470608 - colgroup in table.html.tmpl not well supported

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(Bugzilla :: Query/Bug List, defect)

Description

[Aaron Larson]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.9.0.5) Gecko/2008121622 Ubuntu/8.10 (intrepid) Firefox/3.0.5
Build Identifier: 

The table.html.tmpl template makes use of HTML <colgroup> and <col>
tags to specify the class of the table cells in a column.  This
appears to not be well supported by Mozilla based browsers.  This
issue was found while working BUG 264511 and briefly discussed on the
Bugzilla news group
(http://groups.google.com/group/mozilla.support.bugzilla/browse_thread/thread/f33246457384e418/7d97e2ef5b376d91?lnk=gst&q=larsonsonline#7d97e2ef5b376d91)
and at that time it was suggested that Bugzilla should refrain from
using the <col> tag.  The solution is to specify the class in each
<td> for each column.  The patch is very straight forward, but it does
increase the size of the generated HTML by a fair amount.  I can
supply a patch if desired.

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1.
2.
3.

Comment 1

[Frédéric Buclin]

(In reply to comment #0)
> and at that time it was suggested that Bugzilla should refrain from
> using the <col> tag.  The solution is to specify the class in each
> <td> for each column.

No, the solution is that Mozilla fixes this problem in its browser.

Comment 2

[Max Kanat-Alexander]

(In reply to comment #1)
> No, the solution is that Mozilla fixes this problem in its browser.

  No, because the other browsers don't support it well either, and in any case, we'd be waiting forever to get a release out that users actually could use with this tag. I have unfortunately found in all my web development experience that <col> and <colgroup> should be avoided.

Comment 3

[Aaron Larson]

Attachment: Self contained HTML file showing COL class css bug.

This attachment shows that COL is broken in Firefox 3.0.5, Epiphany 2.24.1, and konqueror 4.1.3.  It does work in IE (several versions).  I don't know about other browsers.

Comment 4

[Aaron Larson]

In Bug 472274 comment 10, there is a hint:

> Maybe they don't work in colgroup because
> http://www.w3.org/TR/CSS21/tables.html#columns didn't specify text-align as
> properties applying to column and column-group elements.

It would seem that if we want right justification to be portable, then specifying the class in each <td> is needed.  Let me know if you want a patch to do this.

Comment 5

[Volker Seibt]

(In reply to comment #2)
> (Mozilla doesn't need to fix this problem)
> because the other browsers don't support it well either, (...)

Do you really suggest that Mozilla browsers should be as bad as other browsers???
(And you are wrong: In IE 7.05730.11 it works!)

Comment 6

[Volker Seibt]

Attachment: COL with STYLE that doesn't work in Firefox 3.0.9

Comment 7

[Volker Seibt]

(In reply to comment #4)
> In Bug 472274 comment 10, there is a hint:
> 
> > (...)
> > http://www.w3.org/TR/CSS21/tables.html#columns didn't specify text-align as
> > properties applying to column and column-group elements.

The address above only shows some specialities of some properties.

The attributes allowed with COLGROUP and COL are defined in
http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/struct/tables.html#h-11.2.4
(Also, STYLE is allowed!)

My added attachment ("COL with Style ...") is simple and it works with IE 7.0.5730.11 but not with Firefox 2. ... - 3.0.9.

To me it looks like COLGROUP and COL don't work at all in Firefox.
(Maybe the default TD properties override the COL properties what they shouldn't do.)

Comment 8

[Aaron Larson]

(In reply to comment #7)

> The attributes allowed with COLGROUP and COL are defined in
> http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/struct/tables.html#h-11.2.4
> (Also, STYLE is allowed!)

Thanks for the pointer.  It would seem then that a bug report for firefox is in order.  I will do that.

> My added attachment ("COL with Style ...") is simple and it works with IE
> 7.0.5730.11 but not with Firefox 2. ... - 3.0.9.

That's consistent with what I said in comment 3.  Your attachment is simpler even than mine, so I'll steal it for the firefox bug report.

My default action (probably obvious by now) is "no action".  I'm still willing to submit a patch, but with the degree of disagreement, it seems unlikely to get approved.  Guidance is still solicited.

Comment 9

[Aaron Larson]

(In reply to comment #8)
> (In reply to comment #7)
> 
> > The attributes allowed with COLGROUP and COL are defined in
> > http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/struct/tables.html#h-11.2.4
> > (Also, STYLE is allowed!)
> 
> Thanks for the pointer.  It would seem then that a bug report for firefox is in
> order.  I will do that.

I should have searched before posting.  See Bug 285184.  It appears that only some
css attributes are supported.  See http://www.w3.org/TR/CSS21/tables.html#columns

>   ... Guidance is still solicited.

Is this enough to indicate that a patch for Bugzilla is in order?

Comment 10

[Volker Seibt]

(In reply to comment #9)

It looks like the list in http://www.w3.org/TR/CSS21/tables.html#columns ('border, background, width, visibility') is an entire enumeration (i. e. "this and only this").

So the standard is bad and Firefox is right (to the standard).
(And IE is bad at all! ;-)

Comment 11

[Teemu Mannermaa (:wicked)]

Attachment: Kill col/colgroup usage, V1

Since everything is pointing to not to use col/colgroup tags (see also bug 472274 comment 14) then let's get rid of them. I already had a patch in bug 472274 that fixed this so I'll moved relevant bits here per mkanat's review in bug 472274 comment 15.

This also moves the span for the [SEC] text inside the IF to fix a validation warning about using an empty span.

Comment 12

[Frédéric Buclin]

Comment on attachment 388184 [details] [diff] [review]
Kill col/colgroup usage, V1

Looks good but bitrotten (I guess due to bug 512623)

Comment 13

[Aaron Larson]

Attachment: Eliminate use of col/colgroup.

Updated patch for current HEAD.

Comment 15

[Frédéric Buclin]

Comment on attachment 413677 [details] [diff] [review]
Eliminate use of col/colgroup.

r=LpSolit

Comment 16

[Frédéric Buclin]

Checking in template/en/default/list/table.html.tmpl;
/cvsroot/mozilla/webtools/bugzilla/template/en/default/list/table.html.tmpl,v  <--  table.html.tmpl
new revision: 1.52; previous revision: 1.51
done