431989 - gmail inbox appears half-width when opened in a background tab

Status: RESOLVED WORKSFORME

(Core :: Layout, defect)

Description

[Amir Aharoni]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.0; en-US; rv:1.8.1.14) Gecko/20080404 Firefox/2.0.0.14
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.0; en-US; rv:1.8.1.14) Gecko/20080404 Firefox/2.0.0.14

When the user opens Gmail in a background tab and lets it load, then when he switches to that tab, for a few moments the inbox appears at about half the width of the window.

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Open Firefox.
2. Enter www.google.com
3. Ctrl-click Gmail link at the top.
4. Gmail login form appears. Enter username and password, check "Remember me" and enter Gmail.
5. Close the Gmail tab.
6. Ctrl-click the Gmail link again. Gmail opens in a background tab. Wait until the tab is fully loaded - the Gmail icon appears and the title is "Gmail - Inbox - [e-mail]".
7. Click on the Gmail tab.
Actual Results:  
The inbox appears half-width. After a few moments the screen redraws itself correctly.

Expected Results:  
The inbox should be full-width right from the start.

It doesn't happen in other browsers. It happens on Windows XP, Windows Vista and Linux.

The behavior in Firefox 2 and Firefox 3b5 is slightly different. On both of them the inbox is half-width, but of Firefox 3 the page also appears as if it was scrolled down.

I tried on several computers with Windows XP, Vista and GNU/Linux.

Comment 1

[Amir Aharoni]

Attachment: the half-width inbox on Firefox 3.0b5

Comment 2

[Amir Aharoni]

Attachment: the half-width inbox on Firefox 2.0.0.14

Comment 3

[Amir Aharoni]

Attachment: the proper inbox appearance

Comment 4

[Amir Aharoni]

One important thing that i forgot to mention is that it only happens in the new version of Gmail. If you use "older version", it doesn't happen.

Comment 5

[Ria Klaassen (not reading all bugmail)]

Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9pre) Gecko/2008050210 Minefield/3.0pre

I was not able to reproduce this, at least not entirely. I see indeed the white block on the right side but only for a split second.
Can you reproduce this in safe-mode or with a new profile?
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Safe_Mode_(Firefox)
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_Folder

Comment 6

[Amir Aharoni]

I reproduced it on several PCs with vista, xp and Linux. It indeed happens only for a few moments, but it is still quite disruptive.

Comment 7

[Ria Klaassen (not reading all bugmail)]

It is a regression, somewhere between Firefox 1 and 1.5.

Comment 8

[Tomer Cohen :tomer]

I can reproduce it. In fact, I can see it almost every day (Firefox3b5/gtk).

Ria, can you point us what is the origin for this strange regression?

Comment 9

[Ria Klaassen (not reading all bugmail)]

I don't know, I haven't found a regression range for this yet, it is possibly in a branch. I'll try to find it if the problem still happens when GMail will bring out its new version.

Comment 10

[Amir Aharoni]

(In reply to comment #9)
> I don't know, I haven't found a regression range for this yet, it is possibly
> in a branch. I'll try to find it if the problem still happens when GMail will
> bring out its new version.
> 

When i say "New version of GMail", i am referring to the version that is current. This last major version of GMail was rolled in the autumn of 2007. At first it was available for English US only, but now it is the default for most languages. (I tried English US, English UK, Catalan, Lithuanian, Russian and Hungarian; Hebrew still uses only the old version.)

I am not aware of Google's plans for another major upgrade any time soon.

Comment 11

[Amir Aharoni]

GMail seems to work without this problem in 3.5b99 on XP.