437791 - Sidebar close button sometimes does not work; "sidebarBroadcaster is null" in the error console

Status: RESOLVED WORKSFORME

(Firefox :: General, defect)

Description

[Kai Liu]

I just bumped into this problem a few minutes ago; I tried to close the bookmarks sidebar with the close button, but it wouldn't close.  I eventually closed it by hitting Ctrl-B.  When I re-opened the sidebar, the problem went away and the close button works as expected.

I'm not sure what I did to trigger the problem, and I haven't been able to reproduce it since, so I have no STR.

Checking the error console, I saw these entries:

--
Warning: Empty string passed to getElementById().

Error: sidebarBroadcaster is null
Source File: chrome://browser/content/browser.js
Line: 4123
--

So it looks like the sidebarcommand attribute of sidebar-box somehow got unset while the sidebar was still open.  I'm not sure how that happened; don't have much time to play around with it right now...

Comment 2

[mws]

This happens to me every now and again.  I can't reproduce it reliably other than to have the sidebar open while browsing around for a while.  I'm on OS X 10.5.

Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; Intel Mac OS X 10.5; en-US; rv:1.9) Gecko/2008061004 Firefox/3.0

Comment 3

[Jez]

Happened to me too, just now, on FF3 final.  Shame we can't reproduce it!

Build ID is: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-GB; rv:1.9) Gecko/2008052906 Firefox/3.0

Comment 4

[Hideo Oshima]

I can also reproduce with recent trunk Linux build.

Steps to reproduce from http://bugzilla.mozilla.gr.jp/show_bug.cgi?id=6246

1. Open Bookmarks sidebar by Ctrl + B
2. Open a page that has never bookmarked
3. Bookmark the page by Bookmarks -> Bookmark this page
4. Click close button on Bookmark siedebar

Don't open Error console until step 4 has been finished.

Comment 5

[d.s.vogt]

I can reproduce with Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.0; en-US; rv:1.9.1b2pre) Gecko/20081119 Minefield/3.1b2pre

Comment 6

[Henrik Skupin [:whimboo][⌚️UTC+1]]

It happened to me too while testing Firefox 3.1 beta3 on XP. The given steps by comment 4 don't work for me. I don't have reliable steps too.

Comment 7

[Henrik Skupin [:whimboo][⌚️UTC+1]]

Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.2a1pre) Gecko/20090522 Minefield/3.6a1pre (.NET CLR 3.5.30729) ID:20090522044436

Today I tried to open the bookmarks properties of a live bookmark but due to network problem the dialog didn't open. Probably we wait for the server response. As result all the menu entries of the context menu for all bookmarks were disabled. At this stage I tried to close the sidebar but still get the error:

Error: sidebarBroadcaster is null
Source File: chrome://browser/content/browser.js
Line: 4240

> if (sidebarBroadcaster.getAttribute("checked") == "true") {

That means we fail here while querying for an element with an id of "".

> if (!commandID)
>   commandID = sidebarBox.getAttribute("sidebarcommand");
>
> var sidebarBroadcaster = document.getElementById(commandID);

Comment 8

[Jez]

(In reply to comment #4)
> I can also reproduce with recent trunk Linux build.
> 
> Steps to reproduce from http://bugzilla.mozilla.gr.jp/show_bug.cgi?id=6246
> 
> 1. Open Bookmarks sidebar by Ctrl + B
> 2. Open a page that has never bookmarked
> 3. Bookmark the page by Bookmarks -> Bookmark this page
> 4. Click close button on Bookmark siedebar
> 
> Don't open Error console until step 4 has been finished.

Just had the problem again in Firefox 3.5.  Looks like this problem isn't fixed.  :-)  The steps I've quoted above seem to reproduce the bug for me.

