299961 - multiple option selection not possible with recreated mouse events

Status: RESOLVED WORKSFORME

(Core :: DOM: Events, defect)

Description

[carglue a t ya hoo do tcom]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; SV1; .NET CLR 1.1.4322)
Build Identifier: 

Using javascript-created mouse events, I am unable to recreate the effect of a 
user selecting multiple options as is typical when the user holds the ctrl or 
shift key down and selects multiple items or a range of items from the list.

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
In a Javascript/XUL extension, I initialize and create 2 mouse 'click' events 
targeted at 2 separate OPTION elements of a SELECT tag, where the first click 
event selects the first option and the second click event targets the second 
option but also has either the shiftKey or ctrlKey boolean flag set.
Actual Results:  
The result is that it will not select multiple OPTION elements, either 
individually or as a range as expected.  Only one element is ever selected 
(highlighted).

Of course, it is possible to recreate the effect of multiple selection 
manually using a brute-force technique of watching for an onChange event on a 
SELECT element then saving the selection state of each of its OPTION elements; 
This saved-state data could then be used to set the state of each individual 
OPTION element at a later time.  But this is not an ideal solution.

Expected Results:  
I expected to see multiple options selected (or a range), just as if I had 
selected them interactively with my mouse.

I would like to select a range of items (or multiple items) using only 
recreated mouse click events, not by programatically setting the .selected 
state of each option.  It would seem useless to design an initMouseEvent call 
that accepts boolean parameters such as ctrlKey and shiftKey but yet not have 
the event affect the UI in the expected manner.

Comment 1

[Boris Zbarsky [:bzbarsky]]

Please attach a testcase?  Based on looking at the code, this should work...

Comment 2

[Gérard Talbot]

No reply and no testcase for over 18 months. 

Resolving as WORKSFORME

Reporter, you may reopen the bug if you can provide a testcase that fails in a trunk nightly build

Comment 3

[Boris Zbarsky [:bzbarsky]]

Note that for this to work right on trunk the events have to have the right coordinates, etc.