Problems about Keyboard Navigation

[BernieHuang2008]

Version of SearXNG, commit number if you are using on master branch and stipulate if you forked SearXNG
since #2724 .

What happened?
When using arrowkey-navigation on first/last result, it will jump to bottom/top (that is, loop select).
I think it's not good for the UX, but seems you write a special code that cause this "bug".

searxng/searx/static/themes/simple/src/js/main/keyboard.js

Lines 237 to 239 in ec540a9

	if (next === null) {
	next = results[0];
	}

i think it shouldn't act like that, because users will be confused by this sudden jump.

How To Reproduce

• Search anything
• focus on the first result
• press Arrow-Left
  and you will see the page has scrolled to bottom (the last result).

Expected behavior

do nothing

[return42]

I think we should collect the issue we have with the keyboard navigation:

• Arrow-Keys (and vim hotkeys) do not work in mixed result lists #2751
• in the preferences the "vim plugin" need to be converted to a drop down menu from where the user can select one keyboard layout from a list of keyboard layouts
• clear the misuse/mess of the data-vim-selected attribute that is also used outside of a vim keyboard layout

[BernieHuang2008]

Do you mean a simple menu which you can choose one of the pre-defined layouts ?

[return42]

Yes, currently we already have two layouts .. the default layout (with the Arrows you implemented) and the vim layout, which can be activated in the preferences:

The on-off checkbox should be replaced by a drop-down menu --> "default" & "vim-like" .. may be later -- when there is a need -- we can add more layouts .. or we add an option to select "none layout" ..

[BernieHuang2008]

good idea, i will try it.
(when i finished your #2751 )

[return42]

good idea, i will try it.

Thanks a lot for taking the time 👍

The thing with the preferences is a little tricky since (for historical reasons) currently the vim-like hotkeys are registered as a plugin (on/off switch) .. don't fight to long with this, I can then better take over this part (the preferences) of the work.

[BernieHuang2008]

ok, you can do the preferences, and i will try to format the code to more extend-able.

[BernieHuang2008]

Can you pass the layout name to me by storing it in the variable searxng.settings.hotkeys?
for example,

searxng.settings.hotkeys = "vim";
OR
searxng.settings.hotkeys = "default";

or you may specified a variable.

[return42]

Yes I can .. was also what I had in mint, to use the hotkeys variable / this code will be changed to pass the selected value from the menu in the preferences to the JS on client side:

searxng/searx/webapp.py

Line 365 in ec540a9

'hotkeys': req_pref.plugins.choices['searx.plugins.vim_hotkeys'],

[BernieHuang2008]

My changes at https://github.com/BernieHuang2008/searxng/tree/feat-2788

[return42]

My changes at https://github.com/BernieHuang2008/searxng/tree/feat-2788

Thanks a lot .. I will cherry pick you patch and implement the preferences part .. when I finished I will send a PR (can take a while).

[BernieHuang2008]

No need to be hurry, I shall go and finish my homework now ...

[return42]

My changes at https://github.com/BernieHuang2008/searxng/tree/feat-2788

I cherry picked .. just FYI in your implementations you implemented a "vim" table and a "default" table .. in the old implementation the vim table was a merge, see --> To add Vim-like key bindings, merge the 'vimKeys' into 'keyBindings'.

.. I will squash the fix into your commit / you will see it when I send the PR.

[BernieHuang2008]

Shall we move the hockey list into a config file? It's more likely to be there instead of in the source code.

[return42]

I had already thought about that ... but let's finish the #2795 first. Afterwards we can cleanup the code .. at this opportunity we could also work on the point I mentioned above

clear the misuse/mess of the data-vim-selected attribute that is also used outside of a vim keyboard layout