19260 - Separate pref to disallow background images (currently part of page colors pref)

Status: NEW

(SeaMonkey :: Preferences, enhancement)

Description

[xiaotong]

This is opened to address the accessibility issue according to W3C accessibility
guidelines. The priority 1 requirement for Images, animations, and Image
Maps:
Allow the user to turn on and off rendering of background images.
Allow the user to turn on and off rendering of background audio.

Comment 1

[Sean Richardson]

In the "Colors" pane of the Preferences dialog, there is a checkbox for
"Always use my colours, overriding document" under the heading "Sometimes
a document will provide its own colors and background"

Currently it isn't working yet, when it does it should do what you are
suggesting (the equivalent in Communicator does).

But I suspect you may be suggesting a toggle that is part of the main
user interface - for background images and colours, probably on the
View menu, much like the toggle for the Sidebar.

Is that what you are suggesting?

Also, it would be helpful if you could give a URL for the accessibility
guidelines you are citing.

Comment 2

[xiaotong]

Yes, the checkbox for "Always use my colours, overriding document" in Pref
dialog will do exactly I am suggesting. If it works, the requirement "allow
user to turn on and off rendering of background images" is satisfied. How about
backround audio? Is there a way to turn it on and off with existing UI?

The URL is for W3C accessibility check points is
http://www.w3.org/TR/WAI-USERAGENT/full-checklist.html.
3.1 and 3.2 is for Images, Animations, and Image Maps (Priority 1).

Comment 3

[shuang (gone)]

another one. I don't know whether you can turn off the sound from within a
browser. assign it to german to check it out. cc myself and lake on it.

Comment 4

[german]

we will have a pref to turn off page generated background-images. Don't know
about sounds either. Forwarding to don's app team to track first portion (matt?)

Comment 5

[Lakespur Roca]

Unlike Background images, I thought that those sounds that are not handled by a

third party player are handled through the operating system. The volume and such

are contriolable through the OS UI. This is not the case for images so clearly we

need to support controle of image but if this is handled through the OS UI do we

need to duplicate the functionality?

Comment 6

[Sean Richardson]

Three points:
1. It may not be in the user's best interests to turn off sound altogether
   in the host OS UI - the user may, for instance, be waiting to hear an
   audible alert for receipt of top-priority mail.

2. The accessiblity guidelines are asking for the ability to turn off
   *background* audio - the kind that gets played so long as the page
   is in view (this could be done with BGSOUND, CSS2, or OBJECT).
   Note that this is also not the same thing as turning off all audio
   from Mozilla. The mail program with the important message may
   be Mozilla's Mail client.

3. The user may be using a voice-reader *with* Mozilla (this functionality
   comes standard with late-model Macs). To be able to hear the spoken
   text of a web page that comes with background music, the Host OS sound
   would need to be left on. If Mozilla continues playing the background
   sound, the user may not be able to clearly hear the spoken text of the
   webpage (all too many webpage authors who have useful information on their
   pages have their pages play background sounds by default). This, I believe,
   is what the Accessibility Guidelines are concerned with.

The generic rationale for this is given at
http://www.w3.org/TR/WAI-USERAGENT/#gl-feature-on-off
(I am somewhat shocked that no specific rationale is given)

Comment 7

[xiaotong]

Accessibility Guideline regarding background audio is to allow user have a
option to turn background audio on and off. This only applies to background
audio specified in web pages, not any audio from Mozilla such as alert, warning,
mails, etc.. Is it possible to add an option for background audio just like what
you did with background images?

Comment 8

[leger]

Moving all UE/UI bugs to new component: User Interface: Design Feedback
UE/UI component will be deleted.

Comment 9

[don]

Move to "Future" milestone.

Comment 10

[Ben Bucksch (:BenB)]

Do we honor the sounds at all? If we do, I consider this bug a MUSTFIX for
final. Nominating for nsbeta2. I do not want to be forced to hear any sound from
webpages unless I explicitly click on such a link. In part because it annoys me
and in part to reduce traffic. Same for video. BTW: I don't think, this is an UI
feedback bug.

Comment 11

[leger]

Putting on [nsbeta2-] radar. Not critical to beta2.  But would like to see a 
contribution from mozilla :-)

Comment 12

[Ben Bucksch (:BenB)]

Adding URL and removing RFE from summary. This is IMO a basic requirement, no
"nice-to-have feature".

Comment 13

[johng]

nsbeta3-

Comment 14

[Daniel Veditz [:dveditz]]

Adding nsbeta3 keyword to bugs which already have nsbeta3 status markings so 
the queries don't get all screwed up.

Comment 15

[Zach Lipton [:zach]]

This is important if we want compliance with the access guidelines

Comment 16

[Marc Attinasi]

*** Bug 51820 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 17

[don]

Not for Netscape 6 RTM.  Sorry.

Comment 18

[sairuh (rarely reading bugmail)]

marc, would you like to take over this bug? (even tho' it won't make it in for
rtm...)

