browser.urlbar.search.sources vs browser.urlbar.default.behavior

Chris Ilias

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Jan 2, 2009, 12:01:34 PM1/2/09

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I need some clarification on why there are two prefs that (on the
surface) serve the same purpose.

In <https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=463661>,
|browser.urlbar.search.sources| was implemented, giving users the
ability to make the Smart Location Bar suggest Bookmarks, History,
Bookmarks and History, or nothing.

In <https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=463661>,
|browser.urlbar.default.behavior| was implemented, giving users what
seems to be the same functionality, but adding support for tags, titles,
and URLs.

Is one pref going to replace the other? If not, why not?

Chris Ilias

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Jan 2, 2009, 12:02:53 PM1/2/09

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On 1/2/09 12:01 PM, _Chris Ilias_ spoke thusly:

> I need some clarification on why there are two prefs that (on the
> surface) serve the same purpose.
>
> In <https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=463661>,
> |browser.urlbar.search.sources| was implemented, giving users the
> ability to make the Smart Location Bar suggest Bookmarks, History,
> Bookmarks and History, or nothing.
>
> In <https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=463661>,

Whoops, make that <https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=463459>.

Robert Kaiser

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Jan 2, 2009, 1:00:05 PM1/2/09

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I asked similar questions in
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=463459#c16 but it didn't go
quite as far. Ehsan explained at least the relation between the two in
the following bug comments.

Robert Kaiser

Chris Ilias

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Jan 2, 2009, 5:05:22 PM1/2/09

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On 1/2/09 1:00 PM, _Robert Kaiser_ spoke thusly:

>> On 1/2/09 12:01 PM, _Chris Ilias_ spoke thusly:
>>>

>>> Is one pref going to replace the other? If not, why not?
>
> I asked similar questions in
> https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=463459#c16 but it didn't go
> quite as far. Ehsan explained at least the relation between the two in
> the following bug comments.

Okay, so for clarification:
* One pref restricts what is queried, while the other restricts what is
displayed; so that the |browser.urlbar.match.*| function honours the
|browser.urlbar.search.sources| pref.
* Both prefs are going to be in Firefox 3.1
* There will be no UI for |browser.urlbar.default.behavior|

Correct?

Robert Kaiser

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Jan 2, 2009, 6:10:58 PM1/2/09

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Chris Ilias wrote:
> Okay, so for clarification:
> * One pref restricts what is queried, while the other restricts what is
> displayed; so that the |browser.urlbar.match.*| function honours the
> |browser.urlbar.search.sources| pref.

I would have suspected that initially, but Mardak's comment
|search.sources values of 1-3 are aliases of default.behavior other than
the "no search" ability.|
doesn't sound like that (see
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=463459#c17).

> * Both prefs are going to be in Firefox 3.1

AFAIK, yes.

> * There will be no UI for |browser.urlbar.default.behavior|

I don't think that's planned for Firefox, no (we probably will provide
UI for at least one bit of it in SeaMonkey 2 though).

Robert Kaiser