GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 531320
epiphany-webkit: no "copy text" in right-click on hyperlink
Last modified: 2009-12-17 18:50:25 UTC
Please describe the problem: currently there is no option to copy the text of a hyperlink from the right-click menu. however, there is a workaround. it is possible to highlight the text, then press CTRL-C to copy and CTRL-V to paste (or highlight to copy and middle-click to paste). Steps to reproduce: Actual results: Expected results: Does this happen every time? Other information:
Is this specific to the webkit backend? I don't believe Epiphany/gecko does this either.
I believe Opera supports this, the argument being that selecting a URL's text to copy it is difficult since you might end up dragging the link or clicking on it. This can be implemented in Epiphany but if it's a popular feature request we can do it directly in WebKit as well so it becomes available to all applications. However I'm not convinced either way whether this is a useful feature or not.
> Is this specific to the webkit backend? I don't believe Epiphany/gecko does > this either. epiphany-gecko does have a "Copy" option on its hyperlink right-click menu (maybe that should be made clearer by renaming it to "Copy Text"). hence, i think epiphany-webkit should have the same feature. note that konqueror, iceweasel, and opera all have this feature. hence epiphany-webkit should as well. > However I'm not convinced either way whether this is a useful feature or not. this is a very useful feature. i use it all the time. in fact since all of the major browsers (including epiphany-gecko) have it, it doesn't make sense for epiphany-webkit not to have it. thanks for the hard work.
(In reply to comment #3) > > Is this specific to the webkit backend? I don't believe Epiphany/gecko does > > this either. > > epiphany-gecko does have a "Copy" option on its hyperlink right-click menu I'm using 2.24 here and I don't have a "Copy" option on the context menu of a hyperlink. I do see "Copy link" but that copies the URL to the clipboard, not the text. > think epiphany-webkit should have the same feature. note that konqueror, > iceweasel, and opera all have this feature. hence epiphany-webkit should as > well. "Other browsers have it" was never by itself a good reason to implement something in Epiphany, and it still isn't. What's the use case here?
> I'm using 2.24 here and I don't have a "Copy" option on the context menu of a > hyperlink. I do see "Copy link" but that copies the URL to the clipboard, not > the text. you have to highlight the text of the hyperlink first in order to get the "Copy" option to appear in epiphany-gecko (it won't appear if you just right-click on the link). > "Other browsers have it" was never by itself a good reason to implement > something in Epiphany, and it still isn't. What's the use case here? a use case is when the user wants to copy the text of a hyperlink (rather than the hyperlink itself) and paste it elsewhere.
OK, but isn't this bug a specific instance of bug 562617 then?
in essence, yes, but that bug didn't exist when i first reported this one ;-) the two should probably be merged. not mentioned in that report is the fact that the gecko hyperlink right-click menu differs depending on whether the hyperlink text is selected or not, which is kind of unexpected and unintuitive (as you can probably attest to). and even more complicated than that (and maybe this should be reported as a separate bug), the gecko hyperlink right-click copy option will copy highlighted text wherever it is on the page rather than within the selected link. for example, go to google, and highlight "2008" which isn't even a hyperlink, then right-click on "Shopping" and select "Copy". "2008" will end up on the clipboard...strange. i really think that the right-click menu needs to be more consistent (in both gecko and webkit).
I'll mark this bug as a dependency of the other one, then.
should i file a separate report for the gecko-specific text copy problems?
(In reply to comment #9) > should i file a separate report for the gecko-specific text copy problems? No, Gecko-specific bugs won't be fixed any more. I'm setting the severity to Enhancement because this would be new functionality in Epiphany.
so, i just checked epiphany-webkit 2.29, and the problem is actually fixed! no need to keep this bug open any more. thanks!