231634 - Proper Flash installed but doesn't work

Status: RESOLVED DUPLICATE of bug 165538

(SeaMonkey :: General, defect)

Description

[RobertJ]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; PPC Mac OS X Mach-O; en-US; rv:1.6) Gecko/20040113
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; PPC Mac OS X Mach-O; en-US; rv:1.6) Gecko/20040113

When going to www.usatoday.com and clicking on the "USA Today Snapshot" in the
lower right of the page, you end up at a page which indicates

"Your browser does not have the current Flash plug-in
CLICK HERE TO INSTALL FLASH"

After clicking and a "successful install", nothing changes.  You get the same
message at USA Today.

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Go to www.usatoday.com
2. Click on "USA Today Snapshot" at lower right of page
3. Page loads with empty area at top with message "Your browser does not have
the current Flash plug-in CLICK HERE TO INSTALL FLASH"
4. Click and get a message of a successful install from
www.macromedia.com/shockwave/download/download.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash
5. Restart the Mozilla and nothing has changed.  Still get the message "Your
browser does not have the current Flash plug-in CLICK HERE TO INSTALL FLASH"

Actual Results:  
Flash player doesn't work

Expected Results:  
Flash animation of some sort

I'm running 10.2.6

Comment 1

[Hermann Schwab]

Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Win98; en-US; rv:1.7a) Gecko/20040120
C:\PROGRAMME\MOZILLA.ORG\TRUNK\plugins\NPSWF32.dll  Shockwave Flash 7.0 r19

Seeing the same on Win98

I scrolled down till I saw Snapshot: Do you read your employment contracts?
clicked, and got to a page telling me I don´t have Flash.
Went back, copied the link, pasted it into a new window, same result:

http://www.usatoday.com/news/snapshot.htm?section=M&label=2004-01-20-contract.jpg


to me it seems like they are using a flash 4 object, and looking for a flash 5
plugin, but flash 6 is outdated, flash 7.0 r19 is up to date.

Seems to be invalid, or Tech Evangelism.


from the source:
<td width="650" valign="top"><!-- EdSysObj ID="flashContainer"
FRAGMENTID="10211481" egiordan -->
<script language="javaScript">
	function writeFlashGallery(){
		var query;
		query = document.location.search;
		//alert(query);
		document.write('<object classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000"
codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=4,0,2,0"
width="650" height="246"><param name=movie
value="http://www.usatoday.com/news/flash.swf'+query+'"><param name=quality
value=high><embed src="http://www.usatoday.com/news/flash.swf'+query+'"
quality=high
pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/shockwave/download/index.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash"
type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="650" height="246"></embed></object>');
	}
	function writePlugin(){
		document.write('<table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"
bgcolor="#000000"><tr><td><a
href="http://www.macromedia.com/shockwave/download/index.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash"
target="_blank"><img
src="http://images.usatoday.com/news/snapshots/_common/_images/altGif.gif"
width="617" height="321" vspace="0" hspace="0" border="0"></a></td></tr></table>');
	}
	if(navigator.hasFlash(5)){writeFlashGallery();}
	else {writePlugin();}
</script><!-- /EdSysObj -->


Links to the JS:
http://js.usatoday.com/_common/_scripts/usat.js
http://js.usatoday.com/_common/_scripts/sniffer.js
http://js.usatoday.com/_common/_scripts/usatinfo.js
http://js.usatoday.com/_common/_scripts/zagAll.js
http://www.usatoday.com/_common/_scripts/clickability-news.js
http://js.usatoday.com/_common/_scripts/caip.js

I´ve got difficulties seeing some of the js files above, maybe Mozilla can´t
read them? I´ll do a download, and look locally.

Comment 2

[Hermann Schwab]

saved page
http://www.usatoday.com/news/snapshot.htm?section=M&label=2004-01-20-contract.jpg
and all js was saved.

Looked at sniffer.js with a hex editor:
sniffer.js is 6547 bytes long and doesn´t contain any control character, no CR,
LF, etc.
As it wasn´t displayed in Mozilla, maybe it is also too long to be processed?

http://js.usatoday.com/_common/_scripts/sniffer.js

Maybe someone understanding more of JS can have a look at it.

Comment 3

[Hermann Schwab]

should have looked at URL before
Bug 165538 usatoday.com - assumes that Mozilla can't handle flash

*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of 165538 ***

Comment 4

[RobertJ]

I used

user_pref("general.useragent.override", "Mozilla/4.0 (Macintosh; U; PPC Mac OS X
Mach-O; Netscape)");

in the user.js file and the usatoday site properly loaded the Flash.

It appears that by inserting "Netscape" in the user agent info the sniffer "came
to the correct conclusion".

It would seem this is not a Mozilla bug; rather a usatoday bug.  I will point
out the issue to them but am not holding my breath.  Getting to the correct
person may be impossible.