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please help to reproduce Firefox 3+ bug 460880
Posted: Mon Jun 29, 2009 10:51 pm
by al_9x
I’ve encountered a bizarre
bug in Firefox 3+ that’s forcing me to stay with Firefox 2. I would like to ask for help in reproducing it, understanding it, getting around it if possible and convincing Mozilla to fix it. Here is an overview:
I think almost from the beginning of Firefox it was possible to create keyword JavaScript bookmarklets that open multiple tabs. I would like to impress that this is a very useful and important feature, the loss of which is a major regression, so here are a few examples:
Search multiple web search engines:
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javascript:open('http://www.google.com/search?q=%s','_self');open('http://www.bing.com/search?q=%s');open('http://search.yahoo.com/search?p=%s');open('http://www.altavista.com/web/results?q=%s');open('http://www.ask.com/web?q=%s');
Lookup a page in multiple web caches:
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javascript:open('http://www.google.com/search?q=cache:%s','_self');open('http://www.bing.com/search?q=url:%s');open('http://search.yahoo.com/search?&p=url:%s');open('http://redirect.nyud.net/?url=%s');open('http://web.archive.org/*dc_ir_/%s');
Search for a product in multiple shopping/product sites:
Code: Select all
javascript:open('http://www.pricegrabber.com/search.php?form_keyword=%s','_self');open('http://www.amazon.com/s/?index=blended&field-keywords=%s');open('http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&Description=%s');open('http://www.google.com/products?q=%s');open('http://www.bing.com/shopping/search?q=%s');open('http://shopping.yahoo.com/search?p=%s');
In general, for any class of search, (dictionary, encyclopedia, web, image, products, caches, articles, books, torrents, etc.), there are usually several providers that one might want to query at the same time and this feature makes this possible.
After upgrading my profile to FF3 I discovered these bookmarklets no longer worked, the window.opens were being blocked as popups and turning off popup blocking (not a viable option) restored their functionality. I was not able to reproduce the problem with a clean profile and then went through a process of eliminating variables and finally narrowed it down to, believe it or not, the size of the places database, meaning that:
- I start with a clean profile and bookmarklets work
- I drop in my large places.sqlite, bookmarklets break
- I reduce the size of places db, by first clearing history (insufficient) then deleting some large number of bookmarks (doesn’t matter which) and bookmarklets work again
- I even found a more or less exact threshold where I could add a few random bookmarks and the bookmarklets would stop working, remove a few bookmarks and they would work again
If anyone is interested in looking into this and has a 3.0 or 3.5 profile with lots of bookmarks/history (my places.sqlite is ~6 MB) please try one these bookmarklets and post your results, ideally on WinXP32. If you can repro that part, perhaps you can also try deleting history and then more and more bookmarks (in a copy, not the original profile) until bookmarklets work again.
Re: please help to reproduce Firefox 3+ bug 460880
Posted: Wed Jul 01, 2009 3:37 am
by therube
(I'm not understanding "keywords" correctly, as in %s is not being substituted. Nonetheless ...)
SeaMonkey 2 (akin to FF 3.5).
There seems to be a "firing" issue of sorts.
Usually the first one or two clicks of the bookmarklet will only open a subset of the requested sites.
One "warmed up", they all open.
(SeaMonkey 2 does not use places for bookmarks, but still uses bookmarks.html.)
Re: please help to reproduce Firefox 3+ bug 460880
Posted: Wed Jul 01, 2009 2:23 pm
by al_9x
therube wrote:(I'm not understanding "keywords" correctly, as in %s is not being substituted. Nonetheless ...)
SeaMonkey 2 (akin to FF 3.5).
There seems to be a "firing" issue of sorts.
Usually the first one or two clicks of the bookmarklet will only open a subset of the requested sites.
One "warmed up", they all open.
(SeaMonkey 2 does not use places for bookmarks, but still uses bookmarks.html.)
Thank you for trying to repro this, but it really needs to be tested on Firefox 3+ with a large places.sqlite. Also, you don't click on keyword bookmarks, you type in the keyword in the address bar followed by the search term and press enter.
The good thing is, though in a different browser with a different bookmark architecture, you did partially reproduce the issue (only subset opening at first), hopefully someone can confirm it on Firefox.
Re: please help to reproduce Firefox 3+ bug 460880
Posted: Wed Jul 01, 2009 6:10 pm
by GµårÐïåñ
My "bookmarks" which now Fx calls places have been maintained and growing since Netscape 1.0 and yes I have managed to hold on to it, organize it and keep it this long without losing it and updating the structure as they have changed. However, my places file is only 4.05 MB and apparently not big enough to reproduce your problem and I don't have the time or inclination to sit there and just add junk to my file to make it grow but I do want to help you if I can. If you can provide a file that WILL help reproduce your issue, I am game in testing it for you and I have a VM dedicated for such things, let me know, otherwise I am going to say that you will be hard pressed to find anyone with a file that big and able to reproduce it for you on Fx without some concessions on your part.
Re: please help to reproduce Firefox 3+ bug 460880
Posted: Wed Jul 01, 2009 6:22 pm
by therube
(If you Export your existing, followed by an Import, within a few iterations, the size will grow rapidly.)
