Add placeholder attribute to search field

[cyberskull]

By default the search widget is just a blank field. This is really unfortunate. However, HTML5 has a solution! Since the search field is already {{type="search"}}, we only need to add the attribute placeholder="Search" to the element.

<hmtl>
…
<form action="http://example.com/" method="get" id="searchform-1">
<input type="search" name="s" id="s-1" placeholder="search" />
</form>
…
</html>

I don't think we are type=search in core. We should, though.

Placeholders don't degrade gracefully in browsers, do they?

Placeholders don't degrade gracefully in browsers, do they?

There is nothing to degrade? Browsers that don't support it (eg IE<9, FF<4) just ignore it.

You can change the form with the get_search_form filter. So if you have a theme with HTML5 doctype you can add the new attribute.

In my opinion it's too soon to add HTML5 attributes into the core.

Replying to ocean90:

You can change the form with the get_search_form filter. So if you have a theme with HTML5 doctype you can add the new attribute.

In my opinion it's too soon to add HTML5 attributes into the core.

The attribute type="search" is an ​HTML5 attribute and is already in core.

Replying to cyberskull:

The attribute type="search" is an ​HTML5 attribute and is already in core.

No, it's not. Your theme probably has a custom searchform.php.

By default the search widget is just a blank field.

That depends on the theme. By default the search field has a label.

If we add a placeholder users with a screenreader and a modern browser have to listen to the label and the placeholder. As long as there is not better text for the placeholder than an ​illegal label replacement/duplicate no one benefits from the attribute.

Replying to nacin:

Replying to cyberskull:

The attribute type="search" is an ​HTML5 attribute and is already in core.

No, it's not. Your theme probably has a custom searchform.php.

My mistake then.

Related: #19579

Let's leave it to themes for now.