1293056 - Pandora Streaming Radio site does't work without Flash (but they currently don't support that)

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(Web Compatibility :: Site Reports, defect)

Description

[Andre Vrignaud [:andre] [Seattle - PST]]

Tried to go update my Pandora account at Pandora.com today, received following message on Firefox 48:

In order to use Pandora internet radio, please upgrade to a more current browser
or install a newer version of Flash (v.10 or later). 

Went to Chrome, site loaded immediately. Note that this is on a Macbook with OSX 10.11.6, *without* Flash installed at all. So, Chrome is able to work where Firefox doesn't in a Flash-less environment.

Comment 1

[Masatoshi Kimura [:emk]]

Chrome bundles a Flash Player. Did you disable the bundled player during the test?

Comment 2

[Andre Vrignaud [:andre] [Seattle - PST]]

Ah, I was not aware of that. No, I did not do anything to disable the embedded Flash player. That said, it appears that Flash is moving to click to play next year in both Firefox and Chrome. Perhaps it's worth reaching out to them and helping them move to a non-Flash solution? CCing Benjamin as FYI.

Comment 3

[Andre Vrignaud [:andre] [Seattle - PST]]

Adding Flash click to play announcement: https://blog.mozilla.org/futurereleases/2013/09/24/plugin-activation-in-firefox/

Comment 4

[Benjamin Smedberg]

I can make introductions.

Comment 5

[Mike Taylor [:miketaylr]]

We have a internal mailing list with Pandora now -- but before starting any out-of-the-loop conversations, I know digitarald and cyberdees recently met with Pandora about their HTML5 plans. Dees, what's the most productive way to proceed?

Comment 6

[Desigan Chinniah [:cyberdees] [:dees] [London - GMT]]

(In reply to Mike Taylor [:miketaylr] from comment #5)
> We have a internal mailing list with Pandora now -- but before starting any
> out-of-the-loop conversations, I know digitarald and cyberdees recently met
> with Pandora about their HTML5 plans. Dees, what's the most productive way
> to proceed?

Raising this via the list and referencing this bug is totally a good path. It contains the core engineering folks on their end. 

While I suspect that it has to do with codecs - the list would likely provide the best feedback as to how and/or why this works in a flashless instance of Chrome as opposed to Firefox.

Comment 7

[Mike Taylor [:miketaylr]]

Attachment: Chrome w/o Flash

I've disabled Flash on Chrome and I get a similar message (nothing about an upgrade tho).

Comment 8

[Mike Taylor [:miketaylr]]

(Oh wait, that's not news...according to Comment #2)

Comment 9

[Mike Taylor [:miketaylr]]

Adam, can we ask Pandora what their plans are for a post-Flash world?

Comment 10

[Adam Stevenson [:adamopenweb]]

This came up on the Pandora list back in early August but we didn't update this bug report to reflect. 

Pandora is currently in the middle of other projects, so in the short term they are ensuring Flash remains stable. They mentioned that sometime in the future they will be considering solutions to move beyond Flash, but nothing specific for timelines.

Mike: considering your findings in Comment 7, should we close this report as invalid? I'm not sure it is a web compatibility issue.

Comment 11

[Mike Taylor [:miketaylr]]

> should we close this report as invalid? I'm not sure it is a web compatibility issue.

Nah, I think it's a valid tech evangelism issue (but probably not a valid web compatibility issue?). Let's leave it open.

Comment 12

[Mike Taylor [:miketaylr]]

Re-nomming for platform-rel triage based on information that Pandora has no plans for this now.

Comment 13

[alex_mayorga]

Attachment: Captura de pantalla de 2016-12-28 18-02-53.png

¡Hola!

FWIW, Pandora works sans' Flash on Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64; rv:53.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/53.0 ID:20161228030213 CSet: d7b6af32811bddcec10a47d24bd455a1ec1836fc so there's hope.

¡Gracias!
Alex

Comment 14

[Desigan Chinniah [:cyberdees] [:dees] [London - GMT]]

(In reply to alex_mayorga from comment #13)
> Created attachment 8822290 [details]
> Captura de pantalla de 2016-12-28 18-02-53.png
> 
> ¡Hola!
> 
> FWIW, Pandora works sans' Flash on Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64; rv:53.0)
> Gecko/20100101 Firefox/53.0 ID:20161228030213 CSet:
> d7b6af32811bddcec10a47d24bd455a1ec1836fc so there's hope.
> 
> ¡Gracias!
> Alex

Interesting. On OSX Nightly 53.0a1 I am still prompted to install Flash. 

Can you test on OSX as well as Windows, Alex.

Comment 15

[Andrew Overholt [:overholt]]

Just going to pandora.com I get "In order to use Pandora internet radio, please upgrade to a more current browser
or install a newer version of Flash (v.10 or later)." on Windows 10 with the latest Nightly and no Flash plugin.

Comment 16

[alex_mayorga]

¡Hola Desigan!

As Andrew has stated, it does not work on Win10 Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64; rv:53.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/53.0 ID:20170117030218 CSet: 3e275d37a06236981bff399b7d7aa0646be3fee7.

For the OS X test, you'd need to mail me a MacBook Pro or something ;-)

¡Gracias!
Alex

Comment 17

[Mike Taylor [:miketaylr]]

Attachment: Mac spoofing as Linux, w/o Flash

...whoa. Spoofing as Linux desktop, this WFM w/o flash on my Mac.

Comment 18

[alex_mayorga]

Attachment: bug-1293056-fixed.png

¡Hola!

This works now on Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64; rv:55.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/55.0 ID:20170425030221 CSet: a30dc237c3a600a5231f2974fc2b85dfb5513414

Try rocking some "Antonio Aguilar Radio" at https://www.pandora.com/station/play/3157510469693248531 to celebrate =D

¡Gracias!
Alex