:Gavin Sharp [email: [e-mail]]]

It's easy to make "Clear History" also clear only the search bar form history, but not so easy to prevent "Clear Form Data" from clearing the search bar history, since it calls "removeAllEntries" on nsIFormHistory.

Comment 6

[Pam Greene]

Seems to me that it's sufficiently ambiguous that clearing it in both cases (when clearing form data and when clearing history) is reasonable, as well as being easy.

Comment 7

[:Gavin Sharp [email: [e-mail]]]

Attachment: clear search bar history and undo stack for both "clear history" and "clear form data"

Ok, here's a patch that does that. Any other opinions on this proposed behavior (comment 6)?

Comment 8

[Mike Beltzner [:beltzner, not reading bugmail]]

(In reply to comment #7)
> Created an attachment (id=223871) [edit]
> clear search bar history and undo stack for both "clear history" and "clear
> form data"
> 
> Ok, here's a patch that does that. Any other opinions on this proposed behavior
> (comment 6)?

I'd rather not have two options delete the same history, as it makes it twice as hard for the user to figure out what deletes what.

If it's seriously hard to do this due to the way we store search data, I'd recommend relabeling the option to "Saved Form and Search History", instead.

Comment 9

[Mike Connor [:mconnor]]

So, I think we might need to accomodate room for a separate pref for searchbar autocomplete as part of the pref redesign discussions, since there's a desire to have searchbar autocomplete on without in-page formfill.

Comment 10

[Jeff Walden [:Waldo]]

This looks like it would have been (slightly hackishly) possible using the nsIFormHistory interface as documented on XULPlanet; unfortunately, that interface hasn't existed since January 26, and the replacement provides no support for accessing values in form history.  I think support could be readded without too much effort by partially reverting the removal of that functionality, but this solution would be a hack, and I personally don't think it's worth the effort.

Long-term, I think the solution here is to make search history use its own table in storage somewhere, separating search results from other form history.  For now, tho, I think the most expedient solution is simply to change the wording in the dialog to actually reflect what happens.

Comment 11

[Jeff Walden [:Waldo]]

Attachment: Change the label to "Saved Form and Search History"

As recommended in comment 8...

Comment 12

[Mike Beltzner [:beltzner, not reading bugmail]]

Comment on attachment 224269 [details] [diff] [review]
Change the label to "Saved Form and Search History"

Jeff, can you open a followup to track your long-term suggestion? I agree that we'd like to offer more granularity here if possible in the future.

Also, note that bug 340677 now asks users if they want to "Remember what I enter in forms and the search bar", which balances this sanitize option.

Comment 13

[Jeff Walden [:Waldo]]

Comment on attachment 224269 [details] [diff] [review]
Change the label to "Saved Form and Search History"

(In reply to comment #12)
> Jeff, can you open a followup to track your long-term suggestion?

See bug 341268.

Comment 14

[Jeff Walden [:Waldo]]

Fixed on trunk and branch.