Add search button to toolbar

added 2. Enhancement 5. Searching 5. Toolbar labels

Was @SKefalidis decision to do it like this and it's fine for me. It's reachable in pathbar and toolbar-style, that's the important point for me.

I dont see a strong need to do it in the same way other file managers do.

We dont have #607 (closed) yet. If somebody implements it, we can discuss again.

Closing for now.

closed

mentioned in merge request !146 (merged)

Hi,

I would like to add some points and plead for the re-evaluation of this issue.

As discussed in !146 (merged):

The search button replaces the reload button in pathbar style, which might be an argument to separate it into its own button.
The inline-style search button doesn't stand out from the rest, and doesn't even seem clickable at first glance; I think this was ok for the reload button, which most people shouldn't need in the first place, but not for the important "search" feature, which should be displayed prominently.
The inline-style search button is a one-way ticket to the search mode; the only way to exit currently is the escape key, which many people will not realize¹. Therefore, I think having a toggle button in the toolbar would be more appropriate².
In !146 (merged), @SKefalidis asked: "Why would there be a search button and not another kind of button ?". I may be missing some context here, but my POV is that the most important functions like back, forth and search should have a dedicated button in the toolbar. This doesn't mean we should add every single option to the toolbar, obviously !
As for #607 (closed) being a prerequisite to this: why ?

1: You may argue that the path editor in toolbar style acts the same, but in that case you can simply click out of it, and it will close itself upon pressing enter. In fact, I didn't know you could close it using the escape key until now. Generally, having the keyboard be the only option to exit such a screen is bad UX and will confuse many people.

2: The current button could also be turned into a toggle, but I'm not sure how this would end up looking. Another option is to simply have a "close" button inside the search bar.

@alexxcons, what do you think about this ?

I've got a couple of things to add:

The search button doesn't really replace the reload button in the way you might think. The reload button was removed in a separate MR due to it being considered redundant. !125 (merged)
I disagree with having toggle buttons in the current Thunar toolbar, and this is part of the reason why I feel that #607 (closed) is a prerequisite. Since there are no other toggles it would look really out of place (originally, I was going to implement the button as a toggle but decided against it for that reason). When/if #607 (closed) is dealt with, users will be able to remove toggles if they don't like their look and there will probably be more toggles available, so they won't look out of place.
Just by adding recent:/// in the sidepane some of the earliest responses where among the lines of "Can I disable this?", so that is something to keep in mind when adding new buttons, that can't be removed or hidden, in the toolbar (also related to #607 (closed)).
+1 for having a Close button inside the search bar. I didn't think of that and it sounds great!

Anyway, having a configurable toolbar and being able to hide entries in the sidepane are 2 issues that I'm very interested in, so they will probably be dealt with long before Xfce 4.18 is released :-)

Hey, I would like to clarify something because I'm not sure we're on the same page about what I call a "toggle" button here.

I'm not talking about adding an actual checkbox or anything like this in the toolbar, of course. When they're not activated, Gtk toggle buttons look just like regular toolbar buttons; but they usually retain their "pressed" style when activated.

When I say "toggle button", this could be a regular toolbar button that just so happens to trigger a toggle between the "searching" and "not searching" states, really.

Edit: For example, the search button in the settings manager illustrates what I was thinking about.

Thanks for pointing out the reload button removal. Actually, I see that you pleaded to make it into its own button rather than an inline button in #559 (closed) before it was removed; considering the clarifications above, I don't see why the search button shouldn't receive the same treatment.

From a usability perspective, having a close button in the search bar should be enough to correct the issues mentioned here, but I can't help but think the current inline button is just not right to look at. Anyways, I think I can stop annoying you now :)

Edit: As for the example of the "recents" sidebar entry, I assume people may have been talking about disabling the actual recents functionality, rather than just the entry itself ? I think we can never please everyone anyways - but in this case, since the search button is already there, I don't see why we wouldn't want to improve it :)

The inline-style search button doesn't stand out from the rest, and doesn't even seem clickable at first glance; I think this was ok for the reload button, which most people shouldn't need in the first place, but not for the important "search" feature, which should be displayed prominently.

Ok, I think thats a valid argument, fine for me to reopen.

Just by adding recent:/// in the sidepane some of the earliest responses where among the lines of "Can I disable this?", so that is something to keep in mind when adding new buttons, that can't be removed or hidden, in the toolbar

Though already now the search icons cannot be hidden, so I suppose it will not make a difference.

Anyway, having a configurable toolbar and being able to hide entries in the sidepane are 2 issues that I'm very interested in, so they will probably be dealt with long before Xfce 4.18 is released :-)

Nice to hear so :P

So lets keep the issue open until either @SKefalidis fixed #607 (closed) , or @Lurux adds a patch/MR to move the search button.

+1 For the Close button inside the search bar from my side. @Lurux : Can you please open a separate bug to discuss the toggle-thing ? The search button in the settings manager indeed looks nice.

Right, I'll try to implement this as soon as I have a bit more time, it will be a nice training for me since I haven't used Gtk a whole lot (hope I won't break anything, heh ^^).

Just to be clear, you suggest adding a normal button to the toolbar and only making it a toggle later on ? Wouldn't it be simpler to implement it fully right away ?

Please start with a simple search button for the reasons given in #621 (comment 36461). Switching to toggle later would not be a big deal, once the button is there.

reopened

Bug: Ctrl + L (Open Location...) does not leave search mode.

Fixed in 89c4ad9c.

mentioned in merge request !173 (merged)

Fixed in above MR, thanks to @SKefalidis , to be released in thunar 4.17.8

closed

Add search button to toolbar

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