Cannot copy/paste [simple error message] text from Tasks view table [instead, large HTML blocks are highlighted/dragged, making bug reporting very painful]

[deldesir]

What's causing this? Can it be fixed? I am working on it.

[holta]

Others are facing almost the identical/painful issue here:

• Can't copy text from kiwix-serve cards kiwix/kiwix-tools#715

[avni]

Testing Copy/Paste from Safari 17.0 on MacOS 14.0

NB: In the first pass, you'll see last row is unselected and not copied, but all other selected test copies/pastes successfully. I'm able to copy/paste that last row independently in a subsequent pass.

Screen.Recording.2024-10-24.at.10.12.08.AM.mov

[holta]

Does copy/pasting individual words, and individual error message sentences, work cleanly in Safari?

• Copy/pasting from Tasks view is extremely chaotic within Chrome.
• i.e. it's almost impossible to copy/paste an individual word or individual error message sentence.

[avni]

Testing Copy/Paste from Chrome Version 128.0.6613.138 on MacOS 14.0

NB: I can copy/paste IFF I copy quickly. The selection gets deselected quite quickly - not an ideal experience for the user. If I do it fast enough though, I can copy/paste rows, cells, and individual words.

Chrome.-.Screen.Recording.2024-10-24.at.10.30.36.AM.mov

[avni]

Does copy/pasting individual words, and individual error message sentences, work cleanly in Safari?

It does, but same behavior as Chrome, where I have to select, copy quickly or the text becomes deselected.

Testing Copy/Paste of individual words and error message sentences from Safari 17.0 on MacOS 14.0

Screen.Recording.2024-10-24.at.10.58.09.AM.mov

[holta]

I've never been able to copy/paste a simple error message (small phrase or sentence) on the right side of the URL in the "Task" column.

For me, that's the crux of the question.

(I'm still not understanding whether Safari behavior is different, but we're definitely getting closer.)

[holta]

copy/paste a simple error message (small phrase or sentence) on the right side of the URL in the "Task" column

@deldesir can you please add a screencast to this ticket, showing your own experience?

(I'm not saying this mess is fully solvable! But still let's understand the root cause[s] of this fiasco much better!!)

[avni]

On MacOS, in both Safari and Chrome, 1/ if I am selecting text by dragging, I cannot copy ONLY the text after the URL, it selects all of the text in the cell; 2/ I can, however, double click on a single word successfully. For both 1 & 2, I have to select/copy quickly, otherwise the text becomes unselected. So there's definitely a bug even though there are odd workarounds to achieve the copy/paste.

Here is a screencast of this behavior in Chrome. Safari behaves similarly.

Screen.Recording.2024-10-24.at.12.45.33.PM.mov

[holta]

Periodic refreshing is happening every 1000ms in the Tasks page (I wish I knew this when dealing with race conditions months ago). Fix this by using end_time in a loop.

@deldesir's new ticket (excerpt above) appears very related to... 1 of the 2 underlying copy/pasting problems?

• Run time is buggy in https://github.com/iiab/calibre-web/pull/257 #273

[deldesir]

Here is how it looks in Microsoft Edge:

Recording.2024-10-28.105524.mp4