410201 - JavaScript Debugger (Venkman) shows an internal error dispatching command 'help' on Sunbird

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(Other Applications Graveyard :: Venkman JS Debugger, defect)

Description

[Danilo Fortunato]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; it; rv:1.8.1.11) Gecko/20071127 Firefox/2.0.0.11
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; it; rv:1.8.1.8pre) Gecko/20071023

I installed JavaScript Debugger 0.9.87.2 on Mozilla Sunbird 0.7 (Italian
locale) on Windows XP SP2, using a clean profile.
After running the JavaScript Debugger, when I select the menu option Help > Command Reference, I get the following error messages in the Interactive Session panel:

!! Internal error dispatching command “help”.
!! ReferenceError: getBrowserURL is not defined @ <chrome://venkman/content/venkman-utils.js> 339

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. install JavaScript Debugger extension on Mozilla Sunbird 0.7, using
preferably a new profile
2. run JavaScript Debugger
3. select the menu option Help > Command Reference
Actual Results:  
The Interactive Session panel displays the following error messages:

!! Internal error dispatching command “help”.
!! ReferenceError: getBrowserURL is not defined @ <chrome://venkman/content/venkman-utils.js> 339

Expected Results:  
The Command Reference documentation should be displayed.

This error happens also on Thunderbird 2.0.0.x, while the Command Reference is shown perfectly on Firefox 2.0.0.x (in the browser window).

Comment 1

[:Gijs (he/him)]

Yeah, so this is harder to fix properly than the icon bug. We could, of course, send the URL externally, and assume that the browser will also have venkman installed (in which case this will work fine) - if it doesn't have venkman, though, that won't work, and whatever the case, it will be impossible to properly detect whether you already have a window open with help for some topic, etc. So we should really be opening our own mini window of sorts, with just the help. The problem is that in this case, you lose the navigational tools of a browser, which is kinda annoying.

Comment 2

[Danilo Fortunato]

I understand that this bug is difficult to fix.

In the meantime, it would be useful to describe this work-around in the documentation of Venkman (to display the command reference, you need to install Venkman under Firefox and give the "Help > Command Reference" command within Firefox).

Comment 3

[:Gijs (he/him)]

Attachment: Patch

This is the actual patch. It depends on the patch for bug 397869. I find it very hard to read, so I will attach a diff -w in a bit which I will ask review for instead.

Comment 4

[:Gijs (he/him)]

Attachment: Patch for review

This is the -w patch. Both patches only add a polite error message for non-browser hosts, and remind of the other possibilities to do something (either use the URL with a browser with Venkman installed, or use the /help command with the command you want info about).

Comment 5

[Alex Vincent [:WeirdAl]]

Comment on attachment 297985 [details] [diff] [review]
Patch for review

Looks okay to me.  Where is MSG_HELP_HOSTPROBLEM defined?

Comment 6

[:Gijs (he/him)]

I think you asked this last time I messed with strings, too :P
They're automatically defined by the message-manager code. :-)

Comment 7

[Alex Vincent [:WeirdAl]]

Comment on attachment 297985 [details] [diff] [review]
Patch for review

Someday I'll learn :)

Comment 8

[:Gijs (he/him)]

Checking in mozilla/extensions/venkman/locales/en-US/chrome/venkman.properties;
/cvsroot/mozilla/extensions/venkman/locales/en-US/chrome/venkman.properties,v  <--  venkman.properties
new revision: 1.72; previous revision: 1.71
done
Checking in mozilla/extensions/venkman/resources/content/venkman-commands.js;
/cvsroot/mozilla/extensions/venkman/resources/content/venkman-commands.js,v  <--  venkman-commands.js
new revision: 1.45; previous revision: 1.44
done