1269328 - Checkbox in the options panel to show the disable popup auto hide button can be confused for actually disabling popup autohide

Status: RESOLVED WONTFIX

(DevTools :: Framework, defect, P2)

Description

[Jarda Snajdr [:jsnajdr]]

STR:
1. Open Browser Toolbox, open the Toolbox Options
2. Check the "Disable popup auto hide" option

Expected result:
- the "ui.popup.disable_autohide" pref is set to true in the browser
- popups are not hidden on blur and can be inspected and debugged

Actual result:
- the "ui.popup.disable_autohide" remains false

Comment 1

[J. Ryan Stinnett [:jryans] (Use needinfo, replies may be slow)]

:ochameau, any ideas about this?

Comment 2

[Alexandre Poirot [:ochameau]]

I'm not able to reproduce on master/somewhat clean profile against hello/pocket popups.
I can see the pref toggle when opening about:config.

Would there be any useful error message in the browser console/terminal??
(ensure setting browser.dom.window.dump.enabled to true to see more logs in your terminal)

Comment 3

[Brian Grinstead [:bgrins]]

Unchecking the checkbox in the toolbox Options panel will not actually flip the pref in the same way that clicking the button in the top of the toolbar will - this is the same behavior as all the buttons up there, like paint flashing, 'toggle rulers', 'toggle split console', for example.  If you first un-toggle the autohide before unchecking it in the options panel then autohide in the browser should be disabled.

Do you think that behavior should be changed?  By the way there's a similar thing at bug 1251658, which is requesting the pref be reset when the BT is closed.

Comment 4

[Jarda Snajdr [:jsnajdr]]

Oh, I now realize I got totally confused by the UI. The "Disable popup auto hide" checkbox doesn't actually disable the popup auto hide, it only shows or hides the toolbar button! I didn't realize this until I started actually debugging the issue.

Maybe if the checkbox labels were different, especially for two-state toggling actions, it would make the UI clearer. I.e., don't label the checkbox with an action verb like "Disable something", but a description of the button: "Disabling popup auto hide", "Toggling split console",  "Toggling rulers for the page", ...