88086 - clicking links in Office XP Apps launches IE

Status: VERIFIED DUPLICATE of bug 59078

(SeaMonkey :: UI Design, defect, P2)

Description

[timeless]

from Bugzilla Bug 58848 Click Excel Hyperlink, N6 loads it twice in separate 
windows.

Click on a HyperLink in Excel.
If N6 is already running, it loads web page twice, in separate windows.
If it is not running, it launches, loads the web page in one window, and the
home page in another.
The first time I tried this, N6 crashed, but appeared to remain running, as if
there were two instances of the app running, one of which crashed.
This would also explain why I saw two Java icons in the Win98 taskbar on some 
tries.

------- Additional Comments From Frank Burleigh 2001-06-19 14:24 -------
when I click:
- Word XP and Excel XP: now opens IE (can't find any option for this in XP 
apps)

I have a bug where i added registration elements so that we appear in the 
windows internet control panel applications window, i hope se can find that and 
that we can play w/ those to see if anything happens.

in the meantime, Spy++ (?) and RegMon (sysinternals.com) will probably be very 
helpful.

Comment 1

[Oliver Klee]

*** Bug 88090 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 2

[sairuh (rarely reading bugmail)]

->pchen...or vishy? bill is on sabbatical.

does this still happen even after explicitly setting html and http to launch
mozilla? [eg, in System pref panel.]

Comment 3

[Frank Burleigh]

Yes.  A number of us commented thoroughly on the problems in bug 58848.  In my
comment of 6/26 there I noted explicitly that html and http *are* marked for
handling in Moz, yet the behavior continues in the Office apps.  Other apps are
better behaved.  timeless has wisely refocussed the discussion by opening this
new bug.  NS6.1 simply cannot be allowed to go out without this being fixed.

Comment 4

[sairuh (rarely reading bugmail)]

thx for the clarification.

cc'ing lisa and paw. do we have a machine with Office XP?

on a tangent, i'm wondering if this would be a similar issue on Mac, with Office
apps there. unfortunately, i don't have such a setup. anyone else do?

Comment 5

[sairuh (rarely reading bugmail)]

*** Bug 88088 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 6

[Paul Wyskoczka]

I tried it running windows build 2001062703 on Win2k with Office 2000 and saw
the same behavior.

Comment 7

[sairuh (rarely reading bugmail)]

kerz, since you have Office XP, are you able to repro this?

or, even better, could you let me know of a good time when i could come over and
"borrow" your machine for testing this? :)

Comment 8

[sairuh (rarely reading bugmail)]

zach is checking to see if he can repro this on his Mac OS X system [which has
Office 2001 --not sure if/how that'd matter here, but couldn't hurt to check].

also cc'ing mpt and lordpixel to see if they might have access to Office apps,
and hence see if they run into this bug. [if not, apologies for the spam.]

Comment 9

[Frank Burleigh]

timeless brought most of the earlier description over but there is more: Outlook
XP opens two browser windows just like Outlook 2k and word/excel 2k.  Word/Excel
XP open IE, as the bug summary says.

Comment 10

[Jason Kersey]

In WordXP for me, I typed in http://www.mozillazine.org.  hovering over it, it
told me to ctrl click to follow.  Doing so opened ultraedit for me, which is my
default viewer for html files.  Is it not paying attention to http:// and rather
.html?

Comment 11

[Jason Kersey]

After playing with it a bit more, it seems that it actually brings up one
mozilla window, and one ultra edit window.  The ultraedit window throws up an
error when launched: "C:\Documents and Settings\kerz\My
Documents\http:\www.mozillazine.org contains an invalid path."  So is it opening
both the default http and .html app?

Comment 12

[sairuh (rarely reading bugmail)]

kerz, pardon my paranoia ;), but could you doublecheck your settings in the
System [under Advanced] pref panel and make sure that the "HTML documents" and
"http" and "https" checkboxes are selected? thx!

Comment 13

[timeless]

right, this bug should stay focussed on the summary.  Ignore outlook.  If we 
need to file a new bug for that we can, although i filed a bug for office2000 
and there's still a desktop integration bug so i'm hoping outlookxp falls in 
one of those categories.

Of course, if we can't agree on what's happening in Office XP, we have a 
problem, in which case um... well...

