407134 - [AxPlugin] ActiveX Plugin is non-functional when compiled with Firefox 3.0 Beta 1

Status: RESOLVED INCOMPLETE

(Firefox :: General, defect)

Description

[Daniel Keller]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows 98; {B52E04BC-5E56-4A08-A839-75A1149366E0}; .NET CLR 1.0.3705; .NET CLR 1.1.4322)
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.2; en-US; rv:1.9b1) Gecko/2007113015 Firefox/3.0b1

Adam Lock's ActiveX Plugin (npmozax.dll), when built with Firefox 3.0 Beta 1, does not function when you try to use it to host ActiveX controls in web pages that are viewed in Firefox 3.0 Beta 1.

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1.Use Firefox 3.0b1 to install the attached XPI file, which contains the ActiveX plugin compiled from Firefox 3.0b1 source code.
2.Once the XPI file has finished installing, you must restart Firefox for the installation to complete.
3. This version of the plugin has a modified "activex.js" preferences file to allow it to host Microsoft Agent 2.0 ActiveX controls in addition to the Windows Media Player ActiveX Control that it can normally host.  The activex.js file is NOT version specific, and the fact that it is modified to allow the hosting of additional ActiveX controls should not have any relation to this bug.  To see if the ActiveX plugin is functioning, visit the special plugin test page that I constructed at http://www.hoagiebot.furtopia.org/foxeenet/goodies/foxeejavascripttest.html
Actual Results:  
When you visit the webpage http://www.hoagiebot.furtopia.org/foxeenet/goodies/foxeejavascripttest.html with the ActiveX plugin installed in Firefox 3.0b1 you will see the following text in bright red at the bottom of the page:

"The Foxee™ Microsoft Agent Character could not load!
Reason: TypeError: document.AgentControl.Characters has no properties
Please install the correct plug-in for your browser or make sure that your browser is Microsoft Agent compatible."

You will not be prompted to download any ActiveX controls like you are supposed to be, and the "Foxee" Microsoft Agent Character (which is an ActiveX control) will not appear on your computer screen.

This usually only happens in Firefox when you don't have the ActiveX plugin installed, however in this case it indicates that the ActiveX plugin is non-fuctional.

Expected Results:  
If you visit the webpage http://www.hoagiebot.furtopia.org/foxeenet/goodies/foxeejavascripttest.html with the ActiveX plugin installed in Firefox 3.0b1, you should see the following text in white on the bottom of the page: "Foxee has loaded sucessfully!"  In addition, you should be prompted to download three ActiveX controls (the Microsoft Agent 2.0 Server control, the Microsoft SAPI 4.0a control, and the L&H 3000 British English Text-to-Speech Engine control) as needed if your system doesn't already have them installed.  If you have all three ActiveX controls already installed or if you install them you should then see a little cartoon arctic blue fox appear on your screen, talk to you through your computer's speakers, and react to you when you click on her with the mouse.  The character will disapear when you leave the webpage or close the browser.

To explain this in more detail, Adam Lock's ActiveX plugin has always been very Firefox version specific since it has a lot of Firefox core dependences.  For example, if you wanted to use the ActiveX plugin with Firefox 2.0.0.x, you would have to build the plugin when you build Firefox 2.0.0.x by specifying the build configuration option "--enable-activex" in the .mozconfig file at compile time.  This would then produce the following files in your mozilla build directory:

mozilla\obj-i686-pc-mingw32\embedding\browser\activex\src\plugin\npmozax.dll
mozilla\obj-i686-pc-mingw32\embedding\browser\activex\src\plugin\_xpidlgen\nsIMozAxPlugin.xpt

These two files, when combined with some additional Javascript files from the "mozilla\embedding\browser\activex\src\plugin\" directory and the files msvcp60.dll and msvcrt.dll, can be added to an XPI file to install the plugin.  Please see Adam Lock's website at http://www.iol.ie/~locka/mozilla/plugin.htm for more details about what files are included in the plugin's XPI file and what they all do.

I have produced working builds of Adam Lock's ActiveX plugin many times before, including building the plugin for Firefox 2.0.0.7, 2.0.0.8, 2.0.0.9, 2.0.0.10, and 2.0.0.11 without a hitch.  When I built the plugin with Firefox 3.0b1 however, it did not work when I tried to use it to host an ActiveX control from a webpage in Firefox 3.0b1.  My speculation as to why the plugin no longer works when built with Firefox 3.0b1 is that the extensive changes made to the files in the Firefox/ Gecko core for Firefox 3 may have changed one of the files that the plugin was dependent on, breaking the plugin.  The plugin works great when built with 1.0x, 1.5.x, and 2.0.0.x versions of Firefox, so something must have changed between version 2.0.0.11 and 3.0b1 to cause the plugin to break.

Comment 1

[Daniel Keller]

Since my pre-compiled XPI file for the Firefox 3.0b1 version of the ActiveX plugin was too large in size to attach, I have placed it on the web for you to download and experiment with.  You can find it here: http://www.hoagiebot.furtopia.org/foxeenet/goodies/browserplugins/activexpluginff30b1/mozactivex-ff-30b1-msagent.xpi

Comment 2

[orip]

There's a plugin for hosting ActiveX in Firefox 3.0:
http://code.google.com/p/ff-activex-host/

Comment 3

[Tyler Downer [He/Him]]

Does this still happen in firefox 3.6.6 or later in a fresh profile?

Comment 4

[Tyler Downer [He/Him]]

No reply, INCOMPLETE. Please retest with Firefox 3.6.8 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.