Partial URLs with .test TLD open search instead of URL

adamaveray · May 18, 2023

In previous versions of Orion entering URLs using the .test TLDs without the leading http:// or https:// (e.g. entering example.test/a-url) would open the URL, however in the latest version it instead opens a search for that string.

Steps to reproduce:
Enter a URL using the .test TLD without a leading http:// or https:// (e.g. example.test/)

Expected behavior:
Open the entered URL

(Can be worked around by manually prefixing http:// or https://)

Orion, OS version; hardware type:
Version 0.99.124.1-beta (WebKit 616.1.10)
MacBook Pro (macOS Ventura 13.3.1 (a) build 22E772610a)

alicerunsonfedora · May 18, 2023

Is the .test TLD an officially registered thing now?

adamaveray · May 19, 2023

alicerunsonfedora .test has been reserved by the IETF since 1999 for use in software testing (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.test), and is widely used for local website development (especially after Google was granted the .dev TLD a few years ago).

Explicitly requiring the leading http:// or https:// here is a regression in the latest version of Orion, and for comparison I've just tested Safari, Firefox & Chrome and they all allow typing example.test to load http://example.test/ – only the latest version of Orion is launching a search instead for that value.