623092 - aero glass white glaze gradient effect placement is not correct

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(Toolkit :: Themes, defect)

Description

[Asa Dotzler [:asa]]

Attachment: comparison between placement of glaze effect in an Explorer window and a Firefox window

Aero Glass has a white gradient that runs from solid white part way down the right and left and right sides of the window frame to transparent at the top of the Glass frame.  That gradient, which I'm calling the glaze effect for lack of a better name, is computed as starting 25% of the way down the inner height of the Glass window.  The computation should not take into account not-Glass toolbars. In Firefox, it appears to count the toolbar area. I believe this is because our toolbars sit on top of a hidden Glass area rather than inside of the glass area as proper Windows toolbars do. 

I've attached a screenshot that diagrams this for a proper Windows window and for Firefox. For the proper Windows window, you can see that the glaze effect starts above the toolbar at the inner corner of the glass frame. In the Firefox window, the glaze effect starts below the toolbar, not at the corner of the visible glass frame. 

One quick way to test this is to add several toolbars in an Explorer window and add several toolbars in a Firefox window. In the Explorer window, the glaze doesn't move because it's computed against the glass frame and not the non-glass toolbars. In Firefox, the gradient will shift down with every toolbar you add.

Comment 1

[Alex Faaborg [:faaborg] (Firefox UX)]

wow, nice catch!  Adding to the visual bugs we're tracking.

Comment 2

[Jim Mathies [:jimm]]

Technically this is by design. Our transparent region extends to the content area, therefore the haze is lower. I would suggest this be marked wontfix.

We also get some wonky haze lines when you size the window up. Roc attempted to address this in bug 623463, and I've been tweaking this to address some problems in bug 622328.

Comment 3

[Asa Dotzler [:asa]]

(In reply to comment #2)
> Technically this is by design. Our transparent region extends to the content
> area, therefore the haze is lower. I would suggest this be marked wontfix.

Then this is a less than ideal design. If it's unfixable due to our architecture, then OK, maybe this is wontfix. But if there is a way to fix it or fake it, we should do so at some point. It's not a high priority, but it's not how Aero Glass apps are supposed to look.

The tabstrip is a glass toolbar with tab controls overlayed on it. But all toolbars below that are supposed to be not-glass toolbars. Yes, the glass is technically there under those non-glass toolbars, but if we want to emulate native apps here the glass should stop at or at least appear to stop at the bottom of the tabstrip, the top of the navigation toolbar.

Comment 4

[Jim Mathies [:jimm]]

Attachment: 112 px

Comment 5

[Jim Mathies [:jimm]]

(In reply to comment #3)
> The tabstrip is a glass toolbar with tab controls overlayed on it. But all
> toolbars below that are supposed to be not-glass toolbars. Yes, the glass is
> technically there under those non-glass toolbars, but if we want to emulate
> native apps here the glass should stop at or at least appear to stop at the
> bottom of the tabstrip, the top of the navigation toolbar.

Ok, so I've posted what we get for possible transparent region in widget with my ui config. If the bookmarks and navigation bar shouldn't be a part of this area, we should be able to fix that via css. Maybe refile this in browser or theme maybe?

Comment 6

[Jim Mathies [:jimm]]

(In reply to comment #5)
> (In reply to comment #3)
> > The tabstrip is a glass toolbar with tab controls overlayed on it. But all
> > toolbars below that are supposed to be not-glass toolbars. Yes, the glass is
> > technically there under those non-glass toolbars, but if we want to emulate
> > native apps here the glass should stop at or at least appear to stop at the
> > bottom of the tabstrip, the top of the navigation toolbar.
> 
> Ok, so I've posted what we get for possible transparent region in widget with
> my ui config. If the bookmarks and navigation bar shouldn't be a part of this
> area, we should be able to fix that via css. Maybe refile this in browser or
> theme maybe?

Whoops, this is already in theme. Thought this was filed as a widget bug. Never mind.

Comment 7

[Emanuel Hoogeveen [:ehoogeveen]]

I see this 'glaze line' jumping up and down on page load with the Add-on bar disabled. It seems to jump up when the page loading state pops up in the bottom left, suggesting this is being treated as a full toolbar. When the Add-on bar is enabled there is still a minor jump on page load, but it is much less noticeable.

Should I file a separate bug for this?

Comment 8

[Jim Mathies [:jimm]]

(In reply to comment #7)
> I see this 'glaze line' jumping up and down on page load with the Add-on bar
> disabled. It seems to jump up when the page loading state pops up in the bottom
> left, suggesting this is being treated as a full toolbar. When the Add-on bar
> is enabled there is still a minor jump on page load, but it is much less
> noticeable.
> 
> Should I file a separate bug for this?

Yes please do, I can reproduce that.

Comment 9

[Emanuel Hoogeveen [:ehoogeveen]]

Okay, I filed bug 633282.

Comment 10

[Alex Faaborg [:faaborg] (Firefox UX)]

Also related to this bug: if you open the add-ons manager (which does not have a navigation toolbar), and then switch tabs between it and a tab that has a navigation toolbar, you will see the reflection line shifting positions up and down. (thanks to fryn for spotting this).

Comment 11

[Timothy Nikkel (:tnikkel)]

Isn't the white line supposed to be placed based on "where the UI ends and the content begins"? In which case the losing of the location bar with the addons manager makes less UI and moves the content higher.

Comment 12

[Asa Dotzler [:asa]]

(In reply to comment #11)
> Isn't the white line supposed to be placed based on "where the UI ends and the
> content begins"? In which case the losing of the location bar with the addons
> manager makes less UI and moves the content higher.

The glaze effect is placed where the glass ends. Adding toolbars to Microsoft apps does not shift it. See IE 9 for an example.

Comment 13

[Asa Dotzler [:asa]]

sorry, I meant "is placed _relative to_ where the glass ends"

Comment 14

[Timothy Nikkel (:tnikkel)]

Ok, so then we are doing the right thing, the glass extends into the location bar because of that rounded corner, without the location bar the glass does not extend that far down anymore.

Comment 15

[Asa Dotzler [:asa]]

Attachment: glaze effect is relative to glass, not to all toolbars

Comment 16

[Asa Dotzler [:asa]]

(In reply to comment #14)
> Ok, so then we are doing the right thing, the glass extends into the location
> bar because of that rounded corner, without the location bar the glass does not
> extend that far down anymore.

I believe that we're "correct" in the add-on manager to standard tab switch but correct doesn't look right. If it's possible fake it, we should keep the glaze effect in the same place irrespective of what chrome we show in different tabs.

Comment 17

[Jim Mathies [:jimm]]

Glass is now clamped to the content rect. So I think we can close this out.