236381 - Copy of Selected Text Disabled

Status: RESOLVED INVALID

(Core :: DOM: Selection, defect)

Description

[David E. Ross]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Win98; en-US; rv:1.6) Gecko/20040113
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Win98; en-US; rv:1.6) Gecko/20040113

I selected text on a displayed page.  My intent was to copy it and then paste it
into a form input field on a later page.  However, when I right-clicked to get
the pull-down (context) menu, "Copy" was grayed out.  

I then tried selecting and copying other text on other pages.  "Copy" remained
disabled until I exited Mozilla and restarted it.  

I have seen this behavior several times but can never remember the entire
sequence of steps that triggered it.  

Reproducible: Sometimes
Steps to Reproduce:


Actual Results:  
Could not copy either via pull-down menu or Ctrl-C.  (Did not attempt menu bar
Edit > Copy.)

Expected Results:  
Simple text on a page should be copied.

Comment 1

[David E. Ross]

Additional observations:  

When this problem happens, Edit > Copy on the menu bar is also disabled. 
However, Ctrl-C still copies.  

Also, when this happens, Edit > Select All on the menu bar and Select All on a
pull-down do not work, although the item is not grayed out in either menu. 
Ctrl-A still works, selecting all.  

Yes, it happened again.  It seems to happen only when I am doing tabbed browsing
and attempt to copy from a new tab (but not always).  

Comment 2

[David E. Ross]

Yet another observation:  

When this happens, the Copy Link Location on the pull-down menu does not work. 
It is NOT grayed out.  However, if I attempt to copy a link and then paste it
into a text window (not Mozilla), I paste whatever was on my clipboard prior to
the copy link attempt.  Since I know of no work-around for a disabled Copy Link
Location, the Severity should be Normal rather than Minor.  

Comment 3

[Mats Palmgren (inactive)]

Does it still occur with Mozilla 1.8a3?
Do you have any 3rd party extensions or themes installed?
Can you give us an URL or a testcase where you have seen this problem?

Comment 4

[David E. Ross]

Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Win98; en-US; rv:1.7.2) Gecko/20040803

I am running Mozilla 1.7.2 (see above) and still see the problem.  As a rule, I
don't install alpha or beta software.  If you truly think the problem is
resolved, I can make an exception and install 1.8a3.  Send me an E-mail directly
for this.  

I have PrefBar 2.3 installed (my only extension).  I have not installed any
theme other than what came with the Mozilla installation file.  

Since the problem is sporadic and cannot be recreated on demand, I don't have a
test case or a specific Web site to cite.  :)  

I will update this bug report to indicate the URL of whatever I am browsing the
next time I see this error.  However, I conjecture that the problem might occur
while browsing an earlier page, prior to browsing the page where I first notice
the problem.  Once I see the problem, it persists without regard to what
additional pages I browse.  

Comment 5

[David E. Ross]

This may be PrefBar (Mozdev) bug 4890 at
<http://bugzilla.mozdev.org/show_bug.cgi?id=4890>.  I was able to intentionally
cause this problem by going to Yahoo/Reuters News at
<http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=index&cid=578> and then selecting the
"Kill Flash" button on PrefBar.  

Since I can't be sure whether this is strictly a PrefBar problem or whether it
is a Mozilla problem exposed by PrefBar, please leave this bug open for further
analysis.  No, I'm not capable of doing that analysis myself.  That will have to
be assigned by the Mozilla team.  

Comment 6

[Manuel Reimer]

This *was* a PrefBar problem. PrefBar overwrote the global object "top" in this
file:

http://www.mozdev.org/source/browse/~checkout~/prefbar/source/prefbar/content/prefbar/buttonCommands.js?rev=1.9&content-type=text/plain

in function "prefbarKillFlash"

this broke the whole mozilla window.

I've fixed this bug in PrefBar 3.2

If this really depends on this PrefBar bug, then someone might mark this one
"INVALID".

Comment 7

[Mats Palmgren (inactive)]

(In reply to comment #6)
Thanks for notifying us, marking INVALID.