Open Bug 1806973 Opened 3 years ago Updated 2 years ago

Cannot fast-select text with pressing the side button

Categories

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

Product:
Core
Component:
DOM: UI Events & Focus Handling
Version:
Firefox 108
Platform:
All
Unspecified
Type:
defect

Tracking

()

People

(Reporter: puma-drakorog, Unassigned)

References

(Blocks 1 open bug, Regression)

Details

(Keywords: regression)

User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64; rv:108.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/108.0
Firefox for Android

Steps to reproduce:

Just update my FF

Actual results:

My slim pen on Surface 7 pro after update not is work as pen. The stylus began to work like a mouse or a finger. I used to be able to quickly select text while typing and in any other text, but now this feature has been replaced by scrolling content like a finger. Bring back support for pen functions!

Expected results:

The pen should work just like it did in older versions of the browser! With quick text selection and more!

The Bugbug bot thinks this bug should belong to the 'Core::DOM: UI Events & Focus Handling' component, and is moving the bug to that component. Please correct in case you think the bot is wrong.

Component: Untriaged → DOM: UI Events & Focus Handling
Product: Firefox → Core

Is there any chance you could use mozregression to figure out what change broke this on your set-up? Thanks

Flags: needinfo?(puma-drakorog)

(In reply to Emilio Cobos Álvarez (:emilio) from comment #2)

Is there any chance you could use mozregression to figure out what change broke this on your set-up? Thanks

I try, but I not have expiriense with this and not was can do it( English is not my native lang. I think this problem will be on all tablet PC( I was see this probkem with Wacom in 2019 year with Chrome.

Flags: needinfo?(puma-drakorog) → needinfo?(afarre)

I suggest renaming this bug report to "Stylus (pen) fails to select Text in Mozilla Apps"

Please see: connect.mozilla.org/t5/discussions/unable-to-select-text-on-surface-tablet/m-p/3116Microsoft Surface Pen
siouxland reported that the issue began a few weeks after on ‎03-29-2022:

siouxland ‎03-29-2022 07:13 AM
I use Firefox on two desktops and a Surface tablet.

A few weeks ago, on the tablet, I became unable to highlight (or therefore copy) any text on Firefox. I can do so on the desktops, and the functionality is still there on all other applications on the tablet, so it's a Firefox thing...

I see the same bug with Microsoft Surface Book (Windows 10 and 11), and with Thunderbird. FF and TB seem to be the only apps suffering from this limitation, eg, Chrome works fine. FF, TB and Chrome all interpret holding down the pen as scrolling (like the hand icon in Adobe Reader). The difference is that Chrome allows selecting text by pressing the side button (which corresponds to the Right mouse button, I know it's not totally logical, but at least it works).

BTW, Scroll-Lock key makes no difference, nor does the "Let me use my pen as a mouse" setting in Windows 10/11

I will look into mozregression

(In reply to jake11561 from comment #4)

I suggest renaming this bug report to "Stylus (pen) fails to select Text in Mozilla Apps"

Please see: connect.mozilla.org/t5/discussions/unable-to-select-text-on-surface-tablet/m-p/3116Microsoft Surface Pen
siouxland reported that the issue began a few weeks after on ‎03-29-2022:

siouxland ‎03-29-2022 07:13 AM
I use Firefox on two desktops and a Surface tablet.

A few weeks ago, on the tablet, I became unable to highlight (or therefore copy) any text on Firefox. I can do so on the desktops, and the functionality is still there on all other applications on the tablet, so it's a Firefox thing...

I see the same bug with Microsoft Surface Book (Windows 10 and 11), and with Thunderbird. FF and TB seem to be the only apps suffering from this limitation, eg, Chrome works fine. FF, TB and Chrome all interpret holding down the pen as scrolling (like the hand icon in Adobe Reader). The difference is that Chrome allows selecting text by pressing the side button (which corresponds to the Right mouse button, I know it's not totally logical, but at least it works).

BTW, Scroll-Lock key makes no difference, nor does the "Let me use my pen as a mouse" setting in Windows 10/11

Thank you very much for the detailed description of the problem, yes, I wanted to say exactly that! 🙂
My PC - Sureface Pro 7 on Win10.

Actually, now that I see from siouxland's post that older versions of Firefox used to work, I will try going back to earlier versions of Thunderbird and test. I should be able to start on this next week. Stay tuned ...

OK, here it is: The bug started in version 97.0b1 (17-Aug-2022) - The Pen works to scroll, but not to select text. In the latest version before that, 96.0b4 (16-Aug-2022), the pen works to select text (only with the side button). Does this help ? Please let me know if there is other testing that might be helpful ...

