Keyboard usage with AwesomeBar HD

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Edward Lee

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Apr 29, 2011, 2:27:16 PM4/29/11
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I've published a quick help clarifying some keyboard usage with AwesomeBar HD.
https://mozillalabs.com/prospector/2011/04/29/keyboard-usage-with-awesomebar-hd/

Ed

David Ascher

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Apr 29, 2011, 2:39:39 PM4/29/11
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On Fri Apr 29 11:27:16 2011, Edward Lee wrote:
> I've published a quick help clarifying some keyboard usage with AwesomeBar HD.
> https://mozillalabs.com/prospector/2011/04/29/keyboard-usage-with-awesomebar-hd/

Ya know, once the UI stabilizes, this is something that we could show
off really well w/ an interactive screencast kind of thing.
Inspiration comes from the awesome Trackpad control panel in OS X
System Preferences. I wouldn't suggest building the tech for that yet,
but something to keep in mind.

--da

Boris Prpic

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Apr 29, 2011, 4:33:11 PM4/29/11
to mozill...@googlegroups.com, Edward Lee, das...@mozilla.com
Hello all,

I see this addon as a great way to move search beyond Google. I think that there are a lot very useful vertical search engines out there and that this addon if integreated in Firefox could really popularize them.
You can add a big list of engines to Firefox and make a algorithm to suggest relevant ones based on user's keywords, location, past searches and other data..

Sriram R

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Apr 30, 2011, 5:41:19 AM4/30/11
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I really like this concept. The search bar has a lot of search engines. And new engines can be added easily in Firefox. This addon leverages the potential of those search engines my exposing them.

However, I tend to feel the entirely big list as a clutter. When Firefox is moving towards clutter free interface, showing a big list of text is something users wouldn't like (as per HCI principles).
How about showing the different search engines in the awesome bar suggestions? https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/mobile/addon/near-me-271823/ - shows an example of the same.
In that addon's case, there were just 3 options. In case of Firefox's list of search engines, it is many. This can be supported in a different manner.

When an user types "m", the first suggestion in Awesome Bar can be "search for Movies in IMDB". User can click on this, and this will be loaded into the URL bar like the way "AwesomeBar HD" supports [ i.e.: "movies: " ]. Now the user can enter his search term and search for the same.

Also, changing of the search engines is a nice feature of this addon. This can be mapped to the above idea easily. Just like "Switch to tab : " option that is currently supported, on user's select as mentioned above, the URL bar can show "Search for movie in IMDB : ". This IMDB will be like the newly proposed "Search engine indicator" with a drop button [http://areweprettyyet.com/5/searchBar/#]. Users can click on it to change the Default search engine.

[ P.S.: For want of space, the "Search for" can be represented with a search icon in the place of favicon, as the users know that this is a search option ].

I couldn't come up with mockups to explain my idea more clearly. I'll try to come up with some next week.

Robert Roth

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May 5, 2011, 10:37:53 PM5/5/11
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I do all my locationbar selecting/editing by keyboard, but I cannot see my cursor, so I have to guess where I am before typing.
(this is on Aurora branch).

As a side note, this doesn't allow the ctrl-click on URL segments for LocationBar2

Kai Lim

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May 6, 2011, 6:10:53 AM5/6/11
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Hey man,

I'm loving the concept of essentially making the awesomebar a sort of google without google. Im also quite glad that the search function jumped up in speed.
Probably one of the things im really interested in is what happens if the awesomebar were to bypass the homepage all together?

By this i mean, say we wanted to find something on youtube. We first go on youtube.com, then type in whatever we want in the searchbar. What if the awesomebar were to become this searchbar while
simultaneously bypassing the homepage and going straight to the results? We could type in the awesomebar "youtube:" to instantly search for videos rather than go through sub menus in the current version. This concept could be applied
to searching through other websites as well, not just youtube.

Would it be possible to get this done?

Cheers
Kai

Edward Lee

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May 6, 2011, 8:00:23 PM5/6/11
to mozill...@googlegroups.com, Kai Lim
On Fri, May 6, 2011 at 3:10 AM, Kai Lim <samur...@gmail.com> wrote:
> We could type in the awesomebar "youtube:" to instantly search for videos
> rather than go through sub menus in the current version.
Are you asking for something different than what currently happens
when you type "videos: mozilla"? In fact you can just copy/paste this
into your location bar: "v:mozilla".

