165999 - focus, focus appearances and keyboard navigation not sensible in message pane

Status: NEW

(SeaMonkey :: MailNews: Message Display, defect)

Description

[timeless]

Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.0; en-US; rv:1.1b) Gecko/20020830

I can't access the envelop of a message using tab/ctrl-tab.

similar to bug 132142

Comment 1

[laurel]

Just to clarify, you do mean the header envelope, right?

Comment 2

[timeless]

yes, but it turns out it's not as simple as i described.

you can tab into the subject and time fields
you can't tab to the sender field (which has a link that you might want to twiddle).
you can't see the cursor in readonly fields (i.e. subject, time)
and someone cleverly decided to paint a focus border on the message body when
subject/time are focussed!

i found the rule for the focus border but i can't figure out how to change the
code so it's less silly.

as for readonly fields, that's an xpfe/themes issue.

so the mail bugs are the border and that i can't tab to at least the sender.

also i can't tab to the attachment widget or any of the other linky fields in
expanded header view.

sec508 per aaronl.

Comment 3

[Aaron Leventhal]

Changing summary

Comment 4

[Mike Cowperthwaite]

The problem of [focus-border on the message when the focus is on a field in the 
envelope] only applies to the 3-pane window, not the standalone.

The difference between Ctrl-Tab and Tab appears to be pitched towards using 
Ctrl-Tab (and Shift-Ctrl-Tab) to move between panes, and Tab (and Shift-Tab) to 
move between focusable elements; this seems sensible to me.  (See bug 203386 for 
a problem with Ctrl-Tab in the thread pane.)

What interface should the focus on the addresses provide?  What if there are 
multiple addresses on the To: or Cc: (or, for that matter, the From:) fields; 
should the focus move between individual addresses or select the entire field? 
Is there a means in Mozilla to request a context menu via the keyboard?

Comment 5

[Mike Cowperthwaite]

*** Bug 190878 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 6

[Mike Cowperthwaite]

*** Bug 204259 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 7

[Mike Cowperthwaite]

(In reply to comment #2)
> and someone cleverly decided to paint a focus border on the message body when
> subject/time are focussed!

I am seeing a slight difference in recent builds -- even tho there is a border 
("focus ring") drawn around the message body while the focus is on an envelope 
field, that border is drawn thicker when the focus arrives on the body itself.

There is some grungy stuff in the parent/child organization here -- the message 
body isn't a child of its pane, but instead is 'window.content'.


> also i can't tab to the attachment widget

If there is an attachment widget, you can tab to it (bug 215846); however, there 
is no focus indicator unless one of the files is selected (type a downarrow 
after tabbing away from the Date) -- bug 205666.


The question about just what the keyboard interface for the email address 
'links' should look is still open.

Comment 8

[gong li]

there is also a problem where when opening several windows, the focus remains on
a hidden window despite clicking on the visible main window, so that when the
keyboard user types ctrl-w, the hidden window disappears and them visible window
remains unchanged.  the same effect with ctrl-l, the hidden window's url area
recieved focus and not the visible window

Comment 9

[Mike Cowperthwaite]

Bug 217770 has a patch that's supposed to handle the tab-to-subject problem.
See also TB bug 242468.

Comment 10

[Firefox Bug Husbandry Bot]

https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1527381