44396 - The LINK element needs to act like the A element

Status: VERIFIED FIXED

(Core :: Layout, defect, P3)

Description

[Hixie (not reading bugmail)]

This was exposed by the fix to bug 6306.

STEPS TO REPRODUCE
Go to this page: 
http://www.bath.ac.uk/%7Epy8ieh/internet/projects/mozilla/linktests.html
 1. Hover over one of the links at the top of the page. 
 2. Click on one of the links at the top of the page.
 3. Click just to the side of the text of the links at the top of the page.
 4. Do steps 1-3 again on any of the links lower down the page.


ACTUAL RESULTS
The LINK elements _look_ like links, but are not actually links. The bugs are:
 1. The URL does not appear in the status bar. 
 2. Clicking on the text does not work, although clicking on the text of the 
    AREA or A elements works fine (in all three cases the link texts are 
    generated content so why the difference?). 
 3. Clicking on the LINK element does not cause the browser to follow the link.


EXPECTED RESULTS
The same should happen for the LINK element as for the A and AREA elements.


TESTED ON
Windows NT using Mozilla Win32 build 2000062920.

Comment 1

[Hixie (not reading bugmail)]

Fixing this bug will allow authors to do cool things like:
   http://www.bath.ac.uk/%7Epy8ieh/internet/eviltests/link2.html

Comment 2

[David Baron :dbaron: (⌚️UTC-4, no longer working on Mozilla)]

Why do we want to do this?  The A element has all the power of the LINK element
(rel and rev), doesn't it?  What does the HTML4 spec say?  Should this wait
until CSS describes links?

Comment 3

[karnaze (gone)]

Mark, can you take a look.

Comment 4

[Marc Attinasi]

HTML 4 spec says LINKs are really cool: 
see http://www.w3.org/TR/html401/struct/links.html#h-12.3

I'm not sure I understand what this has to do with CSS - we style the LINK 
content correctly, it is the behavior that is bad (missing, actually). 

If we are to support the LINK element then we should probably make it do 
something useful, otherwise we probably want to ignore the element altogether. 
Currently we half-support it, making it look like a link but not act like a 
link.

I'll look into what needs to happen to make LINK elements act like links, but 
this probably isn't a terribly high priority.

Comment 5

[Marc Attinasi]

Nominating for nsbeta3: We style it like a link, we should allow navigation 
through it like a link.

Comment 6

[Marc Attinasi]

Easy fix: the nsHTMLLinkElement::HandleDOMEvent needs to do what the 
nsHTMLAreaElement does, namely call mInner.HandleDOMEventForAnchors instead of 
mInner.HandleDOMEvent (note that HandleDOMEventForAnchors does call 
HandleDOMEvent internally, so the new action is a superset of the old action).

Tested, works correctly. Will attach patch.

Comment 7

[Marc Attinasi]

Attachment: Patch to make the LINK element to act link a link

Comment 8

[Marc Attinasi]

Approving for beta3: have fix to get correct HTML4.01 behavior. Change is highly 
localized and very simple - low risk.

Comment 9

[Marc Attinasi]

Can somebody review this patch for me so I can check this in?

Comment 10

[David Baron :dbaron: (⌚️UTC-4, no longer working on Mozilla)]

r=dbaron, although I'm still not sure this is a good thing to do.  I guess no
spec says we can't, though...

Comment 11

[Marc Attinasi]

Fix checked in (nsHTMLLinkElement.cpp)

Thanks for the review David.

Comment 12

[Marc Attinasi]

Yes, fixed.

Comment 13

[Chris Petersen]

Marking verified in the Aug 24th build.

Comment 14

[Mats Palmgren (inactive)]

Regression?  -- the <LINK>s are not displayed:
http://www.bath.ac.uk/%7Epy8ieh/internet/projects/mozilla/linktests.html

Comment 15

[Hixie (not reading bugmail)]

Indeed. Would you like to file a new bug?

Comment 16

[Mats Palmgren (inactive)]

New bug filed - bug 208588

Comment 17

[Hixie (not reading bugmail)]

cheers