102052 - clicking in a frame should display focus ring

Status: VERIFIED WONTFIX

(Core :: Layout: Images, Video, and HTML Frames, defect)

Description

[sairuh (rarely reading bugmail)]

spun off from bug 42758. right now, i need to hit either F6/shift+F6 or
tab/shift+tab in order to display the focus ring that indicates the active frame.

recipe:
1. go to any url with frames, eg http://www.faqs.org/ or http://www.wired.com/
2. click in a frame.

result: no visual indication that that frame you clicked is active.

Comment 1

[sairuh (rarely reading bugmail)]

mebbe not accessibility wrt gov't standards, since i used the mouse to click
rather than the keyboard...but, should still get a visual indication to inform
the user. :)

in communicator 4.x, clicking in a frame would display the focus ring.

Comment 2

[sairuh (rarely reading bugmail)]

another observation: mouse clicks display the focus ring for the panes within
the mailnews 3pane window.

Comment 3

[Jesse Ruderman]

Would this only be for framed pages?

Comment 4

[sairuh (rarely reading bugmail)]

jesse, good question...i'd say, yeah, i'd just want this for framed pages. what
do others think?

Comment 5

[Brian Ryner (not reading)]

After talking this over with german and sairuh, we think that this probably
would not be a good idea, because it would cause borders to be displayed on
frames when page authors are explicitly trying to create a no-borders look. 
Since you already explicitly know where the focus is going when you click,
there's not really a compelling reason to make this tradeoff.  (We're still
going to show the frame border when you tab, since in that case it's not obvious
where the focus is going).

Comment 6

[Amarendra Hanumanula]

From the above comments I am marking it verified

Comment 7

[Simon Fraser [no longer active]]

>We're still
>going to show the frame border when you tab, since in that case it's not obvious
>where the focus is going

What's the bug for this?

Doesn't it seem strange to people that whether the focus ring is shown will 
depend on how the user focussed the frame? And doesn't the fact that you're still 
going to draw the focus ring in some instances obviate the arguments against 
drawing the focus ring on click-to-focus?

Comment 8

[Brian Ryner (not reading)]

This is the current behavior, so there's not an open bug on it.

I think in the tabbing case, the accessibility need outweighs the page
designer's desire not to have any frame borders.  Matt, can you elaborate on this?

Comment 9

[Simon Fraser [no longer active]]

How about some kind of animated focus ring that fades out after a second or two?

Comment 10

[rods (gone)]

Could use a timer instead of the current scroll listener. My motto is: "If it 
can't be done with a timer, then it just can't be done."

Comment 11

[saari (gone)]

"How about some kind of animated focus ring that fades out after a second or two?
"

Simon, you've been using OS X too much ;-)
Maybe the ring could pulse and "slither" ala the genie effect to the next
focusable element when you hit tab. Gotta use the alitvec processor for something.

Comment 12

[Brian Ryner (not reading)]

*** Bug 159046 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***