Comment 14

[Frank Burleigh]

timeless: do you want me to file a new bug for the Outlook XP two window
behavior?  I think I tried that before but someone duped it against either the
original Excel or desktop integration bugs.  I assumed this should be handled
together because, well, the apps (Outlook, word, excel) are together...

Comment 15

[Jason Kersey]

All of the protocols are selected, none of the file types are selected.  When i
click a link in word, it should use the protocol, and open only moz.  It seems
to be opening it right now first as a protocol, then as a file type.

Comment 16

[timeless]

for now I'm assuming OutlookXP behaves like Office2000, and i know i filed a 
bug for that.  If you can show the behavior doesn't match Office2000 or general 
Desktop Integration or this OfficeXP bug then you get to file a new bug.

I'm going out on a limb since i have no interest in installing XP:
Suppose it tries to run the protocol form and expects a response from the app 
saying 'i handled it'. So we don't respond and it decided to call the 
associated extension form.

A few problems. One: While I filed this bug about 'clicking links in Office XP 
Apps launches IE' most of the comments imply that doesn't happen.

So here's what i want: Registry exports or RegMon logs of the relevant HKCR 
associations, pictures of the Internet Options Control Panel 'Programs' Tab. 
And of course comments
  indicating how the XP behavior is relative to normal apps (what's a normal 
app anyways?) here are my normal apps:

url files:
foo.url [http://www.mozilla.org]
bar.url [http://www.mozilla.org/index.html]
bic.url [http://www.mozilla.org/images/mozilla-banner.gif]
command line:
for %a in (
www.mozilla.org www.mozilla.org/index.html
www.mozilla.org/images/mozilla-banner.gif
) do start http://%a
corel suite (if available)
staroffice/openoffice set not to use native browser.
2 other apps, perhaps eudora and something that someone else has mentioned in a 
related bug.
And of course behavior for XP apps: word, excel, outlook (yes I know i said 
outlook is another bug, but since i'm collecting data i'll take it too). just 
put all three urls into some sort of document and click. If there's more than 
one way to click please tell me :o

If people think that this information would be too spammy for this bug, and I'm 
starting to think that, we have two other choices, a newsgroup thread, and a 
helperbug.
I was leaning heavily to the newsgroup thread but spoke w/ se and we decided to 
use this bug (for now).  If it does get too spammy, because people want to 
discuss it more at length then we can continue in a newsgroup.

I have no proposed dataformat, i suppose some sort of grid or list would make 
sense... Oh nad i suppose it'd be nice if people indicate whether mozilla 
really thinks it owns the associations... thanks. I expect lots of bugmail.

Comment 17

[Paul Chen]

nav triage team:

marking nsbeta1+ and mozilla0.9.3, reassigning to Blake for investigation

Comment 18

[Blake Ross]

So here's what I see:

When I just checked http and https and nothing else, Office 97 opened IE, and 
the file types dialog said .HTM and .HTML were IE documents.  When I checked off 
HTML documents, Office 97 properly opened up Netscape with the correct url (no 
crash, no double window, no text editor), and the file types dialog correctly 
said that .HTM and .HTML were Mozilla Hypertext Documents.

So, I think kerz is right that it's incorrectly paying attention to the .html 
app, instead of the http: protocol app.  That would be an office bug...

Comment 19

[Blake Ross]

Someone give me a good reason not to close this...(or a clever way to 
workaround)

Comment 20

[Frank Burleigh]

Why do you want to close the bug?  You tested with Office 97, not Office 2k or
Office XP. I did what I *think* you did and got bad behavior all around:
- Edit, Prefs, System: remove check from HTML.
- Test:
  - Outlook XP: continues to open two browsers
  - Word XP: tries to open Netscape 4 (which wants to make a profile for me)
*and*    after a long delay opens Moz.
Moreover, NS4 now seems associated with HTML files.

Comment 21

[Blake Ross]

I'll e-mail you my address, and you can buy me Office XP and send it to me...

Why are you unchecking HTML?  I assume because it works if you check HTML?  My 
point is that I think Word is checking for the wrong thing.  If clicking on 
http://www.mozilla.org/ doesn't work when we're registered for the http 
protocol, but does when we're registered for the html extention, then it 
shouldn't be our bug.

This bug has nothing to do with Outlook, please file a new bug for that.

And I don't see how this working in an earlier (but not a later) version of Word 
is going to sway my belief that this isn't our bug...

