648780 - Move link target preview / page loading status to location bar (re-implement bug 587908)

Status: RESOLVED INACTIVE

(Firefox :: Address Bar, defect)

Description

[Wes Kocher (:KWierso) (Not reading bugmail; email directly if needed)]

Bug 587908 moved URL link hover information up into the addressbar, making all location-related information appear in the same UI element, which was good. But it was reverted in bug 541656 to a tooltip in the bottom of the browser window because not connection status/progress messages were put down there, which created some inconsistencies, and at the end of Firefox 4's development cycle, there wasn't enough time to fix those inconsistencies without holding back the release.

Now that Firefox 4 is out, it'd be nice to get those inconsistencies worked on, so that the original change to the behavior could be relanded.

Probably not for Firefox 5, since the aurora merge is in just a few days, but maybe for Firefox 6 or 7?

What would it take to get the location bar URL information back in?

Comment 1

[tinagma]

if this is implemented, i would like it if the scheme and domain were only shown if they changed, to save space

example:
user on http://example.com/

http://example.com/test/45/ would show as .../test/45

google would show as google.com/

ftp://example.com would show as is.

Comment 2

[Paul [pwd]]

IIRC I believe that Limi said he'd do all he could to resurrect bug 587908.

Comment 3

[Wes Kocher (:KWierso) (Not reading bugmail; email directly if needed)]

Attachment: backout some changesets

I believe this gets us back to the point right before the urlbar version was removed. I did a build locally with these backouts and the hovered URLs once again appear in the URL bar.

I might've missed some of the followup statuspanel landings. I'm pretty sure I got them all, though.

Comment 4

[Wes Kocher (:KWierso) (Not reading bugmail; email directly if needed)]

Comment on attachment 525896 [details] [diff] [review]
backout some changesets

Well, I'm not sure this patch looks quite like I thought it would, but this is basically just a straight backout of the statuspanel bugs.

Comment 5

[Dão Gottwald [:dao]]

Comment on attachment 525896 [details] [diff] [review]
backout some changesets

I don't see why we would want to do "a straight backout of the statuspanel bugs".

Comment 6

[Paul [pwd]]

There should be a long term plan of reimplementing bug 587908. We should reintroduce it with a pref first of all, maintaining the current implementation and switch to displaying in the location bar as default in 7 or 8 maybe not even at all if the adoption rate is too low. We'll be able to measure that via Test Pilot.

Comment 7

[alex_mayorga]

Can this at least become an add-on?

Comment 8

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

There needs to be a bunch of things:

1) A design document which clearly states how the bar is to behave through different states (hover, page loading, page loaded) as well as how content is to be elided / presented / animated, and what timers are required to make the feature responsive enough, etc. Where appropriate, multiple design options should be presented for exploration so that it's not "all or nothing" and so that we can learn through the design process.

2) Some eye tracking studies (we can get a school to do this for us with a prototype I'm sure) on experienced and novice web users alongside questionnaires that dig into perceived responsiveness under various design conditions. (This was one of the primary reasons why the change was removed from Firefox 4, and rightfully should be addressed)

3) It should be done in collaboration with the module owner of Firefox, as well as with the product team to ensure that we're looking at all requirements. Another reason it didn't make it for Firefox 4 was that it was felt by many to be dropped in late in the development cycle without appropriate consultation or bake time, and is a fairly major change to an established convention of web browsers. Let's avoid the OMGCHANGE response.

Comment 9

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

(In reply to alex_mayorga from comment #7)
> Can this at least become an add-on?

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/status-4-evar/

Comment 10

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

(In reply to tinagma from comment #1)
> if this is implemented, i would like it if the scheme and domain were only
> shown if they changed, to save space

I think that's a great idea and should be included as one of the design options for exploration, yes.

I would also love to see some animation:

// hover over a link to www.bar.com

 ,,.--------------------.--------------------------.
(<-) www.foo.com         >  www.bar.com     * v c' |
 '' --------------------'--------------------------'

// click on link, page starts loading

                    <-- new URL slides left
 ,,.-.------------------.--------------------------.
(<-)->) www.foo...  ...www.bar.com          * v c' |
 '' -'------------------'--------------------------'
        <-- old URL slides left/fades out


// page loaded

 ,,.-----------------------------------------------.
(<-) www.bar.com                            * v c' |
 '' -----------------------------------------------'

(excuse the quick ASCII art)

Comment 11

[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.