Author Topic: [macos bug] Catalog context menu steals primary window focus  (Read 472 times)

Offline benjamin.blix

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[macos bug] Catalog context menu steals primary window focus
« on: September 16, 2023, 05:29:39 PM »
This takes a few steps to reproduce, but seems to occur reliably. A few parts are needed to provoke the issue:

  • Apple Silicon Macbook with latest Ventura (13.5.2) (maybe other systems are affected, but this is what I'm using)
  • External monitor
  • Photo Mechanic Plus Version 6.0, build 6784 (409cf99)

The issue:
1. Open an app, and put the window in fullscreen mode on the laptop screen (such that you could use a 3-finger swipe to get back to your desktop)
2. Open PMP on the external screen, and switch to the Catalog View, then the Collections tab
3. Right click on any collection
4. macos reveals the desktop on the laptop screen, as if I performed a 3-finger swipe to move away from the fullscreen app
5. The context menu in PMP opens for a split second and then closes
6. Right click again to open the context menu as usual

What I think is happening:

When displaying a custom context menu PMP causes macos to reveal my desktop on my laptop screen, even when PMP is running on a second monitor.

Notably, the issue does not occur when I right click on a contact sheet in PMP. To be specific, if I have a fullscreen app on my laptop screen, right clicking on a contact sheet item does not cause macos to reveal my desktop on the laptop screen.

One of the key differences between the two context menus is that for the Contact Sheet it's a native UI control, while for the Catalog Collections it's a custom rectangular box.

I'm pretty sure the custom context menu causes macos to think that a new window has been opened, so it reveals the desktop on my laptop screen not being aware that the new window is actually on my external monitor.

It might be simple to fix this just by changing the way the custom context menu is rendered.

However, my personal preference would be to instead render the Catalog Collections context menu as a native macos control, which would have the added benefit (to my tastes) of matching the UI of other macos apps and even aligning the styling with how other context menus in PMP are displayed.
« Last Edit: September 17, 2023, 10:39:35 AM by benjamin.blix »

Offline Kirk Baker

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Re: [macos bug] Catalog context menu steals primary window focus
« Reply #1 on: September 17, 2023, 03:34:26 PM »
Thanks for the report.  If it were easy to get the menus to be macOS native, we would have used them from the start.  Sadly, it is not.

It is unfortunate that it is causing problems with full screen usage.  The system that the Catalog feature uses is no longer being maintained in a useful manner so we will be replacing it at some point in the future.

-Kirk

Offline benjamin.blix

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Re: [macos bug] Catalog context menu steals primary window focus
« Reply #2 on: September 17, 2023, 11:06:58 PM »
All good! Thanks for the info, and glad to hear the underlying cause is already on the roadmap to be resolved