Select text in search field

[benrubson]

Hello,

This feature request follows #46. Would be nice for the text (inside the search field) to be selected when the search field is focused. So that we can then search for something else very quickly when we come back to the Webmarks page.

Many thx 👍

Ben

[raucao]

Thanks for your request, Ben! Are you talking about mobile or desktop usage? I'm not a fan of JavaScript getting in the way of standard UI behavior, so on desktop I'd prefer to have the user select the text themselves in case they want to replace it.

However, on mobile it's not so easy to select text, so the usual way to ease clearing of search fields is a delete (x) button on the right hand side. I think this could be useful for sure.

[benrubson]

Thank you for your answer Sebastian ! I'm talking about desktop usage :) This request follows #46 where search field is now re-focused after something has been clicked. This of course improves user experience, speeds up Webmarks usage.

I then think it could even be better if, when there is some text inside the search field, in addition for the field to be focused, the text could also be selected. So that the user can type something new without having to first clear the field.

Of course I think this requires some JS (select() function I think).

[raucao]

I'll check it out.

[benrubson]

Some news regarding this ? :) Many thanks !

[raucao]

No news. Last thing I did was updating the underlying framework and all code. I'll have a go at this one next.

[benrubson]

OK, thank you Sebastian 👍

[raucao]

I just deployed a new version, which shows a button for clearing the search field when it contains text. This should solve it nicely on both mobile and desktop. (It will also keep/re-set the focus on the field when clicking it.)

I also improved the layout of the search field a little bit.

[benrubson]

Thank you Sebastian 👍

Use case was also the following : you search for a bookmark, click on it, read this new opened page. You come back to Webmarks and want to search for another bookmark. It would then be nice for the previous searched text to be selected, so that you can enter new text directly without having to click / select or whatever. Do you then see why I would have liked the text to be selected ?

[raucao]

I understand the use case, but I don't think selecting text is the best way to go here in regards to balancing various different use cases. The field already has focus, so in order to select the text before typing more, you could just press CTRL+A for example. But you could also decide to add more text to the search phrase.

I'm open to check out any pull requests changing this behavior, but I'll leave it like this for now. It's very similar to almost every search field on the Web, but with the added auto-focus when coming back.

[benrubson]

Understood, thank you for your feedback Sebastian 👍