1907269 - Open tel: link with target=_blank doesn't trigger the default action

Status: VERIFIED FIXED

(Firefox :: File Handling, defect)

Description

[simube]

User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10.15; rv:128.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/128.0

Steps to reproduce:

I have a link:
<a href="tel:[phone]" target="_blank">call me</a>

When I click the link, it does not trigger the action set under settings/applications neither it asks for how to open the tel-link.

When I remove the target or set it to "_self", the link works:
<a href="tel:[phone]">call me</a>

Actual results:

It opened a new blank page with tel:[phone] in the url-field.

Expected results:

My default application for tel-links should open

Comment 1

[:Gijs (he/him)]

Ugh, that is not good. Thanks for the report and the clear description of exactly what is wrong. I'm trying to track down when this broke.

Comment 2

[:Gijs (he/him)]

Nightly pushlog: https://hg.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/pushloghtml?fromchange=0f95114c03f23ae7871150fd4ad6cf69c07be551&tochange=0145baa9151f309dfdb4505d7f72f5244f0e569d

Comment 3

[:Gijs (he/him)]

Trivial testcase: https://jsbin.com/gigujejuqi/edit?html,output

https://hg.mozilla.org/integration/autoland/pushloghtml?fromchange=b0e051062dfb4131e037e1c034353df66cb3d607&tochange=26eacc2fbe94577cb5c89b11e24f31b3ad69c549 says this was caused by bug 1681457. Nika, can you take a look?

Comment 5

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

Attachment: Bug 1907269 - Part 1: Allow pop-up windows to load external URIs for first load, r=gijs!

Previously this load would be allowed due to the "web-controlled" check
failing to reject the load. This patch instead bases it on the
docshell.newWindowTarget flag, which is set for the first load in a new
DocShell due to a call to window.open or target=_blank.

This required making the external protocol channel be a property bag so
that the flag can be set on the channel. In the future we may want to
switch this flag to being set in a more generic way which is less
specific to the channel.

Comment 6

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

In that patch I refined a specific check (https://searchfox.org/mozilla-central/rev/de46cd99a7d1634058b511a3f546a970763e5048/uriloader/exthandler/nsExternalHelperAppService.cpp#1103-1109). This check was added in bug 1606797 and stated that it was only intended to allow loads in non-web-controlled about:blank documents even if they otherwise wouldn't be allowed.

I think this exemption was probably actually to allow this specific case, but I was confused by the comment. I'll propose an alternative check which we could do here which might be better in this situation.

Comment 9

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

Attachment: Bug 1907269 - Part 2: Test that external URIs load in noopener pop-ups, r=smaug!

Depends on D217484

Comment 10

[Pulsebot]

Pushed by [e-mail]:
https://hg.mozilla.org/integration/autoland/rev/218c98804a83
Part 1: Allow pop-up windows to load external URIs for first load, r=Gijs
https://hg.mozilla.org/integration/autoland/rev/3270496f12d8
Part 2: Test that external URIs load in noopener pop-ups, r=smaug

Comment 11

[Sandor Molnar[:smolnar]]

Backed out for causing bc failures @ browser_ftp_protocol_handlers.js

Backout link: https://hg.mozilla.org/integration/autoland/rev/a1eb3e579eef5f333b4e00bb76a664966b5b9b19

Push with failures

Failure log -> TEST-UNEXPECTED-FAIL | uriloader/exthandler/tests/mochitest/browser_ftp_protocol_handlers.js | Test timed out

Comment 12

[Pulsebot]

Pushed by [e-mail]:
https://hg.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/rev/a2787722d6b7
Part 1: Allow pop-up windows to load external URIs for first load, r=Gijs
https://hg.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/rev/a9ebaddfe50c
Part 2: Test that external URIs load in noopener pop-ups, r=smaug

Comment 13

[Sandor Molnar[:smolnar]]

https://hg.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/rev/a2787722d6b7
https://hg.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/rev/a9ebaddfe50c

Comment 14

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

Comment on attachment 9414454 [details]
Bug 1907269 - Part 1: Allow pop-up windows to load external URIs for first load, r=gijs!

ESR Uplift Approval Request

• If this is not a sec:{high,crit} bug, please state case for ESR consideration: Potential site breakage
• User impact if declined: Clicking on some links which should open external URIs (e.g. zoom:// or tel:) will not work as expected
• Fix Landed on Version: 130
• Risk to taking this patch: Low
• Why is the change risky/not risky? (and alternatives if risky): In the current version of the patch, this is a strict relaxing of the rules around opening external protocol handlers relative to what is currently landed in 128, so should not lead to any new breakage due to some external URIs not being allowed to load.

Comment 15

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

Comment on attachment 9416670 [details]
Bug 1907269 - Part 2: Test that external URIs load in noopener pop-ups, r=smaug!

ESR Uplift Approval Request

• If this is not a sec:{high,crit} bug, please state case for ESR consideration: See part 1
• User impact if declined: See part 1
• Fix Landed on Version: 130
• Risk to taking this patch: Low
• Why is the change risky/not risky? (and alternatives if risky): See part 1

Comment 16

[Pascal Chevrel:pascalc]

Comment on attachment 9414454 [details]
Bug 1907269 - Part 1: Allow pop-up windows to load external URIs for first load, r=gijs!

Approved for esr 128.2.0, thanks.

Comment 17

[Pulsebot]

https://hg.mozilla.org/releases/mozilla-esr128/rev/cedfa3c0051a
https://hg.mozilla.org/releases/mozilla-esr128/rev/9b2d619c3119

Comment 18

[Monica Chiorean]

I was able to reproduce it on Win11x64 using FF build 128.0.2 and Trivial testcase, verified as fixed on Win11x64/Mac 12.6 using FF builds 130.0b1 and 131.0a1.

Comment 21

[Bogdan Maris, Desktop Test Engineering [OOO until 14th April]]]

(In reply to Monica Chiorean from comment #18)

I was able to reproduce it on Win11x64 using FF build 128.0.2 and Trivial testcase, verified as fixed on Win11x64/Mac 12.6 using FF builds 130.0b1 and 131.0a1.

Also verified that using Firefox 128.2.0esr this is fixed on Windows 11, macOS 13.6 and Ubuntu 22.04, the Application prompt is displayed and if a default app is added the app is opened.