Fauxbar doesn't focus its Address Box nor Search Box automatically

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Seems to be broken on Chrome 27 Stable.

Original issue reported on code.google.com by fauxbar....@gmail.com on 22 May 2013 at 3:49

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I've asked for help on Stackoverflow:

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/16684663/chrome-27-new-tab-page-extension-can
t-steal-focus-from-omnibox

Original comment by fauxbar....@gmail.com on 22 May 2013 at 6:19

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Filed a Chromium issue here:
https://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=243102

Original comment by fauxbar....@gmail.com on 22 May 2013 at 10:48

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I can confirm this issue with the latest version of Chrome on both Windows and 
OSX. 

Interestingly, if I open a new Fauxbar tab by clicking the Fauxbar button 
(screenclip: http://note.io/11bSsbp) the focus is in the Fauxbar address bar, 
as expected. (screenclip: http://note.io/11bSVud)

Original comment by jmajo...@booksforbusiness.com on 31 May 2013 at 1:10

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Same here.

Original comment by di...@sv2.com.br on 11 Jun 2013 at 10:33

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Is there a chance that this will be fixed?  I really miss being able to use 
fauxbar without using the mouse!

Original comment by el.pablo...@gmail.com on 14 Jun 2013 at 8:44

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The Chromium team has stated that this behaviour is now a feature unfortunately 
-- they've tagged it as WontFix:
https://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=243102

I've been getting around this by pressing Alt+D to open Fauxbar, or by clicking 
the Fauxbar icon...

Ctrl+T or clicking Chrome's New Tab button means you now have to press Tab to 
change focus from the Omnibox to Fauxbar.

'tis annoying :(

A further idea is to create an option so you can create a new keyboard shortcut 
to open Fauxbar, if you didn't want to use Alt+D...

I haven't tested to see if Chrome's Ctrl+T can be overridden yet.

Original comment by fauxbar....@gmail.com on 21 Jun 2013 at 6:43

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Alt+D is a good idea. On Mac OS X, though, this only works if you are not 
focused in the Omnibox already, otherwise it inserts special characters.

Another "workaround" is to type f-space in the Omnibox to invoke Fauxbar within 
the Omnibox. However, the display isn't as good...

Original comment by seanf...@gmail.com on 21 Jun 2013 at 7:12

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On Windows I'm able to open a new tab (Ctrl+t) and focus the Fauxbar address 
bar by pressing the tab key once. Not a bad workaround. 

However on OSX after opening a new tab (Cmd+t) pressing the keyboard tab key 
cycles through all the extension buttons located immediately to the right of 
the Omnibox. In my case that means pressing the tab key 8 times before focus 
lands on the Fauxbar address bar. Any ideas for a better workaround on OSX? 

Original comment by jmajo...@booksforbusiness.com on 21 Jun 2013 at 7:22

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A wee discovery I've found...

1. Go to chrome://extensions
2. Scroll to bottom of page
3. Click "Keyboard shortcuts"
4. Beside Fauxbar, click the input field, then press Ctrl+T or whatever 
keyboard shortcut you'd like

Then, pressing Ctrl+T (or whatever shortcut you've entered) will act like you 
clicked on Fauxbar's toolbar icon.

So within Fauxbar's Options > General > Startup, ensure that the first option 
is set to open Fauxbar "in a new tab".

This doesn't fix clicking Chrome's New Tab button, but perhaps this shortcut 
functionality makes things a little better at least? Please let me know if this 
is helpful; I might add some instructions within Fauxbar to help people out 
with this.

Original comment by fauxbar....@gmail.com on 3 Jul 2013 at 3:49

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Great! It works, thank you very much!

Original comment by dmitry.d...@gmail.com on 3 Jul 2013 at 3:52

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Yes! This is awesome - I can use Fauxbar again! I'm not much concerned with 
Chrome's New Tab button since I use keyboard shortcuts anyway. It would 
definitely be helpful to add that tip to instructions within Fauxbar. Thank you!

