[FEATURE_REQUEST] Search box url detection

[domportera]

Is your feature request related to a problem? If so, please describe.

I've set dashy to my browser's homepage. anyone who's done this on firefox knows this comes with some headache. i managed to make it focus the search box each time a new tab is opened.

but now, I cannot simply type a URL and go there - it will always search what I enter in the search box. if I type youtube.com, I'm going to end up on searchengine.com?q=youtube.com

Describe the solution you'd like

It'd be super awesome if the search box had an option to automatically detect urls. e.g., if the query contains no spaces and ends in a [dot][a-z], try to go directly to that website

Priority

Low (Nice-to-have)

Is this something you would be keen to implement

No

[aspenyang]

Hi! I have been working on the URL detection feature.

I have implemented two approaches for this feature, and I wonder which one you prefer, or if you have any other thoughts on how to improve it.

I also added an option to turn the web search feature on or off. Please see my recordings below.

Here are recording of the two implementations:

1. When enabling "go to link" (URL detection and open the link), pressing Enter on a detected link will open it:

enable_disable_websearch_gotolink_caption.mp4

2. The key events for web search and opening links are separated. When enabling both web search and "go to link", pressing Enter leads to web search, while pressing Ctrl + Enter (or Cmd + Enter on Mac) opens the link. Both functions can be turned off respectively:

websearch_gotolink_separated.mp4

Please let me know your thoughts on this feature implementation. Thank you!

[domportera]

the implementation looks great! i appreciate you taking the time to implement this!

i think my ideal UX would look something akin to how android search-based launchers tend to work, with only the "enter" key, based on the following:

• if what i'm searching matches a dashy item closely, just open that
• if it does not match, or is too long for a close match, default to web search
  • for example, if i have Discord on my dashy, but type "discord is messing up help me pls" or "discord !g", it would no longer match discord, and instead search
• if such a web search would be a URI, then it would go to the URI

then, something like "ctrl + enter" or "shift + enter" would just force a web search

I am no expert on usability, but this is what would seem the most usable to me personally, and I feel most would even be able to have this enabled by default without it getting in the way of how they would expect the search box to work

so to ACTUALLY answer your question, i think your first example most closely matches what my expectations for such a feature would be :)

[aspenyang]

Hi! I opened a draft pull request (#1915) implementing the first approach for the URL detection / “go to link” feature we discussed here.

I’ll continue working on it, and I’d appreciate any feedback while it’s a work in progress.

Thank you!

[aspenyang]

Hi! I’ve implemented some additional features related to search functionality.

I’ve detailed the changes and feature overview in a comment under my draft pull request (#1915). I’d appreciate your feedback.

If everything looks good, I’ll mark the pull request as ready for review so it can be merged.

Thanks!

[domportera]

this looks awesome! id like to test the deployment and am awaiting approval... this looks like an awesome step up. i am concerned that the forced web search would be inaccessible to mobile devices that have keyboards with no ctrl key, though the usage on mobile may be limited anyway due to the general lack of support for custom home pages