749923 - Location bar autocomplete leaves ">>" if there is a better autocomplete result

Status: RESOLVED INCOMPLETE

(Firefox :: Address Bar, defect)

Description

[Tomer Cohen :tomer]

Since the location bar autocomplete feature is enabled by default, I find myself sometimes having to fight with it to get the URL I started typing and not the browser suggestion. Sure, I can disable this feature, but I guess that the normal user won't do it ever, and I prefer to see this problem fixed rather to workaround it by myself.

When I type in the URL bar, I know what I meant to type. When I want to go to the specified URL and my browser suggests me something longer, I press on the spacebar, which does remove the suggestion as it is also the selection, but adds the space character. Most of the times it is enough, and I get to the right destination. 

Sometimes, though, the browser insists that I am wrong, and reminds me that it has better suggestion. This ends up with the ">>" string after my typed location and the suggestion the browser has. Since I am typing fast and not always watching carefully the location bar, this ends up by requesting a page such as "http://example.net/foo >> http://example.net/foo/bar/index.html", which will return HTTP 404 error as there is no such resource on the server. 

Steps to reproduce:
a. Start by typing the address of one of your favorite sites. 
b. When the browser suggest to type a longer address and you prefer to go to the top level or higher level folder, press the spacebar. 
c. You will end up with something like "http://mozilla.org.il/board/viewtopic.php? >> mozilla.org.il/board/viewtopic.php?t=10916" and the browser will request the page "http://mozilla.org.il/board/viewtopic.php?%20%20%3E%3E%20mozilla.org.il/board/viewtopic.php?t=10916".

Expected result:
I'd prefer the spacebar key to paste a space character without the suggestion with ">>". As far as I know, there should never be any use for ">>" in suggested URL so it is unnecessary. Currently the only way to get the right result is to type the delete key, which does remove the selection without placing the suggestion, but is more difficult to locate this key by fast blind-typing. 

(This bug is very similar to bug 348844, but is about the location bar autocomplete rather than the email autocomplete, both sharing the same widget control)

Comment 1

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

inline autocomplete IS NOT enabled by default, please check browser.autoFill.enabled, you likely have it set to user value.

Comment 2

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

(I mean in Firefox 13, this bug may already be fixed in 14, if you want to check)

Comment 3

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

no reply, incomplete, feel free to reopen if still reproducible

Comment 4

[:glob ✱]

i see this too.  browser.autoFill.enabled is not set.

Comment 5

[Thomas D. (:thomas8)]

Can somebody update STR for this bug?

I seem to never get ">>" with default settings in FF 29.0 (WinXP)
Or maybe the bug is gone?

Default settings for FF 29.0:

browser.urlbar.autoFill;true
browser.urlbar.autoFill.typed;true

Comment 6

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

(In reply to Thomas D. from comment #5)
> Can somebody update STR for this bug?

Comment 7

[:glob ✱]

sorry, it's an intermittent issue so i don't have STR :(
i haven't seen it for a while (i run nightly).

Comment 8

[Jim Mathies [:jimm]]

I keep running into this with |about:config| which autofills to 

about:config >> about.net/

when I hit return after typing about:config, ignoring the auto complete text, the browser navigates to about:config >> about.net/ which errors out. Seems to be intermittent too, hard to track down good str.

Comment 9

[Jim Mathies [:jimm]]

Just got this again - 

www.youtube.com >> www-dev.allizom.org/

I'm testing some unrelated work in a debug build attached to a debugger, so testing with a slow browser seems to play into this.

Comment 10

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

what you are seeing is bug 1051830

This bug, as-is, is incomplete since missing str (it refers to the previous autocomplete implementation)