234243 - If MIME type is not recognized by Firefox, the "What should Firefox do..." dialog is unusable

Status: NEW

(Firefox :: File Handling, defect)

Description

[Lorin Rivers]

User-Agent:       
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; PPC Mac OS X Mach-O; en-US; rv:1.7a) Gecko/20040213 Firebird/0.8.0+

There's no "application/octet-stream" file type built into Firefix by default.
This causes the "what should I do with this file" dialog with every download of
said file type. This is a real pain on the Mac, as many app downloads are of
this type (for example Mac OS X Disk Image files, with .dmg extension). Since
there's no easy way to ADD new file types, it's a REAL pain.

Reproducible: Always
Steps to Reproduce:
1. Visit a Mac download site
2. Choose a .dmg file to download
3. Watch uneditable "what do I do" dialog appear

Actual Results:  
I finally decided to edit my MimeTypes.rdf file. Ewww.

Expected Results:  
Had support for octet-stream/.dmg files built in

See also my other bug report on this issue. I'll follow up with the big numbers
for both.

Comment 1

[Lorin Rivers]

See also <a href="http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=234245">234245</a>

Comment 2

[Lorin Rivers]

*** Bug 234246 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 3

[Darkside]

(In reply to comment #0)
> This causes the "what should I do with this file" dialog with every download of
> said file type. This is a real pain on the Mac, as many app downloads are of
> this type (for example Mac OS X Disk Image files, with .dmg extension). Since
> there's no easy way to ADD new file types, it's a REAL pain.

I've read the other bug reporting this problem, #234245
(http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=234245) and I agree with Mike
Connor that adding an "Add" option to Preferences > Download > File Types is an
interface kludge.

However, Mike also  said:
"if there are problems with how the existing functionality as designed is
working, then we need to fix those issues, not create UI for workarounds."

From my perspective, the existing interface, the "What should Firefox do with
this file?" dialog is deficient.


Actual Results:
The "What should Firefox do with this file?" dialog will not allow users to add
preference options for .dmg files, forcing the useless and repetitive selection
of "OK" for EVERY .dmg download.

Expected Results:
Users should be able to choose a processing application (e.g., Stuffit Expander
to auto-mount, Disk Utility) with the "Open with" option, and the "Do this
automatically for files like this from now on" checkbox should not be disabled.

Users should be allowed to treat .dmg files just like other "downloadable" file
types.  After adding preferences through the "... do with this file?" dialog,
those preferences can be edited in Preferences > Downloads > File Types with the
"Change Action" button.

In short:
- The "What should Firefox do with this file?" dialog is broken.
-- Users should be allowed to add preferences for .dmg (octet-stream) and other
files (mime types) not already in the Preferences.

- There is no need for an "Add" option in Preferences > Downloads > File Types
-- IFF (if and only if) "What should Firefox do with this file?" is fixed.

Comment 4

[Lorin Rivers]

Should the bug summary be reworded? Also, is the status of this bug still "unconfirmed"?

Comment 5

[Ali Ebrahim]

*** Bug 234247 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 6

[Ali Ebrahim]

*** Bug 235532 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 7

[Ali Ebrahim]

Updating summary.

Comment 8

[Krishna Sethuraman]

I find this particularly annoying because Firefox under MacOSX/10.3.4 always
wants to open pdf files with Acrobat Reader 5.0 -- when I have 6.0 and Preview
(which is the desired application) both installed.  I thought I must have been
looking in the wrong place when I couldn't find a way to add a mime type through
the Preferences pane -- guess I was wrong.

Comment 9

[Ali Ebrahim]

*** Bug 268498 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 10

[Asaf Romano (gone)]

*** Bug 270940 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 12

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

The severity field for this bug is relatively low, S3. However, the bug has 5 duplicates and 14 votes.
:Gijs, could you consider increasing the bug severity?

For more information, please visit auto_nag documentation.

Comment 13

[BugBot (nomail) [:suhaib / :marco/ :calixte]]

The last needinfo from me was triggered in error by recent activity on the bug. I'm clearing the needinfo since this is a very old bug and I don't know if it's still relevant.