Bug 171743 - Shortcut for moving between parts in Split View
Summary: Shortcut for moving between parts in Split View
Status: RESOLVED FIXED
Alias: None
Product: dolphin
Classification: Applications
Component: split view (show other bugs)
Version: 16.12.2
Platform: Ubuntu Linux
: NOR wishlist
Target Milestone: ---
Assignee: Dolphin Bug Assignee
URL:
Keywords: triaged
: 193619 194391 200885 243814 292608 306558 311575 335308 (view as bug list)
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
Reported: 2008-09-27 17:04 UTC by Pento
Modified: 2019-03-13 21:18 UTC (History)
28 users (show)

See Also:
Latest Commit:
Version Fixed In: 16.12


Attachments
This removes counter intuitive tab stops (3.01 KB, patch)
2014-03-07 15:18 UTC, Jimmy Kloss
Details
Prevents the tabbar/tabs and clickable URLbar to take focus (1.74 KB, patch)
2014-03-07 15:29 UTC, Jimmy Kloss
Details

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Description Pento 2008-09-27 17:04:41 UTC
Version:           0.9.2 (using KDE 3.5.10)
OS:                Linux
Installed from:    Ubuntu Packages

It will be great to add ability to use shortcut for moving focus between parts in Split View mode.
In this moment it can be done only with help of mouse.
Comment 1 FiNeX 2008-11-14 14:10:40 UTC
It is possible to use "tab" but:
1) if you have the terminal emulator active, tab will be catched by the shell
2) it is slow to use tab for change the focus.

I agree with Pento: a shortcut should be added!
Comment 2 Frank Reininghaus 2009-05-22 20:40:24 UTC
*** Bug 193619 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Comment 3 Frank Reininghaus 2009-07-21 00:14:04 UTC
*** Bug 200885 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Comment 4 km 2009-09-20 19:02:55 UTC
I agree! Lack of such shortcut is really anoying.
Comment 5 km 2009-09-20 19:13:29 UTC
well, this approach is even better: https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=194391
Comment 6 Frank Reininghaus 2010-07-08 10:04:47 UTC
*** Bug 243814 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Comment 7 km 2010-07-14 17:13:03 UTC
I agree! This is essential thing for a file manager with two panels and it's strange this functionality hasn't been added in Dolphin for so long.
Comment 8 ichbinder 2010-09-27 04:06:04 UTC
I added a similar topic to KDE Brainstorm and within a short time 19 people voted already for it:
http://forum.kde.org/brainstorm.php#idea90414_page1

Would be really cool, to see this implemented. Thanks to all the developers, doing a great job.
Comment 9 Dotan Cohen 2011-06-16 08:59:36 UTC
Might I recommend that Tab with no modifier be the shortcut used to switch between panes? Of course so long as it is configurable than any sensible default is fine.

Thanks.
Comment 10 ravishankar 2011-08-23 06:37:03 UTC
Really? No changes still from 2008? You must be kidding!?
Comment 11 ichbinder 2011-08-23 10:50:57 UTC
Can any developer post a comment why this might be problematic or what takes so long? I really think that Dolphin would profit from such a functionality.
See also again:
https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=194391
and
http://forum.kde.org/brainstorm.php#idea90414_page1
Comment 12 FiNeX 2011-08-23 11:46:07 UTC
@ravishankar: please post constructive comment. Trolling is not useful.

@ichbinder: as you should know, KDE developers are mostly volunteer. This means that they will develop the software when they have the time and if they have the possibility.


Thanks.
Comment 13 Peter Penz 2011-08-23 11:56:23 UTC
*** Bug 194391 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Comment 14 ichbinder 2011-08-23 12:10:36 UTC
@FiNeX: sorry, I didn't want to be rude. As I posted before: I highly respect the volunteer work of people working for the Linux idea! 
I just thought, it might be interesting for people not yet participating in the KDE project but capable of doing so, to know how much effort it might be to integrate such a feature.
Sorry if my intentions were not clear enough, non-native speaker. :)
Comment 15 Peter Penz 2011-08-23 12:24:51 UTC
@ichbinder: A patch for this would not be complicated, but I consider it more as a workaround. In general the focus support in Dolphin with the keyboard is not user-friendly and I'd like to fix this first before introducing a custom shortcut for the split-view. But fixing this in a general way is more effort...
Comment 16 ichbinder 2011-08-23 12:28:30 UTC
@Peter Penz: hm, sounds logical. Thanks for giving us the bigger picture.
I'd be curious what you mean with "In general the focus support in Dolphin with the keyboard is not user-friendly"? You mean switching from main list view to side-panel, menu-bar or whatever?
Comment 17 Peter Penz 2011-08-23 12:39:54 UTC
@ichbinder:
> ... You mean switching from main list view to
> side-panel, menu-bar or whatever?

