1197709 - MouseEvent's key-modifier flags are always false in Java applets on Mac

Status: RESOLVED WONTFIX

(Core Graveyard :: Plug-ins, defect)

Description

[Hiroyuki Sato]

A Java applet in a web page can receive mouse-dragg events by implementing java.awt.event.MouseMotionListener interface. Mouse events have flags for key-modifiers (e.g. whether or not the Shift key is down); however, those flags are always false in recent versions of Firefox on Mac. Firefox on Windows and Linux do not have the issue. Other browsers such as Safari and Opera on Mac do not have the issue.

Environments:
 OS: Mac OS 10.10.3, 10.10.4
 Browser: Firefox 39.0.3, 40.0
 JRE: 1.8.0_45, 1.8.0_51, 1.8.0_60

Steps to reproduce:

1. Install Java Runtime Environment from http://java.com/download/

2. Visit my sample page http://ef-site.hgc.jp/jV-test/sample_applet.html

3. Mouse-dragg within applet area with or without the Shift key pressed. The applet shows whether the Shift key is pressed or not.

Here, the sample applet is implemented as below.

------------------------------------------------------------
import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.event.*;
import javax.swing.*;

public class SampleApplet extends JApplet implements MouseMotionListener {

    private JTextArea textArea = new JTextArea();

    public void init() {
        super.init();
        getContentPane().setLayout(new BorderLayout());
        getContentPane().add(textArea, BorderLayout.CENTER);
        textArea.addMouseMotionListener(this);
        textArea.append("mouse dragg here\n");
    }

    public void mouseDragged(MouseEvent e) {
        textArea.append("mouse dragged: shiftDown=" + e.isShiftDown() + "\n");
    }

    public void mouseMoved(MouseEvent e) {
    }
}
------------------------------------------------------------

Comment 1

[Benjamin Smedberg]

Hiroyuki, do you know if this is a regression in some recent version of Firefox, or has always existed?

This bug is unlikely to be a priority for Mozilla. NPAPI is a legacy technology and we encourage sites to move away from NPAPI plugins such as Java. If you are interested in debugging this, I can find somebody to help show you where to add logging/debugging breakpoints.

Comment 2

[Hiroyuki Sato]

I tried some old versions and found that version 36.0.4 or earlier do not have the issue. The problem first occurs at 37.0b1. I am using ja-JP-mac packages.
Thanks.

Comment 3

[Virtual_ManPL [:Virtual] 🇵🇱 - (please needinfo? me - so I will see your comment/reply/question/etc.)]

I'm marking this bug as WONTFIX per bug #1269807.

For more information see - https://blog.mozilla.org/futurereleases/2015/10/08/npapi-plugins-in-firefox/