Comment 22

[Frank Burleigh]

I am completely confused about what we want to accomplish.  What I'm trying to
do is achieve a browser that isn't IE that can replace netscape 4.x for my 200
users.  I thought the idea was to make the browser/pc behave well--no double
opening, opening old versions of netscape, opening IE, etc.  Toward that end,
I've submitted data on Moz' behavior from a number of PCs running both the XP
and 2000 versions of Office, all of which document bad behavior.  I give you
Outlook behaviors because Outlook is part of Office.  I will open a separate
Outlook XP/2000 if you think that would be better.

I am turning HTML and HTTP on/off to try to follow your suggestions and to
verify your results.  So far, I cannot find any combination that "works."  Is
this my role as a tester?

From my point of view, Moz does bad behavior where NS4.x doesn't.  To me that
makes it Moz' issue.  And as a practical matter, Moz/NS exists with millions of
Office 2000/XP.  I would imagine Netscape should buy some copies of Office XP.

Comment 23

[Nick Hansen]

I'll apologize if this seems a bit harsh and/or ignorant - I'm not much of a
programmer and cannot imagine the complexity of this project in anything other
than an abstract appreciation - but why the empahsis on assessing blame here? 
It's not your bug?  Fine, but I and many others who have put our faith in Moz/NS
as an alternative to IE would really appreciate it if you would spend more time
developing a workaround or kludge that would allow us to click on a link in some
MS Office product and only open one browser window and less time assessing which
organization is to blame for this behavior.  Netscape got it right with versions
2 through 4.x, Opera seems to have this problem licked, etc. - it seems that
there is a possibility that it could be accomplished here as well.  Regardless
of who's coding is at fault, the truth of the matter is - no one other than the
hardcore anti-IE crowd is going to use Moz/NS6.x if this behavior is not
addressed.  

I hate to be so negative but from our end we test Moz and give you feedback as
to what needs to be fixed and as a result we get this.  We have to fight to tell
you that certain bugs are present and their resolution is fundamental to this
browser being adopted by the novice user.  Ignore this at your peril.  People
simply will not use this product with the behaviors that it exhibits presently.
 That's all there is to it. 

Comment 24

[Blake Ross]

I understand that.  That's why I asked on June 30th for a clever workaround...

I'm still looking into getting a newer copy of Office to try to reproduce the 
problem Frank is seeing.

Comment 25

[Viswanath Ramachandran]

nav triage: deferring to mozilla1.0

Comment 26

[Frank Burleigh]

Timeless, you request registrer exports from HKCR.  I'm looking at my reg now
under http, https, .htm, .html, and find little NS4 sediments.  Then I have an
"htmlfile" with iexplore all over it.  However, the win explorer File Types
dialog shows me HTML with its open attached to Moz.

About to create attachments with .reg files.  After review, please tell me if
you need more from the reg.  I think I will also have a go at removing NS4 and
Moz and adding only Moz back to the machine.

Comment 27

[Frank Burleigh]

Attachment: HKCR htm

Comment 28

[Frank Burleigh]

Attachment: export HKCR html

Comment 29

[Frank Burleigh]

Attachment: export HKCR http

Comment 30

[Frank Burleigh]

First results for timeless.  This is what I did (turbo is not on for any of this):
- Uninstall ns4.x, completely remove its dir and hklm\software\netscape
- Uninstall Moz, remove hklm\software\mozilla and mozilla.org (why two?)
- gut registry .htm and .html where they point to netscape.exe

Test Word XP
- Open Word xp, type url (www.law.indiana.edu), click+ctrl, get error and
nothing more happens

Install Mozilla 2001070204

Test Word XP
- same procedure as above, this time IE opens (original problem)

Test Outlook XP
- get to message with url, click link, Moz opens *once!*  Woohoo!

So at least with respect to Outlook XP it seems there's some problem with Moz'
install either not doing enough or not thoroughly dealing with Netscape.  It
also seems by knocking the registry around this way I can affect what happens to
Word XP.

Next test:
- uninstall Moz, again remove hklm\software\mozilla and mozilla.org
- reinstall Moz.

Curiousities:
- Why do HTML/HTM files in win explorer appear as though they have no icon?
- Why does this value
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Mozilla\Desktop\classes\https\shell\open\command
point to netscape.exe?
- Right now, double clicking html files on disk brings up a blank window; view
source shows <html><body></body></html>.  Other Moz' were open.

