Browser issue XF1 Text Selection issue in iOS 12 Safari

[kylerc]

Affected version

1.5.22

I'm not sure if this happened before iOS12, but in iOS12.0 on an iPhone XS Max (guessing others would also reproduce the issue) using XF1.5.22 there seems to be an issue with text selection while posting replies. The video below demonstrates the issue, but essentially you are unable to move the blue selection dots after making the initial selection. This has been consistently reproduced by us as well as some clients, but let me know if you need any more info. https://photos.app.goo.gl/y3cJpSuBi9UWeTaR7 is the video link.

 

[Dan203]

I see the same issue on an iPad running iOS12 when visiting a forum I mod for that is running 1.5.x. I tried the same test on another forum running 2.0.x and it does NOT have this issue. I've also not had issues with textarea fields on any other sites I've visited. So this must be something in the Xenforo javascript causing the issue.

 

[Dan203]

Any word on this? It's affecting a forum I frequent often and makes it really hard to use on my iPad

 

[pilpop]

Dito, same problem here.

 

[RobinHood]

Same, I've had issues on TAZ selecting text on my X with 12.0.1

 

[The Matrix]

Same here, issue too.

 

[Smooth]

I am seeing this too, but I think it might be a browser issue - it also happens at here and here too.

I agree though that it doesn't happen with Xenforo 2.0 - does it use a different editor to 1.x?

 

[Foxy]

Also had this issue, anyone found any workaround?

 

[Digital Doctor]

i've noticed this as well.

i think if you drag the text selection so there are no spaces at the end it might work again. it can help me when selective quoting.



i have trouble with selective quoting competing with iOS text tools. when i click reply it often doesn't work.

 

[Smooth]

I have a feeling this is a TinyMCE / iOS browser bug and not directly Xenforo. It does the same on TinyMCE’s website.

I wonder why Xen2 is all good though?

 

[RobinHood]

XF2 uses Froala

 

[Mike]

XF1 doesn't use TinyMCE either. However, we do use a similar approach in XF1 and that is almost certainly the cause. Unfortunately, that would put this smack in the territory of the browser bug. (Indeed, I don't believe there is any code that tries to take action when doing text selection like this, so that alone pushes me to think browser bug.)

My guess is that this is caused by the use of an <iframe> for the contenteditable area. This is very fundamental to the approach taken, so it can't be changed in 1.x. This isn't the first time we've run into iOS issues that are specific to the use of an <iframe>.

Unfortunately, without an iOS fix, it's likely that the only workaround would be to disable the rich text editor when you trigger this issue (though I appreciate if you're trying to mark up text, that's not helpful).

 

[Mike]

Note that there is an open TinyMCE bug about this too (not that we use that): https://github.com/tinymce/tinymce/issues/4579 They use the same style of contenteditable system as XF1, which is likely to be triggering the issue.

Unfortunately, this will almost certainly need to be resolved within iOS.