GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 490447
Can not change status in Pidgin
Last modified: 2007-12-01 01:31:12 UTC
Please describe the problem: Recently discussed in the mailing list (http://mail.gnome.org/archives/orca-list/2007-October/msg00264.html) In the main window of Pidgin application there is a toggle button to set status mode that can be away, here, not present etc. This possible list of status only can be displayed if you click the toggle button with mouse. Pressing space bar or enter key for activating the button it doesn't show the status choices. Also the toggle button doesn't offer a label or accessible name or description that indicate it's operation. Steps to reproduce: 1. Start Orca and the pidgin application. 2. Initially you are in the contact list table. Tab key once to get to the status toggle button. 3. Orca says that there is a toggle button and its status unchecked or checked but no label or name with it. 4. Press space to toggle the button. A list of possible status choices should appear. 5. Click this toggle button with the mouse. The list appears. Actual results: The list with the status choices doesn't appear. Expected results: A list with possible status appears and you can select one. Does this happen every time? Yes Other information: Using Pidgin 2.2.1 GNOME 2.20
This bug has been initially blocked until Pidgin solves this issues The Pidgin ticket is: http://developer.pidgin.im/ticket/3711
Thank you for filing these bugs. Sorry it took me a while to look into this. What I'm seeing is this on my GNOME 2.20.0 system with Pidgin 2.1.1: * The status setting looks like a combobox, but is actually a toggle button pretending to be a combobox. * When you tab to the toggle button, Orca just presents that you are on an unpressed toggle button. * Pressing the space or return key will pop up the status options. You can press up/down arrow and Orca will read the items as they are highlighted. * Pressing the return key will select a status option for you and dismiss the list of status options. So, aside from being rather kooky in how they chose to use a toggle button to implement a combobox, I think the main problem we have here is that the toggle button doesn't seem to be appropriately labeled.
It works in Solaris (2.1.1) but it's broken in Ubuntu now (2.2.1). :-( There, when I press Space or Return on the toggle button/combobox nothing happens, whether Orca is running or not.
I just got the latest version of pidgin (2.2.2) from sf and things also work as expected. So either it's broken in 2.2.1 proper and now fixed, or the distro broke it.
And the winner is: The distro. Not sure where they broke it, but pidgin 2.2.1 proper (from sourceforge) also works as expected. I found this bug already filed in launchpad: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/pidgin/+bug/154816
Just assigning this to Joanie so she can be the person to track the blocking bug.
Update: Pidgin 2.2.2 hit Hardy today and I can confirm that the reported problem is fixed there. Rich just confirmed that the upgrade is NOT a part of Gutsy. :-( (Thanks for checking Rich!) Therefore, I've just added a comment to the launchpad bug (https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/pidgin/+bug/154816) requesting that this update also be included in Gutsy and subscribed the a11y folks to the bug. I also dropped a note to Luke for good measure. <crosses fingers>
Given that this bug: * Is unique to one version of one distro (Gutsy) * Has been fixed by that distro (Hardy) * Has a pending backports request for Gutsy users (thanks to Luke) * Can be worked around by getting Pidgin from sourceforge * Cannot be "hacked around" "in the meantime" by us I'm going to close this out as NOTGNOME. If anyone objects, feel free to reopen.