Focus the search field when program starts

The spec currently says: "When opened directly, the Store should by default display the lobby screen of the “Get Free Software” section, scrolled to the top. The search field should be empty. Default focus should be on the lobby screen, so that arrow keys scroll through the screen, but none of the items in the screen should be focused by default." <https://wiki.ubuntu.com/SoftwareStore#Launching%20graphically> I'd rather not change this without some sort of evidence that people search for software more often than they browse for software.

Matthew, then there is a problem: the arrow keys don't scroll through the screen. If I open the Store and press them, absolutely nothing happens.

However, even if it worked, suppose the search field is focused by default: pressing "down" without typing anything would select the first item in the lobby screen, right?

What I mean is, can we do it so that when we open the Store...

-Typing a character starts a search.
-Pressing an arrow key browses the lobby screen.

I implemented the behaviour in comment #2 now (after talking on irc with mpt about it).

Ah, that makes sense; then it's easy for you to either search *or* browse with the keyboard. Good idea. Spec updated: <https://wiki.ubuntu.com/SoftwareStore?action=diff&rev2=201&rev1=200>

(BTW, a better summary for this bug report would have described the problem: "Arrow keys do nothing when Store is launched".)

This bug was fixed in the package software-store - 0.3.9

---------------
software-store (0.3.9) karmic; urgency=low

  [ Michael Vogt ]
  * softwarestore/view/appdetailsview.py, data/templates/AppDetailsView.html:
    - add basic license information to each package
  * softwarestore/app.py:
    - set default focus on the search entry and focus categories
      ("departments") on key-down (LP: #433828)
  * data/templates/CategoriesView.html:
    - arrow key navigation added (thanks to Stuart Langridge)
  * softwarestore/db/database.py:
    - move query parser code into a proper place and default to
      AND for multiple search terms (LP: #432978)
    - support boolean expressions in the search terms (AND, OR, NOT)
  * disable warning if a package gets removed that another package
    recommends (its not part of the spec how to handle this)
  * softwarestore/db/update.py:
    - do not fail if no locale is defined (LP: #434699)

  [ Andrew Higginson ]
  * debian/control:
    - add python-gconf dependencies (needed in the image fetch code to
      get the proxy from gconf)
  * softwarestore/view/appdetailsview.py, softwarestore/view/dialogs.py:
    - make the remove dialog conform to the spec

 -- Michael Vogt <email address hidden> Wed, 23 Sep 2009 12:07:31 +0200