Problem opening URL on errors

[SableRaf]

Most appropriate sub-area of Processing 4?

Other (specify if possible), PDE

Processing version

4.4.4

Operating system

macOS 15.5 (24F74)

Bug description

Processing has a less documented feature to search for errors online. This seems no longer functional.

Steps to reproduce this

1. Run a broken sketch to cause an error
2. Press SHIFT then click the search 🔍 button
3. Observe the error Problem Opening URL

snippet

none

Additional context

Note: trying this on a sketch without an error, the output is as below.

Would you like to work on the issue?

No, I’m just reporting the issue

[aj-m]

I can partially reproduce this on Debian Unstable (DE: Plasma on Wayland).
Attempting to use the browser search in a sketch with an error does correctly open the search page in my default browser.

However, attempting the browser search without an error results in the search page opening with the ++++++++++... string as the search query.

So the issue with the browser search not opening seems to be an issue with the MacOS implementation specifically, which I don't have the means to tackle, or at least not a Linux implementation issue. I have tracked down the + bug though.

---

The +++++++... spam originates with Editor.statusEmpty(), which "clears" the EditorStatus message by setting it to Editor.EMPTY, which is actually about ~200 space characters. This spacer string gets URL-encoded into those ~200 + characters before going into Platform.openURL in the EditorStatus mouseReleased handler.

processing4/app/src/processing/app/ui/Editor.java

Lines 91 to 94 in b8c0857

	static protected final String EMPTY =
	" " +
	" " +
	" ";

processing4/app/src/processing/app/ui/Editor.java

Lines 2664 to 2669 in b8c0857

	/**
	* Clear the status area.
	*/
	public void statusEmpty() {
	statusNotice(EMPTY);
	}

processing4/app/src/processing/app/ui/EditorStatus.java

Lines 135 to 147 in b8c0857

	} else if (mouseState == CLIPBOARD_PRESSED) {
	if (e.isShiftDown()) {
	// open the text in a browser window as a search
	final String fmt = Preferences.get("search.format");
	Platform.openURL(String.format(fmt, PApplet.urlEncode(message)));
	} else {
	// copy the text to the clipboard
	Clipboard clipboard = getToolkit().getSystemClipboard();
	clipboard.setContents(new StringSelection(message), null);
	System.out.println("Copied to the clipboard. " +
	"Use shift-click to search the web instead.");
	}

EditorStatus has an empty() method which seems to properly clear the status message to an actual empty string. Replacing statusNotice(EMPTY) with this status.empty() in Editor.statusEmpty() seems to be the correct way to fix this, and has the additional effect of causing the copy-status-to-clipboard/search-for-error button to be hidden when there's no errors in the sketch, which seems to be the intended behavior.

processing4/app/src/processing/app/ui/EditorStatus.java

Lines 306 to 311 in b8c0857

	public void empty() {
	mode = NOTICE;
	message = "";
	url = null;
	repaint();
	}

processing4/app/src/processing/app/ui/EditorStatus.java

Lines 417 to 424 in b8c0857

	} else if (message != null && !message.isEmpty()) {
	ImageIcon glyph;
	float alpha;
	if (shiftDown) {
	glyph = searchIcon[mode];
	} else {
	glyph = clipboardIcon[mode];
	}

Here's a side-by-side of the current statusNotice(EMPTY) behavior on the left and the status.empty() behavior on the right - Sorry for the horrendous quality, KolourPaint is apparently terrible for cropping screenshots. The console text on the right is just some trace output.

[SableRaf]

Thanks so much for taking the time to investigate this and share such a clear and detailed explanation. I really appreciate it.

I tried out your suggested fix, and it does seem to solve the +++++++... issue on macOS as well.

If you're up for it, I’d be glad to see you open a PR with the fix. Thanks @aj-m ✨