Applet stacking order

[gchan]

I have two windows, each identical, each contains a VLayout which in turn contains a ToolStrip and an Applet (Java). Please refer to the two included screenshots:

applet-stacking-order-01.png
The toolstrip button hover/prompt (styled with a red background) is hidden behind the Applet. This incorrect behavior appears in IE 8, IE 9, Chrome 15, Firefox 7.

applet-stacking-order-02.png
Athought Test Window 1 is on top, the entire Applet of Test Window 2 appears incorrectly on top of Test Window 1. This incorrect behavior appears in Chrome 15 (15.0.874.120), but appears OK in the other browsers above.

[Isomorphic]

By "Applet" are you referring to the SmartGWT class or just sticking an <applet> or <object> tag into the HTML yourself? There are lots of native browser bugs with HTML/Applet zIndex and "burn-through", but our Applet class works around most of the ones where there's an achievable fix.

[gchan]

Sorry for not being clear. I am using your isc.Applet class in javascript.

[Isomorphic]

OK, the following skin setting will correct the first problem (Applet burning through a tooltip):

isc.Hover.changeDefaults("hoverCanvasDefaults", {
   useBackMask:true
});

.. but this has the negative consequence that hovers cannot be translucent or rounded. It may also interfere with synthetic history management in older Firefox. Unfortunately no better workaround (without these consequences) has ever been found, that we know of.

As far as the Chrome bug, unfortunately that likewise has no known workaround.

Generally, the isc.Applet class implements the best known workarounds, but there are a number of browser bugs with no known workarounds, so we still advise thinking carefully about Applets - putting them in draggable Windows where they will have lots of opportunity for zIndex interactions with other widgets may be something to reconsider.