Find positions match off-screen

[jimav]

Binary package hint: firefox

Summary:
wget -O test.htm https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/firefox/+bug/534606/+attachment/1198072/+files/test.htm
firefox -new-window test.htm
Adjust window so only about 15 lines are visible
Control-F and enter K-1 as the search term
Search once or twice -- eventually firefox will scroll so that the current match is not visible

Expected: The current match should always be visible.

<previous descriptions follows>

When using the "Find" feature (Control-F), matched text can be hidden behind certain elements on the bottom of webpages due to Firefox scrolling so the found word is at the bottom of the screen.

Here is a demo of the problem:

1. Open the attached "Demo html file" with Firefox, fullscreen.

2. Control-F and type "K-1" into the Find: field, without the quotes, and hit Return. Firefox auto-scrolls so the second K-1 is hidden behind the banner at the bottom of the screen

Please look at the attached screen shot showing a "match" which is invisible.

ProblemType: Bug
Architecture: amd64
CrashDB: ubuntu
Date: Mon Mar 8 11:17:46 2010
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 9.10
ExecutablePath: /usr/lib/firefox-3.6/firefox
FirefoxPackages:
 firefox 3.6+nobinonly-0ubuntu5~mfs~karmic1
 firefox-gnome-support 3.6+nobinonly-0ubuntu5~mfs~karmic1
 firefox-branding 3.6+nobinonly-0ubuntu5~mfs~karmic1
 abroswer N/A
 abrowser-branding N/A
InterpreterPath: /bin/dash
NonfreeKernelModules: fglrx
Package: firefox 3.6+nobinonly-0ubuntu5~mfs~karmic1
ProcEnviron:
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.31-20.57-generic
SourcePackage: firefox
Tags: ppa
ThirdParty: True
Uname: Linux 2.6.31-20-generic x86_64

[Jo-hermans (jo-hermans)]

Please search before you file a bug. Searching for 'search center' immediately found a few.

*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of bug 171237 ***

[jimav (james-avera)]

Binary package hint: firefox

When using the "Find" feature (Control-F), matched text is frequently invisible, presumably positioned outside the viewable portion of the page. Perhaps the line containing the text is slightly (e.g. one pixel) on-screen, I don't know; in any case, the match is completely invisible to the user. It might depend on the font sizes being used. (just guesses).

Here is a demo of the problem:

1. Go to https://investing.schwab.com/secure/cc/guidance/taxes/tax_forms/1099_composite?cmsid=P-2181822&lvl1=guidance&lvl2=taxes
(you might need to have a schwab account to see it, not sure).

2. Make the window wider than that text, but only tall enough for three lines of text; scroll so that the top visible line is the line which begins with "Form Highlights".

3. Control-F and type "K-1" into the Find: field, without the quotes, and hit Return.
    Firefox auto-scrolls to some other position, but no K-1 is visible anywhere.
4. Click 'Next' several times. Firefox will sometimes show a matched K-1 in the text, sometimes not.

Please look at the attached screen shot showing a "match" which is invisible.

ProblemType: Bug
Architecture: amd64
CrashDB: ubuntu
Date: Mon Mar 8 11:17:46 2010
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 9.10
ExecutablePath: /usr/lib/firefox-3.6/firefox
FirefoxPackages:
 firefox 3.6+nobinonly-0ubuntu5~mfs~karmic1
 firefox-gnome-support 3.6+nobinonly-0ubuntu5~mfs~karmic1
 firefox-branding 3.6+nobinonly-0ubuntu5~mfs~karmic1
 abroswer N/A
 abrowser-branding N/A
InterpreterPath: /bin/dash
NonfreeKernelModules: fglrx
Package: firefox 3.6+nobinonly-0ubuntu5~mfs~karmic1
ProcEnviron:
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.31-20.57-generic
SourcePackage: firefox
Tags: ppa
ThirdParty: True
Uname: Linux 2.6.31-20-generic x86_64

[Draycen DeCator (ddecator)]

Thanks for reporting this bug to Ubuntu. Unfortunately, the link brings me to a login page (as you predicted might happen). Is there another site that you can reproduce this bug on? If you can find out and let us know, we would appreciate it.

[jimav (james-avera)]

Ok, the attached "test.htm" is a stand-alone html file which shows the problem (search for 'K-1')

I see now that the problem is that the "Quote" panel stuck to the bottom of the viewport is obscuring matched text, so the user can not see it. This object seems to be created by the <style> construct near the top of the file, but I don't know html enough to say more.

[Mozilla-bugs-micahscomputing (mozilla-bugs-micahscomputing)]

I'm unduping this as the duplicate has been moved to Seamonkey and the implementations for this feature have diverged from what I've been told in #developers.

[jimav (james-avera)]

FYI this bug is referenced as the 'upstream' bug behind Ubuntu bug https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/firefox/+bug/534606

It's a little different, though; a fixed-position object completely obscures the search-match text so that it is invisible to the user.

Please see the demo html file attached to the referenced Ubuntu bug.

[Draycen DeCator (ddecator)]

Thank you for the helpful (and entertaining) example! It seems that other browsers (Chrome and Opera) get around this issue by scrolling in a way that the selected finding is always near the center of the page instead of being shown at the bottom (as is happening with Firefox). I am marking this "Confirmed" for now while I find out if this issue is known upstream.

[Draycen DeCator (ddecator)]

This bug has been reported to the developers of the software. You can track it and make comments at: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=440198

This report also has enough information for developers to work on the issue, so it is being marked as Triaged. Thank you again for reporting this to Ubuntu, and please continue to report any bugs you find!

[Kevin Brosnan (kbrosnan)]

*** Bug 455446 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

[Alice0775 (alice0775)]

*** Bug 587314 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

[Alice0775 (alice0775)]

*** Bug 629317 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

[Jo-hermans (jo-hermans)]

*** Bug 651128 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

[Jo-hermans (jo-hermans)]

*** Bug 713459 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

[Erwann-mest (erwann-mest)]

Created attachment 584281
Comparison between Firefox and Safari

[Erwann-mest (erwann-mest)]

I've uploaded a comparison between Safari and Firefox.

In few words, there're lots of work to do here.

Safari :
- Grey overlay in order not to focus on the page
- Bubble animation to see where the word is
- Pretty beautiful background on the searched word
- Indication where other searched words are
- Center the screen with like padding-top and padding-bottom as 25px from the screen

In other words, what safari does is perfect.

The thing to do at least is to add padding when centering about the search word, because at the current time, the searched word is sticked to the screen corner and it ain't really pratical.

[dE (de-techno)]

I hope Mozilla wont be violating any of Apple's stupid patents implementing these ideas.

[Erwann-mest (erwann-mest)]

To be clear, I'm not saying Mozilla should do like Apple but yeah I find their way really great.

[Jwein (jwein)]

*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of bug 171237 ***

[Paul White (paulw2u)]

Upstream bug is a duplicate of #171237
Closed "RESOLVED FIXED" on 2012-01-12
Sample page tested ok Ubuntu 18.04 and Firefox 63
Closing by marking "Fix Released"