615687 - Variable-width cookie dialog boxes can cause accidental "allow" clicks

Status: NEW

(SeaMonkey :: UI Design, defect)

Description

[realgrouchy]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.1.15) Gecko/20101027 SeaMonkey/2.0.10
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.1.15) Gecko/20101027 SeaMonkey/2.0.10

[Two of the solutions I propose for this bug will also solve Bug 268108. Bug 516224 is also related.]

When SeaMonkey encounters a cookie, it opens a dialog box that has three buttons for options: Allow, Allow for session, and Deny. There is also a button for details on the cookie, and an option to "use my choice for all cookies from this site [the site that is the source of the cookies, not necessarily the site hosting the page on which the cookie is found]"

The "Allow/Allow for session/Deny" buttons on the cookie dialog box are right-aligned, and the dialog box expands to accommodate the length of the URL of the cookie site. However, if I am about to click on "Deny" for a site with a normal-size URL, and at that instant another cookie dialog box pops up with a very long URL, the "allow" button on the new dialog box is in the same location as the "deny" button of the box from which it stole focus. As a result, instead of denying one cookie, I allow another one.


Three possible ways to deal with this:
1. Fix the width of cookie dialog boxes and allow the contents to scroll horizontally, so that the buttons are always in the same place.

2. Centre-align the buttons so that they are always in a consistent location, no matter the width of the dialog box.

3. However, neither of the above deals with the problem of one cookie approval dialog stealing focus right as you're about to click another one. Usually this isn't a problem for me because I choose the same decision for all cookies on a page, but conceivably it can be a problem. The third option is to grey out the options for half a second or so before allowing the click to register (as with saving add-ons); however, this adds a further problem, as with Bug 516224, when there are many cookies to be processed on a single page it can take a very long time to resolve all the cookies on a page. This may not be a problem if my suggestion on that bug for an option to "apply this decision to all cookies on this page".

Reproducible: Always

Comment 1

[Phoenix]

Is there are still issue with latest build? Even on 2.4 I get fixed width cookie windows all time

Comment 2

[realgrouchy]

Attachment: SeaMonkey 2.4.1 cookie dialogs in Classic and Modern themes

Various cookie dialogs from SeaMonkey 2.4.1, demonstrating that they are still variable-width. Note one of the examples from the Modern theme on the left, that the "Allow for session" box on the top overlaps the "deny" box at the bottom. 

I couldn't find many good examples of cookie sites with very long URIs (usually from lengthy subdomains), but this demonstration is merely to establish that the cookie boxes are variable-width, in both the Modern theme (left) and the Classic theme (right).