( in the meantime, I may revert to v91.13.1, the last full release in which the pen worked )

Sorry, I forgot to mention that the testing I just posted about is for Thunderbird, on a Microsoft Surface Book running Windows 11. As mentioned earlier, the bug is also seen in Windows 10.

Flags: needinfo?(afarre)
Severity: -- → S2

Edgar, can you run mozregression to get the regression window? Thank you.

Flags: needinfo?(echen)
Keywords: regressionwindow-wanted

It sounds like something related to we start dispatching touch event for pen input, could you help to try whether switching dom.w3c_pointer_events.scroll_by_pen.enabled to false helps in your case?

(In reply to jake11561 from comment #4)

The difference is that Chrome allows selecting text by pressing the side button (which corresponds to the Right mouse button, I know it's not totally logical, but at least it works).

Doesn't this work on FF?
IIRC, Chrome also dispatch touch event for pen input, if this doesn't work on FF, I think we should figure out how Chrome handle this.

Flags: needinfo?(puma-drakorog)
Flags: needinfo?(jake11561)

Sorry, my laptop is still on T-bird 91.13.1, I won't have access to a PC with the latest version til later tonight (in about 5 hours). I will test it then. As previously stated, the latest FF also has the bug, so I mostly use Chrome, and it's not a problem for me.

So you want me to insert this line
user_pref("dom.w3c_pointer_events.scroll_by_pen.enabled", false);
into
My-Thunderbird-Folder\prefs.js
Is that right ?

Sorry, nm, found it.
Yes, switching dom.w3c_pointer_events.scroll_by_pen.enabled to false fixes the problem !
Thanks !

Flags: needinfo?(jake11561)

(In reply to jake11561 from comment #14)
Above using Config Editor in T-Bird. I did not find a Config Editor in FF.

(In reply to jake11561 from comment #14)

Yes, switching dom.w3c_pointer_events.scroll_by_pen.enabled to false fixes the problem!

Thanks!

(In reply to jake11561 from comment #15)

Above using Config Editor in T-Bird. I did not find a Config Editor in FF.

You could modify preferences in about:config page.

Blocks: 1631377
Flags: needinfo?(echen)
Keywords: regressionwindow-wanted → regression
Regressed by: 1707075

Confirmed, same change fixes the bug in FF as well ! Thanks again !!

Hey Kagami, you were the author of bug 1707075. Would you be able to take a look at this? Thank you.

Flags: needinfo?(krosylight)

It's bug 1755435 and :calixste had a patch in bug 1811303.

Hi Calixste, do you intend to submit https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1811303#c11 as a patch? Thanks!

(Perhaps the pen flags should only be checked when dom.w3c_pointer_events.scroll_by_pen.enabled is true)

Flags: needinfo?(krosylight) → needinfo?(cdenizet)

After the patch, double tapping or long tapping with the pen should open a text selector just as touchscreen does. That should be consistent with what Blink does. (Except Blink does not support double tapping to select. And Blink also does not open a context menu when long tapping, which IMO is what Gecko should do too.)

Flags: needinfo?(cdenizet)

The patch will land in bug 1811303. Thank you Calixte!

(Feel free to mark this as a duplicate, but first I'd like to have someone to verify this bug, since bug 1811303 is more about touch-action, while with the same root cause.)

Hello :puma-drakorog and :jake11561,

We thought bug 1811303 should help resolve this. It'd be helpful if you can verify if this issue is resolved on the latest Nightly build, while the preference dom.w3c_pointer_events.scroll_by_pen.enabled is ture. We appreciate your support. :)

Flags: needinfo?(puma-drakorog) → needinfo?(jake11561)
Flags: needinfo?(puma-drakorog)

Nope, sorry, Tbird Daily v113.0a1 does not resolve the issue; I had to switch dom.w3c_pointer_events.scroll_by_pen.enabled to false.
Thanks
Jake

Flags: needinfo?(jake11561)

I don't think Thunderbird merges Gecko changes so quick, so you need to test on Firefox Nightly instead.

Oh wait, is this bug about Surface devices? That very weird and I guess bug 1811303 won't really fix it.

(In reply to jake11561 from comment #4)

A few weeks ago, on the tablet, I became unable to highlight (or therefore copy) any text on Firefox.

But there was no relevant change in Gecko for months. Maybe the hardware configuration is changed in whatever way? Does your touchscreen still work? How do you select text on you device? What happens when you double tap on a text?

Flags: needinfo?(jake11561)

The difference is that Chrome allows selecting text by pressing the side button (which corresponds to the Right mouse button, I know it's not totally logical, but at least it works).

