116520 - Buggy localstore.rdf causes the sidebar to display empty

Status: RESOLVED WORKSFORME

(SeaMonkey :: Sidebar, defect)

Description

[Ilya Konstantinov]

I don't know what exactly causes this obscure bug -- I simply found the file
responsible for this in my profile and then minimized it to the smallest
testcase which still reproduces the problem. Place this file in your profile's
directory (overwrite existing localstore.rdf -- you might want to back it up first).

Result: The sidebar will display blank (no sidebar tabs, no UI - just plain
empty frame) when the first window open / when openning additional windows.
Closing and opening the sidebar (F9, F9) "fixes" the problem.

Tested on Mozilla 0.9.7.

Comment 1

[Ilya Konstantinov]

Attachment: localstore.rdf testcase

Comment 2

[Matthias Versen [:Matti]]

-> Sidebar

Comment 3

[Håkan Waara]

Sounds like a case for RDF parsing. (Is it due to some invalid RDF?)  I know
zilch RDF, so CCing the gurus, who I trust will give this bug into the right
hands. :-)

Comment 4

[Chase Tingley]

I took a quick look at the attachment, and the RDF looks valid syntax-wise.  
More likely the localstore datasource (or something that depends on it) is 
behaving badly when certain attributes are missing.  

I don't know the localstore RDF semantics offhand; I'd bet there are a lot of 
things that will behave oddly if you set out to test the limits of its corner-
case handling.

When I get back from vacation (Thurs), I try this with an actual tree.

Ilya, did your localstore.rdf end up in this (corrupted) state through "normal" 
usage?

Comment 5

[Chris Waterson]

sgehani: The problem here appears to be that the sidebar code is deciding
whether or not to load itself based on a `collapsed' attribute that gets set on
something other than the sidebar's splitter. I'm gonna kick this one back at you
for further investigation.

Comment 6

[Chris Waterson]

Specifically, collapsing the sidebar sets:

  <RDF:Description about="chrome://navigator/content/navigator.xul#sidebar-box"
                   collapsed="true"
                   width="" />

but the sidebar seems to decide whether or not it wants to load based on:

  <RDF:Description
about="chrome://navigator/content/navigator.xul#sidebar-panels-splitter-box"
                   collapsed="true" />

Comment 7

[Samir Gehani]

Ilya,
I'm not sure I understand how you got into this state.  The ``sidebar-box''
element's collapsed attribute has always been persisted in localstore.rdf. 
Could you report the steps to reproduce this bug and attach a complete
localstore.rdf -- one that includes the entries for both the ``sidebar-box'' as
well as the ``sidebar-panels-splitter-box'' elements.  Thanks.
Bug 116094 may be related.

Comment 8

[Ilya Konstantinov]

I have no steps for reproducing the bug, since it surfaces when I let Moz 0.9.6 use the same profile directory as I've used with 0.9.5 and some nightlies in between. Possibly those nightlies have corrupted the localstore.rdf somehow.Anyhow, I didn't edit the localstore.rdf file myself (until when the bug surfaced, and then I minimized it to a testcase).I'm attaching some backup localstore.rdf I have with both #sidebar-box and #sidebar-panels-splitter-box which still reproduces the problem.

Comment 9

[Ilya Konstantinov]

Attachment: localstore.rdf testcase with both elements

Comment 10

[Cristian Seres]

Attachment: Another localstore.rdf producing the same problem

I have the same problem. Currently I am using Mozilla 1.1. I do not remember
exactly when the problem first occurred. Probably it has existed for a long
time.

I have installed several Mozilla versions and occasionally deleted Mozilla
folder manually before installing.

My localstore.rdf as an attachment.

Comment 11

[Daniel Wang]

*** Bug 158104 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 12

[Vedran Miletic]

retargeting

Comment 13

[Vincent Lefevre]

My sidebar is empty, but contrary to what is said in the bug report, closing and
reopening it doesn't fix the problem (though it did fix it when I noticed the
problem in the past).

Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux ppc; en-US; rv:1.8a3) Gecko/20040805

Comment 14

[Ilya Konstantinov]

Is there any interest in solving this bug? Or should it be WONTFIX'd for lack of interest in Seamonkey?

Comment 15

[Martin Arndt]

(In reply to comment #14)
> Is there any interest in solving this bug? Or should it be WONTFIX'd for lack
> of interest in Seamonkey?
> 

For FF it should be fixed ASAP - it just happened 5 minutes ago and restoring my localstore-backup (I got a little batch-script for that ;)) is good, but no final solution, IMHO at least..

Note: this happens of FF 1.5.0.1 while running Windows 2000 Professional with SP4 and Update Rollup #1..

Comment 16

[Tony Mechelynck [:tonymec]]

No comment in more than two years. Resetting A+QA on the assumption that their non-default settings aren't current anymore. Please undo if I goofed.

I don't really want to test this with current Sm 2.0a1pre. Who does? (And what's the result?)

Comment 17

[Frank-Rainer Grahl (:frg)]

Bug 559505 more or less killed localstore.rdf. I am not aware that we still use it anywhere in SeaMonkey 2.53 and up. The testcase no longer applies. With the buggy rdf file in the profile the sidebar still opens fine. So lets close this.