Re: please help to reproduce Firefox 3+ bug 460880
Posted: Wed Jul 01, 2009 7:20 pm
by GµårÐïåñ
therube, yes you are right and I had planned on something to that effect but part of my suspicion is that the resulting failure might have something to do with fidelity of the file or its structure as well. I would have ultimately offset the testing with another set created from my own file but to confirm the diff in any test case, you need the one confirmed to offend first. Consider mine a control group and then you introduce the dependent/independent variables and go from there.
Re: please help to reproduce Firefox 3+ bug 460880
Posted: Wed Jul 01, 2009 7:51 pm
by al_9x
GµårÐïåñ wrote:My "bookmarks" which now Fx calls places have been maintained and growing since Netscape 1.0 and yes I have managed to hold on to it, organize it and keep it this long without losing it and updating the structure as they have changed. However, my places file is only 4.05 MB and apparently not big enough to reproduce your problem and I don't have the time or inclination to sit there and just add junk to my file to make it grow but I do want to help you if I can. If you can provide a file that WILL help reproduce your issue, I am game in testing it for you and I have a VM dedicated for such things, let me know, otherwise I am going to say that you will be hard pressed to find anyone with a file that big and able to reproduce it for you on Fx without some concessions on your part.
4MB should be enough. You mentioned you have a VM, any chance you could try it in an XP32 vm or system? It seems likely to be OS related. Also if you could do the import export thing a couple of times, that'd be great.
1) Create a new profile
2) Drop you places.sqlite into it
3) create a keyword bookmarklet (from my examples)
4) invoke it from the address bar several times
5) does it open all the tabs?
I do not want to broadcast my places and if the problem turns out to be only with my db (which is unlikely, because I've regenerated it many times from ff2 bookmarks.html and it looks fine with 3rb party tools, sqlite manager, sqlite expert) then I'll just have to live with it. I am hoping it's more generic though and can be reproduced by anyone, at least on XP32 with a large enough database.
Re: please help to reproduce Firefox 3+ bug 460880
Posted: Wed Jul 01, 2009 8:13 pm
by therube
OK, I've got "keywords" now.
So, 'shop tires' ...
Works as expected in SeaMonkey 1.1.17 & SeaMonkey 2.
FF35 with a LARGE places.sqlite worked as expected - ONCE. (Not sure what I did to cause it to work? Can't seem to duplicate it now?)
FF35 with a LARGE places.sqlite says "Firefox prevented this site from opening 5 pop-up windows.".
FF35 with a small places.sqlite works as expected.
21,043 bookmarks & having 3 separate browsers & other apps open is killing me. ... Let me close some & continue ...
These urlclassifier3.* & bookmarks-*.json are hideous things. How do you all put up with them?
Re: please help to reproduce Firefox 3+ bug 460880
Posted: Wed Jul 01, 2009 8:32 pm
by al_9x
therube wrote:FF35 with a LARGE places.sqlite says "Firefox prevented this site from opening 5 pop-up windows."
That's great, you've reproduced it, on Vista I presume? So that's the bug, these aren't popups and should never be blocked, certainly not as a function of how many bookmarks you have. It all works fine if FF2, started with 3 and is still there in 3.5.
I would like to ask Giorgio to lend his expertise in understanding what's happening here and how to best communicate it to Mozilla so they fix it. This bug was reported on 2008-10-20 and they are not too eager to work on it.
Re: please help to reproduce Firefox 3+ bug 460880
Posted: Wed Jul 01, 2009 8:37 pm
by therube
XP SP3.
Originally I had NoScript & that .NET b/s enabled, disabled both <my only extensions> with the same results.
Though ONCE I did have it work correctly.
From what I recall ... saw the bug, closed down FF, renamed places.sqlite to places.sqlite.X, restarted. (I wanted an "empty" places.sqlite.) Instead FF pulled in the backup from bookmarkbackups. Said damn. Closed down FF renamed again & also renamed bookmarkbackups to bookmarkbackups.X. Restarted. Typed in 'shop tires'. And it worked.
But I've been unable to duplicate it working since?
Re: please help to reproduce Firefox 3+ bug 460880
Posted: Wed Jul 01, 2009 8:45 pm
by al_9x
therube wrote:XP SP3.
yes, I mixed up the nt version, vista is 6.0 Maybe this issue is XP32 only.
Re: please help to reproduce Firefox 3+ bug 460880
Posted: Wed Jul 01, 2009 8:53 pm
by al_9x
therube wrote:But I've been unable to duplicate it working since?
You've been unable to duplicate the bug? or duplicate the bookmark working?
Re: please help to reproduce Firefox 3+ bug 460880
Posted: Wed Jul 01, 2009 8:55 pm
by therube
I was unable to duplicate it working ... BUT ...
Just got it to work again.
Maybe when that bookmarks*.json file exists, it is messing things up?
I'll retry my "From what I recall ..." again, but no time now.
Re: please help to reproduce Firefox 3+ bug 460880
Posted: Wed Jul 01, 2009 8:59 pm
by al_9x
therube wrote:I was unable to duplicate it working ... BUT ...
that's ok, you can always see it working when you start with a new profile. They important thing is that you can repro the bug. Keep a copy of the bad places.sqlite just in case.
Re: please help to reproduce Firefox 3+ bug 460880
Posted: Thu Jul 02, 2009 3:14 am
by GµårÐïåñ
Sorry for the delayed response, I will go ahead and drop it in my XP VM and test it at various levels, I am thinking current, current+1 import (x2), and finally x2+import (x3) and get back to you, give me a couple of hours, I just got home.