Comment 31

[timeless]

icons probably failed because mozilla's installer messed up (or never ran)

[MozillaHTML\DefaultIcon]
@="pathtosomething,index" 

would fix that.

- Why does this value
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Mozilla\Desktop\classes\https\shell\open\command
point to netscape.exe?
probably because nothing replaced it (ie no moz installer/moz asking to 
associate)

Can you rename the magic clsid stuff (and attach what it points to 
HKCR\Clsid\{})

--

um, installer folks, i'd like to consider a change
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\http\shell\open\command]
@="C:\\PROGRA~1\\MOZILLA.ORG\\MOZILLA\\MOZILLA.EXE -url \"%1\""

to mozilla -turbo

xpapps, could we implement -delayload "%1" which sets a timer, waits a bit and 
starts %1 if it doesn't receive an instruction when timer triggers..

back to word, it's doing something very wierd. http://sysinternals.com get 
regmon, watch *word* (or whatever that app's name is), we only need http, html, 
htm, and clsid keys watched (you can filter early or filter w/ notepad later), 
w/ regmon watching, click the link in word.

Comment 32

[Frank Burleigh]

Timeless, on this question:

- Why does this value
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Mozilla\Desktop\classes\https\shell\open\command
point to netscape.exe?

you say:

probably because nothing replaced it (ie no moz installer/moz asking to 
associate)

However, I had *deleted* the Mozilla and Mozilla.Org items from the reg after
uninstalling it.  So it seems to me that either Moz' installer is creating this
key or perhaps the installer examines elsewhere in the reg and derives the
value.  In all cases, installer seems to be completing fine.
You ask:
Can you rename the magic clsid stuff (and attach what it points to 
HKCR\Clsid\{})

Could you please give more specific direction?  I can trace from the
MozillaHTML\CLSID to HKCR\CLSID but am not sure that's what you want, and I am
not sure what you're asking me to rename.

On Word:
It's been a while since I've messed with clsids but will give it a go later in
the week.

One other thing: double clicking html files now double opens again.  I learned
earlier that I could prevent that by turning off dde in win's file type dialog.

DefaultIcon for MozillaHTML was set by the installer to "%1".  I changed it to
point to mozilla.exe,1 (assuming first icon resource?) but that didn't change
the icons.

Thanks.

Comment 33

[Frank Burleigh]

Attachment: Regmon: when link in Word XP is clicked

Comment 34

[Frank Burleigh]

I've attached a regmon dump of what happens when I click a link in Word XP.  I
wasn't able to get filtering to work but decided (rationalized?) that you'd
really rather have the surrounding context anyway. ;-)

Comment 35

[Frank Burleigh]

More findings, testing on a WinNT machine without admin rights.  Following the
pattern of uninstalling both Moz and NS4.x that I saw on my win 2000 machine,
I've found that I can get Moz to behave correctly from Word 2000 and Outlook
2000.  This is:
- uninstall moz
- uninstall NS4.x
- reinstall Moz
- reinstall NS4.x (if one wants)

The problem I have with this is dualing "default browsers."  It used to be you
could get NS4.x *not* to check, but I can't seem to get that dialog on NS4.77. 
If someone could clue me on this we'd be on our way.

It seems to me the upshot of much of this is that these bad behaviors are about
the install process, perhaps less about the browser or the other software.

Ah, one other thing: DefaultIcon seems correct on the test machine (WinNT) but
still doesn't work on my win 2k machine.  I have admin rights on the 2k machine
but not on the NT machine.

Comment 36

[Paul Chen]

nav triage team:

Would like to fix this for mozilla0.9.4. Moving up target milestone to 0.9.4

Comment 37

[Asa Dotzler [:asa]]

->0.9.6

Comment 38

[Asa Dotzler [:asa]]

0.9.6 is long gone. -> 0.9.7

Comment 39

[Blake Ross]

-> law

Comment 40

[Bill Law]

mozilla0.9.7 is long gone, too.  Changing target milestone to --- and throwing
it back into the bucket.

Comment 41

[Matthias Versen [:Matti]]

*** Bug 118067 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 42

[Bill Law]

This sounds like a dup of bug 59078 (or simply another twist on the same 
problem).

*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of 59078 ***

Comment 43

[sairuh (rarely reading bugmail)]

okay, vfry'ing...