539946 - pop-ups are being sent to background

Status: RESOLVED INCOMPLETE

(Core :: DOM: Events, defect)

Description

[Bob Walter]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.0; en-US; rv:1.9.2) Gecko/20100105 Firefox/3.6 (.NET CLR 3.5.30729)
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.0; en-US; rv:1.9.2) Gecko/20100105 Firefox/3.6 (.NET CLR 3.5.30729)

In testing 3.6 RC1 we noticed a change in the behavior of how pop-ups are handled. Some pop-ups and all pop-ups called from a pop-up are sent to the background and the window making the call is in the foreground.
ENVIRONMENT:
OS: Vista
FF v: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.0; en-US; rv:1.9.2) Gecko/20100105 Firefox/3.6 (.NET CLR 3.5.30729)
Add-ons: None enabled.
Pop-up blocker: Set to Allow.

ISSUE:
Some pop-ups and all pop-ups called from a pop-up are sent to the background and the window making the call is in the foreground.

Details:
We use the full screen view in FF extensively and our application calls pop-ups for various functions like data entry. Under FF 3.5.x, pop-ups are sent to the foreground and in full screen mode, the pop-up is all the user sees until they act on the pop-up. When the pop-up closes it returns control back to the window that called it and that window is placed in the foreground. However, under 3.6RC1, the window that calls the pop-up remains in the foreground. We can see a brief flash of the window when the pop-up is presented and then immediately pushed to the background (or the calling window is pushed to the foreground). Since it is in full screen, the user is never able to access the pop-up window.

This breaks our application.


Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Open a browser in full screen mode
2. Call a pop-up (ensure there is a way to close the pop-up)
3. From that pop up call another pop-up (ensure there is a way to close the pop-up)

Actual Results:  
You should not see the second pop-up window, only the first pop-up window called.

Expected Results:  
The second pop-up should be in the foreground and since you are in full screen mode, no other windows visible. When you close the second pop-up window, you should be returned to the first pop-up window and only see the first pop-up window.

We consider this a critical issue because it completely breaks our application. Our application runs in kiosks and other highly controlled and user restricted environments. We selected FF as our preferred browser environment because of the reliability, speed, ability to support full screen views, and pop-up management.

If you need anything from us to help resolve this issue, please let us know. We'll help in any way we can.

Comment 1

[Ria Klaassen (not reading all bugmail)]

Can you give a link to a URL with the problem? And first, to exclude extension problems or a corrupt profile, please test in safe-mode / with a new profile:
http://support.mozilla.com/en-US/kb/Troubleshooting+extensions+and+themes
http://support.mozilla.com/en-US/kb/Basic+Troubleshooting#Make_a_new_profile

Comment 2

[Bob Walter]

Sorry I missed the comment so late.

Please contact me via email to gain access to our app. I can not make it public here.

Comment 3

[Bob Walter]

here is the link for a sample of the application. This application is a Point of Sale application and is used mostly on touchscreen systems in a full screen environment.

http://www.queuent.com/webwlm/index.asp?cguid=abc&cauth=123

Upon loading the link, a window will popup that asks for a Startup Password: 2010

A new window will be loaded that displays the main application. Select the ADD button. This should pop up an Add Guest window that should be on top. However, the bug forces it to the background. Right now we have work around code to force it to focus twice to get it to the foreground, hence the reason for the annoying blink.

Comment 4

[Bob Walter]

Also confirmed same behavior in safe mode.

Comment 5

[Ria Klaassen (not reading all bugmail)]

Thanks for the test link. I see indeed a struggle for the foreground position. This is indeed a bug, and a regression from Firefox 3.5. 
What would be awesome is a minimal testcase.
https://developer.mozilla.org/en/Reducing_testcases

Comment 6

[Olli Pettay [:smaug][[e-mail]]]

A *minimal* testcase would be great.

Can't reproduce on OSX (trunk or FF3.6). Will test on linux.

Anyway, this sounds a lot like a focusing issue. Enn?

Comment 7

[Olli Pettay [:smaug][[e-mail]]]

Can't reproduce on Linux either.

Now booting a windows machine

Comment 8

[Olli Pettay [:smaug][[e-mail]]]

Or does http://www.queuent.com/webwlm/index.asp?cguid=abc&cauth=123
have the workaround code, since I can't reproduce the problem on windows either?
If yes, a minimal testcase is definitely needed here.

Comment 9

[Bob Walter]

Olli - yes the above app does have the workaround code in it. The workaround code is essentially to call focus to the window twice in a row.

If you are testing this, and Add Guest, you should notice a brief flash of the window coming to the foreground when you first press the Add button and then the Add Guest screen loses focus. We then call focus again which brings it back to the front.

Comment 10

[Bob Walter]

Working to get a minimal test case developed....

Comment 11

[Johnny Stenback (:jst)]

Olli, can you have a look at this for 1.9.3, assuming we get a testcase that shows this problem?

Bob, any updates on the testcase you're working on? We'd really appreciate a testcase!

Comment 12

[Bob Walter]

unfortunately, our workaround is working well enough that I am unable to get the dev resources to build out a test case.

I hope to have some more information on the details of our workaround by the end of the week.

Comment 13

[Johnny Stenback (:jst)]

Not blocking gecko 2.0 on this. If someone can come up with a small testcase that shows this problem, please feel free to re-nominate.

Comment 14

[Paul Silaghi, QA [:pauly]]

Any updates here? Is this still an issue on the latest firefox nightly ? http://nightly.mozilla.org/

Comment 15

[u279076]

I'm resolving this bug as INCOMPLETE. Please reopen if reproducible steps can be provided with the latest Firefox Nightly build.