[v1.6.0.10] Left part of mail body is hidden

[nica]

Hi, strange issue:

When I open an incoming message on tablet (landscape mode), sometimes the left part of the mailbody is hidden (see example in screenshot, red arrow).
If I rotate the screen to portrait mode and back to landscape, the entire message will be shown.

It does not happen with every incoming mail, and - as far as I see - it doesn't happen with messages sent by AquaMail.

Don't know whats's going on.
Device: Samsung Note 10.1 edition 2014 (P600), Android 5.1.1 Stock ROM

Any ideas? Thx.

[Kostya Vasilyev]

An Android (WebView) bug, reported and confirmed as such by Google developers:

https://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=552398

They made suggestions for workarounds (different ones for 5.0-5.1 and 6.0), but I'm not sure yet -- they have an additional cost for memory usage.

[nica]

Hmm, thank you. Didn't find that.

It will take some time to read and understand tbis issue...

[Kostya Vasilyev]

I'll make it simple for you:

It's a bug in WebView.

This is a system level component for displaying HTML, used by all mail apps to display message text.

Since Android 5.0, it updates via Play.

And while the developers are chasing targets like "more CSS features and higher JavaScript scores" -- they just don't have the time to work on bugs.

[nica]

Thx.

Generally:
Would it be an option for devs using custom chrome tabs instead of webview?

[Kostya Vasilyev]

No, custom chrome tabs will not work here. At all.

And I don't think jumping like this is good -- WebView is supposed to work, it doesn't and Google's devs agree that it's their bug.

Let's stay away from "oh, here is this new thing, it's so shiny and smells like peaches, oooohhh!".

---

Looks like the bug is finally getting some action from Google developers:

https://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=552398#c45

[nica]

Thx again.

BTW: I did not make a suggestion for AquaMail. It was a question "generally".

[Kostya Vasilyev]

Well, K9 Mail probably could use Chrome Tabs.

But not AquaMail (or Gmail):

I'm actually running JavaScript inside WebView, and even touch events are dispatched "in a weird way".

A lot of "jumping through hoops" to make Aqua's "message view" look like "regular" Android UI that scrolls in one piece, with some "panels" above and below (message header and attachments respectively).

[Kostya Vasilyev]

Google'ers rolled out a fix and it seemed to work for me.

https://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=552398#c61

@nica

You can install this "beta" version of WebView from here:

https://plus.google.com/communities/105434725573080290360

Would be great if you could try it (for the sake of an independent verification).

[nica]

@Kostya

Thank you for telling me.

Just have registered as beta tester, will try the beta version.

[nica]

@Kostya

Checked a lot of mails, issue does not happen anymore - until now. Yeah . Looks good, but I will go on testing next days.

[Kostya Vasilyev]

Great, thank you.