Fix empty edit fields not speaking in Microsoft Edge by LeonarddeR · Pull Request #12475 · nvaccess/nvda

LeonarddeR · 2021-05-28T08:45:59Z

Link to issue number:

Summary of the issue:

Empty edit fields aren't spoken in Edge. There's a bug in the UIA implementation that causes expand to line to fail when there is no text content in the object

Description of how this pull request fixes the issue:

Use the ChromiumUIA object overlay for text boxes in the Chrome/Edge interface. For Edge, this applies by default. For Chrome, this only applies to cases where experimental UIA support is enabled, but this is far from stable in Chrome itself.
On the ChromeUIATextInfo when expanding to line, check whether there's any text in the document range. If not, don't try to expand as it will break the range.
Make sure not to cache the TextInfo property on UIA objects.ChromiumUIATextInfo. This is necessary because the property is fetched before the overlay classes are added that might change the result of evaluating the property. This ensures the proper TextInfo is used on focus.

Testing strategy:

Tested that the address bar of Edge is read correctly when empty and focused.

Known issues with pull request:

None known.

Change log entries:

Bug fixes

In the new Chromium based Microsoft Edge, text fields such as the address bar are now announced when empty. (Microsoft Edge/UIA: Expanding an empty text range to line results in a broken IUIAutomationTextRange #12474)

Code Review Checklist:

Pull Request description is up to date.
Unit tests.
System (end to end) tests.
Manual testing.
User Documentation.
Change log entry.
Context sensitive help for GUI changes.
UX of all users considered:
- Speech
- Braille
- Low Vision
- Different web browsers

LeonarddeR · 2021-05-28T11:20:39Z

I actually think that this pr will mean a significant improvement for Edge users, therefore I'd like to request to have this merged into beta instead.

cary-rowen · 2021-05-28T12:37:25Z

This is a significant improvement and hope to be merged into Beta

alexarnaud · 2021-05-28T13:06:37Z

Thanks a lot @LeonarddeR for fixing this.

I have two questions :

Do you still reproduce with Edge version 91 released today?
Is it possible for you to report the UIA issue against Edge?

Best regards.

LeonarddeR · 2021-05-28T13:12:02Z

@alexarnaud wrote:

I have two questions :

Do you still reproduce with Edge version 91 released today?

Yes.

Is it possible for you to report the UIA issue against Edge?

If I knew where to do that, I'd certainly would. DO I need to do it against Edge or Chromium? Thoughts @michaelDCurran?

…il when there is empty content.

…sses are added on top of the object

josephsl · 2021-05-28T13:18:07Z

Hi, I recommend contacting Microsoft Edge team (hopefully through Feedback hub if possible) and also ask that Chromium/Chrome team look into this issue (because this could also impact other Chromium based browsers). Thanks.

LeonarddeR · 2021-05-28T13:20:35Z

I think it would be better if NV Access pokes their Microsoft contacts about this.

josephsl · 2021-05-28T13:29:48Z

Hi, and Google, too.

LeonarddeR · 2021-05-28T13:40:27Z

Well, as long as Google's implementation is experimental, I guess it's up to Microsoft to push fixes upstream.

Brian1Gaff · 2021-05-28T13:46:31Z

If one could trace it directly to the Chrome team, surely then it would be on all and fixed with the same patch otherwise you might end up with a different work around for every browser if one is not careful. Brian ***@***.*** Sent via blueyonder. Please address personal E-mail to:- ***@***.***, putting 'Brian Gaff' in the display name field. Newsgroup monitored: alt.comp.blind-users ----- Original Message ----- From: "Joseph Lee" ***@***.***> To: "nvaccess/nvda" ***@***.***> Cc: "Subscribed" ***@***.***> Sent: Friday, May 28, 2021 2:30 PM Subject: Re: [nvaccess/nvda] Fix empty edit fields not speaking in Microsoft Edge (#12475)

…

Hi, and Google, too. -- You are receiving this because you are subscribed to this thread. Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub: #12475 (comment)

michaelDCurran

I am concirned that this may introduce performance issues, Especially also as these days it is important to try and keep the number of cross-process calls in UIA to a minimum with scenarios such as WDAG and RAIL.

In ChromiumUIATextInfo.expand: instead of the added calls to clone and compare, why not just call GetText(1) to fetch the first 1 characters and check if it is the empty string or not. If it is empty, then simply don't call expandToEnclosingUnit.

Although in general you are probably correct that we should call obj.invalidateCache after applying overlay classes, I would prefer this to be in its own pr, where we can very carefully consider and track any performance issues this may cause. This change obviously affects code across NVDA, not just the Edge address bar.
However, to address the specific issue of TextInfos incorrectly being cached here, perhaps we can at least set _cache_TextInfo = False on the UIA NVDAObject which will stop the TextInfo property from being cached. All the major calls it makes internally are cached properties themselves, so this would have no real performance impact, but it would still allow the current value of _TextInfo to be used, thus an overlay with a different TextInfo class would correctly be reflected in speakObject after overlay classes were applied but still in the same core cycle.

…rlay classes are added on top of the object" and set cache attribute on UIA This reverts commit 800abad.

LeonarddeR · 2021-05-31T06:05:26Z

In ChromiumUIATextInfo.expand: instead of the added calls to clone and compare, why not just call GetText(1) to fetch the first 1 characters and check if it is the empty string or not. If it is empty, then simply don't call expandToEnclosingUnit.

Is that going to work? I assume GetText returns text in the range and doesn't return anything when the range is collapsed, therefore if the range is collapsed, it will never expand.

michaelDCurran · 2021-05-31T06:07:21Z

Ah, sorry, I mean self.obj.UIATextPattern.documentRange.GetText(1)

LeonarddeR · 2021-05-31T06:17:48Z

Ah, yeah that makes sence. I changed this as requested.
I also tested every UIA unit and it turns out that it only fails when expanding to line as I originally thought. Therefore I changed the code to only apply when expanding to line. I will change the description accordingly.

LeonarddeR requested a review from a team as a code owner May 28, 2021 08:45

LeonarddeR requested a review from seanbudd May 28, 2021 08:46

LeonarddeR mentioned this pull request May 28, 2021

Lots of intermittent errors while using Microsoft Edge with NVDA #12189

Closed

LeonarddeR added 2 commits May 28, 2021 15:12

Ensure that edit boxes in the Chrome/Edge UIA implementation don't fa…

e15a6f9

…il when there is empty content.

Ensure that the NVDAObject property cache is cleared when overlay cla…

800abad

…sses are added on top of the object

LeonarddeR force-pushed the edgeEditFix branch from 292c23e to 800abad Compare May 28, 2021 13:12

LeonarddeR changed the base branch from master to beta May 28, 2021 13:22

michaelDCurran requested changes May 30, 2021

View reviewed changes

Revert "Ensure that the NVDAObject property cache is cleared when ove…

51b65f6

…rlay classes are added on top of the object" and set cache attribute on UIA This reverts commit 800abad.

Review action

df80b8b

LeonarddeR requested a review from michaelDCurran May 31, 2021 06:23

Update what's new

8f65caf

michaelDCurran approved these changes May 31, 2021

View reviewed changes

michaelDCurran merged commit b36375e into nvaccess:beta May 31, 2021

nvaccessAuto added this to the 2021.2 milestone May 31, 2021

LeonarddeR deleted the edgeEditFix branch August 23, 2025 06:27

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LeonarddeR commented May 28, 2021 •

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