Firefox change breaks key navigation in web frameworks including Eclipse RAP

Update 1: As of October 31, 2018 Firefox will postpone the change probably to its Firefox 65 release planned for January 29, 2019.

Update 2: It’s confirmed that the change will be included in Firefox 65.

Prepare for a significant change in how Firefox works with the Remote Application Platform (RAP)

Eclipse RAP (Remote Application Platform) runs in all relevant web browsers, without any add-ons required. Only JavaScript needs to be enabled. The framework deals with browser’s specifics and quirks. When talking about native key events, there are two standard browser sequences – for printable (letters, numbers, Space) and non-printable keys (Home, End, Tab, Escape, Backspace, Page Down, arrows, etc.).

For many years Firefox has been dispatching keypress events for non-printable keys, but other browsers not. This will change in one of the upcoming Firefox versions (probably 64.0 scheduled for December). As a result, key navigation and selection in many RWT widgets like Tree, Table, List, and Combo will not function as expected (bugs description available at bugs.eclipse.org and bugzilla.mozilla.org).

Solution and bug fix available from Mozilla and EclipseSource

With significant help from Mozilla developers, we are ready with a fix in current development RAP 3.7 stream. On Friday, October 19 we released Eclipse RAP 3.7 M1 which is compatible with a current nightly build of Firefox 64. It is available on the download page. Moreover, under the Extended Maintenance, we will offer downloads containing the necessary fixes for Eclipse RAP versions from 2.3 to 3.6. Older versions will be also available on request.