[aur-dev] Remove package search auto-complete
Hi, Before I start off on my rant I just want to say I am not trying to attack whoever committed this feature originally. Please don't take it personally. Can you please please please apply this patch to remove the auto-complete popup on the front page quick search. This is such an obnoxious use of javascript and I honestly see no point in it. I understand the intention fine but, in practice, I find myself having to hit enter 3 times just to do a search. Every. Single. Time. I've wasted more time pressing enter now than I ever did using my eyes to manually filter the result list on the next page. What's worse is as far as I can tell this is literally the only time javascript is used in the AUR and we are pulling in two entire libraries for it. What's the deal?? This cuts even deeper for me because I spent months trying to convince people in the past that, shock and horror, the web uses javascript these days and we can take advantage of it. Now it's allowed in and it's not even being used properly. If anyone disagrees with me, please say why, because I'd love to have a debate on the merits of this feature. Otherwise, can we get this applied as soon as possible. Thanks -- Callan
I agree having to press enter twice is somewhat frustrating but I have no
objections to the feature in general - I find it helpful and time-saving.
Loading jquery from Google CDN and another 1.4KB for typeahead seems
acceptable
to me. I'd rather see a patch that fixes the submit issue instead of one
that
removes the feature :)
Perhaps we can take this bug upstream?
https://github.com/twbs/bootstrap/issues
On Mon, Dec 30, 2013 at 8:38 AM, Callan
Hi,
Before I start off on my rant I just want to say I am not trying to attack whoever committed this feature originally. Please don't take it personally.
Can you please please please apply this patch to remove the auto-complete popup on the front page quick search. This is such an obnoxious use of javascript and I honestly see no point in it. I understand the intention fine but, in practice, I find myself having to hit enter 3 times just to do a search. Every. Single. Time. I've wasted more time pressing enter now than I ever did using my eyes to manually filter the result list on the next page.
What's worse is as far as I can tell this is literally the only time javascript is used in the AUR and we are pulling in two entire libraries for it. What's the deal?? This cuts even deeper for me because I spent months trying to convince people in the past that, shock and horror, the web uses javascript these days and we can take advantage of it. Now it's allowed in and it's not even being used properly.
If anyone disagrees with me, please say why, because I'd love to have a debate on the merits of this feature. Otherwise, can we get this applied as soon as possible.
Thanks -- Callan
That is a good point actually, I agree it's a bit petty to argue over bandwidth use. I never even considered that this was a bug with bootstrap itself either. My biggest problem with it though, where is my saved time? I type a package name in, I click the unique result, I hit enter and then I still need to click a link on the result page. If this feature gets kept in it should at least automatically open the package page on a unique result. -- Callan
On 30.12.2013 02:30, Callan wrote:
My biggest problem with it though, where is my saved time? I type a package name in, I click the unique result, I hit enter and then I still need to click a link on the result page. If this feature gets kept in it should at least automatically open the package page on a unique result.
It seems that adding the following to the front page fixes both the multiple enter problem and adds direct loading of a package page on click of a result: $('#pkgsearch-field').keydown( function(e) { if (e.keyCode == 13) { $('#pkgsearch-form').submit(); } }); $('ul.pkgsearch-typeahead').click( function () { var pkg = $(this).find('li.active').attr('data-value'); document.location = '/packages/'+pkg; }); Daniel Landau
On Mon, 30 Dec 2013 at 17:42:18, Daniel Landau wrote:
On 30.12.2013 02:30, Callan wrote:
My biggest problem with it though, where is my saved time? I type a package name in, I click the unique result, I hit enter and then I still need to click a link on the result page. If this feature gets kept in it should at least automatically open the package page on a unique result.
