92390 - irc:// protocol should use shell settings instead of launching Chatzilla

Status: RESOLVED WONTFIX

(Core :: Networking, enhancement)

Description

[Skewer]

Procedure: Install a chat program that integrates with the shell, like mIRC.
Type in or click an irc:// link.

Expected: Chatzilla is NOT opened, unless it is integrated with the shell
through System preferences (which is not an option currently), or the user pref
for whether Mozilla uses the shell or Chatzilla for irc:// URLs (which also
doesn't exist) is set to use Chatzilla.

Actual: Chatzilla opens irc:// protocols used within Mozilla regardless of
shell/pref settings.

Comment 1

[Robert Ginda]

What shell are you talking about?
What other IRC clients parse irc urls?
Is this something you can do with protozilla <http://protozilla.mozdev.org/>?

Comment 2

[Skewer]

mIRC, the most popular IRC chat client for Windows does this. :-P

<http://www.mirc.com/>

Comment 3

[Robert Ginda]

Interesting, I wasn't aware of that.  (For the record, the url
<http://www.mirc.com/mirclink.html> would have been *much* more helpful, I am
quite aware of mIRC's homepage.)  mIRC's handling of irc:// urls is a bit
simplified compared to ChatZilla.  See
<http://www.mozilla.org/projects/rt-messaging/chatzilla/irc-urls.html> for how
ChatZilla does irc://.

While ChatZilla should be able to handle most irc urls designed for mIRC (with
the exception of keyed channels), the converse is probably not true. 
ChatZilla's additional modifiers (described in the draft rfc
<http://www.w3.org/Addressing/draft-mirashi-url-irc-01.txt>) will probably
confuse mIRC.

Anyway, this isn't a ChatZilla bug, per se.  I don't think you want to have to
install ChatZilla to be able to point irc:// urls to mIRC, that seems a bit
silly.  This may or may not be something we want as a helper application type
pref.  We can't key helper apps off a protocol scheme at the moment, and I
suspect that's a pretty tall order.  Your best bet is probably protozilla, which
allows you to associate arbitrary applications with schemes (see url in my
previous comment.)

Moving to browser general in the hope that someone will adopt this bug.

Comment 4

[Robert Ginda]

Come to think of it, this could even be viewed as a mIRC bug.  If mIRC came with
a mozilla protocol handler (like chatzilla does), then this wouldn't be a problem.

Comment 5

[Skewer]

rginda: No, mIRC is registering the irc: protocol with Windows. Mozilla is 
blatantly ignoring this registration and sending the IRC links to its own chat 
program instead. It isn't important how mIRC handles the IRC links, if the user 
has chosen to register the irc: protocol to it, Mozilla should obey that. 
Mozilla handles AIM's aim: registered protocol properly, and when one exists, 
it should give the same control over the irc: protocol registration. Ideally, 
Mozilla should check to see if irc: is a registered protocol first, and if it 
comes back as an unregistered protocol (or it is registered to Chatzilla, if 
that ever becomes an option), THEN it should open Chatzilla. In its current 
state I don't think many users would choose Chatzilla over mIRC, unless they 
were interested in testing or developing it.

Comment 6

[timeless]

yuck. so let's just dupe this against the same bug for mail urls? for now, just 
don't install chatzilla.  or uninstall the chatzilla protocol handler. or write 
a protocol handler that just dispatches to the os.

Rginda: does chatzilla currently offer/ask mozilla to register irc: for itself?

skewer: filing 2 contradictory bugs in one package is a real nightmare, please 
pick one to split off and then shorten this bug's summary. -- I'd suggest 
splitting out the chatzilla rfe if it's not already implemented, since the rest 
of this is mostly sparing about something which is already being [non]addressed 
for mailnews

Comment 7

[Skewer]

Simplifying summary. I don't really care what happens to Chatzilla.

Comment 8

[Asa Dotzler [:asa]]

removing nsbeta1. nsbeta1 is used for nominating that bugs be fixed for the next
Netscape beta. Netscape doesn't even use Chatzilla. 

Comment 9

[Jesse Ruderman]

Marking as depending on bug 68406, "Allow registration of new URI schemes", to 
match bug 11459, a bug similar to this one but for mailto urls.

Comment 10

[Henrik Lynggaard Hansen]

changeling to Networking component to match bug 68406

Comment 11

[xyzzy]

I don't know what happened, but this just "started working" for me in the build
I grabbed (build 2001121909 under Windows 98).

Now when I click IRC URLs in Chatzilla, they open mIRC.  I tried changing the
Windows handler to open these with Mozilla.  After running mIRC again, however,
the handler was pointing back there again.  They don't seem to be checking for
an existing handler before setting their application to do it.  I am using mIRC
5.91.  If more recent versions don't fix this, it should probably be evangelized.

Is this suddenly working for anyone else?  AFAICT, this is out of the blue.

Comment 12

[Asa Dotzler [:asa]]

reassigning to default component assignee.

Comment 13

[Doug Turner (:dougt)]

rob, unless you want to look at this, I am futuring.  

Comment 14

[Skewer]

For the record: This bug is still occuring in the branch. I just tested it in
2002061108 WXP and putting an irc:// URL into the location bar opens Chatzilla
instead of launching mIRC.

I consider this very undesirable behavior since Chatzilla is far from being as
useful or attractive as mIRC.

Comment 15

[Robert Ginda]

this is not nsbeta1 *or* nsCatFood

Comment 16

[Skewer]

Oops, Chatzilla's not in NS, is it? That's the second time I've made this
mistake. D'oh.

Comment 17

[benc]

This is a legitimate RFE, but I think the tone of the bug is a bit extreme.

Mozilla's design is derived from Communicator, which is the original
do-everything internet application. You kind of assume that if you have a
protocol handler, that is what the user gets. I think, historically, that this
existed before OS's had protocol handler support. So we are behind the times...

Comment 18

[Skewer]

I wouldn't have as big a problem with this, if Chatzilla were even a 1%
satisfactory IRC program. Since it's not, and since the #1 chat program supports
shell integration of the irc: protocol, I think we need to support it.

Comment 19

[Doug Turner (:dougt)]

moving neeti's futured bugs for triaging.

Comment 20

[Nathan]

"JustinArthur" over in #mozillazine told me how to fix this.

Delete chatzilla-service.js from the components directory (while mozilla is
closed of course) and restart it.

It worked for me.  Now Mozilla feeds irc:// links to mirc.

ty.

Comment 21

[Darin Fisher]

you could have also just set this pref:

  network.protocol-handler.external.irc = true

then mozilla would always use the shell service to load irc:// URLs.

Comment 22

[:Gijs (he/him)]

(In reply to comment #21)
> you could have also just set this pref:
> 
>   network.protocol-handler.external.irc = true
> 
> then mozilla would always use the shell service to load irc:// URLs.

Dragging up this random bug. The pref works, I'm quite sure it does. I'm currently thinking the reporter wants us to have that pref set to true by default, in Mozilla/SeaMonkey. That seems seriously weird to me, considering that if the user doesn't want the IRC client, he wouldn't install it in the first place. In Firefox, Thunderbird or any other app, nothing really happens until the user willingly installs ChatZilla anyway.

I suggest to WONTFIX this bug - but I'm not a peer for networking so I don't really feel I should 'just do it'. CC-ing darin who has the authority to make those decisions :-).