From aead4f16fea709d2287f5aa1bef47793b7555afb Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: jotaen4tinypilot <83721279+jotaen4tinypilot@users.noreply.github.com>
Date: Thu, 18 Apr 2024 18:12:47 +0200
Subject: [PATCH] Emulate double click from touch devices (#1787)
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Resolves https://github.com/tiny-pilot/tinypilot/issues/1781.

This PR improves double-click emulation so that both of the consecutive
mouse (touch) events have the exact same location. On a touch device,
you might otherwise accidentally direct the second click to a slightly
different location, or the target operating system might not even
recognise both clicks as proper double click.

## Notes

- I’ve slightly re-ordered the commentary, which I thought was sensible
due to the increased complexity in the file.
- The parameters for detecting a double-click are heuristic at best –
the 500ms delay is from [this
article](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double-click#:~:text=rely%20upon%20it.-,Speed%20and%20timing,basis%20for%20other%20timed%20actions.),
and the 500px distance just felt okay when trying from an iPad.

I’ve tested with this on an iPad, so from my side a pure code review
would suffice.

<a data-ca-tag
href="https://codeapprove.com/pr/tiny-pilot/tinypilot/1787"><img
src="https://codeapprove.com/external/github-tag-allbg.png" alt="Review
on CodeApprove" /></a>

---------

Co-authored-by: Jan Heuermann <jan@jotaen.net>
---
 app/static/js/touch.js | 68 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++--------
 1 file changed, 56 insertions(+), 12 deletions(-)

diff --git a/app/static/js/touch.js b/app/static/js/touch.js
index a495617bb..56f3b6cea 100644
--- a/app/static/js/touch.js
+++ b/app/static/js/touch.js
@@ -5,11 +5,19 @@
  * handling logic as good as possible, and to keep the complexity away from the
  * “regular” mouse handling code in the remote screen component.
  *
- * We currently only provide rudimentary support for touch devices. So for now,
- * this adapter is only capable of emulating single left clicks.
+ * We currently only provide basic support for touch devices. So for now, this
+ * adapter can emulate the following mouse actions:
+ *   - Single left click
+ *   - Double left click
  */
 export class TouchToMouseAdapter {
-  _lastTouchPosition = { clientX: 0, clientY: 0 };
+  constructor() {
+    this._lastTouchInfo = {
+      timestamp: new Date(),
+      clientX: 0,
+      clientY: 0,
+    };
+  }
 
   /**
    * Synthetic mouse event that includes all properties that the
@@ -24,15 +32,22 @@ export class TouchToMouseAdapter {
    * @returns {SyntheticMouseEvent}
    */
   fromTouchStart(evt) {
-    // The corresponding `touchend` event won’t have the `touches` property
-    // set, so we need to preserve the latest one to be able to reconstruct the
-    // cursor position for the touch/mouse release.
-    const touch = evt.touches[0];
-    this._lastTouchPosition = {
-      clientX: touch.clientX,
-      clientY: touch.clientY,
+    const touchInfo = {
+      timestamp: new Date(),
+      clientX: evt.touches[0].clientX,
+      clientY: evt.touches[0].clientY,
     };
-    return mouseClickEvent(evt.target, this._lastTouchPosition, 1);
+
+    // If this touch was a double click, use the mouse coordinates from the
+    // previous touch, so that the position is exactly the same. (See comment
+    // of `isDoubleClick` for why this is important.)
+    if (isDoubleClick(touchInfo, this._lastTouchInfo)) {
+      touchInfo.clientX = this._lastTouchInfo.clientX;
+      touchInfo.clientY = this._lastTouchInfo.clientY;
+    }
+
+    this._lastTouchInfo = touchInfo;
+    return mouseClickEvent(evt.target, this._lastTouchInfo, 1);
   }
 
   /**
@@ -43,7 +58,10 @@ export class TouchToMouseAdapter {
    * @returns {SyntheticMouseEvent}
    */
   fromTouchEndOrCancel(evt) {
-    return mouseClickEvent(evt.target, this._lastTouchPosition, 0);
+    // A `touchend` or `touchcancel` event doesn’t have the touches attribute
+    // set, so we have to use the last known touch position instead, to keep
+    // the mouse cursor in the same position.
+    return mouseClickEvent(evt.target, this._lastTouchInfo, 0);
   }
 }
 
@@ -57,3 +75,29 @@ function mouseClickEvent(target, touchPosition, buttons) {
     deltaY: 0,
   };
 }
+
+/**
+ * Checks whether two consecutive touches are intended to be a double click
+ * (double tap). This is true if both touches occur within a short time span,
+ * and if their location is close to each other. Note that in contrast to a
+ * mouse device, tapping twice on a touch screen almost never yields the exact
+ * same position for both touches. In this case, the user might accidentally
+ * click in the wrong place, or the target operating system might not recognize
+ * the two clicks as proper double click.
+ */
+function isDoubleClick(touchInfo1, touchInfo2) {
+  return (
+    distancePx(touchInfo1, touchInfo2) < 50 &&
+    delayMs(touchInfo1.timestamp, touchInfo2.timestamp) < 500
+  );
+}
+
+function distancePx(touchInfo1, touchInfo2) {
+  const a = Math.abs(touchInfo1.clientX - touchInfo2.clientX);
+  const b = Math.abs(touchInfo1.clientY - touchInfo2.clientY);
+  return Math.hypot(a, b);
+}
+
+function delayMs(date1, date2) {
+  return Math.abs(date1.getTime() - date2.getTime());
+}