SelectionArea does not copy the text sometimes

[nilsreichardt]

I can confirm the comment by @justinmc:

Copy didn't work for me sometimes

In the example, if I click and drag to select some of the text but I start the gesture near the edge of the window outside of the Text widgets, then ctrl-c doesn't copy the selected text. The correct text is selected, and right clicking and using the menu to copy does work, but not ctrl-c.

#95226 (review)

Here is my screen recording.

Screen.Recording.2022-05-24.at.23.50.19.mov

I used CRTL + C to copy my text but it didn't work. I removed the ElevatedButton, used hot restart and it worked again. Adding the ElevatedButton, used hot restart and it worked again 🤔

I used the commit 577d6240dbcdbd3cd00e9b4a8c4564e70279f014 as Flutter SDK (the latest commit of @chunhtai branch inherited-selection).

My app

// Copyright 2014 The Flutter Authors. All rights reserved.
// Use of this source code is governed by a BSD-style license that can be
// found in the LICENSE file.

// This example shows how to make a screen selectable..

import 'package:flutter/material.dart';

void main() => runApp(const MyApp());

class MyApp extends StatelessWidget {
  const MyApp({super.key});

  @override
  Widget build(BuildContext context) {
    return MaterialApp(
      // You need to add the "SelectionArea" to make the text selectable.
      home: SelectionArea(
        child: Scaffold(
          body: Padding(
            padding: const EdgeInsets.all(16),
            child: Center(
              child: Column(
                mainAxisSize: MainAxisSize.min,
                children: <Widget>[
                  Text(
                    'Fast',
                    style: Theme.of(context).textTheme.titleLarge,
                  ),
                  const Text(
                    'Flutter code compiles to ARM or Intel machine code as well as JavaScript, for fast performance on any device.',
                  ),
                  ElevatedButton(
                    onPressed: () {},
                    child: const Text('Try it in DartPad'),
                  )
                ],
              ),
            ),
          ),
        ),
      ),
    );
  }
}

@chunhtai Unfortunately, I don't have more information because I couldn't reproduce it anymore. But when I know more, I will post it here :)

[chunhtai]

is this Linux only? I can't seem to reproduce it in macOS

[nilsreichardt]

I'm using a MacBook M1 with macOS 12.2.1 (21D62)

[chunhtai]

just want to double check you meant cmd+c and not ctrl+c right?

For me it works correctly

[nilsreichardt]

I used CMD + C 😅

[nilsreichardt]

I tried 10 minutes to reproduce it again but unfortunately I wasn't able to achieve it. But I can definitely tell you that I had the issue. I discovered the issue when creating the video recording for #104548. After creating #104548, I created a video recording for this ticket.

[bharatmk256]

Right now I am trying to copy text on my Linux machine, but it's not working, right click and copy works but ctrl+c is not working

[nilsreichardt]

When I remember correctly the same was for me. Right click and copy worked but cmd + c not. But I'm not 100% sure about this.

[exaby73]

I was able to reproduce this issue on web running on MacOS. Though after the one time I did, I couldn't reproduce it again. Luckily, I took a video of the behavior I experienced which matches with @nilsreichardt.

Video

104549_web_master.mov

Code sample

import 'package:flutter/material.dart';

void main() {
  runApp(const MyApp());
}

class MyApp extends StatelessWidget {
  const MyApp({super.key});

  @override
  Widget build(BuildContext context) {
    return const MaterialApp(
      title: 'Multiline text copy demo',
      home: HomePage(),
    );
  }
}

class HomePage extends StatelessWidget {
  const HomePage({super.key});

  @override
  Widget build(BuildContext context) {
    return Scaffold(
      appBar: AppBar(title: const Text('Multiline text copy demo')),
      body: SelectionArea(
        child: Center(
          child: Column(
            mainAxisAlignment: MainAxisAlignment.center,
            children: [
              Text(
                'This is a title',
                style: Theme.of(context).textTheme.headline6,
              ),
              const SizedBox(height: 20),
              const Text(
                'Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. '
                'Fusce gravida sollicitudin.',
              ),
            ],
          ),
        ),
      ),
    );
  }
}

flutter doctor -v (Master)

