908175 - [InputContext] Clearing inputcontext sets values to string "null" instead of NULL

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(Firefox OS Graveyard :: Gaia::Keyboard, defect)

Description

[Jan Jongboom [:janjongboom] (inactive)]

If we invalidate the inputcontext in b2g then all DOMString values are set to "null" because in the webidl the types are specified as DOMString instead of DOMString?

Comment 1

[Jan Jongboom [:janjongboom] (inactive)]

Attachment: Patch

Comment 2

[Ryan VanderMeulen [:RyanVM]]

https://hg.mozilla.org/integration/b2g-inbound/rev/8a35072c7cb8

Comment 3

[Ryan VanderMeulen [:RyanVM]]

https://hg.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/rev/8a35072c7cb8

Comment 4

[Yuan Xulei [:yxl] (Leave from May 18)]

These attributes should be empty string other than null, when the inputcontext is invalid. You shouldn't change the API interface.

Comment 5

[Kan-Ru Chen [:kanru] (UTC+9)]

Hmm, I didn't know the API requires the invalidated inputcontext to return empty string other than null. This should be added to the API document.

Comment 6

[Yuan Xulei [:yxl] (Leave from May 18)]

The API doesn't specify what the invalid inputcontext should return. The only requirement is that IME can't interact with the focused input field via invalid inputcontext.

It isn't necessary to set these attributes to null or empty string, but is a nice to have feature that will prevent IME using invalid inputcontext by mistake.

So I think we should not change the API as it is not necessary.

Comment 7

[Jan Jongboom [:janjongboom] (inactive)]

I don't agree. Empty string is something fundamentally different than NULL. F.e. code that relies on textBeforeCursor won't know whether the context was invalidated because `textBeforeCursor == ''`. It could be that there is no text. NULL is clear, as it's not a valid value for any of the fields.

Comment 8

[Yuan Xulei [:yxl] (Leave from May 18)]

IME should not rely on checking the attributes of an inputcontext to know if the inputcontext is valid. It should listen to oninputcontextchange event and check mozInputMethod.inputcontext to ensure the inputcontext is valid and keep a valid reference.

Setting the attributes to null is merely a safeguard to prevent error. So I insist on not changing the API.

Comment 9

[Jan Jongboom [:janjongboom] (inactive)]

Then why even clear it at all? If we clear it, it should be to an invalid value.

Comment 10

[Yuan Xulei [:yxl] (Leave from May 18)]

It's fine for me not to clear these attribute if calling any method of an invalid inputcontext will return failure.