|
|
 Posted 9/7/2009 5:39:08 AM |
|
|
Forum Member
Group: Forum Members
Last Login: 10/20/2009 8:10:07 AM
Posts: 43,
Visits: 75
|
|
TreeHugger: You should ask Opera to support it, since it is useful not only for FeedDemon, but for emails, etc.
Firefox supports it (see my previous post) and I have submitted a "Feature request" to Chrome to support the same thing
|
|
|
|
| Posted 9/7/2009 3:23:06 PM |
|
|
Forum Member
Group: Forum Members
Last Login: 11/7/2009 6:33:13 AM
Posts: 31,
Visits: 48
|
|
No worries - I didn't take that as an insult at all. The reason I didn't reply is simply because I've been working pretty hard on getting FD3.0 ready and haven't been able to keep on top of everything here in the forums.
Yeah, I've noticed recently when I took the plunge to GReader sync, you've been very VERY busy. You need to book a flight to Bahamas right after you get the final out of the oven. 
Anyway, this subject comes up from time-to-time, and I've tried various ways to address it.
...
In the end, I decided to just leave it up to the OS and the browser to do what they've been coded to do. As has been mentioned in this thread, there are browser extensions and/or configuration options that can keep it in the background, and those seem to work well.
Ok, I haven't done such broad empirical tests, thanks for letting me know.. valuable info for my apps development. I'm bound to investigate this later myself.. I'll drop a line if I find anything useful.
Too bad that there's no Opera "tricks" to do this focus magic.
Maybe you could implement a "window on top" (maybe a button in the title bar besides the normal min/restore/close buttons?). That would help at least someway.. though the "keep focus" is more important (e.g. when scrolling items).
|
|
|
|
| Posted 9/7/2009 3:32:45 PM |
|
|
Forum Member
Group: Forum Members
Last Login: 11/7/2009 6:33:13 AM
Posts: 31,
Visits: 48
|
|
You should ask Opera to support it, since it is useful not only for FeedDemon, but for emails, etc.
Very true, it would be nice feature altogether. Asking Opera? Haha, I could yes (and probably will.. maybe, lots of my posts have gone to bit heaven so far so I'm not so interested to post anything anymore), but the reality is (with my experience.. +what I've read) that it would be a miracle to get at least a reply from Opera. I have a love/hate relationship with Opera, I like the innovative stuff they do and the best out-of-the-box browser experience (minus terrible default skins), but I hate that they don't polish the features they add, they're always rushing to implement something new.. or at least that's the impression I get.
|
|
|
|
| Posted 9/7/2009 7:46:03 PM |
|
|
NewsGator
Group: Administrators
Last Login: Today @ 8:29:11 PM
Posts: 1,679,
Visits: 41,581
|
|
You need to book a flight to Bahamas right after you get the final out of the oven That sounds like a perfect idea
Nick Bradbury
Nick's Blog
|
|
|
|
| Posted 9/8/2009 12:17:56 PM |
|
|
Rockstar
Group: Forum Members
Last Login: Today @ 4:51:03 PM
Posts: 247,
Visits: 1,466
|
|
Nick Bradbury (9/7/2009)
You need to book a flight to Bahamas right after you get the final out of the oven
That sounds like a perfect idea
You definitely will deserve a rest, Nick! And NG should pay for the trip (preferably for you and family) in return for dumping all this extra work on you. I'm sure Brent will agree. 
|
|
|
|
| Posted 9/12/2009 4:45:25 PM |
|
|
Forum Member
Group: Forum Members
Last Login: 11/7/2009 6:33:13 AM
Posts: 31,
Visits: 48
|
|
Ok. I did some research on the subject and it really seems that controlling the focus stuff is really hard and one needs to make "bubblegum patches/tricks" to keep other programs not to steal the focus.
Here's my suggestions:
Nick wrote: "I've also tried waiting until the browser appears and then forcing FD back to the front, but this can cause a delay that's more annoying than having the browser come to the front."
1) Put FD always on top (avoids window change flicker/switch annoyance) and right after the "user click on a link to open in external browser" do e.g. 2-3 second loop where you repeat the "focus" command on FD window (do both these only when FD window is not minimized/in systray). This is somewhat similar how my attached FD+ application works. When the external browser is open, the page open (and focus steal) should (according to my tests) happen somewhat fast.
2) This is just a theory. When user clicks a link to open in external browser, open a (hidden) system modal window (AFAIK wont allow anything to steal focus), after that initiate the "open in ext. browser" and finally close the modal window and continue normal FD workflow. Just a thought, never tested myself.
===================================================================
I moved my app to here: Feature Req - Open external links in browser, but keep focus
|
|
|
|
| Posted 9/12/2009 7:42:56 PM |
|
|
NewsGator
Group: Administrators
Last Login: Today @ 8:29:11 PM
Posts: 1,679,
Visits: 41,581
|
|
| Love that you took the time to create this - thanks! But as much I hate to tell you this, I'm afraid it doesn't always work. Several times I right clicked on a link and selected "Open in New Window," and while the browser (IE8) did stay in back, FD didn't keep the focus. For example, after opening a link in an external browser, the mouse wheel no longer scrolled FD's browser, and moving the mouse over FD's menus didn't highlight them. But the mouse wheel did work in IE, even though it was in the background. These are the kind of things that make me reluctant to implement any "bubblegum tricks" It should be drop-dead easy to keep the focus, but different browsers (and different versions of those browsers) end up making it more trouble than it's worth. Best,
Nick Bradbury
Nick's Blog
|
|
|
|
| Posted 9/12/2009 11:03:49 PM |
|
|
Forum Member
Group: Forum Members
Last Login: 11/7/2009 6:33:13 AM
Posts: 31,
Visits: 48
|
|
I'm afraid it doesn't always work. Several times I right clicked on a link and selected "Open in New Window," and while the browser (IE8)did stay in back, FD didn'tkeep the focus.
Oww, that's a shame. Always? So it did work sometimes? That's strange. You had IE opened before testing? I guess if the browser is not open yet, the short time to start it could yield problems in my app. Did you test other browsers?
I tested all the browsers, including IE8, and had no problems. Or rather, it either worked or not (when developing, the final version worked with all). Tested Chrome and Safari in VirtualBox. All on WinXP SP3.
What is the IE window title saying when you open a blank page (or in fact any page for that matter)?
I have: "page name" - Windows Internet Explorer
My app uses the last part to detect IE windows, the "- Windows Internet Explorer" (w/o quotes). The focus doesn't work if that string can't be detected. One can use command line switch to use ANY window title string detection.
Thanks Nick for trying it.
----------------------------
Due to the nature of the focus problem in general AND the fact that AutoIt is somewhat limited and not perfect, this app might not work for everybody. Anyways, people are free to test it, it doesn't do any harm, and if it's working, great. Additionally, the source code is included so anybody is free to change/fix it to their needs. I'm happy that I could share this, hopefully it will be of some use to somebody. I can take bug reports here and try to fix it (within reason).
|
|
|
|