feat(menu): register CmdOrCtrl+, accelerator for Settings on all platforms

[jeanfbrito]

Upstream Asks: RocketChat/Rocket.Chat.Electron

Formal proposal for RC Electron maintainers — suitable as a GitHub issue or PR cover letter.

---

1. Context

We maintain mOSdat — an automated multi-OS desktop UI test harness for
RocketChat/Rocket.Chat.Electron. We run full end-to-end functional scenarios against
built Electron packages on Ubuntu 22.04, Ubuntu 24.04, and Fedora 40 VMs, driven by a
VLM (vision-language model) for visual verification and xdotool/xdg-open for
interaction.

The catalyst for these asks is the PR3325 telephony feature test campaign
(2026-05-16), which exposed three systemic friction points that cost us ~3.5 person-hours
of debug across 6 rerun cycles. We went 0/5 → 5/5 green only after building a
workaround layer (--inject-config, ~340 LOC + 27 tests) to bypass the Settings UI
entirely. The asks below would let us delete that layer.

---

2. Problem Statement

Issue	Cost we paid	Repro
No Ctrl+, accelerator on Linux	~2h debug + 4 failed test passes	menuBar.ts Settings item has no accelerator: field; keypress silently ignored on Linux
Sidebar kebab popup transient	~1h debug	VLM localize call returns coords; by the time xdotool click fires, popup has dismissed; scenario retries loop
Webview steals alt+w	~30min debug	Chromium consumes alt+menu sequence when a form (login) holds focus; Settings never opens
No state-seed CLI	Forced manual config.json wrangling	Required us to build the entire mosdat functional --inject-config layer (I1: 5 flags, ~340 LOC, 27 tests) to write Redux-persisted values before app launch

All four issues share a root cause: the only supported path to set persisted
Electron state is through the in-app Settings UI, which is too transient and
keyboard-inaccessible for automated testing on Linux.

---

3. Three Asks (Ranked by ROI)

A. Register CmdOrCtrl+, accelerator on the Settings menu item

Impact: Eliminates the Ctrl+,-has-no-binding footgun on Linux. macOS users
already expect this convention; Linux gets it as a free backfill.

Effort: 1 line in menuBar.ts (or equivalent menu registration file). No behavior
change — the click handler stays identical.

Blocks our current alt+w → Down → Return fallback nav, which we had to abandon
because alt+w is consumed by the webview when a form is focused.

B. Add data-testid attributes to key interactive elements

Impact: Eliminates VLM coordinate guessing for stable UI elements. Current
workflow: VLM localize is asked to find an element, returns pixel coordinates, then
xdotool click fires. For transient elements (kebab popup, toggle buttons) this races.
With stable data-testid selectors we can use xdotool search --name or Playwright
page.getByTestId() instead.

Effort: Approximately 1 day — add data-testid strings, no logic changes.

Elements needed (intended DOM target in parentheses):

• sidebar-kebab-button — the … / kebab icon in the sidebar header
• settings-menu-item — the Settings entry in the kebab/app menu
• telephony-toggle — the master enable/disable toggle in Telephony settings
• telephony-shortcut-field — the global shortcut input field
• telephony-server-dropdown — the preferred-server <select> or custom dropdown trigger
• telephony-server-select-modal — the root node of the server-selection modal
• telephony-server-option — each server row inside that modal (index or name variant)
• remember-this-choice-checkbox — the checkbox in the server-select modal

C. Optional state-seed CLI: --load-state <json> and --export-state <path>

Impact: Would eliminate the entire mosdat --inject-config layer. Instead of
writing config.json before launch (which requires knowing the correct
migrations.version to avoid a migration wipe), we could pass Redux state directly
to the Electron binary.

Effort: Medium. Requires hooking into the Redux store boot sequence before the
first persistReducer rehydration. Main risk: ordering — state must be seeded before
the store hydrates, not after.

--load-state <json>: Merge the given JSON object into the persisted Redux state
at startup, before the store rehydrates. Allows tests to declare initial state without
touching the filesystem.

--export-state <path>: After the app reaches ready state, write the current
Redux-persisted slice to <path> as JSON. Allows snapshot-based assertions.

This is the biggest ask and we understand it may not fit near-term roadmap. A and B
alone would meaningfully reduce our test friction.

---

4. Concrete Code Suggestion for Ask A

In menuBar.ts (or wherever the Settings MenuItem is constructed), add the
accelerator field:

{
  id: 'preferences',
  label: t('preferences'),
  accelerator: 'CmdOrCtrl+,',
  click: () => dispatch({ type: SIDE_BAR_SETTINGS_BUTTON_CLICKED }),
}

CmdOrCtrl maps to Command on macOS and Control on Linux/Windows.
No platform guard needed — Electron handles the mapping.

If a global shortcut conflict exists on any platform, CommandOrControl+, is the
standard Electron convention for Preferences (used by VS Code, Slack, Discord on macOS
and increasingly on Linux).

---

5. Concrete data-testid Targets for Ask B

Attribute value	Intended DOM target
sidebar-kebab-button	<button> that opens the sidebar overflow / kebab menu
settings-menu-item	<li> or <button> for the Settings entry in that menu
telephony-toggle	<input type="checkbox"> or toggle root for the Enable Telephony setting
telephony-shortcut-field	<input type="text"> for the keyboard shortcut accelerator string
telephony-server-dropdown	Trigger element of the preferred-server dropdown
telephony-server-select-modal	Root <div> of the TelephonyServerSelectModal
telephony-server-option	Each server row <li> or <button> inside the modal
remember-this-choice-checkbox	<input type="checkbox"> for the "remember this choice" option

We are not prescribing attribute format — data-testid, data-qa-id, or any
consistent naming convention your codebase already uses would work.

---

6. What We'll Do If Accepted

If asks A and B are merged upstream we will open a follow-up mOSdat PR that:

1. Removes the alt+w menu-navigation fallback from all PR3325-class scenarios
   (currently present in 3325-master-toggle.yaml, 3325-global-shortcut.yaml, and
   3325-cold-start.yaml).
2. Replaces VLM localize calls for kebab + Settings item with deterministic
   xdotool search --classname or Playwright getByTestId steps.

If ask C is accepted we will open a further PR that replaces the entire
automation/setup/inject_config.py layer (I1, ~340 LOC) with a thin wrapper that
emits --load-state instead of writing config.json directly, removing the
migrations.version detection complexity entirely.

---

7. Contact

• Repository: https://github.com/RocketChat/mOSdat (link to your public repo here)
• Improvement roadmap: docs/IMPROVEMENTS.md — items I1–I15
• Maintainer: Jean Brito (jean.brito@rocket.chat)

We are happy to assist with any of these PRs if the direction is approved.

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