Ed

Edward Lee

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May 6, 2011, 8:01:36 PM5/6/11
to mozill...@googlegroups.com, Robert Roth
On Thu, May 5, 2011 at 7:37 PM, Robert Roth <noma...@gmail.com> wrote:
> I do all my locationbar selecting/editing by keyboard, but I cannot see my
> cursor, so I have to guess where I am before typing.
Does this happen when you're trying to move the cursor with the
keyboard by pressing left/right? Could you try with v6 as it changes
how the textbox in the location bar works especially when the url is
showing.

Ed

Kai Lim

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May 7, 2011, 8:09:04 AM5/7/11
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yes, but rather than configuring the sub menu. I think it makes it more intuitive than typing in "videos:"

Leho Kraav

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May 8, 2011, 6:28:11 AM5/8/11
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i am stumped. on Linux, FF4.0, i cannot copy URL from A-HD. pressing CTRL+L or clicking the URL with mouse immediately clears the location. this does not seem to behave at all as written in the blog.

Edward Lee

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May 9, 2011, 8:15:29 PM5/9/11
to mozill...@googlegroups.com, Leho Kraav
On Sun, May 8, 2011 at 3:28 AM, Leho Kraav <le...@kraav.com> wrote:
> i am stumped. on Linux, FF4.0, i cannot copy URL from A-HD. pressing CTRL+L
> or clicking the URL with mouse immediately clears the location
Were you trying to right-click to copy the url? That should be fixed
with issue 277:
https://github.com/mozilla/prospector/issues/277

v9 should also fix issues with the tab panel trying to open and
causing the location bar to blur:
https://github.com/mozilla/prospector/issues/321

Ed

HbbS

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May 9, 2011, 9:28:57 PM5/9/11
to mozill...@googlegroups.com, Leho Kraav
The situation is getting worse.

On the nightly build of today, Awesome Bar HD 7 totally disabled the CTRL+L shortcut.

I cannot copy, paste or input on it.


Robert Roth

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May 9, 2011, 9:51:02 PM5/9/11
to Edward Lee, mozill...@googlegroups.com

The v6 update never showed up for me, but now I have v7.
However, if I use Alt-D to go to the address bar, and then use the
keyboard to move, I do not see any cursor.

-robert

Edward Lee

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May 9, 2011, 11:14:25 PM5/9/11
to mozill...@googlegroups.com, HbbS, Leho Kraav
On Mon, May 9, 2011 at 6:28 PM, HbbS <hebert....@gmail.com> wrote:
> On the nightly build of today, Awesome Bar HD 7 totally disabled the CTRL+L
> shortcut.
Can you try forcing an update to 8 by downloading it here?
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/prospector-awesomeBar-HD/versions/8

Ed

HbbS

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May 10, 2011, 12:30:18 AM5/10/11
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I updated to V8 and the address bar is functional again. But I've lost part of my window after that.

have a look

http://i.imgur.com/AmM02.png

I already disabled all my other add-ons to no avail.

FYI, I'm running Nightly 6.0a1 from Ubuntu's PPA. (Oneiric Ocelot)

http://i.imgur.com/GIIfP.png

V9 in sight?






Edward Lee

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May 10, 2011, 12:59:53 AM5/10/11
to mozill...@googlegroups.com, HbbS, Leho Kraav
On Mon, May 9, 2011 at 9:30 PM, HbbS <hebert....@gmail.com> wrote:
> I updated to V8 and the address bar is functional again. But I've lost part
> of my window after that.
Gah! Sorry about that. I assumed that was an artifact of the test
machine I used to track down the original problem.

You can get v9 here:
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/prospector-awesomeBar-HD/versions/9

You'll need to restart Firefox if you've installed v8 though.

Ed

Leho Kraav

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May 10, 2011, 9:17:26 AM5/10/11
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teisipäev, 10. mai 2011 7:59.53 UTC+3 kirjutas Edward Lee:
Gah! Sorry about that. I assumed that was an artifact of the test
machine I used to track down the original problem.

You can get v9 here:
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/prospector-awesomeBar-HD/versions/9

Problem is fixed on Linux, I appreciate it!
 
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