156137 - onClick on a link doesn't fire on middle click

Status: RESOLVED WONTFIX

(Core :: DOM: UI Events & Focus Handling, defect)

Description

[Pete Krawczyk]

Originally reopened bug 63950, this bug is being refiled per [e-mail].
 Note that it is almost the opposite of bug 151142 and is dependent on bug 70501.

onClick doesn't fire when a middle click is issued to open a tab in a new
window.  This behavior was noted on both Linux and Windows release versions of
Mozilla 1.0.

Comment 1

[Pete Krawczyk]

Attachment: Reattaching attachment from previous bug

Comment 2

[Boris Zbarsky [:bzbarsky]]

Sorry, this is done on purpose -- a lot of sites assume that "onclick" is only
fired for the left button (since that is what IE and NS4 do).  See bug 71705

I feel that this must (regretfully) be wontfixed -- it would break a large
number of sites and make browsing suck a lot more if we implemented this...

Comment 3

[Jesse Ruderman]

Middle-clicking on the body element fires onclick, but middle-clicking on a link
has a special meaning and so it does not fire onclick.  Btw, what are you trying
to do in the onclick handler for the link?

Comment 4

[Pete Krawczyk]

Testcase HTML is what I'm trying to do.  I have a list of items that get
generated out of an application that need to be looked at and/or fixed.  I am
one of three people that run this, and the other two aren't exactly
techno-savvy.  They use IE6 for this app while I use Mozilla.

The app generates this list, which can be up to 1500 items long.  When one
clicks on a link, the check box gets checked and a new window pops up so that
the item can be looked at or fixed, then the window closed so the list doesn't
have to be constantly re-generated.  The check box holds the place in the list
so that if I have to do something else, I don't get list.

Now, I am a fervent believer in tabbed browsing, because I hate having 10 open
windows.  So when I want to open the link, I middle-click to open the tab.  I
expect that the checkbox would check.  But it doesn't, and I have to manually do
that.

I would also accept as resolution to this bug:
1) a way to open a link in a new tab via HTML
2) a way to open a link in a new tab as a Javascript action
3) a preference that "_blank" opens a new tab 
(see bug 103843, bug 104204, bug 105409)

Sites don't necessarily know what middle-click is.  They know left is primary
and right is context menu (if possible.)  On a mac, right click is accomplished
by command-click.  So control-click or middle button doesn't have a worldwide
assigned feature (but sometimes it does, as in bug 151142).  Sometimes it has
odd effects (big 70498).  Sometimes it doesn't Do What You Expect (bug 98984,
bug 107147).  Sometimes people even get confused if bugs are features (bug
57317, which in turn changed behaviour between platforms!).  

I particularly like the argument given in bug 71705 comment 28 where the point
is made that sometimes people need to do what they want to do, not what you
expect them to want.  I also like the argument that sometimes what the user
wants is more important than what the developer wants (many bugs listed here
have this argument throughout).

I feel everyone needs to discuss what middle mouse button is really, really
supposed to do - there doesn't seem to be any design document explaining what
it's supposed to do when.

Comment 5

[Pete Krawczyk]

Is there a meta bug for middle-click?  Or are all these middle-click issues
(including this one) going to sit in an undefined state until someone gives up
and Does It Their Way?

Comment 6

[Vidar Haarr (not reading bugmail)]

I vote for Wontfix as well. We should get this of the UNCONF radar, atleast.
Boris ?

Comment 7

[Boris Zbarsky [:bzbarsky]]

It's up to the module owner, imo.

Comment 8

[Will Holcomb]

*** Bug 159711 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 9

[WD]

*** Bug 164042 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 10

[Pete Krawczyk]

This may have been fixed without further comment; a middle-click on the link in
the attachment is now checking the box, and thus it looks like onClick is firing
on middle-click; at least in 1.3 alpha (BID:2002121222)

Someone else care to confirm and/or mark CLOSED/FIXED?

Comment 11

[Boris Zbarsky [:bzbarsky]]

That was a regression in 1.3a.  In 1.3b it will not work again.

I'm resolving this wontfix.  We got a large number of reports of _user_ (not
developer) problems reported with 1.3a because of the regression in it...

Comment 12

[Pete Krawczyk]

I have to admit I'm disappointed with this decision.  Still, a discussion about
what middle-click is supposed to do when would be nice.  Or maybe the
target="_blank" to new tab pref (bug 103843 comment 43 or perhaps bug 105547)
would help...?

Comment 13

[Boris Zbarsky [:bzbarsky]]

Sure.  But this is a bug on DOM events.  We can't usefully fire onclick on
non-left-click in the current state of the web....

UI suggestions for Mozilla should live in bugs in the UI component.  ;)

Comment 14

[Steve England [:stevee]]

*** Bug 290231 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 15

[Adam Guthrie]

*** Bug 309771 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***