Yes. Like mentioned above in the thread the focus-switching breaks in combination with the terminal, there is no visual indicator for the panels, the URL navigator cannot get focused (well, this has been fixed a few days ago for 4.8), focusing the zoom-indicator 3 times is quite useless etc.
Comment 18 ichbinder 2011-08-23 12:42:35 UTC
@Peter Penz: Ah okay, thanks for explaining. Helps people to see why things need time. :)
Comment 19 Peter Penz 2012-01-27 17:35:02 UTC
*** Bug 292608 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Comment 20 Jeroen van Meeuwen (Kolab Systems) 2012-08-24 16:22:17 UTC
Resetting assignee to default as per bug #305719
Comment 21 Frank Reininghaus 2012-09-11 05:23:31 UTC
*** Bug 306558 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Comment 22 Frank Reininghaus 2012-12-12 15:25:35 UTC
*** Bug 311575 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Comment 23 David P. 2012-12-12 16:20:46 UTC
I also suggest using Tab key for switching active panel, like in Krusader, Total Commander and others.
Comment 24 Romain D. 2013-10-05 18:26:58 UTC
Hi, any progress there ? Would this be really hard to implement ?

This feature is a must, and in fact, it’s now the second most expected feature for dolphin (according to how many times this bug was voted for) and is now open for 5 years…

IMO using <tab> for this purpose would lead to inconsistency across other KDE apps (since this shortcut is elsewhere used for navigating into the UI and not into the content) and has to be kept as it (for the same reason as <tab> can be useful sometimes).

Using shift + {←,→} to select the left/right pane (same as in yakuake for moving to the left/right tab) would be as nice, and why not using shift + {↑,↓} for switching current pane.
Comment 25 Frank Reininghaus 2013-10-07 12:32:34 UTC
(In reply to comment #24)
> Hi, any progress there ? Would this be really hard to implement ?

No, it's not hard to implement this. In fact, a patch to make Tab a (non-configurable) shortcut for switching the active view has been proposed some time ago at https://git.reviewboard.kde.org/r/110970/.

The hard part is to come up with a reasonable shortcut that has little potential to cause conflicts. 

> Using shift + {←,→} to select the left/right pane (same as in yakuake for
> moving to the left/right tab) would be as nice, and why not using shift +
> {↑,↓} for switching current pane.

Shift+"Arrow Key" already has a different meaning (move the focus to another item and extend or shrink the selection). Moreover, I don't think that there should be two different shortcuts for switching the view. In contrast to the tabs in Yakuake, the number of split views is limited to two, so it's always clear what the user wants if he says "I want to activate the other view".
Comment 26 Jimmy Kloss 2014-03-07 15:18:10 UTC
Created attachment 85465 [details]
This removes counter intuitive tab stops

With this patch the following elements won't take the keyboard focus anymore:
-Control Button
-Invisible QScrollArea in InformationPanel
-Phonon Widget (Next step might be to trigger this widget from the main view with 'space' key)
-Zoom Slider (Statusbar) (There's already ctrl++ and ctrl+-)

There might be even more elements taking the keyboard focus for no reason, when nepomuk/semantic-desktop is enabled, but I disabled it in my build.
Comment 27 Jimmy Kloss 2014-03-07 15:29:41 UTC
Created attachment 85466 [details]
Prevents the tabbar/tabs and clickable URLbar to take focus

This patch prevents KTabBar KTabWidget and KUrlNavigatorButtonBase to take keyboard focus as this is counter intuitive. To switch tabs there keyboard shortcuts already exist and to edit the URL there are even two: Ctrl+L (works everywhere) and F6 (legacy). Tabbing through the URL buttons is inefficient and also never worked reliable for me.

