Screenshots of what you are seeing: In the instance recorded in the GIF below, I finished typing 2-3 seconds before all the letters were done appearing in the text box
Description of problem:
Step 1: Open observation on identify page
Step 2: Click “Add ID” button
Step 3: Quickly type a long string in the “Search species” input box
Step 4: Observe delay after each keystroke
Looking at the network tab in Safari dev tools, it doesn’t look like a network request is being made after each keystroke, so it may be a front-end issue.
Hi there! if you are on the Identification page, in the bottom left hand corner of every observation is a little keyboard symbol. This is the new metadata tool that was formulated by some really savvy people. It allows you to hit keys instead of clicking and typing. I would also try clearing your browser cache and history as well as closing any running apps, and see if that speeds anything up.
In this case, you would hit “a” to “agree” instead of clicking inside the box and typing the taxon name.
The keys change according to whether you are in info or annotations. You will have to click between the two. But maybe I should mention hitting “tab” to flip over to annotations.
It is not new and it is not the same thing as the external metadata tool that some people have been talking about in other threads. The keyboard symbol does not activate the keyboard shortcuts in Identify (they are always active on the relevant tab), it only provides you with a key to what different combinations of keystrokes do.
The shortcuts also won’t help with typing in taxon names, which is what the original poster is finding to be agonizingly slow.
For a taxon name, you can use 3 letters – so
mic tol
also experiment with using as few letters as possible
For example a single ell will bring you
Lepidoptera
I’m not seeing this in Safari 26.6.2 (21624.5.1.11.3), Safari 27, or in Brave. Does it happen for you in other browsers? Have you turned off all browser extensions and tried again, to eliminate extensions as a potential cause?
It was new to me as of a month ago, and it seems to be new to other people too. Its not immediately obvious and it seemed to me like they could have used some guidance on that.
typing “i” does speed up having to click to add an ID, I thought it was pretty relevant to the topic.
If it’s the issue of the name of the taxon not coming up until everything is typed out, ive found that when entering subspecies for plants, that typing the common name ends up being faster because they are shorter. I have this issue with selecting things at the order/family level.
The keyboard symbol in Identify as well as the functionality that it provides guidance for has been there for years. I agree that it is not obvious and easily overlooked.
However, I felt it important to point out that it is not the same thing as the metadata tool. While this tool builds on the functions of the Identify module such as the keyboard shortcuts, it is an external, user-developed tool that users have to install separately.
Your advice seemed likely to create confusion: readers already familiar with Identify might think that new, additional functions had recently been introduced and wonder why they could not find it, while someone wanting to learn about the “new metadata tool” would find discussions of Megachile’s tool and perhaps not realize that it is not part of iNat’s interface.
So my post was entirely intended to ensure that any discussion was on the basis of correct information.
It is for a similar reason that I mentioned that the problem outlined in the original post, as I understand it, is connected specifically with the interface not responding while one is typing the name of a taxon. If it takes several seconds for the letters one has typed to appear, the appearance of the drop-down selection list will be similarly delayed, so even the method of typing only as much of the name as is needed to pull up the correct taxon will not resolve the issue. I have encountered this occasionally but assumed it was connected with my computer or my browser and not with iNat.
It is annoying as a user when one’s problem is not correctly understood and the discussion ends up focusing on other nuances of iNat’s interface, so my purpose was to try to return it to the concern of the original poster in the hopes that it might get addressed.
I apologize if my response seemed curt. My natural form of expression tends towards thoroughness and verbosity, which people do not always read and is also not always well received, so I strive to practice brevity. Sometimes I may take it too far in the other direction.
Thanks, good point on the difference between the Identify shortcuts and the separate metadata tool.
I’d just note that my earlier comment also addressed the lag directly: closing running applications and clearing the browser cache and history can make a real difference. That part seemed to get lost, so I wanted to bring it back, since it speaks to the original poster’s concern.
I’ll keep this one short, in the spirit of a comments section.
