1666885 - When opening account settings, no focus, and actionable focus remains on 3-pane's folder list!

Status: VERIFIED FIXED

(Thunderbird :: Account Manager, defect, P2)

Description

[Thomas D. (:thomas8)]

Attachment: Screencast: FocusConfusion.mp4: Account settings tab looks focused, but keyboard action happens on 3-pane tab, and sometimes not...

Take note of this weird, unpredictable, and potentially dangerous focus confusion, as seen in the attached screencast.

STR

1. In 3-pane, place focus in folder list, e.g. on first account.
2. Open account settings (and look at the UI to see where the focus is)
3. press cursor down (repeatedly), expecting to select another account or subsection in account settings, and observe 3-pane tab-top
4. Press Tab exactly once.
5. Press Tab once again.

Actual result

• Account in accounts list of accounts settings looks focused, but is not.
• When pressing cursor down, tab title of out-of-sight 3-pane tab changes (see screencast). I.e. you're seeing Account Settings tab, but you're navigating with live focus on another tab. You can even press DEL and delete entire folders in there without seeing what you are doing - recipe for desaster. So we're now inclined to think that focus was left behind in 3-pane. But alas - it's not that simple!
• After pressing tab once, focus is lost. Tab title is no longer changing, but focus isn't moving in the accounts list of accounts settings, either.
• After pressing tab once again, focus suddenly arrives on the accounts list of the Accounts Settings tab as expected, and cursor up/down now allows to choose another account/subsection there.

Expected result

• When account settings tab is first opened, focus should be on the first account item in the accounts list (which is already showing up with focused styling, but doesn't have the focus).
• When accounts tab remains open with focus on element X, the same element should still have focus when the tab gets re-focused/re-shown.

Comment 1

[Thomas D. (:thomas8)]

Having focus on two different tabs at the same time (account settings and 3-pane), and being able to perform keyboard actions on a 3-pane tab which is not even in the foreground looks useless-UI and highly error-prone to me, not to mention the confusion for our blind users. Any ideas how to fix this?

Comment 2

[Richard Marti (:Paenglab)]

It should be possible to set the focus inside the pane on load of it. But that's for someone that knows JS and how the loading of the tabs knows better.

Comment 3

[Magnus Melin [:mkmelin]]

Attachment: bug1666885_accountsettings_focus.patch

Comment 4

[Thomas D. (:thomas8)]

Comment on attachment 9178030 [details] [diff] [review]
bug1666885_accountsettings_focus.patch

Review of attachment 9178030 [details] [diff] [review]:
-----------------------------------------------------------------

This just fixes the case of opening account settings.
Bug still occurs when switching between 3-pane (ensure focus in folder list) and account settings tab, and when closing TB with accounts tab open (and focused) and then restarting TB.

Comment 5

[Thomas D. (:thomas8)]

What surprises me is that if you start out with focus on 3-pane's message list (instead of folder pane), you cannot move the focus there when account settings tab is shown. And also that when the 3-pane is getting the keyboard action on folder list, at the same time you can still use TAB to navigate on the account settings tab. Is this not deeper than just forcing focus somewhere?

Comment 6

[Magnus Melin [:mkmelin]]

How do you reproduce that?

Comment 7

[Thomas D. (:thomas8)]

(In reply to Magnus Melin [:mkmelin] from comment #6)

How do you reproduce that?

(In reply to Thomas D. (:thomas8) from comment #4)

This just fixes the case of opening account settings. Bug still occurs:

• when switching between 3-pane (ensure focus in folder list)
  and account settings tab
• when closing TB with accounts tab open (and therein, accounts list
  focused) and then restarting TB.

(In reply to Thomas D. (:thomas8) from comment #0)

1. In 3-pane, place focus in folder list, e.g. on first account.
2. Open account settings (and look at the UI to see where the focus is)

• Verify that account settings accounts list has focus (with Magnus' patch) by using cursor up/down
• Switch back to 3-pane, and ensure folder list focus
• Switch back to account settings by clicking on its tab top

3. press cursor down (repeatedly), expecting to select another account or subsection in account settings, and observe 3-pane tab-top
   --> account settings tab is shown in foreground, but you're navigating on 3-pane in background, as seen on 3-pane tab top (see video)
4. Press Tab exactly once.
   --> nothing happens
5. Press Tab once again.
   --> Now surprisingly focus returns from 3-pane to account settings, and cursor up/down navigate accounts list there

Comment 8

[Thomas D. (:thomas8)]

(In reply to Thomas D. (:thomas8) from comment #5)

What surprises me is that if you start out with focus on 3-pane's message list (instead of folder pane), you cannot move the focus there when account settings tab is shown.

STR:

1. In 3-pane, place focus in folder list, e.g. on first account.

• Instead of that, place focus in message list.

2. Open account settings (and look at the UI to see where the focus is)
3. press cursor down (repeatedly), expecting to select another account or subsection in account settings, and observe 3-pane tab-top

• nothing
• if you look at message list of 3-pane, focus did not move there either (still on the message where you left it).

So the focus problem of fully active navigation in background 3-pane tab occurs only with initial focus on folder list, but plays out different with initial focus on message list, where nothing happens neither in accounts tab nor in 3-pane, so focus appears lost. Nevertheless, if you press tab two times, you'll get focus back into account settings tab. It's just confusing.

Furthermore:

• Accounts list in account settings will get focus ring border only when you've tabbed into it at least once, but not when you just click on an account directly.
• When moving focus to an input field of account settings content side: visual confusion of blue background focus color which remains on the account in the list as if that was also still focused, creating an impression of double focus.
  Something for Richard.

Comment 9

[Thomas D. (:thomas8)]

Comment on attachment 9178030 [details] [diff] [review]
bug1666885_accountsettings_focus.patch

I guess we can roll with this first and fix the rest in bug Bug 1668502 - Opening per-account settings from context menu or account central may show the wrong account if account settings tab was already open.

Comment 10

[Pulsebot]

Pushed by [e-mail]:
https://hg.mozilla.org/comm-central/rev/e0843263a9c3
make sure to shift the focus to account settings after opening them. r=thomas8

Comment 11

[Magnus Melin [:mkmelin]]

Comment on attachment 9178030 [details] [diff] [review]
bug1666885_accountsettings_focus.patch

[Approval Request Comment]
Safe UI fix for bug caused by accountmanager in tab.

Comment 12

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

Comment on attachment 9178030 [details] [diff] [review]
bug1666885_accountsettings_focus.patch

[Triage Comment]
Approved for beta

Comment 13

[Rob Lemley [:rjl]]

Thunderbird 82.0b3:
https://hg.mozilla.org/releases/comm-beta/rev/4f1cd3d03ede

Comment 14

[Rob Lemley [:rjl]]

Thunderbird 78.3.3:
https://hg.mozilla.org/releases/comm-esr78/rev/a7e8cbc5a527

Comment 15

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

Comment on attachment 9178030 [details] [diff] [review]
bug1666885_accountsettings_focus.patch

[Triage Comment]
Approved for esr78

Comment 16

[Vlad Lucaci, Thunderbird QA (:vlucaci)]

Confirming this issue as verified fixed on macOS 14, Ubuntu 24 and Windows 11 using ESR 128.0(20240703144221).