Both patches together fix this bug as tab now only switches between both split views and the places widget. Showing the user visually which element has the focus is a different story though.
It also seems to fix the following bugs I care about:
#180667
#207789
#298467
Comment 28 Frank Reininghaus 2014-05-25 09:03:48 UTC
*** Bug 335308 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Comment 29 James Cain 2014-08-14 21:09:48 UTC
(In reply to Jimmy Kloss from comment #27)
> Created attachment 85466 [details]
> Prevents the tabbar/tabs and clickable URLbar to take focus
> 
> This patch prevents KTabBar KTabWidget and KUrlNavigatorButtonBase to take
> keyboard focus as this is counter intuitive. To switch tabs there keyboard
> shortcuts already exist and to edit the URL there are even two: Ctrl+L
> (works everywhere) and F6 (legacy). Tabbing through the URL buttons is
> inefficient and also never worked reliable for me.
> 
> Both patches together fix this bug as tab now only switches between both
> split views and the places widget. Showing the user visually which element
> has the focus is a different story though.
> It also seems to fix the following bugs I care about:
> #180667
> #207789
> #298467

So was this parch ever reviewed?
Comment 30 Jimmy Kloss 2014-08-15 08:12:04 UTC
(In reply to J Cain from comment #29)
> So was this parch ever reviewed?

Not to my knowledge. Am I responsible to get it reviewed?
Sorry, I am not familiar with these things.
Comment 31 Frank Reininghaus 2014-08-15 08:53:56 UTC
(In reply to Jimmy Kloss from comment #30)
> (In reply to J Cain from comment #29)
> > So was this parch ever reviewed?
> 
> Not to my knowledge. Am I responsible to get it reviewed?

Patches that are attached here at bugs.kde.org get overlooked quite easily. We use

http://git.reviewboard.kde.org/

for reviews.

However, I think the main questions that need to be addressed here are usability-related rather than technical. We all agree that using Dolphin with the keyboard can be cumbersome in some situations, but there is no obvious solution that does not have any possible drawbacks. For example, I am not sure if there are really no users who use the widgets in the Information Panel with the keyboard and expect that they can use Tab to switch focus between them.

Therefore, I think that any plans to change the focus handling might better be discussed with the usability team.
Comment 32 Glenn Holmer 2014-08-15 17:34:21 UTC
How do we get that conversation started?
Comment 33 loewen.heinrich 2015-04-01 22:43:30 UTC
Comment on attachment 85466 [details]
Prevents the tabbar/tabs and clickable URLbar to take focus

I like the aproach of the patch. But how can I install it? I run Kubuntu 14.04.
Comment 34 Beco 2015-06-03 04:09:58 UTC
I would write if I like tab or another shortcut, but since this bug was opened in 2008, I think anything at all would be nice. Even a quick workaround (if someone knows one, please share), while we discuss more stable options to the near future.
Comment 35 Holger 2016-07-26 19:21:26 UTC
Another duplicate in bug 366050 ...
Comment 36 Martin Sandsmark 2016-08-06 10:43:50 UTC
https://git.reviewboard.kde.org/r/128564/
Comment 37 Martin Sandsmark 2016-09-04 12:13:05 UTC
Git commit b706108206be1c9e777e1ace02aa99247fdfc3ca by Martin T. H. Sandsmark.
Committed on 04/09/2016 at 12:12.
Pushed by sandsmark into branch 'master'.

Use tab for switching active split

REVIEW: 128564
REVIEW: 110970

M  +15   -0    src/dolphintabpage.cpp
M  +2    -0    src/dolphintabpage.h
M  +4    -0    src/settings/dolphin_generalsettings.kcfg
M  +9    -1    src/settings/general/behaviorsettingspage.cpp
M  +1    -0    src/settings/general/behaviorsettingspage.h
M  +9    -0    src/views/dolphinview.cpp
M  +5    -0    src/views/dolphinview.h

http://commits.kde.org/dolphin/b706108206be1c9e777e1ace02aa99247fdfc3ca
Comment 38 Stefan Radermacher 2016-11-07 19:47:42 UTC
What version will this commit show up in? I can't find it in 16.08.2.
Comment 39 Holger 2019-03-05 22:17:54 UTC
*** Bug 366050 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***