388298 - page info does not list all embedded objects

Status: RESOLVED INCOMPLETE

(Firefox :: Page Info Window, defect)

Description

[Nathan Fisher]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; Intel Mac OS X; en-US; rv:1.8.1.3) Gecko/20070309 Firefox/2.0.0.3
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; Intel Mac OS X; en-US; rv:1.8.1.3) Gecko/20070309 Firefox/2.0.0.3

the "spamdunk" vertical banner on the right does not show up in page info as a rendered object.  All shockwave objects should show up in the page info window.  Also, it is not possible to click on the Type column header to sort page objects by type, which would make finding embedded objects on large pages much easier.  Moreso, you cannot Copy the addresses of links when you select them, making it tedious to add them to banner spam filters.  I use this feature in firefox to identify where shockwave flash ads are being loaded from and HOSTing them out, but lately firefox has become very unreliable for this purpose, and there are no other web browsers that have a window anywhere near as complete as firefox's Page Info window.  Page Info needs a lot of work.

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
load the page.  You will get several shockwave banners.  adsfac.net and inl-images.adbureau will show up in the page info window as embedded objects.  HOST them out and reload the page.  Some banners will have been collapsed out, but there will still be a couple embedded shockwave objects rendering.  They will not be shown in the page info window.  The objects you hosted out will show up in the preview area as broken links which is correct.
Actual Results:  
I tried to find where it's being loaded but I don't know javascript too well and the best I could do is to narrow it down to this line, most likely:
<script type="text/javascript" language="javascript">AAMB3();</script>
I can find no reference to AAMB3 anywhere on this page, I assume it's a function being dynamically loaded and there's just no way for me to snag the source URL with firefox in its present state.  A lot of the time these ad urls are generated dynamically from a random rollup script (tho most of the time the script is in the page, which is not the case here?) so we really need the page info window to work properly to find out where it's pulling them from.

Expected Results:  
all embedded objects should show up in the page info window, regardless of how they are loaded.  anything ff renders or causes to be rendered should be in that window.  It would be a nice addition to add coordinates in the window to show the upper left point of where on the page the object is rendered.  Safari does this but does not tell you WHAT it renders, which makes it totally pointless.  This would make it much easier to identify what entry is responsible for a certain render.  (if the page has 30 embedded objects spread all over it, it would be a guessing game currently to figure out which one was being drawn where)

for hosting out sites on macintosh I change the lookupd search order to pull from netinfo before pulling from dns, clear the netinfo cache, and then add a machines entry to point the offending url to localhost.  When it tries to load the ad, it does a dns lookup and returns localhost since it's in machines and machines is now searched first, and the browser collapses out the ad.

Comment 1

[Florian Quèze [:florian]]

(In reply to comment #0)

> the "spamdunk" vertical banner on the right does not show up in page info as a
> rendered object.
Are you sure that it is not an animated GIF image? Can you open the context menu on this object and select "Properties" to check this?

>  Also, it is not possible to click on the Type column header to sort page
> objects by type
bug 275223

> you cannot Copy the addresses of links when you select them
Maybe bug 378082

> I use this feature in
> firefox to identify where shockwave flash ads are being loaded from and 
> HOSTing them out

To find where adds are loaded from, I use the View Dependencies add-on:
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/2214
 
> It would be a nice addition to add coordinates in the window to
> show the upper left point of where on the page the object is rendered.
Seems like a valid enhancement request, I'm not sure many people would think this is useful though.

Comment 2

[Tyler Downer [He/Him]]

This bug was reported using Firefox 3.0 or older, which is no longer supported. The bug has also not been changed in over 500 days and is still in UNCO.
Reporter, please retest this bug in Firefox 3.6.10 or later using a fresh profile, http://support.mozilla.com/en-US/kb/managing+profiles. If you still see this problem, please update the bug. If you no longer see the bug, please set the resolution to RESOLVED, WORKSFORME.

This is a mass search of unconfirmed bugs that have no activity on them, so if you feel a bug was marked in error, just remove the CLOSEME comment in the whiteboard within the next month.

Comment 3

[Tyler Downer [He/Him]]

No reply, INCOMPLETE. Please retest with Firefox 3.6.12 or later and a new profile (http://support.mozilla.com/kb/Managing+profiles). If you continue to see this issue with the newest firefox and a new profile, then please comment on this bug.