It seems that adding the following to the front page fixes both the multiple enter problem and adds direct loading of a package page on click of a result:
$('#pkgsearch-field').keydown( function(e) { if (e.keyCode == 13) { $('#pkgsearch-form').submit(); } });
$('ul.pkgsearch-typeahead').click( function () { var pkg = $(this).find('li.active').attr('data-value'); document.location = '/packages/'+pkg; });
Didn't look at the code in detail but I think that this is the best idea that has been presented here so far (in terms of usability). From the beginning, I have been strongly against JavaScript in the AUR but as long as JavaScript features are helpful and don't hurt any users with JavaScript disabled, I see no point in not adding them. The typeahead feature helps with: * Entering long package names. * Searching for packages when you can only remember parts of the name. * Finding packages with a name that is part of several other packages. It saves at least one "hand from keyboard to mouse" movement, a point operation and a click (and in the last case, several point operations and clicks). What are the real arguments against this feature (not against the implementation)?
Daniel Landau
On 01/01/2014 12:53 AM, Lukas Fleischer wrote:
Didn't look at the code in detail but I think that this is the best idea that has been presented here so far (in terms of usability). From the beginning, I have been strongly against JavaScript in the AUR but as long as JavaScript features are helpful and don't hurt any users with JavaScript disabled, I see no point in not adding them. The typeahead feature helps with:
* Entering long package names. * Searching for packages when you can only remember parts of the name. * Finding packages with a name that is part of several other packages.
It saves at least one "hand from keyboard to mouse" movement, a point operation and a click (and in the last case, several point operations and clicks).
What are the real arguments against this feature (not against the implementation)?
I'm swayed. I don't see any problems with the feature when it's actually working properly. I'm still uncomfortable with the level of dependencies for a single thing but I guess it's the futuuuurrre of webscale
If I'm reading this right we've reached a consensus :). I do appreciate the
arguments against using javascript.
In the light of moving forwarding fixing the issues, this thread revealed
two
usability issues:
* you have to press enter twice to get the search submitted
* if you select a specific package from the list, you still end up on the
search results page
The changes proposed by Daniel Landau fix both issues, but do not allow
using the
keyboard to select a package from the list. Attached patch is based on those
changes and cover the following use cases:
* a user enters a search term and presses enter -> search results page
* a user enters a search term and clicks on a suggestion -> package page
* a user enters a search term and selects a suggestion using keyboard ->
package page
On Wed, Jan 1, 2014 at 1:16 AM, Callan
On 01/01/2014 12:53 AM, Lukas Fleischer wrote:
Didn't look at the code in detail but I think that this is the best idea that has been presented here so far (in terms of usability). From the beginning, I have been strongly against JavaScript in the AUR but as long as JavaScript features are helpful and don't hurt any users with JavaScript disabled, I see no point in not adding them. The typeahead feature helps with:
* Entering long package names. * Searching for packages when you can only remember parts of the name. * Finding packages with a name that is part of several other packages.
It saves at least one "hand from keyboard to mouse" movement, a point operation and a click (and in the last case, several point operations and clicks).
What are the real arguments against this feature (not against the implementation)?
I'm swayed. I don't see any problems with the feature when it's actually working properly. I'm still uncomfortable with the level of dependencies for a single thing but I guess it's the futuuuurrre of webscale
Hi,
On Wed, Jan 1, 2014 at 5:06 PM, Joris Steyn
The changes proposed by Daniel Landau fix both issues, but do not allow using the keyboard to select a package from the list. Attached patch is based on those changes and cover the following use cases:
* a user enters a search term and presses enter -> search results page * a user enters a search term and clicks on a suggestion -> package page * a user enters a search term and selects a suggestion using keyboard -> package page
This is improvement but I still feel the lack of a button. If I past a part of a package name and want to go to the search result page I still need to reach the keyboard just to press enter. Moreover this is quite counter-intuitive as I have often looked if there was any button hidden somewhere after the introduction of this suggestion feature. Regards, -- Cédric Girard
participants (5)
-
Callan
-
Cédric Girard
-
Daniel Landau
-
Joris Steyn
-
Lukas Fleischer