286516 - Location bar background is permanently yellow in color for secure sites

Status: RESOLVED WONTFIX

(Camino Graveyard :: Location Bar & Autocomplete, enhancement)

Description

[Chris Lawson (gone)]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; PPC Mac OS X Mach-O; en-US; rv:1.8b2) Gecko/20050314 Camino/0.8+
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; PPC Mac OS X Mach-O; en-US; rv:1.8b2) Gecko/20050314 Camino/0.8+

It would be wonderful if there were a preference to set the background colour of
the location bar (rather than programmatically fixing it at yellow).

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Visit https URL.
2. Notice yellow background that cannot be changed.

Comment 1

[Chris Lawson (gone)]

Oh, btw, I don't care if there's a GUI for it or not. Probably best if this
remains a geeky hidden pref.

cl

Comment 2

[Mike Pinkerton (not reading bugmail)]

why you'd want to turn off the indicator that the page is secure is beyond me,
but a hidden pref is prolly ok....

Comment 3

[Chris Lawson (gone)]

Actually, I was thinking a different colour, rather than hiding it entirely,
although it seems <a
href="http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?t=234080">some people don't
like it at all</a>. *shrug*

cl

Comment 4

[Torben]

Attachment: Allows setting of background color through hidden pref

Made a new (hidden) preference "browser.urlbar.secure_background_color",
default is yellow ("#FFFFC6").

Comment 5

[Smokey Ardisson (offline for a while; not following bugs - do not email)]

I've never seen an UNCO that has a target and a patch :-) so setting this to
NEW.  Pinkerton didn't seem to indicate it was a WONTFIX in his comment 2.

Torben, if your patch has been tested and is ready for review, set the review
flag  on it and target one of the Camino devs besides Pinkerton (who only does
SRs)--smfr, Josh, Geoff, Ludovic, others I'm forgetting....

Comment 6

[Mike Pinkerton (not reading bugmail)]

i'd rather have it be 'on/off' than a color pref. you either want the url bar
colored or you don't. no need to confuse the code with changing the color too.

Comment 7

[Chris Lawson (gone)]

I don't see much reason *not* to allow setting the colour. As I mentioned on
Mozillazine, colour-blind people (who don't notice the padlock icon, which is a
different issue entirely -- IMO it would be better if the padlock icon replaced
the favicon proxy on secure sites) may wish to set a more noticeable colour.

cl

Comment 8

[L. H.]

If there is a typo in the color the URL bar will be black. Same if the
preference is missing.

Comment 9

[Torben]

Attachment: Update patch

Update patch, moved the default value into the code, now gives the default if
the preference is missing or is not a string. You still get the black
background if you set the preference to a string that is not a legal color
value (eg. "white" and not "#FFFFFF"). However, I belive this is a bug in the
getColorPref code, it should not return success if the value is invalid. I will
fill a bug for that.

Besides, anyone that sets a hidden pref should know to remove it if something
goes wrong.

Comment 10

[Torben]

For whether to make this "on/off" rather than a color option, I really don't
care either way. I will try to make an "on/off"-patch to compare before I ask
for review.

Comment 11

[Torben]

The IMHO erratic behaviour of getColorPref mentioned in comment 9 is filled as
bug 287083.

Comment 12

[Mike Pinkerton (not reading bugmail)]

might i mention that "just add a hidden pref" often turns into much more dev
work than anticipated. This is yet another data point where "what could a hidden
pref possibly hurt?" turns into additional dev complexity.

Comment 13

[Torben]

Attachment: Patch for "on/off" preference

An "on/off" patch was far more easy, I vote for this. Note that this removes
both the background color and the lock icon from the URLbar (it is still in the
statusbar).

> might i mention that "just add a hidden pref" often turns into much more dev
> work than anticipated. This is yet another data point where "what could a 
> hidden pref possibly hurt?" turns into additional dev complexity.

Yup. But at least I found something that anoyed me enough to build Camino
myself (having finally got a machine for my own that can run OS X also helps).
Still think bug 287083 should be fixed (I have attached a patch) even though it
is not need for the "on/off" pref.

Comment 14

[Mike Pinkerton (not reading bugmail)]

our goal is to eventually allow the user to hide the status bar. if so, we
shouldn't allow them to then hide the only visible indication that the page is
secure (the lock icon in the url bar).

Comment 15

[Torben]

Attachment: Only removes the background color, keeps the lock

OK, only remove the background color but still show the lock.

Comment 16

[Simon Fraser [no longer active]]

I think we should WONTFIX this.

Comment 17

[Steve Ruge]

(In reply to comment #14)
> our goal is to eventually allow the user to hide the status bar. if so, we
> shouldn't allow them to then hide the only visible indication that the page is
> secure (the lock icon in the url bar).

Isn't the page status also indicated by the lock at the bottom right of the
window? Or is that going bye-bye also? Just wondering.

Comment 18

[L. H.]

(In reply to comment #17)
> (In reply to comment #14)
> > our goal is to eventually allow the user to hide the status bar. if so, we
> > shouldn't allow them to then hide the only visible indication that the page is
> > secure (the lock icon in the url bar).
> 
> Isn't the page status also indicated by the lock at the bottom right of the
> window? Or is that going bye-bye also? Just wondering.

That is the status bar.

Comment 19

[Samuel Sidler (old account; do not CC)]

(In reply to comment #16)
> I think we should WONTFIX this.

I'm with Simon. This should be WONTFIXed. If it bothers someone that much, they
can build Camino with the change made. ;)

Comment 20

[Smokey Ardisson (offline for a while; not following bugs - do not email)]

Should it switch to a more muted (but still different/alerting) color when
people use OS X's Graphite theme?

Comment 21

[L. H.]

(In reply to comment #20)
> Should it switch to a more muted (but still different/alerting) color when
> people use OS X's Graphite theme?

Graphite changes system controls but does not change toolbar look in most
applications.

Comment 22

[Smokey Ardisson (offline for a while; not following bugs - do not email)]

(In reply to comment #19)
> (In reply to comment #16)
> > I think we should WONTFIX this.
> 
> I'm with Simon. This should be WONTFIXed. If it bothers someone that much, they
> can build Camino with the change made. ;)

I concur; as this bug now stands, it really should be WONTFIX (sorry Chris).  I think the colored location bar was one of the most user-friendly and powerful advances in security UI to date.

Comment 23

[Smokey Ardisson (offline for a while; not following bugs - do not email)]

Comment on attachment 178161 [details] [diff] [review]
Only removes the background color, keeps the lock

Removing review request on WONTFIXed bug.