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Site Tweak: Form Buttons
17 October 2020
We've been plowing through our Mojave install on unsupported hardware looking for more obscure issues before doing the installation on our main production box. We came up with two, one which affected the site.
The one that doesn't directly affect the site (but may indirectly) is the loss of batch spell checking using an AppleScript to control Spell Catcher. We can still call Spell Catcher from the Dock but we've really gotten to like pressing a key to spell check the whole document, getting a list of questionable spellings and clicking on the obvious errors to correct them.
Our form buttons were blackened boxes and the input fields all had funeral borders.
That's a lot more efficient than the system panel that steps you through every questionable spelling. But it looks like the system panel will have to do in Mojave. At least until inspiration strikes.
The direct issue was something we discovered in Dark Mode on our site.
For the most part we use a browser's rendering for form controls (like Submit buttons) because you can't style all of them reliably. The Select button, for example, is impervious to styling without a tortuous effort. And even then.
But what we saw in Safari 14 using Dark Mode and later in Light Mode was that our form buttons were blackened boxes and the input fields all had funeral borders. Really?
We tried a couple of other browsers and saw no such problem.
So we had to add some CSS for the input fields and form buttons. It's consistent with the site design (you may even prefer them). But the main thing is that the form looks presentable and you can read the labels on the buttons.
We thought the problem was a graphic glitch in the unsupported hardware install but because other browsers didn't behave that way, we isolated the problem to Safari 14.
You really have to wonder how something like that gets through quality control. Apparently unstyled form buttons are very, very rare.
Update (18 Oct.): Well, we are wrong about Spell Catcher again. We thought we'd have to leave it behind when we moved to High Sierra and again when we moved to Mojave. Mojave's automation checks require a rebuild of the application to allow it to be automated. Or something like that.
But guess what came to the rescue? Keyboard Maestro. It turns out that while our AppleScript embedded in a macro to directly run Spell Catcher is blocked by Mojave, using AppleScript's user interface control, we can access Spell Catcher from the Dock and select the "Check Selection" option to run on our selected text.
We really can't say enough good things about Keyboard Maestro.