861407 - new plugin checker not working on IE

Status: RESOLVED WONTFIX

(Websites :: plugins.mozilla.org, defect)

Description

[[:philipp]]

users in the sumo forums have reported that the redesigned plugin check website at https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/plugincheck/ doesn't show any results when used with IE, though it did work before the change.

Comment 1

[Carsten Book [:Tomcat]]

confirmed, even it says IE is supported 

•This page works best with the latest browsers: Firefox 3.6+, Opera 10.5, Safari 4, Chrome 4, or IE 8
Plugin Check support for Internet Explorer is limited. Also use Tools > Manage Addons
•Step 1: Click Update to update a plugin


but plugins are never checked

Comment 2

[raymond [:retornam] (inactive)]

(In reply to philipp from comment #0)
> users in the sumo forums have reported that the redesigned plugin check
> website at https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/plugincheck/ doesn't show any
> results when used with IE, though it did work before the change.

The website says IE support is limited.

Comment 3

[CDU]

(In reply to raymond [:retornam] from comment #2)
> The website says IE support is limited.

Sure, but it fully worked in IE last week. Something has definitely changed for the worse, which is unfortunate because all Windows machines are forced to have IE even if FF is the primary browser. You never know when a user will manually launch IE, so we need to keep it's plugins up-to-date too.

Comment 4

[Schalk Neethling [:espressive]]

Thanks for reporting this. It is indeed weird that it does not work in IE anymore. I will look into this but one thing, which versions of IE are we supporting now? Also, the support for IE was limited but there was support so I guess the aim is to get it back to where it was?

Comment 5

[Carsten Book [:Tomcat]]

(In reply to Schalk Neethling [:espressive] from comment #4)
> Thanks for reporting this. It is indeed weird that it does not work in IE
> anymore. I will look into this but one thing, which versions of IE are we
> supporting now? Also, the support for IE was limited but there was support
> so I guess the aim is to get it back to where it was?

Fails on IE9 and IE 10 so far. Doesn't check any plugin and not sure how to get the error out of IE in terms of an error console or so :)

Comment 7

[Bill Gianopoulos [:WG9s]]

Fails on IE8 as well which the page clearly says on it is supposed to work.

Comment 8

[Schalk Neethling [:espressive]]

Ok so, on this page (https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/plugincheck/more_info.html) it is mentioned that support in IE is limited due to technical reasons, it also states support for IE7+

The best thing I believe we can do to move this all forward is to really define what does limited mean i.e. which plugins can we technically check for in IE (see below), which versions of IE do we support (ex. should we really still support IE7?) and what is the strategy regarding other browsers. For this bug however, I would prefer if we focus on IE only.

From the above page: "* Plugin Version checking is only done for a limited list of plugins (BrowserPlug, Flash, Java, etc) due to technical limitations of the platform." ~ Do we have the full list of plugins that we can detect in IE or is this something we have to research further?

Comment 9

[Carsten Book [:Tomcat]]

(In reply to Schalk Neethling [:espressive] from comment #8)
> From the above page: "* Plugin Version checking is only done for a limited
> list of plugins (BrowserPlug, Flash, Java, etc) due to technical limitations
> of the platform." ~ Do we have the full list of plugins that we can detect
> in IE or is this something we have to research further?

did some research based on http://ozten.com/random/perfidies/debug.html and seems at least this page can detect flash, shockwave and java which seems to be the top plugins anyway :)

Comment 10

[Carsten Book [:Tomcat]]

Attachment: perfidies screenshot from IE9

Comment 11

[[:philipp]]

it also still works on the mozilla sites on locals which didn't perform the design change yet: https://www.mozilla.org/de/plugincheck/

Comment 12

[CDU]

(In reply to philipp from comment #11)
> it also still works on the mozilla sites on locals which didn't perform the
> design change yet: https://www.mozilla.org/de/plugincheck/

Excellent observation! I'll use the English version at https://www.mozilla.org/en/plugincheck/ until they break that one too. ;)

Comment 13

[Schalk Neethling [:espressive]]

Pull request sent: https://github.com/mozilla/bedrock/pull/898

Comment 14

[Steven Garrity [:sgarrity]]

Attachment: Pointer to Github pull request: https://github.com/mozilla/bedrock/pull/898/files

Pointer to Github pull-request

Comment 15

[Steven Garrity [:sgarrity]]

(In reply to Steven Garrity from comment #14)
> Created attachment 752704 [details]
> Pointer to Github pull request:
> https://github.com/mozilla/bedrock/pull/898/files
> Pointer to Github pull-request

Sorry - overzealous GitHub Firefox extension. Please disregard my comment.

Comment 16

[[github robot]]

Commits pushed to master at https://github.com/mozilla/bedrock

https://github.com/mozilla/bedrock/commit/0779dbd2ead954aac3648f145d066ab97c9b7dc0
Fix Bug 861407, update pinlady detection for IE compatibility

https://github.com/mozilla/bedrock/commit/fc9432aee748a0d8729fccda8c5a6d00a73531fd
Merge pull request #898 from ossreleasefeed/bug861407-new-plugincheck-fails-in-ie

Comment 17

[CDU]

It works again. Thank you for fixing this!

Comment 18

[javascriptjedi]

Is this really fixed?  When I go to the following URL in IE10

https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/plugincheck/

ths Status field is blank for each plugin, and the "up to date" button is blue (presumably for "good" plugins?)  In FF, there's a number in the Status field, and the good plugins are green.  (There is a version number in IE on the very left next to the plugin icon, but this isn't the same number as the Status field using FF as a guide).

Comment 19

[David Weir (satdav)]

Can you add a screen shot if possible

Comment 20

[Schalk Neethling [:espressive]]

Do you we have any more info on this or can it be closed?

Comment 21

[Carsten Book [:Tomcat]]

resolving incomplete for now, feel free to reopen

Comment 22

[CDU]

Well, it was fixed in IE 10, but it doesn't work again in IE 11.

I would love to see it work for the reasons I posted in my first message above.

Thanks,
Carl

Comment 23

[CDU]

Anyone know if this will be fixed to work with IE 11, or if there is something I can change in IE 11 to get it to work?

I support over 100 computers, and the plugin check is really helpful -- for BOTH FF and IE.

Thanks,
Carl

Comment 24

[Schalk Neethling [:espressive]]

(In reply to CDU from comment #23)
> Anyone know if this will be fixed to work with IE 11, or if there is
> something I can change in IE 11 to get it to work?
> 
> I support over 100 computers, and the plugin check is really helpful -- for
> BOTH FF and IE.
> 
> Thanks,
> Carl

There is currently some rework undergoing on plugincheck so, this will also be addressed as part of all the changes.

Comment 25

[CDU]

Thank you very much, Schalk.

Comment 26

[Schalk Neethling [:espressive]]

CDU, can you give this a go again and let me know if plugincheck is still broken for you? There has been a bunch of updates since I/you last commented on this bug. Thanks!

Comment 27

[CDU]

Thank you for following up on this.

Unfortunately, it is still broken in IE 11.

Comment 28

[Schalk Neethling [:espressive]]

Plugincheck is being rewritten and for a period of time will only be supported in Firefox, see bug 1121456 for more details.