Active Tint Prevents Drag and Drop in Gnome Dock, Apps and Activities

[Barkbit87]

On Ubuntu 22.04 with Wayland and Gnome 42, when the tint is active, I am unable to move an application outside a folder in the "Activities" view.
Steps to reproduce:

1. make sure that tint is not active and Open Activity/All apps view
2. Move 2 apps together to a folder
3. activate tint
4. Open the folder created and move one of the apps outside the folder
5. The folder will not close and the app can not be placed outside the folder among the other apps

[MattByName]

Thanks for raising this! Please note that pressing escape on your keyboard will close a folder once opened.

I'm not sure that this will be easy or possible to fix, but I will look into it and try. That's a fairly annoying thing to have to put up with if you use application folders on GNOME. I don't, myself, so I never noticed this.

[MattByName]

Possible way of reimplementing the overlay that avoids this problem from extensions matrix channel:

GdH: The St object just blocks the drop - it is the actual target of the drop. Better solution would be to use Main.uiGroup.add_effect() to add shader effect, but it would need more code. My CHC-E extension offers several shader effects, including monochromatic color tint.

[MattByName]

Issue Update

I'm still working on this issue when I can, but there's no obvious solution in sight. I'm still working on this, but both for my own notes, and to let people concerned about this issue what's going on, I thought I'd provide this update.

What causes this issue?

The extension words by drawing a UI widget (Specifically, an St.bin. The widget is set to noninteractable so that mouse clicks go through it, however it still acts as a target for drag and drop actions. I've not been able to find a way to stop it being such a target.

Alternate Overlay Using Shader Effects

The shader effect alternative way of drawing the overlay suggested in my previous comment might be a dead end. I have only been able to draw overpowering colours, with no ability to adjust translucency. I will look into this more, but I might need to implement a new shader effect to get it to work.

Adjusting the overlay Z value (draw height)

I think I might be able to resolve this using the original method, by finding a way to draw the overlay under the activities launcher and dock. however, there are problems:

• Some apps are still likely to be drawn above the overlay
• For users who are using the extension to dim their screen, this would mean a sudden and painful burst of light every time they open the activities menu

Potential Workaround: Adding Shortcuts

A possible workaround would be to enable a keyboard shortcut (as requested in Issue 14. This would make it more convenient for users to temporarily disable the overlay when they want to move things around in the activities menu.

Find another widget / develop a new version of the widget that can't receive drag and drop

This is the hardest possible solution, but it is worth investigating.

[MattByName]

I've started work on a new version of the extension to resolve this issue. It is currently working but in alpha quality. If anyone would like to try it, the release notes here give instructions on how to install it: Release 3.0.0-alpha