Re: Meaning of "label-actor" property

[Jay Strict <jay strict posteo de>]

On 23.09.2015 13:27, Florian Müllner wrote:
> On Wed, Sep 23, 2015 at 11:31 AM, Jay Strict <jay strict posteo de> wrote:
> > I have two questions regarding the "label-actor" property of StWidget.
> >
> > The general question is:
> > What is this property used for? Why do you need it and how is it
> > working? The documentation states "the label that identifies widget",
> > but that does not explain it.
>
> It points accessibility tools like screen readers to a label whose
> text can be used to represent (e.g. read out) the focused widget. Take
> for instance a button widget with a "Save" label inside - without an
> accessible name or label actor, orca will read the button as "push
> button", which obviously isn't too helpful (in particular if there are
> multiple "push buttons"); setting the button's :label-actor property
> to the label child will result in a much more helpful "save push
> button".

I see. Thank you for pointing it out in such details.
May I suggest adding this explanation to the API documentation of St?

> > The more specific question is:
> > In the file `gnome-shell/js/ui/popupMenu.js`, this property is set in
> > every MenuItem that owns a widget of type St.Label with the line
> >
> > this.actor.label_actor = this.label
> >
> > But not in `PopupImageMenuItem`. The label-actor property is not set
> > there. Is this by intention or is this a bug?
>
> A bug. Not an overly serious one considering that we don't use image
> menu items anywhere, but extensions of course might, so we should
> still fix it - would you like to prepare a patch so you get the proper
> credit for spotting it?

I am not eager to take credit for spotting it. If you don't mind, then I
would prefer to let you fix it. This would be faster than me digging
into this.


Thanks
Jay