Page MenuHomePhabricator

Cannot dismiss page preview with keyboard navigation
Closed, ResolvedPublic

Description

I often use the keyboard for navigation instead of the mouse. Sometimes I even turn the oversized touchpad off altogether. Since launching the page previews feature, I noticed that the following happens:

  • A link is focused/hovered in some way (e.g. by ctrl+f'ing on the page[1], tabbing to it, clicking by mouse, whatever)
  • I immediately navigate away by hitting enter or clicking
  • I later (sometimes seconds, sometimes hours) return to the page with backspace or with alt+left
  • The page preview now opens, covering other text (making the following sentences unreadable).

When I hit escape, it doesn't close. When I tab to the next element, it opens that page preview instead. It seems one can only use the mouse to defocus the element.

I do not want to disable the previews altogether. They're not bad: it's just that there is no way of dismissing them when they erroneously show up (I just came from that page, I don't need the preview now...).

[1] It's not actually ctrl+f, but behaves very similar. I use the "Search for text when you start typing" feature in Firefox, as demonstrated here: https://www.reddit.com/r/RSI/comments/744dlq/if_you_work_a_lot_on_computers_avoid_the/

Event Timeline

We had similar issue previously: T158631. Also, we tried to bring keyboard support (T160545) but decided not do it.

Looks like we should reconsider keyboard support

ovasileva triaged this task as Medium priority.May 30 2018, 2:29 PM

@LucGommans For reproducability, it would be good to get a little more information on what browser you use?

  • I later (sometimes seconds, sometimes hours) return to the page with backspace or with alt+left
  • The page preview now opens, covering other text (making the following sentences unreadable).

This is not consistent with my testing, where the page preview is not visible even when the link is still focussed. Which doesn't mean I don't follow your issue description. Just to be clear for better testing.

Vvjjkkii renamed this task from Cannot dismiss page preview with keyboard navigation to p6baaaaaaa.Jul 1 2018, 1:07 AM
Vvjjkkii raised the priority of this task from Medium to High.
Vvjjkkii updated the task description. (Show Details)
Vvjjkkii removed a subscriber: Aklapper.
CommunityTechBot renamed this task from p6baaaaaaa to Cannot dismiss page preview with keyboard navigation.Jul 2 2018, 3:41 AM
CommunityTechBot lowered the priority of this task from High to Medium.
CommunityTechBot updated the task description. (Show Details)
CommunityTechBot added a subscriber: Aklapper.

@alexhollender we are focusing on page previews technical/design debt soon. Please consider if this should be a subtask of T284095.

I am unable to reproduce this situation.

  • If I use tab to focus a link (and trigger a page preview) when I return to the page the link is no longer focused (and the page preview doesn't display).
  • If I land on a page and my cursor happens to be on top of a link a page preview doesn't appear (see video below)

@LucGommans can you help me understand what I might be doing wrong here? Or help confirm if the issue is still happening? A screen recording would possibly be helpful. I am not opposed to having the Esc key dismiss page previews (particularly in the case where you've triggered one by using the tab key to navigate to a link), but I want to make sure the problem statement is clear before we proceed here.

Given the problems reproducing this one, I'm resolving this for now. Please reopen a new task if you are still seeing the same problem.