639426 - Outlook Web Access (OWA) 2010 sniffs for "Firefox/", not "Gecko"

Status: RESOLVED WORKSFORME

(Web Compatibility :: Site Reports, defect)

Description

[Dan Mellem]

Microsoft's Exchange 2010 now supports the "full" version of OWA on Firefox. However, it doesn't work on SeaMonkey simply because the login Javascript is explicitly looking for "Firefox/" in the User-Agent. It would be great if Microsoft supported all Gecko-based browsers instead of just Firefox.

There are two workarounds:
1. Change "general.useragent.extra.seamonkey" in about:config to include "Firefox" (e.g., "SeaMonkey/2.0.11 Firefox/3.9"), or
2. Change the offending Javascript in OWA.

For the latter, the script to change is /owa/14.1.218.13/scripts/premium/flogon.js. Three things need to be changed (javascript quoted in square brackets):

1. Delete [b.indexOf("Firefox/")!=-1&&"]
2. Replace [Firefox\/]with [ rv:] (note leading space)
3. Replace "3" in [if(d)return a>=3;] with 1.9 (two places; second one esp.)

Note also that I have seen an incompatibility with NewsFox and attaching a message in OWA. Disabling and re-enabling NewsFox seemed to fix it.

Thanks.

Comment 1

[Dan Mellem]

Oops, an extra quote mark ended up in the replacements. It should be:

1. Delete [b.indexOf("Firefox/")!=-1&&]
2. Replace [Firefox\/]with [ rv:] (note leading space)
3. Replace "3" in [if(d)return a>=3] with 1.9 (two places; second one esp.)

Comment 2

[Dan Mellem]

Actually is DOES sniff for Gecko, but it also sniffs for Firefox and uses it for the version number. My workaround searches just for Gecko and uses the "rv:" tag for the version.

Comment 3

[Chris Lawson (gone)]

My point being that there's no reason OWA should be searching for "Firefox" at all; identical Gecko versions all support the same features. See http://geckoisgecko.org/ for more.

Comment 4

[Dan Mellem]

I found out two things with playing with this. First, there are other versions you may need to update, such as in the 14.1.270.1 folder. Second, some of the assemblies and handlers also sniff the browser and it still forces you to the light client during login. However, once you've logged in, the UA doesn't matter.

Comment 5

[Karl Dubost💡 :karlcow]

Is it still an issue with recent Exchange servers?

Comment 6

[Karl Dubost💡 :karlcow]

This is not the case anymore.
Seamonkey has changed its use agent to sport Firefox keyword.

Comment 7

[Dan Mellem]

It is still the case in that OWA 2010 incorrectly sniffs for Firefox instead of Gecko, but it's EOL, so it doesn't really matter much any longer. I haven't checked later versions of Exchange.