894536 - Tools -> Options -> Applications: Can't add file type

Status: RESOLVED WORKSFORME

(Firefox :: File Handling, defect)

Description

[u52928]

User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 5.1; rv:25.0) Gecko/20130716 Firefox/25.0 (Nightly/Aurora)
Build ID: 20130716030202

Steps to reproduce:

I clicked on http://edu-net.net/media/sat-iphone/saturday.m4v


Actual results:

A window opened that told me the QuickTime plugin was disabled and asked what I wanted to do.


Expected results:

A window should have opened asking me how I wanted to deal with the m4v file type.

Comment 1

[u52928]

This is basically the same as bug 234245, which has been labeled WONTFIX. 

That discussion was carried on years ago, when Internet usage was much more limited and the whole "game" was much simpler. 

I solved the problem by editing the MimeTypes.rdf file with the help of someone on the Fx forums. 
http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=2729657

I think someone should look at the issue again.

Comment 2

[u52928]

I've just clicked the link for the movie that started this story using my Win 7x64 machine. It worked as I had expected, asking "What should Nightly do with this file?"

This machine also has QT Lite installed, but when I looked at the plugins pane, neither the Quicktime nor the RealPlayer (RealPlayer Lite) plugin is displayed. I guess this is because I'm also using the 64-bit Nightly; both appear on my 32-bit XP computer.

This does not, at least in my mind, obviate the need for the devs to take another look at the "Applications" pane. Not being able to deal easily with issues like the one I faced using XP seems to me to be a real weakness, given the number of new formats that rather regularly appear in the world of computers these days

Comment 3

[Loic]

(In reply to Joe Greenman from comment #0) 
> Expected results:
> 
> A window should have opened asking me how I wanted to deal with the m4v file
> type.

WFM, see http://i.imgur.com/9TCxKW6.jpg

About m4v support, I filed bug 875573.

Comment 4

[u52928]

(In reply to Loic from comment #3)
> (In reply to Joe Greenman from comment #0) 
> > Expected results:
> > 
> > A window should have opened asking me how I wanted to deal with the m4v file
> > type.
> 
> WFM, see http://i.imgur.com/9TCxKW6.jpg
> 
> About m4v support, I filed bug 875573.

Thank you, but rather than replying to my original comment, I respectfully feel it would have been more productive had you made your contribution in the context of my Comment 2.

The bug you reported is on Win 7x64 and Fx. v 21. As I mentioned in Comment 2, the problem didn't occur on my Win 7x64 machine with Fx 25. 

I also know that XP is about to die, so there's certainly no need to fix this for XP users. 

The point is that "problems" can come up, such as your issue with m4v videos. For me this bug addresses a wider issue: namely that the functionality of Applications pane is less than ideal when something unexpected occurs: a file type doesn't open, and the user isn't offered anywhere in the interface to turn to. 

I feel that users should be able to add a new file (mime) type in a way that it's recognized and subsequently functions. Currently, for occasions such as the one I've described, when Fx encounters a problem, the "unsophisticated" user is left with no clue as to what to do. 

The more enterprising might, as I did, find this: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/change-firefox-behavior-when-open-file#w_adding-download-actions . Unfortunately, it led to a dead end. 

I can only recommend that people interested in this topic look back at the discussion for the WONTFIX bug 234245. It ended in 2009, and the last argument by the main opponent of that bug, Mike Connor, ended in 2006, although his last contribution with "content" was made in 2004. 

Mr. Connor's main arguments at the time, or rather actually from 2004, were that "This is something that no normal user would ever use, ..." and  "Less
than one in one hundred normal users even comprehend the concept of MIME types,
let alone known what text/html vs. text/plain does."

I certainly can't prove it, but I think the landscape is different in 2013. 

In any case, as stated, I've now learned how to edit the mimeTypes.rdf file. I don't think I should have had to.

Comment 5

[Loic]

AFAIK, Firefox populates mimeTypes.rdf with MIME types already stored in Windows registry. So if m4v is associated to QT (even if this one is disabled or removed but the registry entry is still present), Firefox will call the QT plugin to open the m4v file.

In addition, that's why I doesn't install this horrible plugin anymore. :D

Comment 6

[u52928]

On my XP machine, m4v files don't even appear in the Windows Folder Options -> File types list. Hmmm, perhaps this is the problem. 

I have no idea where Fx got the info to try to use the deactivated, outdated QT Lite plugin for this file type. I checked the QT Lite configuration, and absolutely nothing - not even .mov files - are set to use it. And the QT plugin doesn't appear anywhere in the Fx mimeTypes.rdf file.

In any case, at some point in the murky past when I tried to open one, Windows asked me how I wanted to handle it. Now that I've edited the mimeTypes.rdf file, Fx does this, too. 

However, it didn't the first time, and this is what I'm hoping someone on the Fx dev team will address.

Comment 7

[Loic]

And if you create a clean profile (https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/profile-manager-create-and-remove-firefox-profiles) on your XP machine and you load http://edu-net.net/media/sat-iphone/saturday.m4v what do you see?

Comment 8

[rsx11m]

(In reply to Joe Greenman from comment #6)
> On my XP machine, m4v files don't even appear in the Windows Folder Options
> -> File types list. Hmmm, perhaps this is the problem. 

That's a problem. If no mimeTypes.rdf entry exists for a content type, the operating systems default (as derived from the file extension on Windows for application/octet-stream types) is used. If it doesn't exist either, you should be presented with a generic "Open With/Save As" type of dialog.

Comment 9

[u52928]

(In reply to Loic from comment #7)
> And if you create a clean profile
> (https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/profile-manager-create-and-remove-
> firefox-profiles) on your XP machine and you load
> http://edu-net.net/media/sat-iphone/saturday.m4v what do you see?

Short answer: It did what it was supposed to do; it asked how I wanted to handle the file.

Long answer: My point is not that Fx is "generally broken". I just think that enabling users to add file types would help users when things don't work as expected. 

Of course I can't predict whether what I'm asking for will help when a profile is screwed up. 

Just for the record, I also tried to open the movie on my laptop, which is set up the same way as my desktop XP machine. The laptop, too, tried to open the movie with QuickTime.

Comment 10

[u52928]

(In reply to rsx11m from comment #8)
> (In reply to Joe Greenman from comment #6)
> > On my XP machine, m4v files don't even appear in the Windows Folder Options
> > -> File types list. Hmmm, perhaps this is the problem. 
> 
> ... If it doesn't exist either, you should be presented with a generic 
> "Open With/Save As" type of dialog.

I wasn't; this is why I opened this bug.

Comment 11

[Manuela Muntean [Away]]

WFM, with the latest Nightly (build ID: 20130922030201) on Win XP 32-bit.

Please reopen this bug, if anyone can still reproduce it. Thanks!