1716962 - prevent conflicts between accesskeys for Folder Pane Toolbar context menu and toolbar menu and keyboard shortcuts

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(Thunderbird :: Folder and Message Lists, defect)

Description

[Sebastian Hengst [:aryx] (needinfo me if it's about an intermittent or backout)]

Daily 91.0a1 20210616102713 on Windows 8.1

Thunderbird should prevent conflicts between access keys for the Folder Pane Toolbar context menu and its main toolbar menu and keyboard shortcuts. E.g. the 'H' accesskey with the menu open will call the menu item to hide the toolbar and open the 'Help' menu. If more menu items than 'All Folders' are active, just pressing 'A' won't hide the 'All Folders' view but archive the currently selected message (this is the default behavior for normal menus: just pressing the key is sufficient to trigger the access key).

Comment 1

[Alessandro Castellani [:aleca]]

Good finding, thanks for the report.

Since accesskeys are localized, we can't really control this unfortunately, so I think would be better to remove those accesskeys from the Folder Pane Toolbar doorhanger menu to avoid further issues.
That menu should also be made accessible via keyboard to mitigate the absence of accesskeys.

Any other possible approaches or suggestions?

Comment 2

[Alessandro Castellani [:aleca]]

Thomas, what do you think about this?

My idea to improve this and fix the conflict issue is to:

• Remove the accesskeys from the toolbarbuttons
• Implement the same keypress events we did for the #extraRecipientsPanel
• Add the #buttonFolderList button to the focus ring if the toolbar is visible

This will ensure full keyboard accessibility to that popup menu without relying on access keys, effectively creating feature parity with what we have in the extra recipients popup panel in the messenger compose.

Comment 3

[Thomas D. (:thomas8)]

(In reply to Alessandro Castellani [:aleca] from comment #2)

Thomas, what do you think about this?

My idea to improve this and fix the conflict issue is to:

• Remove the accesskeys from the toolbarbuttons

No, we shouldn't have to do that (see below).

• Implement the same keypress events we did for the #extraRecipientsPanel

Not a good idea to spread the hack - instead, let's find out what's wrong with our menu popups that they don't have proper accessibility out of the box? (more below).

• Add the #buttonFolderList button to the focus ring if the toolbar is visible

That sounds good.

Right, there are several things which are wrong with this bug:

• This bug does not have clear STR, actual result, expected result - that's how we end up in fuzziness and wrong conclusions.
• User expectations from implicit STR in this bug.
• XUL elements used to implement the current #folderListPopup.

I'll explain in my next comments.

Comment 4

[Thomas D. (:thomas8)]

STR:

1. From 3pane view: View > Folder Pane Toolbar
2. Select a message
3. Click triple-dot context menu button
4. Press H (correct access key for Hide Toolbar - no Alt-key must be used inside a menu)
5. Press A (correct access key for All Folders)

Actual

• H does nothing (Alt+* combos are only to open main menu bar items, not to be used inside an open menu)
• A leaks to underlying document and archives selected message - cunning bug

Expected

• Access keys should work and apply to the currently open menu only:
  • H -> Hide toolbar
  • A -> toggle All Folders item (if not disabled)

Comment 5

[Thomas D. (:thomas8)]

• Technically, the whole keyboard machinery for navigation and access keys fails here because we are using <panel> and <toolbarbuttons> instead of <menupopup> and <menuitems> - with the latter, keyboard navigation and access keys all work correctly out of the box.
• We want to keep menu open for selecting multiple options, maybe closemenu="none" on <menu> or <menuitem>
• Also ensure that menu closes when user clicks outside the menu (e.g. onblur).
• Fwiw, reporter's expectation that Alt+H should act as access key inside the menu was not correct - Alt+H is actually supposed to open main menu's help menu, so that looks correct. The problem is about not responding to navigation and leaking unmodified single-char access keys to the document (where they can act as single-letter shortcut) or ignoring them.

Comment 6

[Alessandro Castellani [:aleca]]

Great analysis, as usual :D

Technically, the whole keyboard machinery for navigation and access keys fails here because we are using <panel> and <toolbarbuttons> instead of <menupopup> and <menuitems>

I guess we should update those elements.

Comment 7

[Alessandro Castellani [:aleca]]

Attachment: Bug 1716962 - Replace panel element with menupopup for folder pane toolbar and fix keyboard a11y. r=ThomasD

Comment 8

[Richard Marti (:Paenglab)]

Attachment: Bug 1716962 - Style the menuitems in the arrow popup. r=aleca

Comment 9

[Pulsebot]

Pushed by [e-mail]:
https://hg.mozilla.org/comm-central/rev/116543deed45
Replace panel element with menupopup for folder pane toolbar and fix keyboard a11y. r=ThomasD
https://hg.mozilla.org/comm-central/rev/5948875ca52f
Style the menuitems in the arrow popup. r=aleca

Comment 10

[Alessandro Castellani [:aleca]]

Comment on attachment 9231071 [details]
Bug 1716962 - Replace panel element with menupopup for folder pane toolbar and fix keyboard a11y. r=ThomasD

[Approval Request Comment]
Regression caused by (bug #): -
User impact if declined: Lack of keyboard accessibility and focus ring of the Folder Pane modes popup
Testing completed (on c-c, etc.): on c-c
Risk to taking this patch (and alternatives if risky): low

Comment 11

[Alessandro Castellani [:aleca]]

Comment on attachment 9231331 [details]
Bug 1716962 - Style the menuitems in the arrow popup. r=aleca

[Approval Request Comment]
Regression caused by (bug #): -
User impact if declined: Wrong styling for the menupopup element
Testing completed (on c-c, etc.): on c-c
Risk to taking this patch (and alternatives if risky): low

Comment 12

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

Any downside to deferring this to b5, i.e. not putting it in Monday's b4?

Comment 13

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

Comment on attachment 9231331 [details]
Bug 1716962 - Style the menuitems in the arrow popup. r=aleca

[Triage Comment]
Approved for beta

Comment 14

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

Comment on attachment 9231071 [details]
Bug 1716962 - Replace panel element with menupopup for folder pane toolbar and fix keyboard a11y. r=ThomasD

[Triage Comment]
Approved for beta

Comment 15

[Rob Lemley [:rjl]]

Thunderbird 91.0b5:
https://hg.mozilla.org/releases/comm-beta/rev/ef22913bbacc
https://hg.mozilla.org/releases/comm-beta/rev/134127ab9c3e