44173 - improperly parented modal dialog in install manager

Status: VERIFIED FIXED

(Core Graveyard :: Installer: XPInstall Engine, defect, P3)

Description

[Dan M]

nsNetSupportDialog should only be used as a backup plan if no other nsIPrompt 
interface is available. It has been used in dozens of places because of its 
seductive convenience. But it's flawed, creating modal windows that don't behave 
correctly; the cause of various blanket bugs like 25684 and 39439 (both currently 
considered nsbeta2+).
  This problem can only be fixed by trying much harder to find a proper window to 
be the modal dialog's parent. nsNetSupportDialog should be relegated to providing 
backup when herculean efforts to locate the actual parent window fail for some 
reason.
  As an example, the cookie service has been taught to use a proper parent window 
for its dialog by laboriously storing a reference to that window's nsIPrompt in 
nsHTTPChannel, from which it can be extracted and passed around while processing 
notification events, punting to nsNetSupportDialog only when no other choice is 
available. That same sort of thing needs to be done in many more places.
  One such place is in nsXPInstallManager::ConfirmChromeInstall.
  Happy recipients of this bug would spread the happiness most widely if they 
would start using a good nsIPrompt window. The "modal windows don't behave 
nicely" bugs are being made dependent on this bug and its siblings, and will 
eventually be closed as "as fixed as they're going to get" once these have all 
been considered.

Comment 1

[dbragg]

*** Bug 46798 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 2

[dbragg]

Another place is in the same file, ::ConfirmInstall() -- slightly different in 
that case, the hidden window is explicitly used as the parent instead of implied 
by the null passed to ConfirmCheck() in the ::ConfirmChromeInstall() place.

Comment 3

[Daniel Veditz [:dveditz]]

Reassigning to Don because he's done the fix already

Comment 4

[dbragg]

Yep.  It was fixed when I fixed 50942.  Checked in with that fix on 9-14-2000.

Comment 5

[Jimmy Lee]

Build: 2000-09-19-09-M18(WIN)

Looks fine on Win95.

David: If you check Mac, Linux, and WinNT, then go ahead and mark this one 
Verified otherwise I'll check it when I get in tomorrow.  To verify, from 
Netscape 6 open http://jimbob/jars/a_skin_classic2.html, click Install button 
and make sure that the dialog window that comes up is modal.  Thanks.

Comment 6

[Jimmy Lee]

Build: 2000-09-20-09-M18(WIN), 2000-09-20-08-M18(MAC), 2000-09-20-08-M18(LINUX)

Good on all platforms.  Marking Verified.