SupportSuite stealing focus

[chelsel]

In a previous thread I indicated that SyncWorks was stealing focus from my other Windows applications... apparently the culprit is actually SupportSuite.

I am running IE7 on XP Pro SP2.

I've confirmed that it's SupportSuite because when the focus is stolen and keys are pressed... the keys end up in the SupportSuite application. When the focus is stolen, SupportSuite is on the View All Tickets page.

Is this a known bug... a bug with IE7... or hopefully something that's already been corrected?

Thanks,
Cliff.

[craigbrass]

Dear Cliff,

I think that it is more to do with the fact that the ticket view is refreshing every so often. Your browser automatically pulls up the window to full screen when it happens.

I had this problem when my to-do list would auto refresh. In FireFox there was a setting in about:config I changed to stop it doing it (can't remember which one it was) but not sure if there is such a setting in IE. Leave it with me though, I'll have a hunt for you.

Best Regards,
Craig Brass

[chelsel]

Thanks for the response... but this is not an IE problem... as a test I created a web page http://www.cliffordhelsel.com/test.html which refreshes every 5 seconds. I put the page in the background and the focus is NEVER stolen whether the browser is visible, not visible or minimized.

The problem is with SupportSuite unfortunately.

Also, using Firefox does not solve the problem with SupportSuite as SS uses IE internally. Also, I don't see the point of having multiple browsers other than for development and testing purposes... I've not once come across a useful site that didn't work in IE... the same can not be said for Firefox.

Cliff.

[craigbrass]

The point of using FireFox is that it is a more secure browser than IE and security holes are fixed within days rather than months.

With regards to the problem, after re-reading what you initially said, are you saying that if the window is minimised and you press a key on your keyboard, it opens the Kayako window or are you saying every time the window refreshes it launches up the window on the screen out of its minimised state?

[chelsel]

Let's say I have SupportSuite minimized to the system tray with Ticket list refresh turned on and set to 10 minutes. Now, if I'm happily typing away in Word, or for that matter Notepad the focus will get 'stolen' and put to SupportSuite... this was driving me nuts for awhile thinking I had some type of spyware on my system... it was only when I received a JavaScript error from SupportSuite that I figured out that SS was the culprit and stealing focus.

Regarding, FF vs IE security... I think the security issue is a non-issue for people that visit 'normal' websites... but if you visit pron and warez sites then I guess FF might be more secure... but hey, Lynx is even MORE secure :-)

Seriously though, I appreciate your assistance... I just get tired of supporting Firefox as the Firefox debugger is absolutely painful once you get used to using Visual Studio with IE.

[craigbrass]

Ah right. I think I got it. Kayako refreshes using AJAX. This is the same as my old task manager (Task Freak) did and that caused this problem.

Standard HTML header refresh does not do this.

So, it is actually the browsers at fault rather than Kayako...

[chelsel]

Kayako is not using Ajax to refresh the Ticket display... if it was then there wouldn't be a page refresh :-) That's the point of Ajax.

If Ajax applications in Internet Explorer were stealing focus then I think we all would have heard about it by now. The problem is with SupportSuite and IE7... this problem did not happen with IE6.

To confirm that Ajax is NOT the problem you can use a Gmail account and leave it showing your inbox... now minimize gmail and use another email account/program (Outllok) to send a message to Gmail... Gmail will happily retrieve the new message, using Ajax, all without causing the browser to steal focus.

If anyone has a simpler Ajax example let me know... I'm a little to busy to code my own right now.

[craigbrass]

So how is it refreshing then? There is no standard HTML head page refresh in there...

[chelsel]

Kayako uses this function on a timeout thread:

function refreshPage() {
//window.location.reload(true);
window.location.href = swiftpath+"staff/index.php?_m=tickets&_a=manage";
}

All that function does is a whole page reload...

[craigbrass]

Ok, after doing some digging, the stealing focus is just something that happens with this type of refresh.

If you install http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/d...powertoys.mspx there is a setting that says "prevent applications from stealing focus" which you can enable to stop this.

Hope this helps.

[chelsel]

I modified my test.html to use a setTimeout and window.location.href call to refresh the page... this does NOT cause IE to grab the focus. You can test it here at http://www.cliffordhelsel.com/test.html

I appreciate the tip on "preventing applications from stealing focus", however, this remains a BUG in SupportSuite. I should not have to make a system-wide registry modification to keep Kayako well behaved... by enabling "prevent applications from stealing focus" I will no longer receive critical notifications from applications that I DO want to steal focus.

This is a bug with Kayako. Just because there is a workaround for some people does not mean that the problem is fixed.

[chelsel]

The Powertoy does not provide a workaround. I tried it and Kayako is still taking the focus...

[Jamie Edwards]

I cannot get my IE7 to steal focus here

[chelsel]

Well, IE7 does NOT steal focus... only the fact that when IE7 is installed that SupportSuite will steal focus when it is minimized to the system tray.

[craigbrass]

Just a note, I cannot get it to steal focus either. I have tried IE6, IE7 and FF2. I have had it happen in the past as I said in an earlier reply but not in Kayako. It really does suggest it is a setting somewhere in XP that causes this to happen.