Bug 324892

Summary:	Don’t use tab key to navigate in location breadcrumbs
Product:	[Unmaintained] kfile	Reporter:	Frank Steinmetzger <dev+kde>
Component:	kurlnavigator	Assignee:	kdelibs bugs <kdelibs-bugs-null>
Status:	RESOLVED FIXED
Severity:	wishlist	CC:	nate
Priority:	NOR
Version First Reported In:	4.11.1
Target Milestone:	---
Platform:	Gentoo Packages
OS:	Linux
Latest Commit:		Version Fixed/Implemented In:
Sentry Crash Report:

Description Frank Steinmetzger 2013-09-13 15:11:44 UTC

Dolphin has many views and widgets that can be cycled through with the tab key. Since it is already possible to fully navigate the location bar using the cursor keys, I’d like to propose that, when the location bar is focused, pressing tab would immediately switch focus to the next widget in the cycle, i.e. the main folder view.

It would ease keyboard-only navigation in Dolphin considerably, because it would greatly reduce the number of tabs needed to cycle through all of its widgets, and also because the number of tabs required to walk over the location bar varies, depending on the directory level shown.

Thanks for your consideration.

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
Press tab repeatedly to cycle through Dolphin’s widgets.
Actual Results:  
At some point, the location bar will become focused. Pressing tab now cycles through all visible path breadcrumbs and eventually, after the last one, focus switches to the next widget.

Expected Results:  
Since the location bar is perceived (well, by me anyway) as one widget, it should only get focus once, then pass it on.

Comment 1 Nate Graham 2018-06-15 03:37:59 UTC

Works for me in KDE Frameworks 5.47. When you tab-cycle through completions and then select one with the return key, the tab key now moves the focus through the focus chain as expected.

Comment 2 Frank Steinmetzger 2018-06-15 21:59:55 UTC

Did you mean the breadcrumb items with “Completions”? I just upgraded frameworks from 5.43 to 5.46 yesterday and investigated again. Unfortunately I found more inconsistencies. I’m afraid it might even be something for a separate issue.

Right after starting dolphin, the tab order is (starting in the places panel):
- the sidebar tabs, if there are any
- sometimes, but not always, the “Settings” button in the toolbar
- the location bar, but without any visual hint (but cursor keys can navigate the breadcrumbs)
- all items in the location bar: “Personal folder” and each directory level
- a vertical line at the end of the breadcrumbs. I don’t know its purpose. I also checked the help page, but there was no mentioning of it.
- the main view
- the zoom slider
- now the focus switches to two invisible widgets, neither cursor nor enter keys have any effect
- back to the places panel

When I now navigate to a directory under / using keyboard input, for example /usr/local/share, the tab order changes:
- now the first tab press jumps right to the location bar’s subfolder items usr, local and share
- the black vertical line
- sidebar tabbar, if there is one
- the “Settings” button in the toolbar
- the location bar again, but not visibly (I can use the cursor keys though)
- the location bar’s “Root folder” item
- the file view
- the zoom slider
- the two invisble items from above

I.o.w., when viewing /usr/local/share, I need 7 presses of tab to get from the places panel to the file view widget. Apologies if I’m being annoying with a minute detail. :)

Comment 3 Nate Graham 2018-06-26 15:55:13 UTC

Looks like what you discuss is an issue with Dolphin, not the KURLNavigator. Please file a bug against Dolphin to request a saner tab ordering. Thanks!