608501 - In Bookmarks Library, while sorted by date, the window scrolls to follow the clicked bookmark.

Status: RESOLVED INACTIVE

(Firefox :: Bookmarks & History, defect)

Description

[crf]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64; rv:2.0b8pre) Gecko/20101029 Firefox/4.0b8pre
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64; rv:2.0b8pre) Gecko/20101029 Firefox/4.0b8pre

Using Firefox 4, in Places, a list of bookmarks may be sorted by visit date. Selecting and clicking a bookmark will move the bookmark to the top of this list sorted by date, but also (if necessary) scroll the places window to follow that bookmark.

In Firefox 3, a clicked bookmark would move to the top of the list, but the window would not scroll to follow that bookmark. This is the preferred behaviour, I believe.

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1.Sort bookmarks by visit date in the Library.
2.Scroll the window down.
3.Select and click a bookmark.
Actual Results:  
The bookmark moves to the top of the list, and the places window scrolls to follow it.

Expected Results:  
The bookmark moves to the top of the list, but the places window does not scroll to follow it.

This could be a regression, since Firefox 3 exhibits the expected behaviour.

Comment 1

[Alice0775 White]

Confirmed.
4.0b8pre: Clicked bookmarks moves to the top of the tree and the tree scrolls to top.
3.6.12:   Clicked bookmarks moves to the top of the tree, but the tree stays current scroll position.

Regression window:
Works:
http://hg.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/rev/42f198ab6ebe
Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.1; WOW64; en-US; rv:1.9.3a5pre) Gecko/20100526 Minefield/3.7a5pre ID:20100527061247
Fails:
http://hg.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/rev/62c09fac599a
Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.1; WOW64; en-US; rv:1.9.3a5pre) Gecko/20100526 Minefield/3.7a5pre ID:20100527064459
Pushlog:
http://hg.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/pushloghtml?fromchange=42f198ab6ebe&tochange=62c09fac599a
Candidate bug:
Bug 566613 - Typo "wasVisbile" in treeView.js 
Bug 520659 - Lazily build places trees when possible

Comment 2

[Dietrich Ayala (:dietrich)]

Mildly annoying regression, but I don't think this is a release blocker.

Comment 3

[Marco Bonardo [:mak] (Away Apr 25 - May 5)]

I'm not even sure it is really unwanted, the list changes and the selection stays on the bookmark. if we don't scroll you'll have a selection out of the current visible part. Indeed what we do here is to scroll the view to the selection, that is usually correct.

what use case is this breaking?

Comment 4

[crf]

It makes cycling through sorted bookmarks annoying and less efficient, because, after selecting one bookmark in the sorted list, if a user wants to click the next bookmark within that sorted list, they now have to scroll down to were they had been previously within the sorted list. In a long list of bookmarks, this can take some time, and forces one to remember where they had been in the list.

This is the most common way I use date-sorted bookmark lists. Perhaps I'm an atypical user.

In ff3, the fact that the selected bookmark can move out of view of the scroll is not likely to be confusing, since the user knows exactly where the bookmark has gone: resorted to the top (or at the bottom of the marks with time stamps) of the list. Also remember that the user controls the scrolling: there user hasn't asked firefox to scroll the window for him, so firefox ought to have a good reason for doing it.

If it is thought that what ff4 is doing now is correct, shouldn't there be a report detailing the reasoning behind the change? After the fact justifications, even if made entirely in good faith, seem a bit suspect.

If this change is released in ff4, I think Mozilla will get a fair number of reports or feedback from users that expect, and like, the behaviour of ff3.

Comment 5

[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.