452448 - Cannot click through transparent flash to content underneath even when wmode=transparent

Status: RESOLVED INCOMPLETE

(Core Graveyard :: Plug-ins, defect)

Description

[Joe]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.0.1) Gecko/2008070208 Firefox/3.0.1
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.0.1) Gecko/2008070208 Firefox/3.0.1

This has been an issue for years but I can't seem to find any specific bugs on the issue or any sort of resolution for this.

When flash exists in a dhtml layer above content and wmode is set to transparent, the flash player plugin will remove the flash canvase, but will not allow a user to click through to content underneath the transparent portion of the flash.  For folks like me who are in the advertising business, and I suspect also those folks who are flash developers, this is a huge problem.  It's been a problem since the early days of Firefox and I've never received a straight answer on why this problem can't be fixed.  Even if it can't be fixed, I'd just like to know why it's not possible if IE can handle it.

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Position a transparent flash object in a dhtml layer above some links
2. Click to the links
3. See? You can't :)
Actual Results:  
Can't click through to content underneath the transparent flash object

Expected Results:  
In Internet Explorer you can click through to content below transparent flash.

Comment 1

[Fabiano Antunes]

How come this is not a confirmed bug?
There are several forums and lists, where professional developers take part, complaining about this issue, looking for workarounds since 2002 - that's the oldest post I've found - and yet, this is an _unconfirmed_ bug?
I believe it's time to start taking this kind of issue more seriously or it will never become a real competitor for a market share against MS/Internet Explorer or even worse:  web developers who try and enforce good layout design compatibility and code functionality, just like me, ought to start going back to the monopolistic old days, when people developed aiming for IE stability only, preventing people with other browsers from accessing the contents of their sites.

Comment 2

[(no longer active)]

Could you please post a link to a page with a Flash animation which demonstrates this issue?

Comment 3

[Henrik Skupin [:whimboo][⌚️UTC+1]]

Attachment: testcase

Here is a testcase for a transparent flash object. Just move the mouse over the plugin area. I have tested this with several other browsers. None of them were able to select the text under the flash object. Did I something wrong? We need some more information before I will confirm this behavior. I have no idea if a plugin can share a region with the browser.

Comment 4

[Fabiano Antunes]

Here is a link for a test page demonstrating the issue.
http://www.itgen.com.br/webportal/fwmtctbd/

Comment 5

[Fabiano Antunes]

Just updated the page under http://www.itgen.com.br/webportal/fwmtctbd/
Here is what I discovered:  The contents behind the flash object with wmode transparent is available if you navigate through the page using the TAB key.
I don't know if that's important, so I've decided to share it, just in case.

Comment 6

[(no longer active)]

Thanks for generating the test case.

I can confirm this on Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.1b4) Gecko/20090423 Firefox/3.5b4.

Comment 7

[(no longer active)]

Comment on attachment 382037 [details]
testcase

This test case does not demonstrate the problem because the entire Flash animation seems to be a clickable button.

Comment 8

[Henrik Skupin [:whimboo][⌚️UTC+1]]

(In reply to comment #4)
> Here is a link for a test page demonstrating the issue.
> http://www.itgen.com.br/webportal/fwmtctbd/

Could this somehow be related that IE uses an activeX control for Flash and other browsers don't? At least for the above testcase it doesn't work with Safari too. Haven't had a chance to test other products.

Comment 9

[Frédéric Buclin]

dupe of bug 344027?

Comment 10

[Benjamin Smedberg]

Resolving old bugs which are likely not relevant any more, since NPAPI plugins are deprecated.