562694 - Allow quickfilter bar (Ctrl+Shift+K) to automatically hide again after search usage

Status: RESOLVED WONTFIX

(Thunderbird :: Search, defect)

Description

[rsx11m]

The new quick-search implementation works fine for me, but the fact that it is now located on its own toolbar may be an issue for users with limited vertical space (netbooks or those users limiting the 3-pane window size on purpose).

It is possible to hide the quick-search toolbar in View > Toolbars (where it is named "Quick Filter Bar") and then use the Ctrl+F keyboard shortcut to reopen it with focus on the search term. This is good and allows usage even if hidden. However, once done and you use the close [x] button, the upper part of the bar stays. Ctrl+F again brings you to the search input. To hide the bar, only untoggling again in View > Toolbars works.

Expected behavior: If unchecked in View > Toolbars, the quick-search bar should appear on Ctrl+F but the setting remain unchecked. Once the search input is cleared the quick-search bar should completely disappear again.

Tested on Windows XP and Linux 3.1b2 candidate build 1.

Comment 1

[Andrew Sutherland [:asuth] (he/him)]

To make the filter bar go away without going to the toolbar menu:

mouse) click the icon on the tab bar

keyboard) hit the 'escape' key.  if you are in the text box and there is text in it, the first time you hit it, it clears the textbox and its constraint.  if you hit it again and there are other constraints applied, those get clear.  when you hit escape and there are no constraints active, it closes the bar.

I'm not going to mark this wontfix because I can see some arguments for it, but practically speaking we are unlikely to implement this in core because it would complicate the effective state machine and is likely to lead to inconsistent behavior to users who don't realize that control-f triggering the display has magic properties.  An extension should be able to do this, however.

I realize the escape key has no explanation anywhere in the user interface and it's unfortunate...

Comment 2

[rsx11m]

Thanks, I've missed bug 525716 apparently. Yes, hitting the ESC key a second time closes the quick-search bar, so that's an acceptable workaround for me. However, this behavior by itself may be a problem. If some-one inadvertently hits ESC one time too many, the bar is gone, and may catch the user by surprise. Now he or she has to figure out how to get it back. So, not just the Ctrl+F is a magic property in that sense, but the ESC key as well. Thus, I think that this bug has its justification after all.

> mouse) click the icon on the tab bar

That's more obvious why I missed it. I have mail.tabs.autoHide set "true", thus the tab bar (also including the quick-search-close button) is hidden unless I open a second tab. That's rather difficult to discover as well.

Re Ctrl+F: I think that I've seen a bug pending somewhere on this already, but that keyboard shortcut actually has two functions: If a message is currently viewed in the message viewer, Ctrl+F opens alternatively the quick-search or the find-in-message bar, which is quite confusing. Let me know if it's not yet filed (can't find it again right now) and I can open another bug for this.

Comment 3

[rsx11m]

I couldn't find any report filed on the keyboard-shortcut conflict yet, thus
I've spun this off to bug 564328.

Comment 4

[Thomas D. (:thomas8)]

rsx11m, comment 0 is pretty hard to understand. Can we have better STR, and more detailed Actual behaviour, and Expected behaviour for this? I'm interested.

Comment 5

[rsx11m]

Steps to reproduce:

1. If the quick-filter bar is visible, close it in the tab bar or using the
   ESC keyboard shortcut so that it is no longer visible.
2. Set mail.tabs.autoHide to true and don't have any tabs open (optional)
3. Go into a folder and click Ctrl+F, qfb should open and focus.
4. Enter your term and let the search run.
5. Focus somewhere else, go to a different folder, or click [x] on the qfb.

Expected results:
 - Message list turns from blue to clear and displays messages as normal.
 - Quick-filter bar disappears again as it was hidden when search began.

Actual results:
 - Message list turns from blue to clear and displays messages as normal. (ok)
 - Quick-filter bar stays even though it was hidden when search began. (not ok)

Comment 6

[rsx11m]

Adjusting title after bug 564328 changed the keyboard shortcut from Ctrl+F to Ctrl+K.

Comment 7

[Thomas D. (:thomas8)]

...it's Ctrl+Shift+K for the qfb, though ;)

(In reply to rsx11m from comment #5)
> Steps to reproduce:
> 
> 1. If the quick-filter bar is visible, close it in the tab bar or using the
>    ESC keyboard shortcut so that it is no longer visible.
> 2. Set mail.tabs.autoHide to true and don't have any tabs open (optional)
> 3. Go into a folder and click Ctrl+F, qfb should open and focus.

So that's Ctrl+Shift+K now...

> 4. Enter your term and let the search run.
> 5. Focus somewhere else, go to a different folder, or click [x] on the qfb.
> 
> Actual results:
>  - Message list turns from blue to clear and displays messages as normal.

Just focusing "somewhere else" doesn't clear the filter, except for focusing a different folder (see above).

> Expected results:
>  - Message list turns from blue to clear and displays messages as normal.
>  - Quick-filter bar disappears again as it was hidden when search began.

I think there might still be a point to the general idea of this bug, but I can't see the details yet...

Are you sure you want the filter to be cleared and qfb to disappear when you just focus "somewhere else", except for a different folder? So e.g. selecting text in the msg preview of a found msg makes the message list filter go away? I'm sure that would be unexpected for most users, and I'm not sure if other volatile searches have similar behaviour. In fact, most quick search dialogues require ESC...

Can you give details for the rest of the UI? How does this interact with the View > Toolbars > Quick Filter Bar checkbox? And where / how do we provide the UI to cater for both cases - qfb with/without autohide?

Comment 8

[rsx11m]

Thanks for correcting the title (again), there was so much discussion in that bug that I've screwed it up in the end. ;-)

You are right that just changing the focus probably isn't enough trigger to already purge and hid the quick-filter-bar again. The aim of this bug is to hide it when it was hidden before and it is no longer used after any kind of interaction.

Thus, let's rephrase the target to hide the quick-filter bar if it was previously hidden before it was invoked with the keyboard shortcut, and when by normal operation the filter is cleared.

Comment 9

[rsx11m]

(In reply to Thomas D. from comment #7)
> View > Toolbars > Quick Filter Bar checkbox?

This case should be of a more permanent nature, i.e., if the option is checked the qfb isn't hidden even if empty. If it's not checked, the qfb should only be visible if either filtering is currently active, or after Ctrl+Shift+K has been used.

The best UI analogy might be the menu bar along with the "Alt" key, thus having it visible only when it actually is useful or explicitly wanted to initiate an action, with the "View" toggle disabling the hiding on inactivity.

Comment 10

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

wontfix based on comment 1