InputGroup - remove automated aria-describedby attribute

[thatblindgeye]

Discussed in https://github.com/orgs/patternfly/discussions/5954

^{Originally posted by dgdavid September 20, 2023}
Hi there!

Excuse me for the noob question, but I do not get why the InputGroup component automatically set the aria-describedby attribute to the form-control child pointing to another child component when the former does not have such an attribute and the latest isn't considered a form-control but has set the id attribute.

Despite reading the code and searching on the Github repository, I haven't found anything more than evidence that it was done on purpose. Even looking at the PatternFly examples... the behavior there don't make sense to me.

Consider an InputGroup that groups a TextInput of type password with a Button that toggles it to type text. Due to requirements, the button has an id attribute. I cannot see the value of the TextInput having set the aria-describedby="button-id" attribute. Most probably, I'm missing something.

---

import EyeIcon from '@patternfly/react-icons/dist/esm/icons/eye-icon';
import { Button, InputGroup, InputGroupItem, TextInput } from '@patternfly/react-core';

export default function Example() {
  return (
    <InputGroup>
      <InputGroupItem isFill>
        <TextInput id="password" type="password" aria-label="User password field" />
      </InputGroupItem>
      <InputGroupItem>
        <Button id="button-id" variant="control" icon={<EyeIcon />} />
      </InputGroupItem>
    </InputGroup>
  );
}

---

Looking at the code, it's clear that the "workaround" is setting the aria-describedby="" to the input field... but it feels weird. Wouldn't it make better sense the other way around? I.e., the developer setting the aria-describedby="button-id" if really needed.

I really appreciate your help to understand the rationale of that behavior.

Thanks a lot in advance.

[wise-king-sullyman]

@dgdavid if you leave a comment here I'll be able to assign you to this issue since you've already got a PR up.

[dgdavid]

@dgdavid if you leave a comment here I'll be able to assign you to this issue since you've already got a PR up.

Sure, but bear in mind that I sent the PR only for one of the two tasks @thatblindgeye mentioned in the discussion. I fear I cannot help right now with the task about updating the examples.