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Description: Text fields, listboxes, drop-down combo-boxes, and other SWT widgets that are disabled do not visually appear disabled in the Flat-Look. Typically, the Flat-Look has a white background and text fields, etc. also have white backgrounds. A disabled text field is currently denoted by a gray text label, and gray text in the field (if there happens to be text in the field). This is very subtle and hard to notice, and is harder to notice when no text exists inside a disabled text field in the Flat Look. Some inconsistencies in how different widgets look makes the enabled/disabled distinction more difficult to notice: Enabled list boxes have gray borders while text fields have black borders. Disabled checkboxes have gray backgrounds, while enabled checkboxes have white backgrounds. Note: this is a usability issue as it is currently difficult to distinguish between enabled and disabled widgets in a Flat-Look editor. Suggestion: For widgets using the Flat Look: Disabled text fields, listboxes, and SWT widgets in general, should use a consistent visual treatment to visually specify that it is disabled. All enabled widgets (e.g., text fields, list boxes, etc.) should look similar (e.g., black border, white background, black text labels, and black text within the field). All disabled widgets should look similar (e.g., gray border, gray text labels, gray text within the field.). This can also apply for checkbox and radio button widgets (gray border, gray text labels, etc.).
Flat-Look is not rendered by SWT. Moving to Platform UI.
It is not part of workbench.ui either. Wayne, could you post the name (package+class) of this widget or the place in Eclipse that they are being used. PDE has flat widgets but as far as I know they are not API.
I am not sure what component this belongs to, but I believe the Flat Look UI is done via a thin layer above SWT. From what I understand, Dejan Glozic was responsible for this code. If this is correct, please route this defect to Dejan or the current owner of this code.
Not sure if this is a PDE problem or has something to do with com.ibm.etools.webtools.flatui Moving to PDE for comment.
Wayne, What was the conclusion from our meeting - what should we do in PDE for disabled entries?
A meeting was held on Jan 15, 2003 to discuss solutions: 1. Disabled text fields (borders and text) and associated labels should be gray for the Flat Look UI. A disabled text field should look disabled by making use of a gray label, a gray text field border, and gray text within the text field. The gray color used to represent disabled should be a system gray R128 G128 B128. This is to contrast with enabled text fields which use black. As discussed in the meeting, Dejan will investigate the feasibility of linking the colors of the gray text label, the gray text field border, and the gray text within the border. (Note: we discussed optimizing the disabled widgets for the standard color schemes such as the white background. For other color schemes, the disabled color would be computed.) 2. Read-only fields should be black. Read-only fields should be black as they should look 'enabled' and be easy to read. By simply omitting the use of a border the read-only field will look un- editable. 3. Disabled listboxes should use a gray border and the associated buttons should be disabled. Listboxes (and other similar containers) should use a gray border (R128 G128 B128) when disabled. Associated buttons should look disabled (i.e., by graying the text. It would be preferable to also make the button borders gray but it is understood that this is currently not possible). This is contrasted with enabled listboxes with black borders. (Note: As discussed in the meeting items #3 may not be fixed due to time/resource constraints) 4. Enabled listboxes should use a black border and the associated buttons should be enabled. Enabled listboxes should use a black border. This will provide a visual cue that the user can perform an action on the listbox (e.g., through the use of a button to add an object to the listbox). Associated buttons should look enabled. (Note: As discussed in the meeting items #4 may not be fixed due to time/resource constraints)
We saw this issue in some recent usability studies on Eclipse 3 based products. Having widgets disappear can be confusing to the user. It also affects the discoverability of some items since disabled widgets are not visible.
I saw that the current issue is still present in Eclipse 3. Is there any activity or progress on this bug?
*** Bug 69801 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
We will probably revisit this issue in the 3.1 time frame, but there are couple of problems: 1) On Windows XP with skinned widgets used by SWT, we use native borders i.e. we don't render flat borders. As a result, we cannot use borders to indicate disabled state 2) As a usage pattern, Eclipse developers use 'setEditable(false)' instead of 'setEnabled(false)' for text widgets that should not be editable. They look the same but the content cannot be edited. This is consistent with the behaviour of text-only editors when read-only files are opened. They look the same, but you cannot change the content.
Are there any more updates on this bug? I notice that it is still present in Eclipse 3.1
I am closing this defect with the following resolution: We will now render borders for all widgets irrespective of their enabled state. On newer OSs this looks quite nice. On XP, the text is gray instead of black (see attachment). Due to the fact that the enabled state of the widget is not part of the SWT event system (i.e. I cannot listen to changes to the enabled state of the widget), we cannot make any changes to the widget based on it. Therefore, rellying on the windowing system to render the text itself correctly is our only solution. On OSs that change the widget background for disabled state, you can also call 'setBackground(null)' for the widget, allowing it to make the background modification based on the state by itself. For example, when 'setBackground(null)' is called on a Text widget, the widget will be white on XP when enabled and gray when disabled. In general, I recommend not doing this.
Created attachment 38205 [details] Disabled text field on XP with the borders rendered Note that in 3.2 on XP skinned widgets are used automatically so native (skinned) borders will be used instead.
Marking as fixed - we will not be doing anything else in this space in 3.2
As of TPTP 4.6.0, TPTP is in maintenance mode and focusing on improving quality by resolving relevant enhancements/defects and increasing test coverage through test creation, automation, Build Verification Tests (BVTs), and expanded run-time execution. As part of the TPTP Bugzilla housecleaning process (see http://wiki.eclipse.org/Bugzilla_Housecleaning_Processes), this enhancement/defect is verified/closed by the Project Lead since the originator of this enhancement/defect has an inactive Bugzilla account and considered to be fixed. If this enhancement/defect is still unresolved and reproducible in the latest TPTP release (http://www.eclipse.org/tptp/home/downloads/), please re-open.
Please ignore the previous comment.
