Closed Bug 86643 Opened 23 years ago Closed 23 years ago

Autocomplete dropdown is included in the tab order

Categories

(SeaMonkey :: Autocomplete, defect)

Product:
SeaMonkey
Component:
Autocomplete
Type:
defect
Priority:
Not set
Severity:
normal

Tracking

(Not tracked)

Status:
RESOLVED WONTFIX

People

(Reporter: mkaply, Assigned: hewitt)

References

Details

(Keywords: access, regression) 

When the autocomplete dropdown appears, it is included in the tab order.

It should not be.
This is very annoying in the mail composition window.  I hit it almost every
time I try to tab from the To field to the Subject field.

See also bug 68508, "tab completion loses focus within URL text entry box". 
That bug may have to be wontfixed in order for this bug to be fixed.
See also bug 66834, location bar drop-down should not block clicks outside of
itself.
*** Bug 79006 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Copying hewitt and ducarroz from 79006.  Also copying the regression keyword.
Keywords: regression
The following must work before this bug is fixed (since bug Bug 79006 was marked
a dupe of this one):

NEW MESSAGE COMPOSE (while in Autocomplete list):- TAB    - to add selected
address and *place selection on Subject line*.
- RETURN - to add selected address and *enter another address*.
-> blake, Duke of URL
Assignee: alecf → blake
I only did a couple urlbar fixes...that doesn't mean I want to do all of them :-)

--> hewitt, I'm pretty sure this is a dup though.
Assignee: blake → hewitt
Component: URL Bar → XP Apps: Autocomplete
QA Contact: claudius → blake
*** Bug 91522 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
The reporter of bug 91522 that 4.x did not include the addressing widget's 
autocomplete in the tab order, but instead accepted the autocompleted address 
and moved to the subject field when you hit tab.  So this bug is 4xp.
Keywords: 4xp
This was annoying in composition windows and it was fixed, but in browser
windows it is the fastest way to accept the first, or any, autocomplete answers
period.  Otherwise, one would have to remove his/her hands from the keyboard to
get to the up/down arrows, which is a pain in the butt.  If you're going to
remove this, try coming up with another quick way of selecting autocomplete
entries.  Otherwise, it'll stop getting used because it's faster to type the
entire entry than to stop typing and hit arrows.
Why is it any harder to go to the arrow keys then to the tab key?

If five entries come up, wouldn't you tab to them and then use the arrow keys 
to cycle through them?
When typing one can hit the tab key with one's pinky.  You have to move your
hands to get to the up/down arrows.  Hitting to autocomplete is pretty fast, but
if you have to move your hands to get to the arrows, you might as well just type
the rest of the autocompleted text yourself.

I think it would be an okay compromise if the autocomplete dropdown with the
first entry selected was in the tab order, then hitting tab again would go on to
the next element.  Then you could still hit tab once to get to the most likely
item, then enter would get you there. 
It now works as it should in messenger (build 2001-07-31): 
- type first few letters (BTW. Here *both* your hand are now *on* the keyboard)
- list of matches appears 
- use curser keys to select desired mathch
- TAB to place address in TO: field and selection goes to SUBJECT field - YEAH
- (or RETURN to place address in TO: field and selection goes to next TO: field)

No matter what you do in this bug, do not break this behaviour.
*** Bug 89860 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
No.  The people who fixed this bug for messages accepted that it's not
neccesarily best for browser windows.  This is wrong behavior.  It should be
acceptable to give the autocomplete answer at least one entry in the tab cycle.
 Your behavior breaks any chance of fast and convenient use of autocomplete.  

This isn't 4xp.  The opposite case is 4xp.  NS4.x would autofill in the url bar
and all you had to do was hit enter to accept it or delete to not accept it. 
The new drop down broke the speed of this, but being able to tab to answers made
it accpetable.  Removing answers from the tab cycle completely is wrong.
Note that the above comment refers to browser windows only.  Message
compositions are a bit different in context and use.
Bug 89860 was resolved against this one. I have a pretty detailed requested
behavior there, and I hope some of that gets implemented here.

