Closed Bug 85777 Opened 23 years ago Closed 22 years ago

Password Manager needs better logic in determining where to grab username and password

Categories

(Tech Evangelism Graveyard :: English US, defect)

Product:
Tech Evangelism Graveyard
Component:
English US
Platform:
x86
Windows 2000
Type:
defect
Priority:
Not set
Severity:
normal

Tracking

(Not tracked)

Status:
VERIFIED DUPLICATE of bug 153986

People

(Reporter: schapel, Assigned: morse)

References

(
URL
)

Details

Reproducability: Always

Steps to reproduce:
1. Go to http://www.mozillazine.org/talkback.html?article=1946
   (or any other MozillaZine article).
2. Type in a title, response, login, and password.
3. When asked if you want the Password Manager to remember your Username and
Password, say Yes.
4. Go to Edit|Preferences...|Privacy and Security|Passwords|View Stored Passwords.

Expected Result: The MozillaZine Username is saved as the Username for
www.mozillazine.org

Actual Result: The Title of the response is saved as the Username for
www.mozillazine.org

The problem is that the Title is the first field on the form, and the Password
Manager assumes that the first field is the Username. This MozillaZine form must
be rearranged to work well with the Password Manager.
I'l confirm this later, but it seems like we should reassign this to kerz for 
him to fix or redirect.
Assignee: bclary → kerz
This is completely silly.  Password manager should figure this out its self.  
Many sites that use forms have the username/password fields at the end, so if 
this doesn't work properly, it needs to be given to morse to look into.  
Sending to him now for triage.
Assignee: kerz → morse
Status: UNCONFIRMED → NEW
Component: Evangelism → Password Manager
Ever confirmed: true
All the password manager knows is that it has a form with one or more text 
fields and one password field.  It has no way of knowing which of the text 
fields is the one that is to be interpreted as the "username", nor does it 
really care.  All it needs to do is select one of those text fields as an 
identifying field which it will display back to the user.  So, as a heuristic, 
it picks the first such text field, realizing that this will be the username in 
almost all cases but that there will be a few exceptions.  This was a consious 
design decision made many years ago when the password manager was first 
conceived, and it appears to have worked quite well.
Status: NEW → RESOLVED
Closed: 23 years ago
Resolution: --- → INVALID
Yes, the Password Manager assumes the first text field is the username. I'm not
asking for that to change. This was a request to get the MozillaZine web page to
change so that heuristic works.
Oh, I misunderstood the report, and was mislead by Kersey's flame bit (which I 
chose not to respond to).  In that vein this is a perfectly valid bug report for 
evangelism.  Reopening and assigning back to evangelism.
Status: RESOLVED → REOPENED
Component: Password Manager → Evangelism
Resolution: INVALID → ---
--> owner of evangelism component
Assignee: morse → bclary
Status: REOPENED → NEW
thanks for the analysis everyone. Contacted Jason this morning.  Where is this
behaviour of the password manager documented?
Status: NEW → ASSIGNED
Documented?
We won't be rewriting all our pages.  I still find it very hard to believe that
the password manager things the first field of the page is always the user name,
even if the password field is the last.  But whatever.
Status: ASSIGNED → RESOLVED
Closed: 23 years ago → 23 years ago
Resolution: --- → WONTFIX
On second thought, and after talking with Asa and endico, I'm reopening, and
reassigning to morse.  There is no way every website is going to move their
fields to the top of the list of form components just so suit our password
manager.  If this logic has been thought through before, perhaps it needs to be
revisited.  I know mozillazine is not the only place login/password is at the
bottom.
Status: RESOLVED → REOPENED
Resolution: WONTFIX → ---
-> morse
Assignee: bclary → morse
Status: REOPENED → NEW
Look, this bug report has nothing to do with changing the password manager.  It 
is a request for evanganism to change the website, as clarified by the reporter.  
If you don't want to change the website, that's fine with me, just close it out 
as wont-fix.  But don't keep reassigning an evangilism bug to me.

If you think that the pasword manager is "silly", then open a new bug about 
that and assign it to me.
Assignee: morse → bclary
I have done my part. I have contacted the site and the response is We won't fix
it. So this is won't fix. If you have other issues with the password manager,
please please file a bug on it.
Status: NEW → RESOLVED
Closed: 23 years ago → 23 years ago
Resolution: --- → WONTFIX
This is a valid bug.  Your method of determining where the username is taken is
flawed.  Just because it was filed as an evange bug, doesn't mean it has to stay
that way.  Resummarizing.  Reopening.  Reassigning.  Please post specs in the
bug if you are going to close it again, as to how it's supposed to work, so they
can be changed to be more logical.
Status: RESOLVED → REOPENED
Resolution: WONTFIX → ---
Summary: MozillaZine talkback response form saves Title as Username in Password Manager → Password Manager needs better logic in determining where to grab username and password
-> morse, again.
Assignee: bclary → morse
Status: REOPENED → NEW
Jason, please stop morphing bugs!!!!  This was a request to evangelism to change 
the site.  And as such it was decided not to change the site.
Status: NEW → RESOLVED
Closed: 23 years ago → 23 years ago
Resolution: --- → WONTFIX
Kerz - rather than morph this Evangelism bug, it would be best to file a new bug
on Password manager describing the behaviour that you would like to see. Cheers,
 Vishy.
Target Milestone: --- → Future
Yes, please file a 'password manager is being stupid' bug instead. thx.
Status: RESOLVED → VERIFIED
I would be perfectly happy to settle for the fix suggested in bug 79527. This is
a request for a change in the Form Manager that would allow it to be used
effectively in these cases where the Password Manager doesn't work well, and
also where you want to save the Username but not the Password.

Frankly, most of the "login screens" I use on the web don't work well with the
Password Manager. The MozillaZine site, the DevTrack web interface (bug 85992),
and Yahoo Mail (bug 82956) are three examples. These sites most often cannot or
will not change their web pages to work well with Mozilla. The only way for
Mozilla to handle these sites better is for Mozilla to change.
All Evangelism Bugs are now in the Product Tech Evangelism. See bug 86997 for
details.
Component: Evangelism → US English
Product: Browser → Tech Evangelism
Target Milestone: Future → ---
Version: other → unspecified
This password manager bug also affects Doctor (aka Edit this Page on mozilla.org
pages).  The CVS Checkin comment is stored along with the username and password.
Dup of 153986.
Status: VERIFIED → REOPENED
Resolution: WONTFIX → ---

*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of 153986 ***
Status: REOPENED → RESOLVED
Closed: 23 years ago → 22 years ago
Resolution: --- → DUPLICATE
v
Status: RESOLVED → VERIFIED
Product: Tech Evangelism → Tech Evangelism Graveyard
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