472060 - Most Apple Cmd keys are not passed through to java applet.

Status: RESOLVED INVALID

(Core Graveyard :: Plug-ins, defect)

Description

[Geoff Titmuss]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; Intel Mac OS X 10.5; en-US; rv:1.9.0.5) Gecko/2008120121 Firefox/3.0.5
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; Intel Mac OS X 10.5; en-US; rv:1.9.0.5) Gecko/2008120121 Firefox/3.0.5

Apple uses cmd keys for hotkeys, eg Ctrl S on windows is Cmd S on mac.
Running a java applet within Firefox, the cmd key strokes do not reach java.

(A few do, cmd c, v, and x for example)

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1.Open given web page.
2.Click on page.
3.Type Cmd O.
Actual Results:  
Nothing

Expected Results:  
Open dialogue, (or sign in, if not signed in) should appear.

You need to 'trust' the java applet for this to work.

Comment 1

[Steven Michaud [:smichaud] (Retired)]

Java applets are cross platform, so it's the Ctrl-key combinations
that you should use (on all platforms).

I just tried Ctrl-O (and Ctrl-S) on both Windows and OS X (using
Firefox 3.0.5) -- I had no problems.

Comment 2

[Geoff Titmuss]

I do not believe comment #1 is valid. Only a windows user is going to think of using the ctrl key for these functions. 

To conform with Mac guidelines, the hot keys on Mac should use the Mac cmd key. Native Mac users will think the product broken if it does not use these keys.

Anyway, if Firefox passes through Cmd X, V and C, why on earth does it choose not to pass through all the keystrokes when the focus is clearly on the java applet?

Comment 3

[Steven Michaud [:smichaud] (Retired)]

OK.  I've now looked into this further, and there's more to it than
first meets the eye.

1) Testing with my DebugPluginEvents plugin from bug 441880, I find
   that the browser *doesn't* send Cmd-o and Cmd-s to ordinary NPAPI
   plugins:  Even when the focus is in this plugin, the browser (more
   or less) eats Cmd-o and Cmd-s and brings up its own Open File and
   Save File dialogs.

   Ordinary NPAPI plugins only see a key-down event for 'o' and 's',
   respectively (after the dialog closes).  No key-up event is sent.
   And the key-down event doesn't have its 'Cmd' modifier flag set.

   It may be right for the browser to eat Cmd-o and Cmd-s.  But if so,
   it should do a neater job of eating.

2) But the Java Embedding Plugin (aka the JEP), which provides Java
   support for Mozilla.org browsers on OS X (and of which I'm the
   author) isn't an ordinary NPAPI plugin.  When a Java applet has the
   focus, the JEP gets its mouse and keyboard events directly from the
   OS.

   I need a simple AWT Java applet to test with (one that simply logs
   keyboard events using System.out.println()).  I don't have time to
   write one right now.  Next week should be better.

Comment 4

[Steven Michaud [:smichaud] (Retired)]

Attachment: Java applet for debugging keyboard events

Here's a simple applet that logs key events.  I adapted it from Sun
sample code for a key listener:

http://java.sun.com/docs/books/tutorial/uiswing/events/keylistener.html

With this applet it's easy to tell that, as reported, many Command key
combinations don't get passed to Java applets.  The ones that don't
get passed are usually key combinations that mean something to the
browser -- for example Command-o usually means Open File and Command-s
usually means Save.  But the same thing happens in Safari, and seems
to be how things are intended to work with Apple's JVMs -- whether or
not those JVMs are "wrapped" by the Java Embedding Plugin (as they are
in Firefox, but not in Safari).

In Safari, Command-o opens the browser's Open File dialog, even if the
keyboard focus is in my DebugKeyEvents applet (and Command-s opens the
Save As dialog).  In Firefox the menu just flashes, and nothing else
happens.  I suppose this is a Firefox bug ... though not (of course)
the one reported here.

Because the problem reported here (if it's a bug at all) happens in
Apple's JVMs (and not in Firefox or the JEP), I'm marking this bug
invalid.  If you wish, you can open a bug with Apple at
https://bugreporter.apple.com/.