[✓] Flutter (Channel master, 3.1.0-0.0.pre.897, on macOS 12.4 21F79 darwin-arm, locale en-US)
    • Flutter version 3.1.0-0.0.pre.897 at /Users/nabeelparkar/fvm/versions/master
    • Upstream repository https://github.com/flutter/flutter.git
    • Framework revision 680a8192b0 (2 hours ago), 2022-05-24 21:23:09 -0700
    • Engine revision 7274f79325
    • Dart version 2.18.0 (build 2.18.0-149.0.dev)
    • DevTools version 2.13.1

[✓] Android toolchain - develop for Android devices (Android SDK version 32.1.0-rc1)
    • Android SDK at /Users/nabeelparkar/Library/Android/sdk/
    • Platform android-32, build-tools 32.1.0-rc1
    • ANDROID_SDK_ROOT = /Users/nabeelparkar/Library/Android/sdk/
    • Java binary at: /Applications/Android Studio.app/Contents/jre/Contents/Home/bin/java
    • Java version OpenJDK Runtime Environment (build 11.0.12+0-b1504.28-7817840)
    • All Android licenses accepted.

[✓] Xcode - develop for iOS and macOS (Xcode 13.4)
    • Xcode at /Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer
    • CocoaPods version 1.11.3

[✓] Chrome - develop for the web
    • CHROME_EXECUTABLE = /Applications/Brave Browser.app/Contents/MacOS/Brave Browser

[✓] Android Studio (version 2021.2)
    • Android Studio at /Applications/Android Studio.app/Contents
    • Flutter plugin can be installed from:
      🔨 https://plugins.jetbrains.com/plugin/9212-flutter
    • Dart plugin can be installed from:
      🔨 https://plugins.jetbrains.com/plugin/6351-dart
    • Java version OpenJDK Runtime Environment (build 11.0.12+0-b1504.28-7817840)

[✓] IntelliJ IDEA Ultimate Edition (version 2022.1.1)
    • IntelliJ at /Applications/IntelliJ IDEA.app
    • Flutter plugin version 67.1.4
    • Dart plugin version 221.5591.58

[✓] VS Code (version 1.67.1)
    • VS Code at /Applications/Visual Studio Code.app/Contents
    • Flutter extension version 3.40.0

[✓] Connected device (3 available)
    • iPhone 13 Pro Max (mobile) • 16B8F156-111C-489F-A6E5-2D79142036B4 • ios            • com.apple.CoreSimulator.SimRuntime.iOS-15-5 (simulator)
    • macOS (desktop)            • macos                                • darwin-arm64   • macOS 12.4 21F79 darwin-arm
    • Chrome (web)               • chrome                               • web-javascript • Brave Browser 101.1.38.119

[✓] HTTP Host Availability
    • All required HTTP hosts are available

• No issues found!

[chunhtai]

so everyone has the issue for the first time... I have a feeling there maybe some bug in the flutter tool or embedding. The copy uses the same mechanism TextFields are using, I wonder if similar issue happens to the TextField

[Mr-1311]

This issue still relevent but it happens with Text.rich widget with TextSpans.
please try this code:

import 'package:flutter/material.dart';

void main() {
  runApp(const MyApp());
}

class MyApp extends StatelessWidget {
  const MyApp({super.key});

  @override
  Widget build(BuildContext context) {
    return MaterialApp(
      title: 'Flutter Demo',
      theme: ThemeData(
        primarySwatch: Colors.blue,
      ),
      home: Scaffold(
          body: SelectionArea(
        child: Column(
          mainAxisAlignment: MainAxisAlignment.center,
          children: const <Widget>[
            SelectionArea(
              child: Text.rich(
                TextSpan(
                  text: 'test span. ',
                  children: [
                    TextSpan(
                      text: 'another text span',
                    )
                  ],
                ),
              ),
            ),
            TextField(),
          ],
        ),
      )),
    );
  }
}

I've tested on windows and linux both debug and release builds, flutter version 3.7.1
ctrl-c doesn't work but right-click and copy works. Also double click to select word doesn't work.

[javiermrz]

Any update on this? While on Chrome in Mac , I can't copy with keyboard shortcut (CMD + C), but I can copy by right clicking and pressing copy 🤔

[suysoftware]

Check here maybe you can find solution. #104548 (comment)