BTW, maybe Gecko should support this, since it seems it works on many part of Windows including Notepad, File Explorer and any WinRT input boxes.

I tested
thunderbird-113.0a1.en-US.win64.installer.msi
from
https://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/thunderbird/nightly/2023/03/2023-03-27-10-11-42-comm-central/
double tapping did not help.

And yes, Microsoft Surface Book.

I never use my touchscreen, only the pen and the trackpad. I can try that late tonight or tomorrow.

On T-bird v91.13.1, I just place my pen to the screen and select text, no side-button, no hold time, no double tapping needed. Same as Notepad (Windows 11, but I'm pretty sure win-10 worked the same way)

Flags: needinfo?(jake11561)

Sorry, I should have mentioned that I disabled the touch screen on my Surface Book via the registry setting: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Wisp\Touch\TouchGate=0. I did it so long ago, that I forgot about it til now.
The touch is just annoying since I often rest my hand on the screen while useing the pen.

Also, FYI, so far I am testing T-bird only, not FF.

If you wish, I can test FF and/or the touchscreen as well, just let me know ...

Finally, as far as I'm concerned, dom.w3c_pointer_events.scroll_by_pen.enabled=false resolves the problem for me. As long as this keeps working the same way in future versions. There are other ways to scroll.

Thanks again ...
Jake

Sorry, I should have mentioned that I disabled the touch screen on my Surface Book via the registry setting:

Ah, that makes sense, since the previous code was only looking for touchscreen support to enable text selector. Thanks you for reporting back!

If you wish, I can test FF and/or the touchscreen as well, just let me know ...

Would indeed be grateful if you could test on Firefox.

Finally, as far as I'm concerned, dom.w3c_pointer_events.scroll_by_pen.enabled=false resolves the problem for me. As long as this keeps working the same way in future versions.

Flipping the pref is unfortunately only a workaround, and it can be removed any time without notice. So we need to make sure it works without flipping it.

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Wisp\Touch\TouchGate

BTW, this is super new to me 👀 (Finally a way to test this kind of thing on my Surface!)

(In reply to Kagami [:saschanaz] from comment #29)

Would indeed be grateful if you could test on Firefox.

Actually, I did 7 days ago with the latest release; switching dom.w3c_pointer_events.scroll_by_pen.enabled to false fixes the problem, same as T-bird. I meant if there is nightly build or something else similar that you need tested.

Nightly changes very quick and it didn't include the fix last week. If you can, please test it on latest Nightly.

OK, I'm not at the location with my test PC, but will test this evening (in about 8 hours). To be clear, I will install and test
thunderbird-***.en-US.win64.installer.msi
from the latest
https://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/thunderbird/nightly/2023/03/***-comm-central/

Please correct if necessary.
Thanks
Jake

I was saying Firefox Nightly but it seems Thunderbird has merged the code now. Either one should be fine then.

OK, tested:
https://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/thunderbird/nightly/2023/03/2023-03-29-10-08-47-comm-central-l10n/
thunderbird-113.0a1.en-GB.win64.installer.msi

No change:
The Pen works to scroll, but not to select text.
Side button, double tapping or long tapping with the pen do nothing.
switching dom.w3c_pointer_events.scroll_by_pen.enabled to false fixes the problem

I'll have to test it myself in that case, thank you for reporting back!

Flags: needinfo?(krosylight)

Hmm, HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Wisp\Touch\TouchGate does not disable the system touch support flag (Settings shows the device supports touch and Firefox 111 can select texts by pen, even after reboot), and disabling "Intel(R) Precise Touch Device" from Device Manager disables both the touchscreen and the pen support. At this point I'm not sure how I can reproduce such pen-only environment on Surface in that case.

I wonder Calixte still has the digitizer device to test text selection by pen on non-Surface device. Hi Calixte, can I ask your help here?

Flags: needinfo?(krosylight) → needinfo?(cdenizet)

My device is a XP-PEN G640S V2 and I'm on Windows 11 Pro (version 22H2).
Double tapping correctly selects a word and I can extend the selection in moving a pressed pen.
Long tapping selects a word and then open context menu.

Flags: needinfo?(cdenizet)

And you can't in Firefox 111, right? Thanks!

In that case we need to know whether there's any special things with the Surface devices here. Jake, do you have any other thing that comes to your mind about your Surface setup, other than the registry in comment #28? What does Settings app -> About -> Pen and touch say? My Surface Pro 7 says "Pen and touch support with 10 touch points" for example.

