81752 - Implement Basic/Advanced My Sidebar Search Pref in preferences

Status: VERIFIED FIXED

(SeaMonkey :: Search, defect)

Description

[Samir Gehani]

We have removed the Basic/Advanced tab option from the Search menu, but want to
give advanced users access to this functionality.  In order to do this, we
should implement a preference for people to allow them to switch.  Specifically:

In Edit>Preferences>Navigator>Internet search, below the two existing sections
(Default engine, Search Results), and the following:

My Sidebar Search Tab Preference:

[radio button] Basic
[radio button] Advanced

(Moving bug from bugscape: this is already fixed.)

Comment 1

[Samir Gehani]

Attachment: Patch that fixes this with r=mcafee, sr=sfraser, and agreement from some folks including ben.

Comment 2

[Samir Gehani]

Fix checked in last night.

Comment 3

[Samir Gehani]

This is bugscape bug 4995's counterpart.  That bug should have been filed here
in the first place!

Comment 4

[Blake Ross]

This bug starts off with the assumption that "we have removed the Basic/Advanced 
tab option from the Search menu", but this is not true (it should be; I own the 
bug on that).  So?

Comment 5

[Samir Gehani]

Oops, yes, we haven't done that in mozilla yet.  Claudius and Ben think that we
should do that in mozilla as well.  I concur with the design and German thinks
it is kosher too.  So you wanna reassign that bug to me and change the summary
to reflect "Remove My Sidebar Search Tab menu item from Search menu" or some
such?  Or better yet, you wanna rip that menu item out yourself?  Thanks.

Comment 6

[Blake Ross]

It's okay, I'll do it (I have another bug on it), but how was it removed from 
comm builds only?  I didn't think the comm build had its own navigatorOverlay, 
nor did Ben.

Comment 7

[Samir Gehani]

Comm does have an overlay that gets loaded at menu-build time, and did in 6.0. 
  Thanks for taking care of this.  What is the bug number?  (I'll have to sync
comm up to not bother hiding the menu once you are done.)

Comment 8

[Matthew T (active 1999-2002)]

The point of the other bug, bug 44724, is that the presence of this option in
the `Search' menu is not discoverable enough. You have to go to a menu, separate
from the sidebar panel itself, in order to specify what the panel contains.

Everyone in that bug (Ben Goodger, Blake, me, German, JohnG, etc), with the
exception of Ben Bucksch, agrees that the most appropriate UI would be to have a
toggle in the sidebar panel itself.

So, I have a few questions.
(1) How did Samir persuade Ben Goodger that the UI described in bug 44724 was 
    not appropriate after all? What were the usability arguments involved?
(2) Who were `some folks', other than Ben Goodger? Did they include any of 
    Blake, me, German, or JohnG?
(3) Why wasn't bug 44724 wontfixed before this bug was fixed?
(4) If three clicks required to set this option[1] is not discoverable enough, 
    how is it that *six* clicks to set the option[2] is more discoverable?

______
[1] `Search' --> My Sidebar Search Tab' --> Basic'/`Advanced'
[2] `Edit' --> `Preferences ...' --> `Navigator' twisty --> `Internet Search'
    --> `Basic'/`Advanced' --> `OK'

Comment 9

[Blake Ross]

To be honest, I'd also like to know whose idea this UI was.  I'm not a technical 
writer and have no particular aptitude for UI design.  But I can't imagine 
myself ever adding

--- My Sidebar Search Tab Preference -------------------
|                                                      |
|   ( ) Basic                                          |
|   ( ) Advanced                                       |
|                                                      |
|______________________________________________________|

Aside from the fundamental problems with this pref and its location, think about 
it.  Do all the other groupbox titles in the Preferences dialog say 'Preference' 
after them?  Do they all offer an obscure choice without explanation?  The 
product would look quite a bit better if people stopped assuming that things 
will get fixed before public release.  Just a thought...

Comment 10

[Samir Gehani]

(1) How did Samir persuade Ben Goodger that the UI described in bug 44724 was 
    not appropriate after all? What were the usability arguments involved?

I did not convince Ben this was a better way to do things (and never made this
claim :o)).  I consulted German, author of the Search UI spec.  Then as Ben,
mozilla UI module owner, was reviewing this code he suggested we get rid of the
menu.  

(2) Who were `some folks', other than Ben Goodger? Did they include any of 
    Blake, me, German, or JohnG?

German, Matt Fisher, and Todd Pringle were amongst the folks.  All work closely
with search.

(3) Why wasn't bug 44724 wontfixed before this bug was fixed?

Because this bug does not imply that we won't fix bug 44724.  This just says we
will put a *preference* in the *preference* panel: a reasonable place as many
have agreed.    

(4) If three clicks required to set this option[1] is not discoverable enough, 
    how is it that *six* clicks to set the option[2] is more discoverable?

This fix is not in lieu of not fixing bug 44724.  Therefore, if folks choose to
make the basic/advanced option available per the discussion in bug 44724 in the
search sidebar panel then the number of clicks will reduce.

Comment 11

[Samir Gehani]

Blake,
To address your concern about the verbiage, can you suggest an alternative?  How
about calling it "My Sidebar Search Mode"?  The radio button labels (basic and
advanced) have a clearer corelation to mode than preference, possibly.  Open to
suggestions to make this more comprehensible.  

Comment 12

[Blake Ross]

That would be a start.  I still need to investigate the need for this pref and 
what major revisions are necessary.  However, I think we can handle that in the 
other bug.  No sense in beating a dead horse here.  Thanks for being responsive 
to ideas.

Comment 13

[timeless]

Search Sidebar mode.

blake has worked hard to kill my sidebar in mozilla.

Comment 14

[Matthew T (active 1999-2002)]

> Open to suggestions to make this more comprehensible.

One easy method: back out the change in this bug, since it has the sole effect 
of making Mozilla's UI worse, and fix bug 44724 instead.

That way there only needs to be one control (a disclosure triangle), its label 
only needs to have two words (`Advanced options'), and because it's in the 
panel itself it will be instantly obvious what the option is referring to.

Comment 15

[sairuh (rarely reading bugmail)]

mass-verifying claudius' Fixed bugs which haven't changed since 2001.12.31.

if you think this particular bug is not fixed, please make sure of the following
before reopening:

a. retest with a *recent* trunk build.
b. query bugzilla to see if there's an existing, open bug (new, reopened,
assigned) that covers your issue.
c. if this does need to be reopened, make sure there are specific steps to
reproduce (unless already provided and up-to-date).

thanks!

[set your search string in mail to "AmbassadorKoshNaranek" to filter out these
messages.]