136319 - impossible to use "Fill-in Form" in popup windows

Status: VERIFIED WONTFIX

(Toolkit :: Form Manager, defect, P2)

Description

[Henrik Gemal]

Most contests uses popup windows. And with the new context menu the Fill-in Form
option has disappered from the context menu making it impossible to use Form
Manager in windows without the Edit menu!

Now I have to use IE to fill out my forms!

20020407

Comment 1

[Stephen P. Morse]

Interesting point.  I was against removing the form-manager items from the 
context-menu but never had any good arguments to present for keeping them.  Now 
we have a good argument -- there is loss of functionality.

cc'ing various parties so that the decision can be rethought.

Comment 2

[Stephen P. Morse]

gemal, do you have a url that demonstrates this?  Also, is it possible to use 
the keyboard to bring up the edit menu in those cases?

Comment 3

[marlon bishop]

for windows without a file/edit menu bar: the spec indicated the need for a
top-most item called [Show File Menu]. this would enable user to interact with
the page as usual.

the form-fill items were originally in the spec, but it was felt that since the
performance hit for having them was so high, it didn't make sense. i am for the
form fill items being in the Form Field Menu, because they do belong there,
however i can't argue with such grim performance figures.

Comment 4

[Henrik Gemal]

http://www.sonymusic.dk/dk/konkurrencer.php
press the "Klik her for at deltage!" link. That produces a new window with any
toolbars.

I'm not sure I'd like the Fill-in Form in the context menu. What about just
having a shortcut key ala CTRL+M or something to launch the fill-in manager.

I also tried doubleclicking in the input fields. Perhaps that could launch the
fill-in manager.

If we are gonna have the fill-in manager in the context menu, please only make
it appear when you right click on a input field.

I'm still looking forward to having fill-in form ala in Internet Explorer. Much
better and much easier to understand by the user.

Comment 5

[Peter Trudelle]

nsbeta1- per Nav triage team

Comment 6

[Stephen P. Morse]

Putting the formfill items back in the context menu will allow you to use 
form-manager in menuless pop-up windows.

If I'm understanding Marlon's comment 3, the reason the form-fill items were 
removed from the context menu was for performance reasons.  The performance hit 
was due to the test of whether or not to enable the items depending on whether 
or not there was anything to prefill or capture.  With that test removed, there 
is no performance hit.  Removing the test means that if there is a form on the 
current page, then the formfill items will appear in the context menu and will 
always be enabled.  If there is no form, then they will not appear.

Comment 7

[Stephen P. Morse]

Attachment: Putting formfill items back in context menu with no performance penalty

Comment 8

[Asa Dotzler [:asa]]

I was under the impression that we weren't making changes to the existing
context menus (wasn't this painful enough the last time around) without
publically available usability data and evaluation. This change won't be allowed
into the tree without something more than just a bug report. Context menus were
settled and changes to context should not be made without more serious usability
evaluation. And we're certainly not going to allow more overlays (which have
recently been shown to be our single biggest XUL performance problem) without
damned good justification from a usability and technical standpoint. 

Comment 9

[Blake Ross]

I should add that removing the test causing the slowdown is not a "fix", it's a
workaround.  Having these enabled for every page with a form would be terrible.
 You'd have to hit the items just to see whether or not there was information to
prefilll, which lessens the overall win of this feature: convenience and
time-saving.  The state of the items would also be inconsistent with the state
of those in the Edit menu.  Not to mention that these items would no longer be
context-sensitive, so they wouldn't belong in a context menu.

The correct fix for this bug given the current wallet would be as Marlon points
out in comment 3, a Show Menubar item in the context menu in popup windows.

In my opinion the best fix for this bug is to swap out the current wallet in
favor of "Satchel", an improved, more passive and thus more convenient form fill
system that works like IE's, that hewitt has been working on in his spare time.

Comment 10

[Stephen P. Morse]

Rejected

Comment 11

[Henrik Gemal]

until Mozilla gets a decent autocomplete on fields like IE, Form Manager is a no
go from my point of view.