120462 - favicons in bookmarks don't "stick" due to caching problem

Status: RESOLVED DUPLICATE of bug 120303

(SeaMonkey :: Bookmarks & History, defect)

Description

[Matthew Miller]

See bug #113430, which has turned into a more general favicon caching bug.

*This* bug is to track the related annoying user-interface issue: namely, that
some favicons for bookmarks aren't properly remembered. It's not the same
sites/icons for everyone (in fact, it's hard to find a common factor), and it's
not all sites, but for the ones that are affected: The icon doesn't show up when
the browser is started, but when the bookmarked page is first visited, it
appears. If a new window is created, the icons don't show up in that window,
again until the site is first visited in that window. Closing the browser and
restarting also causes the wayward icons to again vanish.

This makes the bookmark favicons appear *very* flaky, and since it's such a
visible feature, makes the entire browser feel suspect. I saw someone somewhere
liken the behavior to a bad string of Christmas lights. :)

Comment 1

[Matthew Miller]

Explicit practical impact this has on the UI: Having graphics in the bookmark
menus is more than just 'for pretty'. Having icons there makes it easier to pick
what one wants quickly from a long list -- or even from a well-organized short
list. However, when you can't count on the icon being there, it's worse than
useless, since one's visual perception of the bookmark menu keeps changing
apparently at random.

Comment 2

[Aleksey Nogin]

Do we need yet another tracking bug? Do we really need to track all of the UI
"side effects" of the bad favicon caching? I do not see the point - we should
just track the real caching problems and once they are fixed, the UI effects
will just go away and we would be able to easily mark them fixed based on the
list of bugs that depend on bug 113430.

My intention in turning bug 113430 into a "hub" was to have less favicons
reports, not more (since there are already too many of them all complaining
about very similar things) - those UI bugs only distract from the real problem
of underlying implementation.

Comment 3

[Matthew Miller]

Maybe it would have been better (or still would be better) to create a whole new
"hub" bug rather than turning that one into it -- that bug originated as
addressing the specific issue I summarized above, and then got turned into the a
general there-is-acaching-problem bug. If that bug was getting changed
completely into a caching-problem hub, I didn't want the original issue to get lost.

Comment 4

[Matthew Miller]

Note also that this is different from the other bugs currently marked as blocked
by bug #113430.

Comment 5

[Aleksey Nogin]

Can you be more specific then about the "original problem" you meant? If you are
talking about favicons in personal toolbar and bookmarks menus, then this is
probably a dup of either  bug 116832 or bug 120303 (which should be probably
considered the same bug anyway).

Comment 6

[Matthew Miller]

Yes, that's what I'm talking about, and those both appear to be the same issue.
Techically probably both dupes of the original bug #113430, but I don't really
care about what's a dupe of what as long as it gets better eventually. :)

Comment 7

[Aleksey Nogin]

OK, let it be a dup of bug 120303

*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of 120303 ***