629788 - Cannot type in a Google Docs document in a Thunderbird tab

Status: NEW

(Thunderbird :: Toolbars and Tabs, defect)

Description

[Christopher Schiffner]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.1; en-US; rv:1.9.2.13) Gecko/20101203 Firefox/3.6.13
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.1; en-US; rv:1.9.2.13) Gecko/20101207 Thunderbird/3.1.7

When editing a Google Docs document in a Mozilla Thunderbird tab the keyboard does not work. The cursor flashes and text (on an existing document) can be highlighted. Keyboard entry is completely broken. The issue affects the newest version of the Google Docs editor and DOES NOT affect the old version. Th old version was recently discontinued by Google so there is no workaround to this issue.

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Open Thunderbird
2. Install an add-on to load Google Docs in a tab (such as as G-Hub Lite)
3. Open a Google Document
4. Attempt to type in the document
Actual Results:  
I was unable to type in the document.

Expected Results:  
I expected to be able to type in the document.

Comment 1

[rsx11m]

Since this is a problem with an extension, I'd usually close this bug "invalid" (i.e., not a Thunderbird bug but a 3rd-party issue) and refer you to the author
of the add-on. Judging from https://addons.mozilla.org/thunderbird/addon/59195
it appears though that you are the author of that add-on yourself, correct?

In that case, you'll need to be more specific which parts of Thunderbird or the editor (assuming that you refer to the editor library provided by Mozilla Core) you are using for your add-on, and where you suspect the error(s).

Comment 2

[Mark Banner (:standard8)]

Is it a particular type of google document that can't be edited? I had a play around and only found one document that I couldn't edit for some reason.

Comment 3

[Christopher Schiffner]

It is only a Document, and only a document that was created in the Google Docs editor (all new documents. Google recently remove the option to create documents using the old editor).

Presentations, Spreadsheets, Forms, and Drawing all work properly. It is ONLY documents that do not function properly.

Comment 4

[Christopher Schiffner]

(In reply to comment #3)
> It is only a Document, and only a document that was created in the Google Docs
> editor (all new documents. Google recently remove the option to create
> documents using the old editor).
> 
> Presentations, Spreadsheets, Forms, and Drawing all work properly. It is ONLY
> documents that do not function properly.

Should have read "and only a document that was created in the NEW Google Docs Editor". Documents created in the old editor are editable and work fine. This is because documents created in the old editor continue to load in the old editor (for now anyways).

Comment 5

[rsx11m]

I'm still missing the point how a change in the Google Docs editor relates to Thunderbird; which Mozilla-based component are you talking about?

Comment 6

[Mark Banner (:standard8)]

(In reply to comment #5)
> I'm still missing the point how a change in the Google Docs editor relates to
> Thunderbird; which Mozilla-based component are you talking about?

The add-on opens Google documents in a content tab. At that point you're browsing in a very similar way, but not quite the same as Firefox.

Assuming that the Google Docs can be edited correctly with Firefox, then in theory there shouldn't be any difference with Thunderbird.

However, it appears there is a difference with Thunderbird, which we'll need to track down.

Comment 7

[rsx11m]

Ok, thanks. Maybe cc Ehsan for Core/Editor dependencies?

Comment 8

[(no longer active)]

This is almost certainly some editor binding missing from Thunderbird.  Since this bug is not even present in the core thunderbird, I'm afraid I can't devote any time in debugging this.

But if somebody is willing to debug this, they can start by setting a breakpoint on nsHTMLEditorEventListener::KeyPress, see if that breakpoint is hit when typing into that google document, and stepping through code to see what's failing if the breakpoint is hit.

If somebody comes up with the result of this, I can probably help them with a patch or something!