Ubuntu
firefox package

Inconsistent modality of the about dialog box

Bug #48664 reported by agro1986
6
Affects Status Importance Assigned to Milestone
Mozilla Firefox
Fix Released
Medium
firefox (Ubuntu)
Won't Fix
Low
Unassigned
firefox-3.0 (Ubuntu)
Fix Released
Undecided
Unassigned

Bug Description

For some apps such as Gedit and Yelp, it is nonmodal. For other apps such as OOo Writer, Firefox, and GParted, it is modal.

For consistency's sake, a measure must be taken to standarize it (starting from default installed apps, and then other apps in main, and then the rest of the apps).

See original description
Revision history for this message
In , Philringnalda (philringnalda) wrote :

Related (in the "I'm not in the mood to dup either one of you" sense): bug 250077

Revision history for this message
In , Bfowler (bfowler) wrote :

See also http://pasteip.mozdev.org/

Revision history for this message
agro1986 (agro1986) wrote :

For some apps such as Gedit and Yelp, it is nonmodal. For other apps such as OOo Writer, Firefox, and GParted, it is modal.

For consistency's sake, a measure must be taken to standarize it (starting from default installed apps, and then other apps in main, and then the rest of the apps).

Revision history for this message
agro1986 (agro1986) wrote :

Still the same in 7.04 final for the mentioned apps. Is there a certain policy in the GNOME HIG whether about dialog should be modal or not?

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Dean Sas (dsas) wrote :

The relevant part of the HIG says do not use modal dialogues unless neccessary (see http://developer.gnome.org/projects/gup/hig/2.0/windows.html#window-props-modality)

None of the projects you have mentioned are GNOME projects (though do use GTK+),

Revision history for this message
Dean Sas (dsas) wrote :

You should probably file multiple bugs for this issue, one per mis-behaving app, perhaps keeping this one for firefox. Or you could create multiple tasks on this bug...

Bug Watch Updater (bug-watch-updater)
Changed in firefox:
status: Unknown → Confirmed
Revision history for this message
Paul Dufresne (paulduf) wrote :

Thanks for your report. Your idea might get more attention and have the possibility of being implemented if you submit a specification for it. First check whether the idea is already registered [WWW] https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+specs, and if so, contact the specification's drafter about your ideas. Otherwise, you can start writing a spec yourself. [WWW] https://wiki.ubuntu.com/FeatureSpecifications

Revision history for this message
Paul Dufresne (paulduf) wrote :

I am making the bug as invalid, as this is a feature request.

Revision history for this message
In , Ehsan Akhgari (ehsan) wrote :

Is there any special reason why this dialog has to be modal? Bug 267227 moved openAboutDialog() from browser.js to utilitOverlay.js (see the original version in browser.js: <http://bonsai.mozilla.org/cvsblame.cgi?file=/mozilla/browser/base/content/browser.js&rev=1.402#2758>). I was able to track the change to here: <http://bonsai.mozilla.org/cvsview2.cgi?diff_mode=context&whitespace_mode=show&root=/cvsroot&subdir=/mozilla/browser/base/content&command=DIFF_FRAMESET&file=browser.js&rev2=1.34&rev1=1.33>. The changelog for rev 34 is: "Add note about a workaround." (<http://bonsai.mozilla.org/cvslog.cgi?file=/mozilla/browser/base/content/browser.js&rev=1.34>) which doesn't help a lot...

Does anybody know why this dialog should not be modal? I have a simple patch which I will attach shortly which makes this non-modal, and I can't seem to find any problem with a non-modal dialog. It only simplifies the use cases such as that in comment 0.

Revision history for this message
In , Ehsan Akhgari (ehsan) wrote :

Created an attachment (id=296379)
Patch (v1)

Trivial patch to make the about dialog non-modal.

Revision history for this message
In , Gavin Sharp (gavin-sharp) wrote :

(From update of attachment 296379)
Better to get ui-review on these kinds of changes before asking for code review.

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In , Philringnalda (philringnalda) wrote :

After a lot of looking, I finally found a single non-modal About on Windows - the supremely non-native Safari.

On Linux, which was what jwz cared about and filed this bug on (and which should thus prevent a wontfix when someone decides we don't want to follow Safari for Windows behavior), the correct behavior would be more like the Help window is on Windows - not modal, but always raised.

Bug Watch Updater (bug-watch-updater)
Changed in firefox:
status: Confirmed → In Progress
Revision history for this message
Dean Sas (dsas) wrote :

re-opening, it's not a feature request, it's a usability bug where lots of apps happen to have the same bug.

Revision history for this message
Alexander Sack (asac) wrote : Re: [Bug 48664] Re: Inconsistent modality of the about dialog box

On Sat, Jan 12, 2008 at 03:31:28AM -0000, Dean Sas wrote:
> re-opening, it's not a feature request, it's a usability bug where lots
> of apps happen to have the same bug.

Please don't reopen bugs unless instructed to do so by the ubuntu
mozillateam. If in doubt check back in #ubuntu-mozillateam irc channel
on irc.freenode.net

 status invalid

 - Alexander

Changed in firefox:
status: In Progress → Invalid
Bug Watch Updater (bug-watch-updater)
Changed in firefox:
status: Invalid → In Progress
Revision history for this message
Alexander Sack (asac) wrote :

in progress for us as its in progress upstream.

Changed in firefox:
status: Confirmed → In Progress
Paul Dufresne (paulduf)
Changed in firefox:
assignee: dufresnep → nobody
Revision history for this message
In , Ehsan Akhgari (ehsan) wrote :

Gavin: will you have some cycles to review this patch?

Revision history for this message
In , Reed Loden (reed) wrote :

Checking in browser/base/content/utilityOverlay.js;
/cvsroot/mozilla/browser/base/content/utilityOverlay.js,v <-- utilityOverlay.js
new revision: 1.61; previous revision: 1.60
done

Bug Watch Updater (bug-watch-updater)
Changed in firefox:
status: In Progress → Fix Released
Revision history for this message
Alexander Sack (asac) wrote : Re: [Bug 48664] Re: Inconsistent modality of the about dialog box

On Wed, Feb 13, 2008 at 11:36:03AM -0000, Bug Watch Updater wrote:
> ** Changed in: firefox
> Status: In Progress => Fix Released
>

this will not be fixed in the stable firefox 2 branch anymore ...

 affects ubuntu/firefox
 status wontfix

instead its fixed in firefox 3

 affects ubuntu/firefox-3.0
 status fixreleased

Thanks,

 - Alexander

Changed in firefox:
status: In Progress → Won't Fix
Revision history for this message
In , Marcia-mozilla (marcia-mozilla) wrote :

verified fixed using Build identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.0; en-US; rv:1.9b4pre) Gecko/2008021904 Minefield/3.0b4pre. Also verified on Mac using the nightly.

Bug Watch Updater (bug-watch-updater)
Changed in firefox:
importance: Unknown → Medium
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