159389 - J-Pass 2.5 Beta Doesn't Show Its Print Button

Status: VERIFIED WORKSFORME

(Core Graveyard :: Java-Implemented Plugins, defect)

Description

[Jeffrey Knauth]

From Bugzilla Helper:
User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Win 9x 4.90; en-US; rv:1.0rc2)
Gecko/20020512 Netscape/7.0b1
BuildID:    2002072104

(I recreated this bug on Mozilla 1.1B as well as NS70PR1.  I was trying to
report it with Bugzilla Helper while running under NS70PR1.  I assume that is
why the header info above reflects NS70PR1 instead of the Mozilla 1.1B
2002072104 I was trying to report.  Live and learn.)

Normally the J-Pass 2.5 Beta program started from
http://liftoff.msfc.nasa.gov/RealTime/JPass/20/ displays a print button within a
group of buttons in the mid-left part of the window.  This button does not
appear in Mozilla.  The button is used to execute a specially formatted print,
not the one gotten from using the Print button on the browser tool bar.

Reproducible: Always
Steps to Reproduce:
1. Go to http://liftoff.msfc.nasa.gov/RealTime/JPass/20/.
2. Wait a (maybe long) while for the beta zip code prompt to load. 
3. Under "Try the new beta J-Pass 2.5!" enter a zip code and then Go.
4. Select "Yes" for the time prompt.  It may take a while for this prompt to
occur while the program is initializing.

There should be a Print button under the "+" and "-" buttons, but above the
"Current weather" button.

Normally (e.g., under NS 4.79 and its Java plugin) there will be a Print button.

Actual Results:  The Print button is not present, nor is there any space left
for it.

Expected Results:  The Print button should be present in the group of other
buttons at the mid-left part of the window.  Selecting it prints a special
format of the sky map vs. what is printed if the Print button on the tool bar is
used.  Try the above scenario under Netscape 4.79 to see how it should work.

Comment 1

[Jeffrey Knauth]

Attachment: E-mail with J-Pass 2.5 Beta Author

I corresponded with the author of J-Pass 2.5 Beta and have attached that
e-mail.  I don't understand the technical aspects enough to comment on
Patrick Meyer's response.  Maybe the Mozilla developers can offer a
simple workaround suggestion, or do some evangelizing to NASA beyond
what I have done in the attachment and one other followup note I sent
today.	Or maybe this is just another loss to Microsoft.  I hope not.
J-Pass 2.5 is really a nice program.  I would hate that it turned out
not to be fully functional on the Mozilla-based line of browsers.

Comment 2

[Jeffrey Knauth]

Patrick Meyer, the J-Pass 2.5 Beta author, has now looked at this
further.  Here is a quote from a note he sent me yesterday afternoon:

     "I changed the code so that "Sun's" java is interpreted
     as Netscape's Java and the Netscape security model
     appears to work for me.  You can try it with yours if
     you like to see if that helps.  It does, however,
     complain that the model is obsolete."

Again, I don't understand the technical details, but this change did fix
the problem for me.  I tested it on WinMe with Moz 1.1B, NS 7.0 PR1, NS
4.79, and IE 6.0, all using Java VM version: 1.4.0_01.  I also tried it
on Win98SE with NS 4.76 and its builtin Netscape Java 1.1.5.  In all
cases the J-Pass Print button was now displayed and was functional.  I
didn't get any error messages during the program load or execution.

The J-Pass 2.5 Beta version with this fix is currently the one you get
when you download from the J-Pass web site.  So unless things get broken
again, the problem should now be "Not Reproducible" for Mozilla build
purposes.

Comment 3

[Michael Lefevre]

WFM per Jeffrey's previous comment (and I just tested with a recent 1.7 build
and Java 1.4.2)