Apache OpenOffice (AOO) Bugzilla – Issue 16577
date field calendar/form dropdown vanishes as soon as drawn
Last modified: 2004-02-04 12:58:02 UTC
The date/calendar dropdown that can be configured on a date field in an OpenOffice form does not appear to be working under OpenOffice 1.1beta2, at least under Linux. When enabled in the form designer, the pulldown button on the end of the field appears as expected, but when clicked on the calendar draws only for an instant before disappearing again. The observed behaviour is very like what you would see if the mouse was momentarily clicked and the pulldown was set to close as soon as the mouse was released - it flashes up, then vanishes. I'm not even sure it entirely draws. Expected behaviour: Calender dropdown on a date field in a form appears when clicked on and can be interacted with. Actual behaviour: Calendar dropdown flashes up momentarily, but disappears before it can be interacted with at all. I'll attempt to reproduce this under Windows shortly, but this will require persuading a housemate to install the MySQL ODBC client and OpenOffice. I encountered the problem under linux, specifically Red Hat 9 running XFCE4 (with XFWM4) and GNOME 2 with the Metacity WM.
Reassigned to Marc.
This bug is still present in 1.1RC1 . Still haven't managed to find a windows box I can install RC1 on to test with - sorry. Please forget my mention of the MySQL ODBC client - it wasn't relevant and the issue exists even for a date entry not bound to a data source field.
Just as a datapoint, this is not a problem in Windows 2000 running rc1. the calendar drops down, though in an independent window, which looks as if it ought to be movable. However, attempts to move it by dragging the title bar result in the disappearance tht you have reported
set target and reassign to the developer MSC -> FS: The issue occurr only under Linux/Unix. The problem is the windowsmanager, I think. Please have a look on it and send it to the right vcl developer.
This issue appears to be /mostly/ gone with OO.o 1.1rc2. Sometimes (1/5, maybe) the calendar window decorations will draw then the entire thing will vanish, but usually it works as expected. It seems most inclined to vanish in the case of a larger-than-normal date field, but even on a small one it still does it often enough to be quite noticeable. It is no longer totally broken, however. Congrats :-) I presume there were some general changes made to the window handling and such between rc1 and rc2 that fixed this. At least, it's now working right most of the time under XFCE4 and under Metacity, both on linux.
Appears to work correctly under Windows with 1.1rc3, though if I try to /move/ the date popup, it vanishes. Not a major issue. It's still very problematic under Linux, however. Possibly worse in 1.1rc3 than rc1, or perhaps it's a factor of the size of the date field I'm using.
I've just tested for this problem in OO.o rc4. It is definitely still present, and appears heavily window-manager dependent. All testing was done on a Red Hat 8 box. xfwm4 (the XFCE4 window manager) works correctly some of the time - if you click on the date pulldown, it'll sometimes work correctly. Sometimes the window border will draw then immediately vanish as if there was never a window present. The pulldown never works under Metacity on this system (RH8), always vanishing as soon as pulled down. It works correctly under Kwin 100% of the time. It fails 100% of the time under WindowMaker. I don't know what's causing this, but it must be some kind of interaction between how OO.o handles windows and how the window manager expects it to. It's certainly really annoying, and makes date pulldowns largely nonfunctional on some systems.
*** Issue 19703 has been marked as a duplicate of this issue. ***
I've just tested this in StarOffice 7 (eval) under XFCE4, MetaCity, and KWin. It's broken in exactly the same way, and makes the dropdown unusable.
cc'ing some gsl people .... fs->ssa,pl: I did not investigate this, yet, but assume that it's a gsl problem. short problem description: We have a VCL control (DateField) which can open a floating window containing a calendar. This window immediately vanishes on ~nix systems (and thus isn't usable at all), and isn't moveable on windows (vanishes then, too). Does anybody of you have any spontaneous idea?
In the corresponding StartPopupMode() you should try to set FLOATWIN_POPUPMODE_NOFOCUSCLOSE|FLOATWIN_POPUPMODE_ALLOWTEAROFF. This should keep the window open on focus changes (typically on Unix) and you can move it around. If you additionally specify FLOATWIN_POPUPMODE_GRABFOCUS all keyinput will go into the floating window. You cannot call GrabFocus() directly because this would lead to closing it, as the Frame closes all popups on focus lost. (Mainly to not let menus stay open when you leave the app).
Created attachment 9692 [details] suggested patch
Stephan, thanks for the hints!, the pointer to StartPopupMode indeed allowed me to solve this.
accepting
targeting to 1.1.1 in agreement with QA (msc@openoffice.org)
fixed in child workspace dba01pp1
fs->msc: please verify in CWS dba01pp1. Thanks :)
fixed
verify in CWS dba01pp1
Hi, this will be fixed in OOo 1.1.1 which will be available soon. I close this issue now as fixed. bye Marc
Works a treat in OOo680. Thanks, folks.