296296 - Print failure for printing frames "As laid out on the screen"--never prints, never leaves Preview mode

Status: RESOLVED EXPIRED

(Core :: Printing: Output, defect)

Description

[Christopher Gorski]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.7.8) Gecko/20050511 Firefox/1.0.4
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.7.8) Gecko/20050511 Firefox/1.0.4

It's an .asp file as written by Microsoft themselves, so goodness knows it's
probably not throwing standards-compliant code at me, but: 

I can't print a page with frames "As laid out on the screen".  Furthermore, if I
try to do this from a Print Preview, Firefox will not return to "normal" (non
Preview) mode.  

Suspect this has to do with some mumbo-jumbo specific to the file rather than
frames in general.

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1.  Go to URL above
2.  Select Print Preview (optional)
3.  Select Print
4.  Select Print frames "As laid out on the screen"
5.  When satisfied this has failed, click Cancel
6.  Try to print the page again
7.  If in Print Preview mode, click Close
8.  If not in Print Preview mode, try to enter Print Preview
Actual Results:  
Tries to print "Page Stats", chokes (status bar has the continuously scrolling
whirligig which does not indicate percentage complete).  When I Cancel, I cannot
print again ("Printer Error: Not Available"). 

If I am in Print Preview mode when I do this, I cannot Cancel the
preview--Firefox apparently remains in preview mode, though I can switch between
the current preview and other tabs.  

When I was not in Print Preview when I did this, I could not enter Print Preview
after the fact. 

Expected Results:  
Should have allowed me to print.  If the print job failed, it should not have
prevented me from trying again.  Whether or not I tried again, I should have
been able to Close the Print Preview.  I should have been able to enter Print
Preview after the fact.

For purposes of a baseline comparison, Microsoft does not offer the choice
between "As laid out..." and "Each frame separately", but printing the page from
Internet Explorer results in one page with frames in the obvious places (and
visible scroll bars on the printout).

If I open a new tab and try to print again, I still cannot print, but I do not
get the "Not Available" error.  

I don't believe this has to do with frames so much as something wacky Microsoft
was doing with their webpage, as I was able to print a comparable sample from
the Jargon File ( http://www.catb.org/~esr/jargon/html/frames.html ) with no
problems. 

My printer is an HP LJ4050 postscript printer that's over the network from my
computer. 

Noticed all this in conjunction with bug #296293.

A friend of mine confirmed similar behavior, also on Windows XP with Firefox
1.0.4.

Comment 1

[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
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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
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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:
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Comment 2

[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.