160264 - Status bar text does not change even when "Allow scripts to: Change status bar text" is checked in Preferences

Status: RESOLVED WORKSFORME

(Core :: Security: CAPS, defect)

Description

[Colin S]

User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.0; en-US; rv:1.1b) Gecko/20020729
BuildID: 20020729 [2002072918]

On the examples for window.status at
http://hotwired.lycos.com/webmonkey/96/40/index3a.html?tw=programming, the
window status bar should change when "Change status bar text" is checked in
Preferences under the "Allow scripts to:" in the Advanced > Scripts & Plugins
window. However, the status bar text does not change. It is not the code on the
page that is incorrect, as my own code does not change the status bar text,
either, and both pieces of code have been tried and tested. The JavaScript
debugger does not give any errors, either.

Reproducible: Always
Steps to Reproduce:
1. Enable "Change status bar text" under "Allow scripts to:" in the "Scripts &
Plugins" section of the "Advanced" Preferences.
2. Go to above site.
3. Roll over any of the example links.

Actual Results: Status bar text was javascript:void(0) (the A HREF link).
Expected Results: Status bar should have changed to read what was specified by
window.status. (eg. the first example link should read "Clinton Wins in
Landslide - Dole Dejected".)

window.status does not work at any time. This has been reproduced through:
A) External scripts
B) window.status directly in <a onmouseover=""> code
C) Internal scripts (in a <script></script> area in the header)

This should be an EXTREMELY simple thing to fix. Try to get this fixed this
week! (Simple bugs should not take a long time to fix.)

Comment 1

[Boris Zbarsky [:bzbarsky]]

The links on that page change status bar text fine over here... (linux build
2002-07-30-08).  Are there any errors in the JS console as you try to set
window.status?

Comment 2

[Daniel Wang]

I've had similar problem. The js console shows
  Error: uncaught exception: Permission denied to set property Window.status

however, I don't have this problem when I switch to a brand new
profile I created

Comment 3

[Boris Zbarsky [:bzbarsky]]

If you're seeing that error, you have a stale pref left over from pre-1.0 days.
 Open up prefs.js and delete the

capability.policy.default.Window.status

preference...

Comment 4

[Phil Schwartau]

Corrupt profile; not a JS Engine bug. Reassigning to Prefs component,
although this can be fixed as Boris outlined above. You probably have
a line in your "prefs.js" file looking like this:

  user_pref("capability.policy.default.Window.status", "noAccess");


I think you can either change this to "allAccess", or you can simply
delete the line as Boris suggested.


Or: you can do what Daniel has done in Comment #2: create a 
brand-new Mozilla profile. You can force the Profile Manager
to come up (if it doesn't automatically) by launching Mozilla
from a console window like this:

    [(path to Mozilla)] ./mozilla -profilemanager


Once it comes up, choose "Create New Profile" and that should
correct the problem, too - 

Comment 5

[Colin S]

capability.policy.default.Window.status keeps getting re-added to my prefs.js.
I've tried deleting it, I've tried changing it to allAccess, and it always
reverts to user_pref("capability.policy.default.Window.status", "noAccess");

Comment 6

[Boris Zbarsky [:bzbarsky]]

Then it's in your user.js file.

Comment 7

[Colin S]

I can't find any user.js file on my computer.

Comment 8

[Boris Zbarsky [:bzbarsky]]

Hmm.. wait.  Are you quitting mozilla before editing prefs.js?  I mean quitting
completely (and shutting down quicklaunch if you use it).  That needs to be done
for changes to prefs.js to stick.

Comment 9

[Colin S]

Ah. Excellent. I was doing it and THEN restarting my browser.

Something should be done to make sure these settings get fixed.

Comment 10

[Michael Lefevre]

as far as I can see from previous comments, there isn't a bug here, so resolving
WFM.

if I've misunderstood and there is still a problem, please reopen this bug. thanks.