Re: SearchBox API

On Mon, Mar 21, 2011 at 11:16 AM, Edward Lee <edilee@mozilla.com> wrote:
>> enables "instant" style interaction between the user agent's search
> Assuming the user agent automatically loads a url that is triggered by
> a user key stroke, e.g., typing "g" results in
> "http://www.google.com/", the instant-style interaction is almost
> there already for certain urls. These instant-style urls would include
> what the user typed -- perhaps as a query parameter.
>
> For example, a user agent might request these pages as the user types:
> http://www.google.com/search?q=g
> http://www.google.com/search?q=go
> http://www.google.com/search?q=goo
>
> Here, the results page shows the new query and updated results on
> every user keystroke.
>
> These instant-style urls can also avoid refetching and rerendering the
> whole page if the user's input shows up in the #fragment and the page
> detects onHashChange.

That's true, but you can only transmit one event that way.  In this
design, you've chosen to map the "change" event to hashchange.  How
should the user agent communicate that the user is done typing (i.e.,
the "submit" event, which triggers when presses the enter key)?
Similarly, the communication in that approach is unidirectional, which
means the page can't suggest search completions.

Adam