274524 - Cannot force a redraw for an inactive plugin

Status: RESOLVED INCOMPLETE

(Core Graveyard :: Plug-ins, defect)

Description

[Jonathan Brecher]

We produce a scriptable plugin. 

The scriptability may be invoked when the plugin does not have the focus (for example, by pressing a 
button on the form). 

Unfortunately, the forceredraw procedure (NPN_ForceRedraw, CallNPN_ForceRedrawProc, etc) appears to 
be non-functional except when the plugin has the focus. That is, the plugin does not receive an Update 
event after that procedure call. That procedure does appear to work properly when the plugin does 
have focus.

I'm pretty sure that the core plug-ins code messes with the coordinate system of the window when it 
thinks it needs to be talking to the plugin. I wonder if the coordinate system is in an unexpected 
configuration when the ForceRedraw call comes in to the browser?

As of today I can only provide a development-level build of our plugin. I am not attaching it here, 
because it is likely to change many times before anyone looks at this entry. If you can't reproduce this 
problem immediately, please send me email and I'll send you the latest build (or more likely, point you 
to a version that's been released by then).

Comment 1

[Boris Zbarsky [:bzbarsky]]

jst, any idea what's up here?

Comment 2

[Gervase Markham [:gerv]]

This is an automated message, with ID "auto-resolve01".

This bug has had no comments for a long time. Statistically, we have found that
bug reports that have not been confirmed by a second user after three months are
highly unlikely to be the source of a fix to the code.

While your input is very important to us, our resources are limited and so we
are asking for your help in focussing our efforts. If you can still reproduce
this problem in the latest version of the product (see below for how to obtain a
copy) or, for feature requests, if it's not present in the latest version and
you still believe we should implement it, please visit the URL of this bug
(given at the top of this mail) and add a comment to that effect, giving more
reproduction information if you have it.

If it is not a problem any longer, you need take no action. If this bug is not
changed in any way in the next two weeks, it will be automatically resolved.
Thank you for your help in this matter.

The latest beta releases can be obtained from:
Firefox:     http://www.mozilla.org/projects/firefox/
Thunderbird: http://www.mozilla.org/products/thunderbird/releases/1.5beta1.html
Seamonkey:   http://www.mozilla.org/projects/seamonkey/

Comment 3

[Jonathan Brecher]

Do you think maybe that there would be more developers writing plugins if they weren't blocked by 
bugs in the plugin api? This bug should not be closed without being fixed.

Comment 4

[Boris Zbarsky [:bzbarsky]]

Jonathan, is there somewhere where I could get your plugin to debug with it
(preferably on Linux)?

Comment 5

[Jonathan Brecher]

This is a Mac-specific issue, so debugging on Linux isn't going to do you any good. You can download 
the latest version of our plugin at http://scistore.cambridgesoft.com/software/product.cfm?pid=4011 
(as of today; may not stay there for the next several years)

Comment 6

[Boris Zbarsky [:bzbarsky]]

Simon, Josh (or Jonathan, if you know), can you tell me what Gecko code is
called into when the plugin does a ForceRedraw() ?

Comment 7

[Simon Fraser [no longer active]]

Here is ForceRedraw()

NS_IMETHODIMP nsPluginInstanceOwner::ForceRedraw()
{
  nsIView* view = mOwner->GetView();
  if (view) {
    return view->GetViewManager()->Composite();
  }

  return NS_OK;
}

I'd have to debug further to see if that actually does redraw a non-focussed
plugin, but I don't see why it wouldn't.

Comment 8

[aravindm]

Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.0; en-US; rv:1.9.2.4) Gecko/20100413 Firefox/3.6.4
Please update if you are able to still reproduce with the latest nightly build  ftp://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/firefox/nightly/latest-trunk/

Comment 9

[Ed Morley [:emorley]]

Closing since now after whiteboard closeme date and no reply to last comment.

Please reopen/comment with further info, if you still see this issue with Firefox 3.6.13 or later, with a clean profile and the latest version of the plugin.

If you wish, you can also try to reproduce in Firefox 4 Beta 8 or later:
http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/all-beta.html