258742 - Plugin Finder Service's not found too final

Status: RESOLVED DUPLICATE of bug 258955

(Firefox :: General, defect)

Description

[Joe Drew (not getting mail)]

If a plugin can't be found for the plugin finder service, it simply says "No
suitable plugins were found" and gives you a prompt to exit. It doesn't tell you
what type of plugin it was looking for, or give you a hint that you might be
able to go find one on your own. Anything that might lead a user to search on
his or her own, rather than just giving up, would help.

(Maybe a google search for the plugin? A link to the netscape plugin finder
service?)

Comment 1

[Asa Dotzler [:asa]]

This is a server side issue. We have a listing on the server for Flash, but no
actual package, so you at least get the dialog that says we're trying to install
flash and when we fail (due to no package on the server) we offer you a link to
manually install from Macromedia.

This is a know issue and will be corrected as we work out the details to
redistribute various plugins.

This is a very important release and we appreciate your feedback. 

Comment 2

[Asa Dotzler [:asa]]

*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of 258955 ***

Comment 3

[Joe Drew (not getting mail)]

Asa, I don't think this is really a duplicate; this bug is for plugins which
don't exist on update.mozilla.org (i.e., quicktime or $NEWBIGPLUGIN). If the
plugin finder service can find no listing of the plugin at all, it just says "No
suitable plugins were found" as I mentioned, rather than giving more information.

I don't think that this should rely on update.mozilla.org for a redirect.

Comment 4

[Asa Dotzler [:asa]]

Joe Drew. It does rely on update.mozilla.org for a redirect. Either we will have
the plugin there or we will have a listing that points to the correct location. 

*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of 258955 ***

Comment 5

[Joe Drew (not getting mail)]

My point is that, if something is missing from update.mozilla.org - pretend for
a moment that a new plugin format has just been released, or something - the
message says to a user "You're SOL, sorry." (At least, it implied that to me.)
Even saying something like "We were unable to find suitable plugins listed on
the update service; it may be possible to find more information with a <a
href="google for application/x-plugin-format">google search</a> for the plugin
format." would be more helpful than the current situation.