Comment 19

[Marc Attinasi]

I'm happy to take over the back-end portion of this, however I believe that
there is a need for some UI to be put together too. Since we typically implement
the back-end if the pref first (or so I hae been told), I guess it makes sense
for me to take this on first, and then pass it off the a UI engineer to complete
nce the backend is in place. So, yes, assigning to self.

Comment 20

[don]

Mark, that sounds good to me.  Just pass it my way when you're done.  Thanks.

Comment 21

[Aaron Leventhal]

I see that under Prefs - Colors, "Use my chosen colors, ignoring the colors 
specified", indeed turns off a background image (sample www.carnegiehall.org).

Perhaps we should reword so this feature isn't invisible to the user:
"Use my chosen colors, ignoring the colors or background images specified"

Comment 22

[Matthew T (active 1999-2002)]

Aaron's right (what he describes is 4xp, too). But I should probably be able to 
turn background pictures off, without having to turn background colors (or 
foreground pictures) off too.

| Category:             Multimedia ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: |
| +-------------------+                                              |
| |=General===========| [/] Automatically load ima_ges and plugins   |
| |=Display===========|     [/] Allow images as _backgrounds         |
| |  Languages        | [/] Allow images to _animate                 |
| |  Accessibility    |     [/] Allow _looping of animations         |
| |  Fonts            | [/] Play _sounds                             |
| |  Colors & Effects |     [/] Allow loo_ping of sounds             |
| |::Multimedia:::::::|                                              |
| |  Filters          | [/] Display _frames                          |
| |  Scripts          | [/] Display _in-line frames                  |
| |  Privacy&Security | [ ] Always allow frame _resizing             |
| |                   | [ ] Always allow frame _scrolling            |
| |                   |                                              |
| +-------------------+ :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: |

Comment 23

[timeless]

too wordy

v { } Allow images
   [ ] as _backgrounds
   [ ] to _animate
    [ ] to _repeat
     [ ] forever

v { } Allow _sounds to
   [ ] _load
   [ ] play _automatically
   [ ] _hide controls
   [ ] loo_p
    [ ] forever
v { } frames
   [ ] Recognize framesets
   [ ] Display
   [ ] Recognize _in-line frames
[         |v] frame _resizing
Enable, Disable, honor author preference
[         |v] frame _scrolling
Enable, Disable, honor author preference

- Plugins don't belong in this panel.

Comment 24

[Aaron Leventhal]

Removing audio portion of bug, that is a different bug for media prefs, part of
bug 24418

I agree with mpt, we need a separate pref for this.

How about 

SetBoolPref("browser.capability.background_images", PR_TRUE /* or PR_FALSE */ );

Comment 25

[Marc Attinasi]

Attachment: [WIP] Check pref for using document background-images and change pref rules accordingly [WIP]

Comment 26

[Miloslaw Smyk]

Wouldn't it be nice to have "remove background image" in the RMB page-menu? This
way when I'd encounter image designed by someone having a taste for black
letters on white-gray stripes, I could quickly disable the background. IBrowse
on Amiga has this feature and it's really useful.

Having this only in preferences window is not as handy.

Comment 27

[Matthew T (active 1999-2002)]

Miloslaw, that's bug 38521, not this bug.

Comment 28

[Aaron Leventhal]

From Sean Richardson's original comment in this bug:

'In the "Colors" pane of the Preferences dialog, there is a checkbox for
"Always use my colours, overriding document" under the heading "Sometimes
a document will provide its own colors and background"'

That works now. So it is possible.

However, this still needs it's own separate control. I know it's already part of
general user control of content bug, wherever that is. Once we find that bug, I
recommend we mark this one resolved.

Comment 29

[R.K.Aa.]

*** Bug 103584 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 30

[Darren Salt]

While page backgrounds can indeed be turned off, they can only be turned off along with page colours. This isn't always what's wanted; it may be that the user wants to view the page with colours but no images (as I often do).
I suggest making the colours preference apply to colours only, and creating a new preference for the fetching of background images, with the same options as for the fetching of foreground images.

Comment 31

[Aaron Leventhal]

Resummarizing to more accurately describe problem

Comment 32

[Matthew T (active 1999-2002)]

Removing access keyword, since we already do let users turn off background
images (by using only their chosen colors).

Comment 33

[Serge Gautherie (:sgautherie)]

(Filter "spam" on 'prefs-nobody-20080612'.)

Comment 34

[Phoenix]

Looks like still valid request

Comment 35

[Aruna]

Hey!!Can i work on this one?

Comment 36

[Ben Bucksch (:BenB)]

Sure, go ahead.

If you haven't already, read the Mozilla developer guidelines, specifically the parts about review processes.

If you can find a solution that does not touch mozilla/ directory, but is confined in mail/ and mailnews/, that would make review easier. However, if the right fix is arguably in mozilla/, you can make your case.