641168 - Impossible to upload docs in Blackboard

Status: RESOLVED WORKSFORME

(Firefox :: General, defect)

Description

[mrvotruba]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (en-US) Firefox/3.6
Build Identifier: Firefox 4 RC 1

When uploading MSWord documents, (DOC) or (DCOX), with Firefox 4 RC 1 (JavaScript enabled) in Blackboard, the uploads are impossible, Blackboard returns the message "select a valid file" each time.

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Log into Blackboard, go to a module that accepts/handles uploads.
2. Click on "Browse", select a file on your HD to upload.
3. Click on "Submit".
Actual Results:  
The Firefox window grays out, the message "select a valid file" appears in the middle.

Expected Results:  
Message "Success" should have appeared confirming that the document was uploaded.

The uploads did work with Firefox 3.6.15 and previous versions, and do work again when I uninstalled Firefox 4 RC 1 and reinstalled Firefox 3.6.15.

Comment 1

[(mostly gone) XtC4UaLL [:xtc4uall]]

Any relevant Error Console Output?
Does spoofing the User Agent help?

Comment 2

[Matthias Versen [:Matti]]

>1. Log into Blackboard, go to a module that accepts/handles uploads.
a public URL or testcase is needed

Comment 3

[mrvotruba]

Many if not all US schools require their students to use Blackboard for classes, there is no public URL, the schools provide their students with accounts to which they need to log in.  I had to uninstall Firefox 4 RC 1 because of the problem, and return to Firefox 3.6.15, which has worked fine with Blackboard, as did previous versions, and is working fine now.  Would hate not to be able to upgrade to 4 (or use IE which also has no problems with Blackboard) if the problem remains.

Comment 4

[Matthias Versen [:Matti]]

This is most likely a bug in Blackboard.
Reason for my conclusion: They had the same problem in the past due to the fact that Gecko doesn't send the file path (bug 460519) for uploaded files. That it works in 3.6.15 means that they fixed their software and most likely used Browser User Agent sniffing.
This sniffing now fails because of the changed UA in Firefox4.

spoofing the FF4 UA to a FF3 UA should help in that case (as XtC4UaLL already suggested) but the bug itself in the blackboard software.

Comment 5

[Tim (fmdeveloper)]

Reporter -> Are you still experiencing this issue with the latest version of Firefox 5?

Comment 6

[mrvotruba]

Thanks for remembering this, Tim. I checked and it's now working with Firefox 5.