Comment 9

[Decathlon]

Still a problem with:
Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 5.1; rv:2.0b9pre) Gecko/20110101 Firefox/4.0b9pre

Steps to reproduce in comment #4 don't work for me, but I can't provide different ways to reproduce :( It seems to happen randomly, but quite often, once the bookmarks panel has been opened and some work has been done (opened, deleted urls etc.), maybe a lot of tabs had been opened or they had already opened before?
I can't see messages in the console that seems related to the issue.

Comment 10

[Carlo 'Carcarlo' Carmagnini]

When this bug happens, when I click on the close button, in the error console I have this:
Warning: Empty string passed to getElementById().

Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-GB; rv:1.9.2.13) Gecko/20101203 Firefox/3.6.13

Comment 11

[Decathlon]

OK, I've just reproduce it after cleared all the warnings that FF4b9 normally produce. When I click on the close button I get a warning and an error as reported in comment #0:

  Warning: Empty string passed to getElementById().
  Source File: chrome://browser/content/browser.xul
  Line: 0

  Error: sidebarBroadcaster is null
  Source File: chrome://browser/content/browser.js
  Line: 9864

that would confirm the analysis in comment #7.

Build identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 5.1; rv:2.0b9pre) Gecko/20110102 Firefox/4.0b9pre

To reproduce I've simply opened the bookmarks panel, opened some bookmark, deleted two of them and wait a pair of minutes, all with 71 tabs already opened before.

Comment 12

[Carlo 'Carcarlo' Carmagnini]

The simplest way I could reproduce on both FX 3.6 and Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 5.1; rv:2.0b8) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/4.0b8:

- Open Firefox
- CTRL + B
- click on a bookmarked site
- click on the yellow star and remove the bookmark
- go to another site

Bug: try to close the sidebar, it won't.
Note: I could be wrong (I haven't tested), but I think it happens only the first time (in a session) you open Firefox. If I close FX 3.6 or 4 and then retry, the bug does not appear.

Firefox 4b8 error console says:

Warning: Empty string passed to getElementById().
Error: sidebarBroadcaster is null
Source File: chrome://browser/content/browser.js
Line: 9737

As I always manage bookmarks within the sidebar, I can assure that this bug happens to me every day. When it happens, the only way to close the sidebar is to restart Firefox.

Comment 14

[Carlo 'Carcarlo' Carmagnini]

I can still reproduce on FX 4 RC 2 using the steps on comment #12.
Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 5.1; rv:2.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/4.0

Comment 16

[Carlo 'Carcarlo' Carmagnini]

Still experiencing it on Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 5.1; rv:8.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/8.0

Warning: Empty string passed to getElementById().
Source File: chrome://browser/content/browser.xul
Line: 0
Error: sidebarBroadcaster is null
Source File: chrome://browser/content/browser.js
Line: 10593

Comment 17

[Carlo 'Carcarlo' Carmagnini]

Confirmed on Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 5.1; rv:9.0.1) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/9.0.1

Comment 18

[torquil]

Cannot close the bookmarks sidebar right now, with Firefox 10.0.3 on Linux.

Comment 19

[Carlo 'Carcarlo' Carmagnini]

I confirm the bug can still be reproduced using the steps on comment #12, 100% reproducible after a cold start.
Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 5.1; rv:11.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/11.0

Comment 21

[baffclan]

Cannot reproduce with Nightly and beta on Windows 10.

Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64; rv:53.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/53.0
Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64; rv:51.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/51.0

Comment 22

[BugBot [:suhaib / :marco/ :calixte]]

The severity field for this bug is relatively low, S3. However, the bug has 4 duplicates.
:mossop, could you consider increasing the bug severity?

For more information, please visit auto_nag documentation.

Comment 23

[BugBot (nomail) [:suhaib / :marco/ :calixte]]

The last needinfo from me was triggered in error by recent activity on the bug. I'm clearing the needinfo since this is a very old bug and I don't know if it's still relevant.

Comment 24

[Gregory Pappas [:gregp]]

Unable to reproduce