191377 - window.open("") does not open blank window

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(Core :: DOM: Core & HTML, defect)

Description

[Gérard Talbot]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.3b) Gecko/20030128
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.3b) Gecko/20030128

After creating a sub-window with 
WindowObjectReference = window.open("", "WindowName", windowFeaturesList),
a script attempts to populate the empty document with nodes using DOM level 1
methods (createElement, createTextNode, appendChild). 

The script will work flawlessly in NS 7.01 and MSIE 6 for Windows while it will
fail in Mozilla 1.3beta 2003012804 without any error or warning from the
javascript console.

An upcoming testcase will give more details. 

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Load the test case
2. Press the "Create a child window" button
Actual Results:  
The popup is created but it copies, duplicates the document content (nodes) of
the opener (parent) window.

Expected Results:  
- The popup should render the title "This is the dynamically assigned text of
the title of the popup window" in the titlebar of the popup.
- The popup should render the text "This is the text of the dynamically
DOM-inserted paragraph in the body" in the content area.

If the url in the window.open() call is "about:blank", then both Mozilla 1.3beta
and NS 7.01 will FAIL to insert and render the created nodes.

If the url in the window.open() call is "file:///", then both Mozilla 1.3beta
and NS 7.01 will SUCCEED to insert and render the created nodes.

Using document.open(), document.write[ln] and document.close() is a workaround
so I'm setting the severity to Minor.

Comment 1

[Gérard Talbot]

Attachment: Create a blank document and try to insert DOM-1 created nodes

For testing purposes, here are some comparative results with the testcase:

WindowObjectReference = window.open("", [...]);
works in NS 7.01 and in MSIE 6 for Windows but not in Mozilla 1.3b.

WindowObjectReference = window.open("about:blank", [...]);
works in MSIE 6 for Windows but will not work in NS 7.01 and in Mozilla 1.3b.

(I personally do not see how or why there is/would be/should be a difference
between the empty string and "about:blank".)

WindowObjectReference = window.open("file:///", [...]);
works in NS 7.01 and in Mozilla 1.3b but will not work in MSIE 6 for Windows.

Comment 2

[Boris Zbarsky [:bzbarsky]]

I see the nodes being set fine, then a different page loading in the new
window... The real problem here is that you're munging the document in the new
window before the window load (which is async) completes....

Comment 3

[Gérard Talbot]

Boris, I agree with what you say. I nevertheless still see a bug here. 
Even after breaking the function CreateChildWindow() into 2 distinct functions
(one to create the popup, the other to populate the document), there is still a
problem in 1.3b: the empty string for the url argument leads to the copying and
duplication of the opener/parent document content. Not so in NS 7.01, not so in
MSIE 6 for Windows, not so in Opera 7b1 and apparently not so either in NS 4.x

I'll upload a new and reduced testcase and will re-summarize.

Comment 4

[Boris Zbarsky [:bzbarsky]]

DOM0, changing summary to what the real problem is, setting url to problem url.

Comment 5

[Gérard Talbot]

References:
-----------

"If URL is an empty string, a new, empty window is created. (...) if you pass
the empty string for the URL, you will get a reference to the existing window,
but not load anything into it."
http://developer.netscape.com/docs/manuals/js/client/jsref/window.htm#1202771

"If no URL is specified, a new window with about:blank is displayed."
http://msdn.microsoft.com/workshop/author/dhtml/reference/methods/open_0.asp

I think "about:blank" should be shown into the location bar as well in such case.

Comment 6

[Boris Zbarsky [:bzbarsky]]

This works in 2003-01-25-22 and is broken in 2003-01-27-21.  I suspect the fix
for bug 174628 is responsible (I'll try a local backout later if I have time, if
no one does it first).

Comment 7

[Nisheeth Ranjan]

i should deal with this as it looks as if it is my regression...

Comment 8

[Nisheeth Ranjan]

Yes, this bug was caused by the fix to bug 174628.  About to attach a one line
patch that fixes it...

I've tested this patch and made sure that it doesn't regress bug 174628.

Are there some set of window.open() tests anywhere that I can run?  I want to
make sure I test window.open() exhaustively this time...

Comment 9

[Nisheeth Ranjan]

Attachment: Fix

Here's the fix.  My fix to bug 174628 changed the local variable, "url", from
nsXPIDLCString to nsCAutoString.  When a blank url was passed into
window.open(), "url.get()" (later in the function) used to return a null ptr
earlier but after my change started returning a pointer to a null string.  This
violated asumptions in downstream logic in window watcher code.

I just added heikki to the cc list.  Heikki, are there any window.open() tests
I can run to make sure I've got it right this time around?

Comment 10

[Nisheeth Ranjan]

Comment on attachment 113162 [details] [diff] [review]
Fix

guys, please review this one line fix.	this bug is a regression from the fix
to the topembed+ bug 174628 I checked in earlier this week.

pl see comment 9 for details about this fix.

thanks!

Comment 11

[Nisheeth Ranjan]

I think this should be a beta blocker.  Its a regression to core DOM
functionality.  Maybe some web developers want to jump in to say how often they
use the window.open("") pattern.  If the pattern is widely used, I think beta
blocker status is justified...

Comment 12

[Gérard Talbot]

I have seen quite often in newsgroups this type of dynamic document construction

WindowObjectReference = window.open("" [,...])
WindowObjectReference.document.open(); 
// or WindowObjectReference.document.open("text/html", "replace");
WindowObjectReference.document.write("<html><head>...");
WindowObjectReference.document.close();

Even old Netscape documentation give examples precisely on how to do this:

http://developer.netscape.com/docs/manuals/js/client/jsref/document.htm#1196361

Comment 13

[Nisheeth Ranjan]

Comment on attachment 113162 [details] [diff] [review]
Fix

I have a one line fix for a regression caused by the fix to topembed+ bug
174628.

window.open("") is supposed to open a blank window.  Instead it opened up a
window and loaded the parent window's url into it.  This patch makes
window.open("") do the right thing.

pl see comment 9 for details on this fix.

r=peterv, sr=heikki

Comment 14

[Asa Dotzler [:asa]]

Comment on attachment 113162 [details] [diff] [review]
Fix

a=asa (on behalf of drivers) for checkin to 1.3beta.

Comment 15

[Nisheeth Ranjan]

Fix checked into trunk...