Original comment by seanf...@gmail.com on 3 Jul 2013 at 5:18

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This is great! On OSX trying to set the Fauxbar keyboard shortcut to Cmd+t 
immediately opens a new Chrome tab in place, but setting it to Cmd+f works just 
fine. 

Original comment by jmajo...@booksforbusiness.com on 3 Jul 2013 at 12:20

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Okay, thanks all. Since this is a big, needed usability change/requirement, 
going to start on this.

I need to investigate, but it looks like adding some chrome.commands to the 
manifest might result in specified fields and actions being added to Chrome's 
Keyboard Shortcuts link:
https://developer.chrome.com/extensions/commands.html
(though this is just an insightful guess!)

Nevertheless...
Goals:

- Prompt and instruct Fauxbar users to add or review keyboard shortcuts using 
the instructions above to access Chrome's Keyboard Shortcuts page.

- Rework Fauxbar's existing Alt+D and Ctrl+K shortcuts to use Chrome's Keyboard 
Shortcuts.

Perhaps create four chrome.commands that the user can specify keyboard 
shortcuts to open Fauxbar in:
 - a new tab and focus the Address Box (default: Ctrl+T)
 - a new tab and focus the Search Box (default: Ctrl+Shift+K)
 - the current tab and focus the Address Box (default: Alt+D)
 - the current tab and focus the Search Box (default: Ctrl+K)

Another thought is, if the user clicked Chrome's New Tab button, display a 
friendly message about why the New Tab button sucks, and provide instructions 
for the keyboard shortcuts. Message could be dismissed.

Original comment by fauxbar....@gmail.com on 4 Jul 2013 at 2:26

• Changed state: Started

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Keyboard shortcuts are working well.

One thing I'm also testing is:

1. Fauxbar assigns a blank white dummy page as Chrome's New Tab Page -- but 
you'll never see it.
2. If you click Chrome's New Tab button or open a new window:
2a. Fauxbar intercepts the request to load the dummy page.
2b. Fauxbar creates a new tab beside the dummy tab, displaying Fauxbar's normal 
page with its Address Box and such and activates it as the active tab.
2c. Fauxbar closes the dummy tab before Fauxbar's normal page even loads.

This results in some semi-distracting tab-open-open-close behaviour (open 
Fauxbar's Options to see what I mean), but it happens pretty quickly.

End result is that Fauxbar's Address Box takes focus automatically, though it 
is a few tenths-of-a-second slower. BUT, this means you don't have to press Tab 
or click the Address Box yourself, which I think is a time-saving effort; no 
extra effort is required on the user's part, apart from waiting up to 1 second 
longer. Looks ugly, but saves a click or extra keystroke.

Using a keyboard shortcut is ultimately faster, but I find that I still like to 
click Chrome's New Tab button. And before I discovered keyboard shortcuts, I'd 
press Tab or click Fauxbar's Address Box -- and this got highly annoying. So I 
think this is the way to go. It's not perfect but I'd say it's an improvement 
on the current situation. And there's always Fauxbar Lite if it's too annoying 
for some.

Original comment by fauxbar....@gmail.com on 4 Jul 2013 at 11:06

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Just released v1.3.0 - marking this as Fixed.

Added option under General > Startup: Override Chrome's New Tab button. Enabled 
by default. Clicking Chrome's New Tab button quickly closes the New Tab Page 
while Fauxbar creates a "normal" tab in its place which can have its focus be 
switched to Fauxbar like it should.

Also added more customizable Keyboard Shortcuts:
 Open Fauxbar's Address Box in the current tab -- Alt+D
 Open Fauxbar's Address Box in a new tab       -- Ctrl+T
 Open Fauxbar's Search Box in the current tab  -- Ctrl+K
 Open Fauxbar's Search Box in a new tab        -- Ctrl+Shift+K

Pressing Ctrl+T is faster and prettier than clicking the New Tab button, but at 
least clicking the New Tab button no longer feels disappointing.

Original comment by fauxbar....@gmail.com on 6 Jul 2013 at 5:56

• Changed state: Fixed