1850828 - When link is clicked in an external app, firefox 117 does not open the link if it needs to start

Status: VERIFIED FIXED

(Firefox :: General, defect)

Description

[scottha]

User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10.15; rv:109.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/117.0

Steps to reproduce:

Click on a link in Outlook for Mac, Mac Mail, Word (any external app)

Actual results:

Firefox opens to my home page and does NOT open the link which triggered the Firefox launch

Expected results:

Firefox opens to my home page and also opens the link which triggered the Firefox launch

Comment 1

[BugBot [:suhaib / :marco/ :calixte]]

The Bugbug bot thinks this bug should belong to the 'Core::Widget: Cocoa' component, and is moving the bug to that component. Please correct in case you think the bot is wrong.

Comment 2

[Ardelean Oana, Desktop Test Engineering [:oardelean]]

pushlog: https://hg.mozilla.org/integration/autoland/pushloghtml?fromchange=e4d87ff75575880ea0c0fa09b316e360e4d9492f&tochange=511a6a347d490d95f83e47414d604a17e143c218
good: https://archive.mozilla.org/pub/firefox/nightly/2023/07/2023-07-07-09-28-00-mozilla-central/
bad: https://archive.mozilla.org/pub/firefox/nightly/2023/07/2023-07-07-22-03-36-mozilla-central/

STR used:

1. Get a .dmg Firefox build.
2. Mount dmg.
3. Drag and drop Firefox locally. (e.g Desktop).
4. Launch Firefox and stop updates( or modify channel.prefs).
5. Make Firefox the default browser.
6. Close Firefox.
7. Click on an external link : eg. a hyperlink featured in a slack channel.

Please note that if Firefox is launched using Profile Manager the issue does not reproduce.

Comment 3

[Ryan VanderMeulen [:RyanVM]]

From that range, https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=713713 seems like the most plausible candidate I'm seeing?

Comment 4

[Dão Gottwald [:dao]]

(In reply to Ryan VanderMeulen [:RyanVM] from comment #3)

From that range, https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=713713 seems like the most plausible candidate I'm seeing?

Agreed. Will take a closer look.

Comment 5

[BugBot [:suhaib / :marco/ :calixte]]

Set release status flags based on info from the regressing bug 713713

Comment 6

[Haik Aftandilian [:haik]]

(In reply to Ardelean Oana, Desktop QA from comment #2)

STR used:

1. Get a .dmg Firefox build.
2. Mount dmg.
3. Launch Firefox and stop updates( or modify channel.prefs).
4. Make Firefox the default browser.
5. Close Firefox.
6. Click on an external link : eg. a hyperlink featured in a slack channel.

Please note that if Firefox is launched using Profile Manager the issue does not reproduce.

@Ardelean, are you running Firefox out of the .dmg or copying it to somewhere before launching it?

Comment 7

[Nika Layzell [:nika] (ni? for response)]

I believe the cause of this issue is the same as the issue I describe in bug 1818194 comment 10, due to the symptoms and cause issue matching so closely.

Comment 8

[:Gijs (he/him)]

[Tracking Requested - why for this release]:
Release regression with 117.

Comment 9

[Dão Gottwald [:dao]]

(In reply to Nika Layzell [:nika] (ni? for response) from comment #7)

I believe the cause of this issue is the same as the issue I describe in bug 1818194 comment 10, due to the symptoms and cause issue matching so closely.

Thanks! That makes sense, as I couldn't reproduce this bug via just ./obj-x86_64-pc-linux-gnu/dist/bin/firefox https://example.com
For the purpose of this bug, I guess I'll try your suggestion of using browsing-context-discarded instead of the unload handler in registerOpeningWindow.

Comment 10

[Ardelean Oana, Desktop Test Engineering [:oardelean]]

After mounting, I copied Firefox by dragging it onto Desktop. Sorry for not being more explicit. Updating the steps.

Comment 11

[Dão Gottwald [:dao]]

Attachment: Bug 1850828 - Use browsing-context-discarded instead of unload listener to delete pending windows that close before we track them as open windows. r=nika

Comment 12

[Pulsebot]

Pushed by [e-mail]:
https://hg.mozilla.org/integration/autoland/rev/baae9ed0f676
Use browsing-context-discarded instead of unload listener to delete pending windows that close before we track them as open windows. r=nika

Comment 13

[Cosmin Sabou [:CosminS]]

https://hg.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/rev/baae9ed0f676

Comment 14

[Ryan VanderMeulen [:RyanVM]]

Would be great if we could get some QA testing on this fix now that's available in Nightlies, including the See Also bugs.

Comment 15

[BugBot [:suhaib / :marco/ :calixte]]

The patch landed in nightly and beta is affected.
:dao, is this bug important enough to require an uplift?

• If yes, please nominate the patch for beta approval.
• If no, please set status-firefox118 to wontfix.

For more information, please visit BugBot documentation.

Comment 16

[Dão Gottwald [:dao]]

Comment on attachment 9351603 [details]
Bug 1850828 - Use browsing-context-discarded instead of unload listener to delete pending windows that close before we track them as open windows. r=nika

Beta/Release Uplift Approval Request

• User impact if declined: please see comment 0
• Is this code covered by automated tests?: No
• Has the fix been verified in Nightly?: No
• Needs manual test from QE?: Yes
• If yes, steps to reproduce: please see comment 0
• List of other uplifts needed: none
• Risk to taking this patch: Medium
• Why is the change risky/not risky? (and alternatives if risky): It's a relatively small and contained fix, but going with medium since unfortunately we don't have automated tests for the behavior that broke.
• String changes made/needed: none
• Is Android affected?: No

Comment 17

[Ryan VanderMeulen [:RyanVM]]

Comment on attachment 9351603 [details]
Bug 1850828 - Use browsing-context-discarded instead of unload listener to delete pending windows that close before we track them as open windows. r=nika

Approved for 118.0b6.

Comment 18

[Pulsebot]

https://hg.mozilla.org/releases/mozilla-beta/rev/67e85ac316ef

Comment 19

[Ardelean Oana, Desktop Test Engineering [:oardelean]]

Verified as fixed on Firefox 118.0b6(build ID: 20230907180212) and Nightly 119.0a1(build ID: 20230908094535) on macOS 12.
Hyperlinks opened from a third-party application are now opened properly with Firefox.

Comment 22

[Ryan VanderMeulen [:RyanVM]]

Fixed by backout for 117.0.1.
https://hg.mozilla.org/releases/mozilla-release/rev/1095e192521fc2ae558176d1881a6eee935ccc41

Comment 23

[Ryan VanderMeulen [:RyanVM]]

Comment on attachment 9351603 [details]
Bug 1850828 - Use browsing-context-discarded instead of unload listener to delete pending windows that close before we track them as open windows. r=nika

Unfortunately, backing out the regressing change was causing test failures in browser_search_history.js. I'm going to re-land that and uplift this fix instead.

Comment 24

[Pulsebot]

https://hg.mozilla.org/releases/mozilla-release/rev/45f4f7da3cc3

Comment 25

[Ryan VanderMeulen [:RyanVM]]

Added to the 117.0.1 release notes:

Fixed a bug causing links opened from outside Firefox to not open on macOS

Comment 26

[Ardelean Oana, Desktop Test Engineering [:oardelean]]

Verified as fixed on Firefox 117.0.1(build ID: 20230912013654) on macOS 12.
Hyperlinks from a third-party app, .webloc files and ‘open -a’ commands are successfully opened.