239799 - Image files open in browser window even if a viewer is specified

Status: RESOLVED DUPLICATE of bug 58554

(Core Graveyard :: File Handling, defect)

Description

[Jeffrey Hurwit]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.7b) Gecko/20040316
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.7b) Gecko/20040316

In Netscape versions through 4.x, specifying an external image viewer in the
list of helper applications (and associating it with the correct MIME types and
file extensions, of course) would cause Netscape to open images of the specified
types in the viewer under two circumstances: 1) clicking a link that pointed to
an image file, 2) right-clicking an in-line image in a rendered web page and
selecting "View Image" in the context menu. In all versions of Mozilla that I
have used, the helper application entries are ignored, and images are opened in
the browser window.

I saw the file "mimetypes.rdf" mentioned in another bug report in a way that
suggested that this file is where information about helper applications is
stored. I saw no applications listed at all in my copy of this file. In fact,
the only place I could find find my image viewer listed (and I did a text search
in the Mozilla and user profiles folders, and a search through the registry) is
this one line in prefs.js:

user_pref("editor.image_editor", "C:\\Programs\\Graphics\\i_view32.exe");

The Image viewer I'm using is IrfanViuew, available at http://www.irfanview.com/
It is the registered application to open GIF, JPEG, and PNG images, among
others. Additionally, I have unchecked all inage types in
preferences/Advanced/System/ Windows Should Use Mozilla to Open These File Tyes:


Reproducible: Always
Steps to Reproduce:
1. Download and install I-view 3.85 and the plugins package for it from
http://www.irfanview.com/ Open the preferences dialog, choose the Extensions
tab, click the "Images Only" button, then "OK".

2. Open the Mozilla Preferences dialog, uncheck all the image types under
Advanced/System. Then go to Navigator/Helper Applications. If I recall
correctly, it will be necessary to create new entries. Click "New type to create
these three entries: image/jpeg, JPEG Images, jpg; image/gif, GIF Images, gif;
and image/png, PNG images, png. Select "Open it with..." for all three, and
point this dialog to your installed copy of i_view32.exe. Click "OK" to save
changes.

3. Go to any web page that contains images, right-click an image, and select
"view Image" from the context menu. Alternatively, find a link that points to an
image file and click it, or enter the URL of an image file in the location bar.

Actual Results:  
The image opens in the browser window. The image viewer app does NOT open.

Expected Results:  
Well, desired results, anyway: The image opens in my prefered viewer, which also
has many editing capabilities so that I may enlarge small images, lighten dark
ones, etc.

I believe I began using Mozilla 1.3. I've used it on three OS's (Win98, Win2K,
and WinXP), and two hardware platforms (Pent 166MHz MMX, Pent III 650), and this
behavior has been consistent throughout. I have found no setting (including
choice of themes) that makes any difference. Previously I was using Netscape
4.7(9?), and imported the profile (including the working helper app
specifications) into Mozilla. When Mozilla failed to open image files in the
external viewer, I deleted and recreated the helper app entries, to no avail.

Considering that this feature was available in Netscape, I'm considering it to
be a bug rather than a feature request. I'm calling it major, becausde it is an
important feature to me (might be trivial to someone else, YMMV). My current
workaround, which is to save the image file, open it in the viewer, and then
delete the file when finished, is a significant PITA. Thanks for your help

Comment 1

[Christian :Biesinger (don't email me, ping me on IRC)]

*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of 58554 ***