And please also test Firefox from https://archive.mozilla.org/pub/firefox/nightly/latest-mozilla-central/ if you can 👍

Flags: needinfo?(jake11561)

I forgot to mention that I was using nightly (113).
In 111, double tapping selects a word but without the two blue "anchors" to extend the selection and selection cannot be extended when the pen is dragged. Long tapping doesn't select a word but just displays the context menu.

Same: "Pen and touch support with 10 touch points"

Flags: needinfo?(jake11561)

Could you also test Firefox Nightly from https://www.mozilla.org/firefox/channel/desktop/ or https://archive.mozilla.org/pub/firefox/nightly/latest-mozilla-central/ ? Just to make sure this is TB specific or also applies to Firefox.

Flags: needinfo?(jake11561)

For me it works fine in TB Daily (113).

(In reply to Kagami [:saschanaz] from comment #43)

Could you also test Firefox Nightly from https://www.mozilla.org/firefox/channel/desktop/ or https://archive.mozilla.org/pub/firefox/nightly/latest-mozilla-central/ ? Just to make sure this is TB specific or also applies to Firefox.

Looks like FF behaves differently:
firefox-113.0a1.en-US.win64.installer.msi
https://archive.mozilla.org/pub/firefox/nightly/latest-mozilla-central/

Holding the pen to the screen gives the two blue "anchors" to select text. I do not see that in Chrome, nor TB v91.13.1 nor TB nightly (ftp.mozilla.org/pub/thunderbird/nightly/2023/03/2023-03-29-10-08-47-comm-central-l10n/thunderbird-113.0a1.en-GB.win64.installer.msi)

Caveats: Tested this is on a Surface Book 3 15-inch, not the SB2 13-inch that I do the TB nightly testing on; both are Win-11, both exhibit the bug in TB. I will repeat the test tomorrow night when I will be where the SB2 is.

Flags: needinfo?(jake11561)

(In reply to Kagami [:saschanaz] from comment #39)

And you can't in Firefox 111, right? Thanks!

In that case we need to know whether there's any special things with the Surface devices here. Jake, do you have any other thing that comes to your mind about your Surface setup, other than the registry in comment #28?

No, nothing else that I can think of.

(In reply to Kagami [:saschanaz] from comment #39)

And you can't in Firefox 111, right? Thanks!

Firefox 111 behaves for me exactly like the latest version of TB: Cannot select text with pen, side-button and holding don't help. double tapping does nothing.

FYI,
FF v111.0.1 (64-bit) behaves like v113.0.a1, not like v111

Holding the pen to the screen gives the two blue "anchors" to select text.

Thanks, that's the wanted behavior for now! (We should also support side-button-to-select, btw)

I do not see that in Chrome

That's interesting, I do see blue anchors there on Surface Pro 7. And I think I did see blue anchors on digitizer tablet when I had the access. 🤔

nor TB v91.13.1 nor TB nightly

Okay, now this is a Thunderbird specific question rather than about Gecko itself, we need some Thunderbird person to take a look.

Hello Rob, do you have idea why it would have a different behavior on Thunderbird, or can you confirm comment #45?

Flags: needinfo?(rob)

If I am doing this right... it's not clear exactly what part of the UI is being discussed unless I missed something.

With Thunderbird 113.0a1, from 2023-03-30 on a Dell with touch screen (10 points apparently) if I tap and hold text with my finger in the message reader, I get the two blue anchors (and a context menu which is sort of annoying). From there I can move the anchors as needed.

However, in the message composer this is not the case. I get the scrolling behavior described above. So seems to be something with <editor>/contenteditable=true?

Flags: needinfo?(rob)

Clarification re my testing: The Touchgate hack was in fact NOT implemented for all of my TB nightly/daily testing reported above, ie, the UI was default/standard Windows 11. Only my FF testing on March 30 (v111.0.1, v113.0.a1, v111) were done on the laptop with the Touchgate hack. Very sorry for the confusion. I will repeat the FF nightly testing without the Touchgate hack soon.

installed firefox-114.0a1.en-US.win64.installer.msi on Win-11 Surface Book, with no Touchgate (ie, finger works).
Pen scrolls, does not select text until I hold the pen to the screen for a second, which gives the two blue "anchors" to select text.
Holding side button does nothing.

(In reply to jake11561 from comment #51)

Clarification re my testing: The Touchgate hack was in fact NOT implemented for all of my TB nightly/daily testing reported above, ie, the UI was default/standard Windows 11. Only my FF testing on March 30 (v111.0.1, v113.0.a1, v111) were done on the laptop with the Touchgate hack. Very sorry for the confusion. I will repeat the FF nightly testing without the Touchgate hack soon.

