683186 - When selecting a text field by tapping, place the caret based on the tap location instead of always at the beginning of the text

Status: RESOLVED DUPLICATE of bug 681640

(Firefox for Android Graveyard :: General, defect)

Description

[Mounir Lamouri (:mounir)]

When I want to edit a text field, it seems that Firefox sometimes doesn't recognize where I'm clicking. When that happens, the caret is automatically moved to the beginning of the text field. I think it would be more interesting to make it move to the end of the text field instead.

Comment 1

[Martijn Wargers (dead)]

See bug 669184.

Comment 2

[Mark Finkle (:mfinkle) (use needinfo?)]

Yeah, it's the way Firefox works now. Duping to bug 669184.

Comment 3

[Martijn Wargers (dead)]

What do you mean? It's the way Firefox Mobile works now. It's not the way Firefox desktop works.

Comment 4

[Mark Finkle (:mfinkle) (use needinfo?)]

(In reply to Martijn Wargers [:mw22] (QA - IRC nick: mw22) from comment #3)
> What do you mean? It's the way Firefox Mobile works now. It's not the way
> Firefox desktop works.

I thought this comment said it was the way desktop works: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=669184#c8

Comment 5

[Martijn Wargers (dead)]

I don't know why Ehsan made that comment in bug 669184, comment 8. Maybe he meant something else?

Comment 6

[Mounir Lamouri (:mounir)]

The reasons why bug 669184 has been RESOLVED WONTFIX do not apply to this bug so I'm reopening.
bug 669184 was describing a behavior where the chrome was calling .focus() but this bug is about the user is clicking in a text field. The former case involves a web compatible behavior but the later doesn't (but only the browser UI).

Comment 7

[Matt Brubeck (:mbrubeck)]

When a field is focused by tapping in Fennec, I think it should react like a field focused by clicking in desktop Firefox: place the caret based on the location of the click.  The current behavior (always place the caret at the beginning) is annoying, and inconsistent with other apps and platforms. I agree that we should change it.

Tentatively changing the description to say we should place the cursor based on where the user taps the field (not necessarily the end).  Mounir, do you agree?

Comment 8

[Mounir Lamouri (:mounir)]

That would be perfect.

Comment 9

[(no longer active)]

this makes sense to me, but I wonder why it does not happen automatically. does fennec not use the hittesting code implemented in layout based on the frame tree? does it do something like elementFromPoint?

Comment 10

[Mark Finkle (:mfinkle) (use needinfo?)]

(In reply to Ehsan Akhgari [:ehsan] from comment #9)
> this makes sense to me, but I wonder why it does not happen automatically.
> does fennec not use the hittesting code implemented in layout based on the
> frame tree? does it do something like elementFromPoint?

Fennec uses an "elementFromPoint" like solution. We don't just pass all mouse events to the child process.

Comment 11

[Matt Brubeck (:mbrubeck)]

Attachment: patch

This patch seems to fix the problem, but I still need to make sure it is correct and doesn't regress anything.

Comment 12

[Martijn Wargers (dead)]

The patch looks very similar to bug 681640.

Comment 13

[Matt Brubeck (:mbrubeck)]

(In reply to Martijn Wargers [:mw22] (QA - IRC nick: mw22) from comment #12)
> The patch looks very similar to bug 681640.

Hahahaha... I guess I can't even remember patches that I reviewed two days ago.

Comment 14

[(no longer active)]

(In reply to Mark Finkle (:mfinkle) from comment #10)
> (In reply to Ehsan Akhgari [:ehsan] from comment #9)
> > this makes sense to me, but I wonder why it does not happen automatically.
> > does fennec not use the hittesting code implemented in layout based on the
> > frame tree? does it do something like elementFromPoint?
> 
> Fennec uses an "elementFromPoint" like solution. We don't just pass all
> mouse events to the child process.

Hmm, it is possible that this would break a bunch of stuff having to do with selection and caret movement in editable documents.  Can you please point me to the place in the code where this decision is being made, so that I can familiarize myself with the logic that Fennec uses here?  Thanks!