1188731 - Nested tags in email cause large amounts of text to go missing

Status: RESOLVED DUPLICATE of bug 256180

(Core :: DOM: HTML Parser, defect)

Description

[Andrew Truong [:feer56] [:andrewtruong] [:atruong]]

Emails with a large amount of text that are users are sending using Firefox will show up cut off or with parts of the email missing. These emails can be the initial email that is sent or forwarded. When these emails are viewed using Firefox, only part of the email would show up. However, when viewing the same email in Chrome or IE, the missing parts will appear. This has been tested against Yahoo! Mail and Gmail. The emails in Yahoo! are not like Google where the email is truncated and can be opened; GMail will not show the missing parts at all (same as Yahoo!). Keeping in mind users are may be using Chrome or IE to send these messages, regardless of the browser or email provider these emails are sent with, the emails should display entirely in Firefox. 

Proper troubleshooting of this issue has been made with:
-Clearing cache and cookies and using Private Browsing
-SUMO websites not loading troubleshooting article
-Safe mode being used 
-A completely new profile being used

As Javascript is enabled by default, there have been no attempts to disable or modify it. All troubleshooting provided by Yahoo! has been insufficient. 

Device Specifications: 
This issue is tested against the current latest version 39.0 with windows 7, and 8.1. 

This issue was reported by a user in SUMO: https://support.mozilla.org/questions/1072482
-The issue was reported July 15 but was no longer appearing until July 21. The issue is currently ongoing as of the 21st. 
-This issue can be reproduced more than once.

Comment 1

[alex_mayorga]

¡Hola Andrew!

Per https://support.mozilla.org/es/questions/1167913 this is still a thing and driving users away.

The content of outlook.com e-mails are blank on Firefox https://support.cdn.mozilla.net/media/uploads/images/2017-07-30-05-40-34-9edc15.png but show fine in Chrome https://support.cdn.mozilla.net/media/uploads/images/2017-07-30-05-54-57-c11ac4.png

Hope it gets fixed sooner rather than later.

¡Gracias!
Alex

Comment 2

[guigs [:guigs] PST (please needinfo me!)]

Gbrown, can you take a look at this one, 3 contributors in the SUMO forums are seeing this again. Perhaps we can set a priority?
Thank you!

Comment 3

[Andrew Truong [:feer56] [:andrewtruong] [:atruong]]

Still reproducible on Nightly build - Windows 10 Pro. Email can be forwarded on request - user has previously requested for the content of the email be kept confidential.

Comment 4

[Geoff Brown [:gbrown]]

Sorry, I don't normally work in this area and don't think I have any connection to this bug.

Comment 5

[jonrudy]

How about that, nobody wants to work this issue. For informational purposes I stopped using my favorite browser two years ago because this "bug" caused to Miss out on more than one job opportunity and show up for another without the proper materials on another.  I could no longer trust Firefox, to present the complete contents of an email.  Yet, this bug still sits in que with not so much as a priority placed on it.  I'm glad I wasn't holding my breath to see this issue fixed. Too bad, I really liked Firefox, it WAS my favorite browser by far.

Comment 6

[Andrew Truong [:feer56] [:andrewtruong] [:atruong]]

(In reply to jonrudy from comment #5)
> How about that, nobody wants to work this issue. For informational purposes
> I stopped using my favorite browser two years ago because this "bug" caused
> to Miss out on more than one job opportunity and show up for another without
> the proper materials on another.  I could no longer trust Firefox, to
> present the complete contents of an email.  Yet, this bug still sits in que
> with not so much as a priority placed on it.  I'm glad I wasn't holding my
> breath to see this issue fixed. Too bad, I really liked Firefox, it WAS my
> favorite browser by far.

Hi Jon, 

It does appear this has not been fixed and I am disappointed. I will be keeping a close eye on this for the while being. I apologize for not following up on this, and I do recognize that it has been 2 years. Me and a few others and trying to get this looked at. Although, we don't get questions of such issues often, we are not aware of how widely spread this is and how many are affected by it because of it not being reported due to the complexity of the issue - but it does factor into the retention rates of Firefox. We are trying to win our users back, and it appears we have fallen short in this situation.

Comment 7

[Andrew Overholt [:overholt]]

If it's not possible to sufficiently redact the email to attach here as a test case, please email it to Henri Sivonen (email here as he's now needinfod).

Comment 8

[jonrudy]

Thank You Andrew
The trouble with this bug is that most people don't know it exists.  I only found out because I when I replied to an email with the "hidden" text to be summarily chastised that the information was indeed in the previous email.  Only then did I start troubleshooting this issue to find that FIREFOX was indeed not presenting text in the email but Explorer and Chrome were.  This is a no brainer IMHO.  If the browser doesn't show all the contents of an email it is not working properly.  My only guess is that the people creating this issue are taking advantage of cut and paste to make things easier for themselves.  Unfortunately, some of us were impacted more than others.  However I'll bet money there are many folks out there still using FIREFOX, that haven't a clue this issue exists.  However they may wonder why there is a large blank area in the email (which should contain text or graphics)

IF you get this issue fixed without introducing other major bugs then I'm still willing to come back to Firefox .... But not until that happens.

regards
Jon

Comment 9

[jonrudy]

For the record if the test examples are from me,  the time period for any confidentiality has surely elapsed.  I was required to sign an NDA (Non Disclosure Agreement)at the time I submitted the bug report.

Comment 10

[Andrew Truong [:feer56] [:andrewtruong] [:atruong]]

Attachment: bug1188731_error.html

When you open this file in Firefox, you will notice that only parts of the email are shown, but when opened in Chrome/Edge it will show entire email. 

In Firefox, the hidden content can be searched for but will not display. 

Email addresses are replaced with a *@

Comment 11

[Andrew Truong [:feer56] [:andrewtruong] [:atruong]]

Attachment: Screenshot - Firefox

Screenshot of the HTML file opened in Firefox.

Comment 12

[Andrew Truong [:feer56] [:andrewtruong] [:atruong]]

Attachment: Screenshot - Chrome

Screenshot of what is shown in Chrome when the HTML file opened.

Comment 13

[Henri Sivonen (:hsivonen)]

This is a combination of bug 256180 and the HTML parser-side mitigation for bug 256180 misbehaving.

We *really* should get bug 256180 fixed or at least we should get the mitigation into layout and not the parser.

Comment 14

[Andrew Truong [:feer56] [:andrewtruong] [:atruong]]

[Tracking Requested - why for this release]: this bug should really be fixed for 57 if we want 57 to be a big launch. This issue does not persist in other browsers but Firefox. Can somebody _please_ look into this.

Comment 15

[Henri Sivonen (:hsivonen)]

https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/mozilla.dev.platform/SUknMzK1ZAc

Comment 16

[Julien Cristau [:jcristau]]

Longstanding issue, this is not what tracking flags are for.

Comment 17

[Henri Sivonen (:hsivonen)]

Thank you for putting this is the context of webmail. That's really what finally got some action here.

I'm marking this as a duplicate of the older report, because the patches are there.