My suggestion would be that when the cursor is in the To line and you begin to
type, the field is filled with the first applicable autocomplete address, AND
you get the drop down menu with alternative choices. That way, if the first
match is correct you can simply hit tab to move to the next field, but you can
also use the up/down arrows to select the proper name if the 1st choice is
incorrect. Seems like the best of both worlds that way.

- Adam
Also note that including the dropdown in the tab order makes using the search
feature built into it much quicker and easier to use.  Typing in a phrase will
result in just the search engine dropping down below it.  A quick hit of tab and
enter searches for it.

I know that long autocomplete dropdowns can make tabbing from the url bar (this
bug is listed as BROWSER, not MAILNEWS) to the rest of the page elements a pain,
but there's got to be another way to get around this.
Tabbing should NOT be used for scrolling in a list, that is what the *curser
keys* are for. This seems to be inconsistent (wrong) behavour.

Tabbing IS for "jumping" between separate items (fields, screens, etc.).
Maybe TAB could place the entire selected url into the url bar and select it (so
a return would activate it). This way you could use the curser keys to select
the url you want from the dropdown list, TAB it into the url bar and maybe then
edit it, if needed, or RETURN to activate it. 

A return would immediately activate only the portion that was typed.

just my 2c.
For some strange reason, bug 89860 for TAB behaviour in *MailNews* has been
merged into this bug. So we must now consider BOTH requiremnets separately in
this one bug (argh, mixing bugs, it just doesn't make sense anymore).

Should we change the "subject" of this bug to reflect the schitsophrenic nature
of this bug?
First: I'm going set this straight and narrow my scope to browser windows.
Autocompletes are not in tab order on my win2k nightly build, is this still an
issue with other builds?  There was another bug for that, and it was fixed.  

Second: Internet explorer 6 has the behavior that mozilla currently has.  that
is, autocomplete is in the tab order.  

Third: Autocomplete only pops up if you started typing an url.  why would you
start typing an url and THEN decide to tab to other page elements?  It is more
likely that you would want to select an autocomplete url once you start typing
than it is that you would want to go to page elements.  We should take care of
the more likely case.

Fourth: If for some reason you don't want to tab through autocomplete once
you've started typing, you can hit escape (which is very close to tab and you
don't have to move your hands from the keyboard) and the autocomplete will go
away and you can tab through your other page elements.  This is what internet
explorer 6 does also.

If this bug is truly meant for message compositions, please change the summary
and Product items so I'll shut up. 

PLairo: I understand your case for message composition windows, and I think it
was a mistake that these two cases got mixed/merged.  
Hello,

My bug 89860 has been resolved dupe against this bug. Would someone here kindly
look over what I wrote, and tell me whether this is correct or not? This bug is
listed as a browser issue, but it sounds like you guys are discussing the
mail/news issue I brought up in my bug. And frankly, I think my explanation
makes a lot more sense than anything I've read here. ;)

Thanks muchly.

- Adam
>Second: Internet explorer 6 has the behavior that mozilla currently has.  that
>is, autocomplete is in the tab order.

I currently use IE 5.5 as my main browser, and I run into that bug about once
every 3 days.  It's very annoying.  IE not only includes autocomplete in the tab
order, but it also includes each autocomplete *entry* in the tab order, and
doesn't let you get out of autocomplete except by pressing escape.
Blocks: 79006
I reopened bug 79006 (the mail composition case) because it might be solved in a
different way than this bug.
Jesse: some of us appreciate this.  as I said in Third above, why are you typing
in the url, then deciding to tab to other page elements?  Typing indicates
you're trying to go to an url, so it should be okay to make things easier for
achieving that goal (like adding autocomplete to the tab order).  I would
sacrifice hitting escape once every 3 days for the benefit of being able to use
autocomplete quickly and effectively.

autocomplete is only in the tab order in the navigator urlbar, which is as designed.
Status: NEW → RESOLVED
Closed: 23 years ago
Resolution: --- → WONTFIX
I think this is the wrong decision.  See the behavior in Open Web Location for
the correct way to do this. As it stands I can't tab out of the URL field into
the content area. This is an accessibility bug and shouldn't be resolved Wontfix.
Blocks: 102951
Product: Core → Mozilla Application Suite
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