442596 - Do not display dropdown if exact match is entered

Status: RESOLVED DUPLICATE of bug 262206

(Toolkit :: Form Manager, enhancement)

Description

[Dori]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.9) Gecko/2008052912 Firefox/3.0
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.9) Gecko/2008052912 Firefox/3.0

The dropdown shouldn't appear if what's typed in the form is the exact same thing as the single result shown in the dropdown. This happens when I copy and paste something. 
There is often a button below the field and the drop down obscures it for no good reason as the only choice I could make from it would result in the same content as what I've already entered.

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1.
2.
3.

Comment 1

[Lucas Malor (mail: c6kfnkn2uc AT snkmail DOT c0m)]

I don't think it's a good idea at all, because it can confirm you have entered the correct string, like an username. If nothing is displayed you could think the entered string is wrong.

Comment 2

[Joe Smith]

Tried to ping a few people to close this on IRC, let's get this one locked up.

Comment 3

[Zack Weinberg (:zwol)]

I disagree with comment #1.  Users can't count on the browser knowing whether you've entered the correct string, because it might not have any information anyway, and I think the reporter's annoyance with having another control obscured by a useless dropdown is more significant.

Comment 4

[Lucas Malor (mail: c6kfnkn2uc AT snkmail DOT c0m)]

(In reply to comment #3)
> Users can't count on the browser knowing whether you've entered the correct 
> string, because it might not have any information
> 

It seems you've not understood clearly what I mean. Think about this: I'm logging to mozillazine with "Lucas Malor" username. I already logged in mozillazine in past. When I start to write "Luc" etc, the username is showed in the dropdown menu below, until I write "Lucas Malo". If I add the "r", the dropdown menu will disappear, if this bug will be fixed. This is an highly confusing behaviour, since it seems I wronged to type my username. And this can be applied to all type of saved data.
Furthermore, what if you type, for example, "good", and the form has two saved data, "good" and "goodbye"? "good" must be showed or not?

I think a better resolution could be to disable the dropdown menu with an option, if text is entered pasting it. Anyway, an easy workaround to your problem is to press the Esc button, it will hide the dropdown menu.

@Joe Smith: only Moz developers can decide if a bug should be wontfix or not.
For the same reason, I remove the qawanted I added before.

Comment 5

[Zack Weinberg (:zwol)]

(In reply to comment #4)
> Think about this: I'm logging to mozillazine with "Lucas Malor"
> username. I already logged in mozillazine in past. When I start to
> write "Luc" etc, the username is showed in the dropdown menu below,
> until I write "Lucas Malo". If I add the "r", the dropdown menu will
> disappear, if this bug will be fixed. This is an highly confusing
> behaviour, since it seems I wronged to type my username. 

Why would you think that?  You've finished typing in the name, so the
dropdown cannot help you any further, so it seems to me that
naturally it should disappear.

> And this can be applied to all type of saved data.  Furthermore,
> what if you type, for example, "good", and the form has two saved
> data, "good" and "goodbye"? "good" must be showed or not?

In that case, "good" should still appear, because there's a choice to
be made.  But it should go away if you then type "b".

> I think a better resolution could be to disable the dropdown menu
> with an option, if text is entered pasting it. 

It would *also* be good to do this.  No option is necessary; just
don't display the dropdown on paste; if the user wants completion they
can hit down-arrow or start typing.

Comment 6

[Justin Dolske [:Dolske]]

(In reply to comment #5)

> You've finished typing in the name, so the
> dropdown cannot help you any further, so it seems to me that
> naturally it should disappear.

Well, it can with the password manager. Known logins are shown in the autocomplete menu, and the password will be filled in when you select one. Even if you've typed (or pasted) the full username, you should still be able to select it to have the password filled in.

But, anyway, I'd be curious to know if there's a platform convention to be followed here, or if such behavior varies by app.

Comment 7

[Zack Weinberg (:zwol)]

(In reply to comment #6)
> > so the dropdown cannot help you any further
> 
> Well, it can with the password manager. Known logins are shown in the
> autocomplete menu, and the password will be filled in when you select one. 

We're talking here about the case where there's only one autocomplete option given all the text entered, so why not just assume that one and go ahead and fill in the password?

I don't know about platform conventions.

Comment 8

[Lucas Malor (mail: c6kfnkn2uc AT snkmail DOT c0m)]

(In reply to comment #5)
> Why would you think that?  You've finished typing in the name, so the
> dropdown cannot help you any further, so it seems to me that
> naturally it should disappear. [...] It would *also* be good to do this.  No 
> option is necessary; just don't display the dropdown on paste; if the user 
> wants completion they can hit down-arrow or start typing.
> 

This behaviour is a "find-as-you-type", so it must return all data that contains the typed string by default. This is the default behaviour for all components of mozilla products that use "fidn-as-you-type". Any other behaviour is misleading if it changes the old default one. This can be interpreted as a bug regression.

> In that case, "good" should still appear, because there's a choice to
> be made.  But it should go away if you then type "b" [...] We're talking here 
> about the case where there's only one autocomplete option given all the text 
> entered, so why not just assume that one and go ahead and fill in the 
> password?
> 

It seems to me a mess... if an exact match mustn't be displayed, it mustn't be displayed always. An exception for the exception can only confuse more other users. And this is valid also for the second suggestion.

Comment 9

[Zack Weinberg (:zwol)]

> This behaviour is a "find-as-you-type", so it must return all data that
> contains the typed string by default.
[...]
> if an exact match mustn't be displayed, it mustn't be displayed always.

The reporter is requesting what we call a "miswart" - a deliberate UI inconsistency because it's more natural for the interface to behave a different way in one specific case.  Miswarts are not bugs!  There are no absolutes in UI design.  If it's less confusing / more natural for the browser to not display the form completion dropdown when the user has typed all the text that matches one possible completion, but only if there's no other completion that the typed-in text can match, then that is what we should do.

For what it's worth I agree that it really would be more natural.

Comment 10

[Dori]

Note that my report specifically mentioned pasting, not typing, so Lucas' comments and ensuing discussion does not apply. I wouldn't want it to show even when typing, but when pasting it's especially annoying as in that case you know what you want to enter, and having it confirmed doesn't add anything.

Comment 11

[Lucas Malor (mail: c6kfnkn2uc AT snkmail DOT c0m)]

Well, as I said in comment 4:

> I think a better resolution could be to disable the dropdown menu [setting] a 
> [new] option, if text is entered pasting it
>

so I agree with you in this case. Anyway I think it's better to disable it entirely, and not only for exact matches.

Comment 12

[Justin Dolske [:Dolske]]

Same issue as bug 262206 (specifically, same problems with doing this as bug 262206 comment 7 describes).