Closed Bug 239438 Opened 20 years ago Closed 19 years ago

remove Advanced Javascript pref "Change Images"

Categories

(Firefox :: Settings UI, defect)

x86
Windows 2000
defect
Not set
normal

Tracking

()

RESOLVED FIXED

People

(Reporter: Lil46john, Assigned: bugzilla)

References

()

Details

I was playing with the Nissan site
http://www.nissanusa.com/vehicles/ModelAttributes/0,,20383|31001|,00.html
then I wondered off to a site that took away the status bar, so I went to
advcanced javasript prefs and disabled everything. 
I came back to Nissan and tried to check out stuff, but nothing appeared. I
cleared the cache and all kinds of stuff, but images still wouldn't load.

What is the pref for? How does changing images hurt the user? Disabling it seems
more harmful to me
WFM.  What does disabling "Change Images" do to
http://www.nissanusa.com/vehicles/ModelAttributes/0,,20383|31001|,00.html for you?
if you look under Design or Details and click the link with Change Images
disabled, the image doesn't change
so basically, the pref is preventing javascript from changing images on a page.
 Which is exactly what the pref is supposed to do... whether you in particular
find it useful, its not destructive and doesn't do anything unexpected, unless
you don't know what you're doing, in which case a lot of prefs can cause problems.

If people disable advanced javascript options and then things do weird things
they don't like, hopefully they have the presence of mind to change settings
back.  The only argument for removing this is basically idiot-proofing, which I
don't think we need to do for Firefox.
Status: NEW → RESOLVED
Closed: 20 years ago
Resolution: --- → WONTFIX
This pref should be removed because:

* It doesn't actually prevent sites from creating rollovers.  It only prevents
the most common method from working.

* In addition to stopping (most) rollovers, it also completely breaks several
popular sites.  For example, it breaks maps.google.com
(http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=138699&cid=11613777).  It usually breaks
sites in such a way that it is not obvious that the site is broken because of
this pref.

cf bug 223782.
Status: RESOLVED → REOPENED
Resolution: WONTFIX → ---
A few of the invalid bugs that have been filed due to the existence of this pref:

bug 260248 Can't zoom in or out with Yahoo! Maps
bug 245177 Doesn't show image gallery
bug 209863 In Ebay, nothing happens when I "click on a photo to enlarge" It will
not display the photo to the display photo area usual to the left of the
clickable thumbnails.
bug 199712 Rating star images not displayed on netflix.com
bug 132480 Javascript menu does not display
This pref is gone in Prefwindow V.  It's the only one of the old annoyances
prefs that isn't toggled by "But disable common annoyances".  Thanks Ben.

The backend for this pref should be removed too, to ensure that users who
unchecked the pref Firefox 1.0 aren't stuck with broken websites.  (Precedent:
bug 223782.)
This pref is used for SVG and HTML images, and is observed by all the Mozilla
based apps (Minimo, Seamonkey, Firefox, etc), so to completely remove it, we
would need to ensure that no one has any use for it anymore.

Since the UI for this is gone, this bug's severity is significantly reduced.
WONTFIX?
Marking this fixed, removing the backend is another story altogether, and
outside of the scope of this bug.
Status: REOPENED → RESOLVED
Closed: 20 years ago19 years ago
Resolution: --- → FIXED
Request for reopen.

Google maps and others will not work if this option is enabled. See MozillaZine thread:
http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?p=1947221#1947221
If you want to generically remove all support for this pref, that's a separate bug.  FWIW, I don't see a need for removal, given that people who muck with hidden prefs are generally able to determine what they're changing.
The problem is more that this setting was changed in e.g. 1.0.7 where the interface was still available and now after updating to 1.5 the interface goes away leaving the setting as it was. If you do not know what to search for you're stuck.
This may be a more general problem for handling settings where the interface goes away - for any reason but the function still remains. This is also valid for e.g. xpinstall.enabled . There are lots of complaints about "not installing" but there is not interface for it to change.
If you think its better i can open a new bug to discuss the general handling of options for which the interface is removed.
The problem is, of course, that there is no general solution to these cases.  In many cases, resetting the pref is the best answer, other times its better to leave it alone, and in others we need to reimplement functionality to provide a better experience in the realm that the pref controls.
You're right.
One thing i can think of is putting up a warning that no more supported settings are not in default state and give a link to the Online help or release notes to help them decide what to do with it.
I think i'll leave it here if there are no more comments.
Thanks.
sorry for bugspam, long-overdue mass reassign of ancient QA contact bugs,
filter on "beltznerLovesGoats" to get rid of this mass change
QA Contact: mconnor → preferences
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