1622046 - Javascript window.open() returns false or null in SSB mode

Status: RESOLVED WONTFIX

(Firefox :: General, defect, P5)

Description

[Scott Abbott]

User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64; rv:68.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/68.0

Steps to reproduce:

1. Created a single site browser for https://www.inoreader.com.
2. Viewed a news article in the SSB and typed "v" to open the article in a new tab/window.

Actual results:

Tab opened successfully and loaded the desired page in a regular Firefox window. SSB page gave the error "Please disable your popup blocker to use this feature!".

The site checks the return value of the window.open(), and a return value of false or null tells it that window.open() was blocked. In fact it was not blocked - the window/tab opened successfully.

Expected results:

Firefox should have returned a value to window.open() to indicate that the action did not fail/get blocked.

Comment 1

[Daniel Bodea [:danibodea]]

Hi Scott. I am attempting to reproduce your issue in order to confirm it, but I am confused by the steps you provided.

Please provide more detailed steps, like these:

1. Open Firefox ESR v68.6.0esr.
2. Load the following website: https://www.inoreader.com/
3. Go to... where? What is SSB?
4. Type "v" when focused on... what?
   Actual results:
   SSB page gave the error "Please disable your popup blocker to use this feature!".
   Expected results:
   SSB page does not show the error "Please disable your popup blocker to use this feature!".

Thank you for your contribution!

Comment 2

[Scott Abbott]

1. Open Firefox 74.0 (64-bit) and go to about:config.
2. Enable Single Site Browser mode by adding browser.ssb.enabled=TRUE to about:config
3. Close Firefox.
4. Open Firefox 74.0 (64-bit) with parameter "-ssb https://www.inoreader.com"
5. Sign in to site (requires creating a free account if you don't have one)
6. Click on any article.
7. Hit the button "v" on your keyboard.

Actual results:
SSB page gave the error "Please disable your popup blocker to use this feature!".

Expected results:
SSB page does not show the error "Please disable your popup blocker to use this feature!".

Note: Inoreader is just an example. Any site that uses window.open() and checks the result will show the problem when in SSB mode. I can create an example HTML page if requested.

Comment 3

[Neil Deakin]

Other ssb bugs are in Firefox -> General

Comment 4

[Daniel Bodea [:danibodea]]

Thank you for the correction! I managed to perform all the steps except for the last one. Hitting the "v" button from the keyboard does not result in any kind of error or action. I tried on both Windows 10 and Ubuntu 18 with Firefox Release v74.0.

Scott, can you attempt reproducing it in a newly created profile, please?
(In a way that the previous actions or user data are irrelevant: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/profile-manager-create-remove-switch-firefox-profiles)

Thank you!

Comment 5

[Scott Abbott]

Ah, I did it with a newly created profile and it turns out the steps on the website are a little more involved, sorry.

1. Open Firefox 74.0 (64-bit) and go to about:config.
2. Enable Single Site Browser mode by adding browser.ssb.enabled=TRUE to about:config
3. Enter Firefox settings and ensure that "Block pop-up windows" is unchecked
4. Close Firefox.
5. Open Firefox 74.0 (64-bit) with parameter "-ssb https://www.inoreader.com"
6. Sign in to site (requires creating a free account if you don't have one)
7. Click on "Discover" button
8. Click on the "Subscribe" button for any news source - it will be added in the left pane under "SUBSCRIPTIONS".
9. Click on the news source name beneath "SUBSCRIPTIONS"
10. Type "3" to switch the view from a bunch of captioned pictures to a three-pane view with a list of articles in the center pane.
11. Click on any article.
12. Hit the button "v" on your keyboard.

Actual results:
Article opens in a new window.
SSB page gave the error "Please disable your popup blocker to use this feature!".

Expected results:
Article opens in a new window.
SSB page does not show the error "Please disable your popup blocker to use this feature!".

Note, the easiest way to reproduce/test would be to add a line of javascript to a web page - but apparently Firefox doesn't let you launch in SSB mode with a file:// or localhost: page, so I can't do that myself.

Comment 6

[Daniel Bodea [:danibodea]]

With the steps provided in the last comment, I have managed to reproduce the issue on Nightly v76.0a1 from 2020-03-23, Beta v75.0b7 and Release v74.0 on Ubuntu 18 and Windows 10. I am assuming ESR channel is out of the question since it does not seem to have this ssb feature implemented.

Comment 7

[Daniel Bodea [:danibodea]]

I am assuming this is the right component based on the bugs found by query of "Javascript window.open()" in bugzilla. If incorrect, please set a more appropriate component. Thanks.

Comment 8

[Olli Pettay [:smaug][[e-mail]]]

But this is about SSB, right?
If so, see https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1622046#c3

Comment 9

[Daniel Bodea [:danibodea]]

Right, sorry, switching back. I just hope the bug doesn't get lost here.

Comment 10

[Olli Pettay [:smaug][[e-mail]]]

Perhaps Mossop knows who deals with SSB issues.
(before this bug I had never heard of SSB before)

Comment 11

[Dave Townsend [:mossop]]

Closing per bug 1682593.