321524 - can't open .asp web pages saved locally from within firefox as complete web pages

Status: RESOLVED INCOMPLETE

(Firefox :: File Handling, defect)

Description

[Peter C. Frank]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.0; en-US; rv:1.8) Gecko/20051111 Firefox/1.5
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.0; en-US; rv:1.8) Gecko/20051111 Firefox/1.5

When saving a web page that's served up by .asp instead of plain old .html as a complete web page (choose "File | Save Page As" and leave the filename alone and choose "Web Page, complete" as the file type), then the page cannot then be opened in Firefox (choosing "File | Open File" from the menu and selecting the page that was saved results in Firefox, after a bit of churning, prompting you to save the page, without displaying it)

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Browse to a web page that uses the evil corporation's Active Server Pages (*.asp) extensions
2. Save the page as a complete web page (choose "File | Save Page" and select "Web Page, complete" as the file type. If you change the filename, do not specify the extension (this is what most people do ... they either save the file using the default filename or they type in a new name but not a filename extension)
3. Close the browser window, or open a new window/tab.
4. Open the file that you just saved, with the .asp extension.

Actual Results:  
Firefox prompts you for a filename to save the file that you're trying to open. Clicking "Cancel" in the save file dialogue box cancels both operations.

Expected Results:  
The file should open in the browser window/tab.

Changing the file extension to .html allows the page to be opened, or renaming the file using an .html extension allows the page to be opened, after it's saved, without firefox prompting to save the file.

I've only encountered this problem on the www.medicare.gov web site (which uses .asp pretty extensively) but then I've only tried to save .asp pages from that site. I'd imagine other sites that use .asp would yield the same results.

This appears to be a bug that's related both to the Download Manager and to the File Handler capabilities of Firefox, but I was unable to select both components. I'm not sure where the bug lies -- perhaps the Download Manager should save all web pages (complete) with a .html extension, or perhaps the file handling should be fixed to prevent this from happening?

Comment 1

[Peter van der Woude [:Peter6]]

Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.0; en-US; rv:1.9a1) Gecko/20051225 Firefox/1.6a1 ID:2005122515

WFM

it saves it to Default.asp.htm , which can be opened by FF

Comment 2

[Peter C. Frank]

OK, it must be fixed in v1.6a; however, in 1.5 (which is the version I'm using and reporting on), it's not working like that. Also, can you OPEN a file that has an .asp extension, or do you have to rename the file to .html? If you have to rename the extension, then the typical mundane computer user (those who are now beginning to switch over from IE) probably will consider it a major problem that they can't open a web page saved with a .asp extension, as they probably won't know that renaming the file with a .html extension will work around this quirk in FF (I don't have much faith in the "average" computer user, I guess....)

Comment 3

[Jo Hermans]

works for me in Firefox 1.5
Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; PPC Mac OS X Mach-O; en-US; rv:1.8) Gecko/20051223 Firefox/1.5

I tried http://www.medicare.gov/pdphome.asp , saving it directly (pdphome.asp.html) or with a modified name (pdphome.asp). Both could be opened, also after changing the name (adding or removing the .html extension).

Note that the page isn't ASP, it's HTML code. Firefox doesn't really care if the filename has a .htm or .html extension, although it would make it easier for Joe Sixpack (because of filtering rules in the open-file-dialogbox).

Comment 4

[Peter C. Frank]

Maybe it's a Windows-specified bug? FWIW I'm running Win2K-SP4. Also, the following extensions are installed:

AutoCopy 0.6
Open Long URL 0.2.2
Image Zoom 0.2.1
Form History Manager 0.5.3
Paste and Go 0.4.3
Bookmark Backup 0.3.1
Gmail Notifier 0.5.3
Save Image in Folder 0.6.4
Copy Plain Text 0.3.2
TinyURL Creator 1.0.1
Allow RIght-Click 0.3
Download Statusbar 0.9.4
Plain Text Links 0.2
Secure Password Generator 0.5.3
Disable Targets for Download 1.0
Tab Mix Plus 0.2.5.2
jsLib 0.1332
Paste Email 2.0
Fasterfox 1.0.1
DictionarySearch 1.5
BugMeNot 0.9

When the filetype is set to "web page, complete", FF isn't tagging on ".html" to the ".asp" extension when saving. 

I just tried the same procedure with http://www.codebeach.com/tutorials/your-first-asp-page.asp and received the same result, so unless there's something in common with the medicare.gov site, it probably isn't a coding error.

Comment 5

[Peter van der Woude [:Peter6]]

start Firefox -safemode and find out if it's an extensionproblem.
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Safe_mode

Comment 6

[Peter C. Frank]

I tried the same procedure as initially outlined using Firefox in safe mode (tried both by launching from a command prompt and by using the "Firefox (safe mode)" icon created in Prog Man by FFinstall) and received the same result; the page was saved using the .asp extension and not .html, and when trying to open any .asp page from disk I was prompted to save the file.

As such, I think it's safe to assume at this point that it isn't a problem with an extension interfering. =(

Comment 7

[Peter C. Frank]

Update: I've had some problems with other pages and web sites that are saved with a .asp extension, and I've just noticed one thing that they all have in common: they all fail w3c validation, and all of the .asp pages that I've been having problems with do NOT have the doctype declaration set (I've notice that the Medicare site I've referenced has changed, and that the site has begun using PHP instead of ASP, but I checked the copy of the page I'd saved locally and the doctype is NOT set).

Perhaps not having the doctype declaration at the beginning of the document is causing a problem with these pages? Of course, then it becomes a problem for the evangelism folk (who may already have contacted Medicare as their site appears to be progressing toward using PHP instead of ASP. Any ideas?

Comment 8

[u88484]

This bug was reported using a version of Firefox that security and stability updates are no longer provided for.  All users are strongly encouraged to upgrade to Firefox 3 by selecting 'Check for Updates' in the Help menu or by going to http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/firefox.html

If you can no longer reproduce this bug using the latest Firefox 3.0.x version, please change the status of this bug to 'RESOLVED' 'WORKSFORME'.

If you can still reproduce this bug, please provide additional details to help resolve this issue.

Comment 9

[Tyler Downer [He/Him]]

No reply, INCO. Please try to reproduce with firefox 3.5.3 or later in a new profile.