"AwesomeBar" is totally NOT awesome

fadsxcv · Post by **fadsxcv** » March 21st, 2008, 11:43 pm

Bug 395161 - make it possible to restrict the url bar autocomplete results to bookmarks, tags, or history entries

^-- the awfulbar would actually be awesome if it were possible to set make it search the old way by default and then use keywords to change the search algorithm like the above bug.

and making it:
- search faster
- have the url and title be on a single column like Fx2
- color code the different matches
- not restrict search to a puny number of rows to hide the slowness

would be icing on the cake

Mardak · Post by **Mardak** » March 22nd, 2008, 12:06 am

fadsxcv: Did you try the build I linked to earlier? It should be searching faster.

https://build.mozilla.org/tryserver-bui ... Nfast.bar/

What about the "old way" do you want? Other than matching only at the beginning of the domain? Taking a step back, what was the purpose of you typing something and finding a page?

Oropher · Post by **Oropher** » March 22nd, 2008, 12:18 am

They just landed a couple more improvements for this...

Fabfire, have you seen the version in the latest builds with adjusted text size?

gssq · Post by **gssq** » March 22nd, 2008, 12:23 am

I like having 10 rows! With the smaller font it's alright - it doesn't take up *too* much space.

There doesn't seem to be a pref we can tweak to adjust the number of rows...

Fabfire · Post by **Fabfire** » March 22nd, 2008, 12:47 am

Oropher wrote:They just landed a couple more improvements for this...

Fabfire, have you seen the version in the latest builds with adjusted text size?

Thanks for asking.
Yes. I've just downloaded the latest hourly and set up browser.urlbar.maxRichResults to 4. Disabled oldbar 1.2 and the result is, well, 'bearable'... I guess. But my concern is with the average user, that one that not even know what about:config is...

I still think that it should be some really easy way for the average user to get the looks at least as oldbar 1.2 provides. Users should not have to rely on an extension to get this or similar results. Even reducing the number of maxRichResilts to 2, it still looks like an unfinished job. It's that ugly.

I really love Firefox 3.0 - it's a fantastic browser - why not give the awesome bar a polished look to go with the great browser we have?

Fab

EDIT: Oops! Adjustable TEXT SIZE? Geez, I really need more sleep! Wonderful!!! How do I reduce the text size?

Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9b5pre) Gecko/2008032121 Minefield/3.0b5pre ID:2008032121

fadsxcv · Post by **fadsxcv** » March 22nd, 2008, 1:27 am

Mardak wrote:fadsxcv: Did you try the build I linked to earlier? It should be searching faster.

https://build.mozilla.org/tryserver-bui ... Nfast.bar/

I take it you're a lead dev of some sort on the awesomebar and this is some sort of testbed build of yours before you submit patches on the trunk?

Mardak wrote:What about the "old way" do you want? Other than matching only at the beginning of the domain? Taking a step back, what was the purpose of you typing something and finding a page?

Only matching at the beginning of the domain is exactly what I want (and having it be a single line with the urls on the left and the titles on the right). Stop trying to figure out what kind of use cases will make the awesomebar better or how I should adopt my thinking to the awesomebar. I've been using the awesomebar for a while now and while I like it for some things, I still prefer the old behavior better for the majority of cases.

My suggestion on how to go about doing this is:

1. add a new search option called "urlbar.match.url-classic" or something like that that searches it exactly like Fx2 did it.
2. make it so that if you set one of the urlbar.match keywords to the empty string, it will search that way by default.

Then all I have to do is set urlbar.match.url-classic to the empty string in about:config and me and many other users are happy campers.

Bluefang · Post by **Bluefang** » March 22nd, 2008, 2:33 am

fadsxcv wrote:Stop trying to figure out what kind of use cases will make the awesomebar better...

Sorry, but that's kind of how software development works.

fadsxcv wrote:1. add a new search option called "urlbar.match.url-classic" or something like that that searches it exactly like Fx2 did it.
2. make it so that if you set one of the urlbar.match keywords to the empty string, it will search that way by default.

Then all I have to do is set urlbar.match.url-classic to the empty string in about:config and me and many other users are happy campers.

There are bugs files that will pretty much allow you to do that.... i.e.
Bug 395161 - make it possible to restrict the url bar autocomplete results to bookmarks, tags, or history entries
so just patiently wait for it to get finished. The Devs know it's not finished. The Devs know some people are unhappy with it. Bugs are filed to address many of the concerns. Give them a chance to work on it.

GSkRC33NJ9US · Post by **GSkRC33NJ9US** » March 22nd, 2008, 4:54 am

My personal issue with the awesome bar is simple:

If I type in "mozillazine", I expect:

mozillazine.org
forums.mozillazine.org
forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php...

You see what I mean? The actual domain, with the smallest path, should be first, then subdomains.
Well, what I said wasn't perfect, but I am sure you get the point.

supernova_00 · Post by **supernova_00** » March 22nd, 2008, 5:10 am

when I type 'm' mozillazine.org is first, just like what i expect. The awesomebar is definitely better with all those patches mardak!

minotaur 11 · Post by **minotaur 11** » March 22nd, 2008, 5:24 am

My small issues with the awesomebar are:

I have slight performance problems with the default preferences, a complete search through the database takes circa 4 seconds with 100% CPU and typing is not always responsive. I reduced "browser.urlbar.search.chunkSize" to 500 and a complete search takes now a little bit longer (6s), but typing feels responsive. Anyway, most of the time the number of maximum results is reached earlier or i select an entry before the search finishes.

The test build with incremental updates is a big improvement for me, it feels odd to wait for identical results again and again. It would be nice if firefox could cache the last search results (or more), i often correct the last character (mistyped or no useful search results) and this triggers always a complete new search.

The number of rows is no big deal for me, but i'm in favor of 10 rows. I use the location bar as offline search engine and i don't want to scroll.

All in all, i'm a big fan of the awesomebar, it makes it much easier to keep the control over my bookmarks and history.

GSkRC33NJ9US · Post by **GSkRC33NJ9US** » March 22nd, 2008, 5:32 am

supernova_00 wrote:when I type 'm' mozillazine.org is first, just like what i expect. The awesomebar is definitely better with all those patches mardak!

Yeh, but I have a thread bookmarked.
It shows that first.
Maybe that's how it should work, but I don't like that behavior:D

Post by **BenBasson** » March 22nd, 2008, 6:22 am

Visit mozillazine.org from the awesomebar a few times. It should jump above the thread.

GSkRC33NJ9US · Post by **GSkRC33NJ9US** » March 22nd, 2008, 6:38 am

Cusser wrote:Visit mozillazine.org from the awesomebar a few times. It should jump above the thread.

Ah, so it visit count is a factor? Interesting.

Stifu · Post by **Stifu** » March 22nd, 2008, 6:47 am

Cyberkilla: how about simply starring mozillazine.org? After all, it's a link that you wouldn't want to expire.

Fedorov · Post by **Fedorov** » March 22nd, 2008, 6:58 am

I found the best fix for the order of results was to clear my history so the awesome bar dropdown started fresh - it's been giving me pretty much what I expect when I type the first couple of characters quite nicely for some time now