665089 - Java applet error unless cookies are accepted for all sites.

Status: VERIFIED WONTFIX

(Camino Graveyard :: General, defect)

Description

[Whaz]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; Intel Mac OS X 10.6; en; rv:1.9.2.19pre) Gecko/20110617 Camino/2.1a2pre (like Firefox/3.6.19pre)
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; Intel Mac OS X 10.6; en; rv:1.9.2.19pre) Gecko/20110617 Camino/2.1a2pre (like Firefox/3.6.19pre)

Our company has a Java applet that provides a front-end to run SQL queries against Oracle.  This applet will fail with an "Error parsing DB option list" message unless the cookie preference setting is set to "Accept cookies from any site".  Firefox 4.0.1 allows the applet to load with the "Accept cookies only from sites I visit" setting.

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Load web page that loads the Java applet.
2. Enter login information.
3. Applet attempts to draw initial screen.

Actual Results:  
The applet produces an error box with the "Error parsing DB option list" message.  This message must be clicked twice.

Expected Results:  
Expected the applet to load where you define a SQL query.

This was not an issue with prior versions of Camino (pre 2.0.7) and Firefox works without this error.  This may be related to Apple recent upgrade to the OS Java engine.

Comment 1

[Whaz]

Problem exists in Camino 2.0.7 and 2.1a2pre

Comment 2

[Smokey Ardisson (offline for a while; not following bugs - do not email)]

Gecko 2 both switched to a new Java plug-in and changed how "Accept cookies only from sites I visit" works (to a more Safari-like definition, therefore allowing more third-party sites to set cookies), so Firefox 4.x isn't a useful comparison.  If the same problem exists in Firefox 3.6.17, there's really nothing we can do about it.

(However, even then, you might be able to choose the looser cookie setting, figure out which site needs to set cookies, and then set an exception for that site and go back to "Accept cookies only from sites I visit".)

But Camino 2.0.6 works fine?  That's odd, since 2.0.7 is 2.0.6 + one unrelated-to-cookies-or-Java security fix.

Comment 3

[Whaz]

I was not able to find a Firefox version earlier than the current release so I wasn't able to test with 3.6.17.  Likewise, the download links to prior Camino versions are also broken so I was not able to confirm the 2.0.6 behavior.

I did tweak the Camino cookie settings as suggested by Smokey above with the following:
1.  Set to cookie setting in preferences to "Accept cookies from any site.
2.  Checked the "Ask me before accepting each cookie".
3.  Went to the troubled URL where I was prompted to accept the cookie just before the Java login.  This enters the website into the exceptions list.
4.  URL loads as expected.
5.  Logged out of website.
6.  Went back to preferences to reset cookie setting to "Accept cookies only from sites I visit".
7.  Unchecked "Ask me before accepting each cookie" option.
8.  Clicked the "Edit Exceptions List" button and chose to expand the cookie to the entire companyname.com domain.
9.  Quit Camino (probably not needed) and went back to the troubled URL where it loaded as expected.  Success!!!

This process suggested by Smokey allows the Java to execute as expected while still having the more restrictive cookie settings.  This would be a simpler process if Camino allowed cookie exceptions to be added manually, but this workaround does work.

Thanks.

Comment 4

[Smokey Ardisson (offline for a while; not following bugs - do not email)]

(In reply to comment #3)
> I was not able to find a Firefox version earlier than the current release so
> I wasn't able to test with 3.6.17.

FWIW, those are in ftp://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/firefox/releases/, but for purposes of checking here, 3.6.18 is fine.

> Likewise, the download links to prior
> Camino versions are also broken so I was not able to confirm the 2.0.6
> behavior.

These can be found at ftp://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/camino/releases/

Thanks for letting us know the links were broken; they used to work, but something changed at mozilla.org to break things (filed bug 666036 to figure out what happened there).

> This process suggested by Smokey allows the Java to execute as expected
> while still having the more restrictive cookie settings.

Glad to hear that this worked for you.

I'm still curious to see what the results are in Firefox 3.6.latest and Camino 2.0.6, but the eventual resolution of this bug is going to be probably WONTFIX (since we'll not get that Gecko 2/Firefox 4 behavior).

Comment 5

[Chris Lawson (gone)]

Whaz, did you ever check Firefox 3.6 and/or Camino 2.0.x as requested in comment 4 (last paragraph)?

Smokey, what do you want to do about this bug?

Comment 6

[Smokey Ardisson (offline for a while; not following bugs - do not email)]

(In reply to Chris Lawson from comment #5)
> Smokey, what do you want to do about this bug?

I guess WONTFIX, since we'll never inherit the weak Firefox 4/Gecko 2 cookies behavior, but since the work-around I suggested works, it's at least not a dead-end WONTFIX :)

Comment 7

[Whaz]

Reply to comment(In reply to Chris Lawson from comment #5)
> Whaz, did you ever check Firefox 3.6 and/or Camino 2.0.x as requested in
> comment 4 (last paragraph)?
> 
> Smokey, what do you want to do about this bug?

Chris,

Sorry, I never did check Firefox 3.6 or Camino 2.0.x.  Given the success of Smoky's comment I figured the workaround was sufficient.

Let me know if this is still desired given Comment #6 and I'll check in out in a week or two.

Thanks.