Installed
thunderbird-114.0a1.en-US.win64.installer.msi
from
ftp.mozilla.org/pub/thunderbird/nightly/latest-comm-central/
on Win-11 Surface Book, with no Touchgate (ie, finger works), dom.w3c_pointer_events.scroll_by_pen.enabled = true
Pen scrolls, does not select text until I hold the pen to the screen for a second, which now gives the two blue "anchors" to select text.
Holding side button does nothing.

Trackpad does not elicit the two blue "anchors", selects text OK without them.

Finger scrolls, does not select text , no blue "anchors"

Setting dom.w3c_pointer_events.scroll_by_pen.enabled = false again allows selecting text immediately (before two blue "anchors" appear)

(In reply to jake11561 from comment #52)

installed firefox-114.0a1.en-US.win64.installer.msi on Win-11 Surface Book, with no Touchgate (ie, finger works).
Pen scrolls, does not select text until I hold the pen to the screen for a second, which gives the two blue "anchors" to select text.
Holding side button does nothing.

(In reply to jake11561 from comment #51)

Clarification re my testing: The Touchgate hack was in fact NOT implemented for all of my TB nightly/daily testing reported above, ie, the UI was default/standard Windows 11. Only my FF testing on March 30 (v111.0.1, v113.0.a1, v111) were done on the laptop with the Touchgate hack. Very sorry for the confusion. I will repeat the FF nightly testing without the Touchgate hack soon.

Forgot to mention above testing was with dom.w3c_pointer_events.scroll_by_pen.enabled = true
Setting dom.w3c_pointer_events.scroll_by_pen.enabled = false again allows selecting text immediately (before two blue "anchors" appear)

Hello Kagami, I think I am a bit lost here ... can you help take a look at the latest comments again, and see if there's anything we shall do before we can close this bug? Thank you.

Flags: needinfo?(krosylight)

I think the most important work is done in bug 1811303: Let the text selector appear with pen. The remaining work would be to implement selection by side button. I'll change the title as such.

Flags: needinfo?(krosylight)
Summary: not work my pen in mozilla, as work in old versions - pen as finger. I not can fast select text → Cannot fast-select text with pressing the side button

The work item would be:

  1. Figure out how the text selection is triggered by mouse drag
  2. Let the same happen when the input is pen

(Dragging by secondary button on mouse does not trigger text selection and we want to allow that when it's pen)

Thanks Kagami. According to the current remaining scope of this bug, I think S3 is a more proper rating.

Severity: S2 → S3
Status: UNCONFIRMED → NEW
Ever confirmed: true

Clear a needinfo that is pending on an inactive user.

Inactive users most likely will not respond; if the missing information is essential and cannot be collected another way, the bug maybe should be closed as INCOMPLETE.

For more information, please visit BugBot documentation.

Flags: needinfo?(puma-drakorog)

(In reply to BugBot [:suhaib / :marco/ :calixte] from comment #59)

Clear a needinfo that is pending on an inactive user.

Inactive users most likely will not respond; if the missing information is essential and cannot be collected another way, the bug maybe should be closed as INCOMPLETE.

For more information, please visit BugBot documentation.

What info is needed ?

Flags: needinfo?(hsivonen)

I see my comment 23 responded about a "daily" build whereas comment 22 asked about a "Nightly" build. Is that the problem ?

(In reply to jake11561 from comment #62)

I see my comment 23 responded about a "daily" build whereas comment 22 asked about a "Nightly" build. Is that the problem ?

For Thunderbird Daily and Nightly both refer to the same thing. The branding was changed at some point to "Daily" but the term "nightly" is still used in several places like the update channel names.

(In reply to Rob Lemley [:rjl] from comment #63)

(In reply to jake11561 from comment #62)

I see my comment 23 responded about a "daily" build whereas comment 22 asked about a "Nightly" build. Is that the problem ?

For Thunderbird Daily and Nightly both refer to the same thing. The branding was changed at some point to "Daily" but the term "nightly" is still used in several places like the update channel names.

So then I'm confused - what additional info do you need ? FWIW, dom.w3c_pointer_events.scroll_by_pen.enabled must still be set false in order for the Microsoft Surface Stylus to select text in Tbird 115.4.2 (64-bit), and that's how I've been using it. I'm happy do do any other testing needed.

Okay, so first of all this bug has been a mixture of different issues, let's just track what's reported in comment #0 (select by side button), which still doesn't work as expected as nobody really worked on it. (See comment #56.) This affects Windows and Android at least.

Comment #22 was about bug 1811303 which now should allow double tapping and long tapping, just as what you do on mobile devices. At this point no other testing is needed. Sorry for not canceling old needinfos 😬

Flags: needinfo?(hsivonen)
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