752515 - Clicking to play a plugin doesn't work if content JS is disabled

Status: RESOLVED INVALID

(Core Graveyard :: Plug-ins, defect)

Description

[Benjamin Smedberg]

From bug 711618 comment 49:

However, there is one problem: CTP (or executing plugins in general) does not work if javascript is not allowed for that website. I realize that most FF users simply use the default settings where javascript is allowed by default. Nevertheless, Noscript is a very popular add-on (and there are some others to control active content). If users of those add-ons stumble upon websites that contain plugins but JS is blocked, CTP simply doesn't work - the CTP placeholders aren't even displayed.

Comment 1

[Dana Keeler (she/her) (use needinfo) [:keeler]]

CTP doesn't work if plugins are loaded via javascript (and js is disabled), but a page can have static object/embed tags, and CTP will work just fine. If a user wants a feature a webpage provides via javascript, they'll have to enable js, and I don't think we should do anything special here.

Comment 2

[Thomas Ludwig]

David, forgive my ignorance - I'm not a programmer. All I can say is, I can't remember that I've ever come across a website where flash worked without JS being allowed. This is my experience with Firefox over many years, and Chrome/Chromium behaves the same.

Comment 3

[Jared Wein [:jaws] (please needinfo? me)]

Does the notification still appear in the location bar? If so, then the user can use the notification to enable the plugins on the page as a workaround.

Otherwise, until XBL2 (and I'm not even sure of XBL2 capabilities), we can't make the binding here run JS when content JS is disabled.

Comment 4

[Thomas Ludwig]

(In reply to Jared Wein [:jaws] from comment #3)
> Does the notification still appear in the location bar? If so, then the user
> can use the notification to enable the plugins on the page as a workaround.

Yes, the CTP notification still appears, and plugins can be enabled. But they won't be executed.

Comment 5

[Philip Chee]

> I can't remember that I've ever come across a website where flash worked without JS
> being allowed.
This site should work without Javascript enabled: http://www.bakketun.net/test/flash.html

Comment 6

[Jared Wein [:jaws] (please needinfo? me)]

(In reply to Thomas Ludwig from comment #4)
> (In reply to Jared Wein [:jaws] from comment #3)
> > Does the notification still appear in the location bar? If so, then the user
> > can use the notification to enable the plugins on the page as a workaround.
> 
> Yes, the CTP notification still appears, and plugins can be enabled. But
> they won't be executed.

Sorry, what is meant by "executed"?

Comment 7

[Thomas Ludwig]

(In reply to Philip Chee from comment #5)
> > I can't remember that I've ever come across a website where flash worked without JS
> > being allowed.
> This site should work without Javascript enabled:
> http://www.bakketun.net/test/flash.html

No, it doesn't here. I only see the Noscript placeholders. If I whitelist that site in Noscript, there is NO CTP notification and flash doesn't work. Rather, the site says:

Single object with alternate content

Object with incorrect mime-type

Object with incorrect URL

FAIL (the browser should render some flash content, not this).
Object with HTML-page (iframe-replacement)

Comment 8

[Thomas Ludwig]

(In reply to Jared Wein [:jaws] from comment #6)
> (In reply to Thomas Ludwig from comment #4)
> > (In reply to Jared Wein [:jaws] from comment #3)
> > > Does the notification still appear in the location bar? If so, then the user
> > > can use the notification to enable the plugins on the page as a workaround.
> > 
> > Yes, the CTP notification still appears, and plugins can be enabled. But
> > they won't be executed.
> 
> Sorry, what is meant by "executed"?

Well, flash simply doesn't work. The frames where the flash objects are embedded, are not correctly displayed.

Comment 9

[Philip Chee]

> No, it doesn't here. I only see the Noscript placeholders. If I whitelist that site in
> Noscript, there is NO CTP notification and flash doesn't work. Rather, the site says:
Please disable NoScript in the Addons Manager then go to about:config and filter for:
javascript.enabled
Make sure that this preference is set to false.
All the flash at http://www.bakketun.net/test/flash.html
should now be properly recognized by CTP

Comment 10

[Thomas Ludwig]

(In reply to Philip Chee from comment #9)
> > No, it doesn't here. I only see the Noscript placeholders. If I whitelist that site in
> > Noscript, there is NO CTP notification and flash doesn't work. Rather, the site says:
> Please disable NoScript in the Addons Manager then go to about:config and
> filter for:
> javascript.enabled
> Make sure that this preference is set to false.
> All the flash at http://www.bakketun.net/test/flash.html
> should now be properly recognized by CTP

Yes, you're right. I was able to reproduce it. But I still think that most sites require JS to run plugins. Youtube is one example.

Comment 11

[Dana Keeler (she/her) (use needinfo) [:keeler]]

I still don't see this as something to "fix". If a site requires js to run a plugin, you're going to have to enable js, regardless of whether or not you're using click-to-play.

Comment 12

[Terrell Kelley]

There is something to fix because JavaScript is being enabled by the NoScript plugin (via the whitelist) and yet the page still is not able to run said JavaScript. Whether the fix is in Firefox or NoScript, I don't know, but I do remember reports that YesScript, a completely different plugin, has the same problem.

Comment 13

[Philip Chee]

If the problem does not exist when neither NoScript nor YesScript is installed then the problem is with the extensions.

Furthermore if you use an older version of Firefox without click-to-play (or turn off click-to-play in the current nightly) and those pages still don't work without javascript then the problem is with those websites.

I suggest that this bug is INVALID as it stands.