Mozilla Browser Question

If one changes HtmlHelpHomePage in the debug settings you can access sites on the web in the Mozilla browser other than the F1 help.

When I have done this and used a text editing box such as the one used to make this post, there is no text cursor visible. I could type and edit text, just no text cursor to show where you are in the text.

Is there a setting to change somewhere in the ...SecondLife\app_settings\mozilla folder that will make the text cursor show up?

Checking with Callum for his expertise on this one...

Is this on a Windows or Mac machine SuezanneC and what's the URL of the site you are looking at?

This works for me on a Windows box everywhere I've tried. We do have to draw the caret ourselves so it's quite possible that it's failing somewhere.

--Callum.

Moved to Resident Answers for Sue to reply and any further discussion for those who've played around with the browser.

The text cursor is missing in every place I have tried to enter text.

It is missing when trying to enter text in these forums, in the sluniverse forum at forums.sluniverse.com, in wiki's at http://www.seedwiki.com.

It's Windows XP sp2.

Interesting. I also don't see a caret in the edit box on seedwiki when I edit the page.

I do see one in the single line text box at the bottom that is labeled "Describe your changes" so it might be related to multi-line vs single line text boxes.

I'll add it to the list - thanks for reporting the bug.

--Callum.

I've seen other programs respond differently to single vs. multi-line text entry areas, when a user would probably prefer they got treated the same.

I say this because I use add-on spellcheckers in various browsers, and they seem to distinguish between multi-line entry areas like this text box, where they work, and single line entry areas, like where we type in the Title: and Reason for Editing:, , where they don't work.

It might be that the single line entries are done with a label control element and the multi lines are done with a text edit box.

Finding the right place to draw the caret is complicated but it appears that it should work for both multi-line and single edit widgets.

I'll look into it this evening and see if I can track it down - not having a caret is very annoying.

--Callum.

Outstanding, thank!

Now, if we could just get:
1. A mozilla window separate from the help window.
2. Ability to make llLoadUrl use the added inworld mozilla browser instead of the system default browser.
3. Other stuff related to the mozilla browser I am too tired to think of at the moment.

Callum, it would appear that with the HTML help in place, it should be possible to have a few features that would be a HUGE help to a lot of people with minimal changes by Linden Lab. Correct me if I'm wrong, but couldn't we have (with minimal effort):

(1) A field in preferences to place a URL for your business. This URL would appear, in HTML, as an additional tab in profiles without having to store anything more than a URL in the SL database.
(2) For that matter - ability to replace portions of the profile with your own web site / blog (perhaps replace the entire thing with HTML, save for the action buttons (Pay, Teleport, IM, etc) as an option).
(3) A field in preferences to specify a URL for web-based shopping (SLB, SLEx, MySLShop)
(4) A field in preferences to specify a URL for an alternate events page to the unusable in-world events "spam" list (Del.icio.us, the old events code I wrote that I'm considering open-sourcing)

Just some ideas... are we too far off from these sorts of capabilities? With REST around the corner, I can imagine a lot of residents wanting to customize their entire "FIND" system.

Regards,

-Flip

Sorry for the late reply SuezanneC & FlipperPA - I've been out of the office.

Thanks for the suggestions - you are not alone in wanting these things

There are two things holding up the further implementation 2d (UI based) based Mozilla dialogs. (3d, in world and on a prim is a whole other kettle of fish...)

Firstly, the implementation we have that renders pages to a texture and then into the client isn't feature complete across Windows and Mac. There is some work to be done there which I believe is just leg work. I know what to to, it's just a case of finding time to do it.

Secondly, I don't yet know how to find out when the contents of a page changes - anything from a new page to a link highlight to an animated GIF etc. etc. This means I need to manually update the page frequently. Each Mozilla "widget" that was open on screen would have to have this same rule applied to it.

The combination of both of these things means that having other Mozilla based UI - a generic browser in world or new tabs in the profile for instance - both of which are really neat ideas - would break on a large number of pages and be very slow on many peoples' systems. I know many of you would like to have them anyway and live with the sluggishness and broken pages. That's certainly a possibility we have to consider how much work this would add to the CSR folk who as you might imagine after the last couple of weeks' fun and games are stretched to breaking point.

I am squeezing in as much time as I'm able for both of these but it's slow going and difficult to find the answers.

That all said, I am working on some new dialogs that use Mozilla but like the HTML help pages, they will use our own HTML that we control. (Although, I expect it'll be hacked to use an arbitrary one approximately 15 minutes after it's released )

The bug/exploit fixing obviously takes priority over this but I am plugging away in the evenings on fixes for the issues I've mentioned. I really (really, really) want this too

Cheers.

Callum.

Thanks a million for the update and explanation - that makes a lot of sense! You're absolutely correct that I would love the integration, even without link color changes and animated GIFs. I'm looking forward to seeing what ya come up with, and thanks for plugging away extra hours to try to make it happen!

Thanks again. Regards,

-Flip

I would be quite content for starters with something that can display text in just one font and accept text entry. Sort of a console window. I suspect that the programmers in the user population would be able to make chat software, control panels for scripted objects, and other text based software that would be quite useful without needing any fancy stuff at all.

Thanks for the update. I hope your refactoring and such is going well.

------

Access to the sorts of panels that show the profiles would work too, but the mozilla browser seems a more future oriented path.

There is a whole host of questions I would like to ask but sad to relate I do not have the program knowedge to express myself correctly. It is a bit like asking a scientist what the universe is expanding into if you follow my logic but I do have ONE key issue to raise and that is security.

The best example I can offer is that of Active Worlds. I have played around with the software that powers it and it is very easy to programe an object to bring up a defined webpage when you either click it, walk over it, or even fly or walk past it, but it is an internal lightweight brouser.

By way of interest both Internet Explorer and Firefox both have advanced features, in particular security encoding, thus enabling you to transact business over the net with some degree of confidence.

The internal Active Worlds brouser does NOT have these features.

If a built in Second Life brouser emerges does Linden Lab intend it to be a lightweight device for fun only or do they intend to enable secure 128 bit (is that the right term) encoding. Or do they entend to enable IE or Firefox?

Sigh.. I wish the "Instant Email Notification" worked in these forums - I didn't get notified there'd been replies.. anyway - enough grumbling



I'm simply embedding the rendering engine (called Gecko) that Firefox uses so broadly speaking, we can render anything it can. As far as secure sites go, I haven't done the work that displays a username/password dialog so there is no way to authenticate yourself and therefore no way to get to the site. I have a feeling there is also some work to be done with managing certificates etc. that Firefox does (rather than Gecko) so I can't comment for the moment on how usuable HTTPS sites will be.

Thanks for that info.

I thought I would flag this issue because if full web pages on a prim do become possible then sooner or later security issue will arise imho

Regards

John