728313 - Bookmarklet fails on about:newtab

Status: RESOLVED WORKSFORME

(Firefox :: New Tab Page, defect)

Description

[Boris Zbarsky [:bzbarsky]]

Build: anything with bug 723808 fixed.

Steps to reproducs:

1)  Follow instructions at http://lifehacker.com/240552/firefox-tip--how-to-set-up-multi+parameter-keyword-searches

2)  Hit Cmd-N

3)  Type in the bookmark keyword for the bookmark in step 1

ACTUAL RESULTS: JS doesn't run, since it has no principal to do so with

EXPECTED RESULTS: Make it work.

The problem is that about:newtab is system-principal, and we're trying to run the JS against it.

Perhaps we should consider replacing system-principal pages with about:blank before loading javascript: URIs?

Comment 1

[:Gavin Sharp [email: [e-mail]]]

(In reply to Boris Zbarsky (:bz) from comment #0)
> Perhaps we should consider replacing system-principal pages with about:blank
> before loading javascript: URIs?

This would be ideal (for more than just this bug), but I was under the impression that it was kind of hard. Or did you mean a front-end fix?

Comment 2

[Boris Zbarsky [:bzbarsky]]

Does just calling CreateAboutBlankContentViewer() not do the right thing?

Comment 3

[:Gavin Sharp [email: [e-mail]]]

Attachment: attempt #1

I'm not confident this patch is suitable to land, but it's a quick hack to test whether this approach would work. It doesn't seem to work (the new tab page stays loaded and the JS doesn't run), but I don't really know why.

Comment 6

[Jesse Ruderman]

> Perhaps we should consider replacing system-principal pages with about:blank before 
> loading javascript: URIs?

Another possibility would be to use disallowInheritPrincipal.  Then clicking a bookmarklet on about:newtab would be equivalent to typing a javascript: URL into the address bar (on any page).

Problem is, "location=" and "location.replace" don't seem to work with disallowInheritPrincipal.

Comment 9

[Bjorn Martensson]

Workaround: Change the new tab page as described here https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/new-tab-page-show-hide-and-customize-top-sites#w_how-do-i-turn-the-new-tab-page-off

Setting it to e.g. about:blank makes the bookmarklets work again. This is obviously only viable if you think it's acceptable to get a blank page when opening a new tab.

Comment 10

[Matthew N. [:MattN]]

Mass-move to Firefox::New Tab Page.

Filter on new-tab-page-component.

Comment 11

[Sandro Della Giustina]

Now that browser.newtab.url has been disabled, imo, this is a great annoiance.

Comment 12

[Boris Zbarsky [:bzbarsky]]

You should probably just install https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/new-tab-override/ for now like I just did, pending bug 776477 getting fixed.

Comment 13

[Sandro Della Giustina]

Thanks a lot Boris, this add-on is what I want, perfect :-)

Comment 15

[Jan Moesen]

Neither this bug nor bug 776477 has had any relevant activity, but I am able to use bookmarklets on about:newtab in Nightly now. No idea what the relevant bug is.

Comment 16

[Jonathan Watt [:jwatt]]

Mass bug change to replace various 'parity' whiteboard flags with the new canonical keywords. (See bug 1443764 comment 13.)

Comment 17

[:Gijs (he/him)]

This was resolved by the switch to activity-stream, I think.