216162 - cannot add sidebar after starting Mozilla

Status: RESOLVED EXPIRED

(SeaMonkey :: Sidebar, defect)

Description

[Met - Martin Hassman]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.0; cs-CZ; rv:1.4) Gecko/20030624
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.0; cs-CZ; rv:1.4) Gecko/20030624

When I start Mozilla and try to add some sidebar it fails.
But when I try for the second time all is working correctly and sidebar is added.

This is only in the case, when you star Mozilla with hidden sidebar. When you
open the sidebar, all is correct. 

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Start Mozilla (sidebar is hidden)
2. go at http://devedge.netscape.com/toolbox/sidebars/
3. click on Install the DevEdge Sidebar Tab

Actual Results:  
Nothing happened, in JS-console is error:

Error: [Exception... "Component returned failure code: 0x80004003
(NS_ERROR_INVALID_POINTER) [nsIRDFContainer.Init]"  nsresult: "0x80004003
(NS_ERROR_INVALID_POINTER)"  location: "JS frame :: 

file:///C:/Program%20Files/mozilla.org/Mozilla/components/nsSidebar.js ::
anonymous :: line 138"  data: no]

Source file: file:///C:/Program%20Files/mozilla.org/Mozilla/components/nsSidebar.js
Line: 138

Expected Results:  
Add sidebar.

The problem is with this line:

container.Init(this.datasource, panel_list);

Seems like something is not initialised when the Mozilla is started with hidden
sidebar.

A observe this problem in M1.4 but I can reproduce it also with some older
Mozilla versions.

Comment 1

[Vidar Haarr (not reading bugmail)]

Reporter: please download a recent nightly build and try again.
I get a JS window asking me to open my sidebar before trying to install one, so
this has been 'fixed'. What I'm guessing is that this isn't really supposed to work.

I get the error messages in the JS console, but they can be turned of in
Edit->Preferences->Debug->"Show chrome JavaScript errors and warnings".

Comment 2

[Met - Martin Hassman]

I can report the same results with latest nigthly
Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.0; en-US; rv:1.5b) Gecko/2003081404

>I get a JS window asking me to open my sidebar before trying to install one

Oooh, yes, I see it now. But this is hack of devedge.netscape.com

Look to the source of http://devedge.netscape.com/toolbox/sidebars/

>    // hack: bc 2002-01-04 work around
http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=99808
>    window.onerror = function()
>    {
>      alert('An error has occured during the sidebar installation. Please make
sure your sidebar panel is open and then retry.');
>    };

The question is, if every website which want to add Mozilla sidebar have to
solve this problem or if this could be solved in Mozilla itself.

In the bug #99808 I haven't found anything about opening sidebar before you can
add other.

So I still think this bug could be reopened. Please, reconsider once more.

An quick solution (in same way as is on devedge.netscape.com - i.e. alert
telling user something like 'Try it once more') is simple. I am not Mozilla
hacker, this is only my proposal for quick (but of course not the best) solution.

Comment 3

[Met - Martin Hassman]

Attachment: Alert when failed sidebar adding

Here is my proposal. Display alert to the user when the problem occures.

- Path is only proposal not well formed yet.

Comment 4

[Gervase Markham [:gerv]]

This is an automated message, with ID "auto-resolve01".

This bug has had no comments for a long time. Statistically, we have found that
bug reports that have not been confirmed by a second user after three months are
highly unlikely to be the source of a fix to the code.

While your input is very important to us, our resources are limited and so we
are asking for your help in focussing our efforts. If you can still reproduce
this problem in the latest version of the product (see below for how to obtain a
copy) or, for feature requests, if it's not present in the latest version and
you still believe we should implement it, please visit the URL of this bug
(given at the top of this mail) and add a comment to that effect, giving more
reproduction information if you have it.

If it is not a problem any longer, you need take no action. If this bug is not
changed in any way in the next two weeks, it will be automatically resolved.
Thank you for your help in this matter.

The latest beta releases can be obtained from:
Firefox:     http://www.mozilla.org/projects/firefox/
Thunderbird: http://www.mozilla.org/products/thunderbird/releases/1.5beta1.html
Seamonkey:   http://www.mozilla.org/projects/seamonkey/

Comment 5

[Gervase Markham [:gerv]]

This bug has been automatically resolved after a period of inactivity (see above
comment). If anyone thinks this is incorrect, they should feel free to reopen it.