341448 - Plugin finder "manual install" is confusing for users

Status: RESOLVED WONTFIX

(Toolkit Graveyard :: Plugin Finder Service, defect)

Description

[David Jameson]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.0; en-US; rv:1.7.11) Gecko/20050728
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686 (x86_64); en-US; rv:1.8.0.4) Gecko/20060508 Firefox/1.5.0.4

When installing a plugin on Firefox that isn't listed on addons.mozilla.org, it always says "no suitable plugin could be found" and you need to click on "manual install" to actually install the plugin. This is very confusing and unintuitive for users, who think that the plugin installation has failed.

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. go to www.groupworld.net/demos.html
2. click "install plugin"

Actual Results:  
It says "no suitable plugin could be found" and the user has to click on "manual plugin".

Expected Results:  
It should just go to the pluginspage specified in the html page (which is what Mozilla does).

Comment 1

[Doron Rosenberg (IBM)]

9x.x% of requests are for flash.

The answer is, current concept or always open the pluginspage (given there is one).  Since almost all requests are solved for the user easily (using the wizard), I see no reason to change it.  Not finding a plugin and suddenly opening a new window would confuse users more than pressing a button.

Comment 2

[David Jameson]

The point is: the plugin can be found - the pluginspage is specified in the html code, and if you click manual plugin it goes right ahead and installs it. Therefore "no suitable plugin can be found" is an incorrect message and should be changed because it really confuses users.

Comment 3

[David Jameson]

I'm reopening this bug, as there is definitely an issue here. I've noticed the same bug logged previously (312465, 263335), and each time the response has been something along the lines of "it's a PFS issue" or "that's how it works".

It appears that if the plugin isn't flash/java/quicktime/realplayer (i.e. listed on addons.mozilla.org) then the plugin finder always brings up the "manual install" button with a message "no suitable plugin could be found". This really isn't helpful because most users think that the plugin installation has failed. It shouldn't bring up this message if the pluginspage is correctly given in the web page. Mozilla works the way I would expect - it just downloads the plugin if it is defined in the pluginspage. There is no security issue - the user already has to click Install to actually install the plugin, and in firefox the user has to add the site to the allowed installation sites list. This just seems to be an attempt by firefox to prevent developers developing their own plugins. If that is the case then we will just advise our users not to use firefox.

Comment 4

[Justin Dolske [:Dolske]]

Bug 836415 has now removed the Plugin Finder Service (PFS) from Firefox. As a result, I'm closing all the remaining PFS bugs.

If you're getting this bugmail for an ancient PFS bug, the basic summary of the world today is:

* NPAPI plugins are a dying technology
* PFS was already restricted to assisting with only the 4 most common plugins
* Sites commonly provide their own UI for install a required plugin
* Mozilla is generally focusing on  improving the web platform so that proprietary plugins are not required.

(Note that "plugins" are a completely separate from "browser extensions", such at those found on addons.mozilla.org. The latter are not going anywhere, and are not impacted by the removal of PFS.)