972052 - Hidden Garmin Communication Plugin is no longer detected (even with always active)

Status: RESOLVED INCOMPLETE

(Tech Evangelism Graveyard :: Other, defect)

Description

[Henrik Skupin [:whimboo][⌚️UTC+2] (away 10/03 - 10/13)]

Since one of the below mentioned bugs have been fixed on mozilla-central I'm no longer able to use the Garmin Communication plugin to upload tracks from my Garmin device. It's not getting detected by the website, and even when I mark it as always active its not getting found. Given that I only use beta builds on that specific machine, I have noticed that yesterday after upgrading Firefox to 28.0b2. 

Pass: 20131122030202 (http://hg.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/rev/dbf94e314cde)
Fail: 20131123030208 (http://hg.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/rev/98aa428a392c)

Pushlog: http://hg.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/pushloghtml?fromchange=dbf94e314cde&tochange=98aa428a392c

Georg and Chris, is it clear which change could have been caused this? If not I can check the tinderbox builds tomorrow.



So we have bug 941714 and bug 757726 which could be responsible here.

Comment 1

[Benjamin Smedberg]

It's bug 757726.

Comment 2

[Chris Peterson [:cpeterson]]

whimboo: can you please post the Garmin plugin info and MIME Types from about:plugins? 

As a temporary workaround, you can add the Garmin plugin's name to the "plugins.enumerable_names" pref or just change the pref value to "*" (without quotes).

Comment 3

[Chris Peterson [:cpeterson]]

I don't have a Garmin device, but I installed the plugin. Here is the about:plugin info:

Garmin Communicator Plug-in Version 4.1.0.0

File: GarminGpsControl.plugin
Version: 4.1.0.0 Release

MIME Type                       Description             Suffixes
application/vnd-garmin.mygarmin Garmin GPS Control      mygarmin

Comment 4

[Chris Peterson [:cpeterson]]

I am moving this bug to Tech Evangelism because Garmin should fix their website.


The Garmin plugin detection code is here:
http://connect.garmin.com/resource/communicator-api/1.9.0.2/garmin/util/Util-PluginDetect.js?14.0.0.1

    detectGarminCommunicatorPlugin: function() {
        var pluginFound = PluginDetect.detectPlugin('Garmin Communicator');
        // if not found, try to detect with VisualBasic
        if(!pluginFound && detectableWithVB) {
            pluginFound = detectActiveXControl('GARMINAXCONTROL.GarminAxControl_t.1');
        }
        return pluginFound;     
    },

The PluginDetect.detectPlugin() function enumerates navigator.plugins. A simpler and more robust solution is

    detectGarminCommunicatorPlugin: function() {
        var mimeType = navigator.mimeTypes["application/vnd-garmin.mygarmin"];
        var pluginFound = (mimeType && mimeType.enabledPlugin);
        // if not found, try to detect with VisualBasic
        if(!pluginFound && detectableWithVB) {
            pluginFound = detectActiveXControl('GARMINAXCONTROL.GarminAxControl_t.1');
        }
        return pluginFound;     
    },

Comment 5

[Chris Peterson [:cpeterson]]

I submitted this bug report, with my contact info, to Garmin's "Report a Website Error" page and their support email account.

http://www8.garmin.com/contact-us/website/

Comment 6

[Sylvestre Ledru [:Sylvestre]]

Not tracking since it does not seem to me it is a firefox issue.

Comment 7

[Henrik Skupin [:whimboo][⌚️UTC+2] (away 10/03 - 10/13)]

Thanks Chris. That sounds like to be the reason here. I have also checked runtastic.com and they seem to have the same problem. So I have sent a request which is handled as https://help.runtastic.com/requests/48695.

Comment 8

[Henrik Skupin [:whimboo][⌚️UTC+2] (away 10/03 - 10/13)]

Sadly the site compatibility notes don't list the removal of the plugin enumeration yet. I requested to get this added via bug 934107.

Comment 9

[Chris Peterson [:cpeterson]]

(In reply to Henrik Skupin (:whimboo) from comment #8)
> Sadly the site compatibility notes don't list the removal of the plugin
> enumeration yet. I requested to get this added via bug 934107.

Plugin enumeration will not ship until Firefox 29. Plugin enumeration is only temporarily disabled in Beta 28 (to help find broken websites).

https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/Firefox/Releases/29/Site_Compatibility

Comment 10

[Chris Peterson [:cpeterson]]

I think we should track this Garmin bug for Firefox 29. If Garmin doesn't fix their website, we may consider adding their plugin to our plugin whitelist.

Comment 11

[Benjamin Kerensa [:bkerensa]]

(In reply to Chris Peterson (:cpeterson) from comment #10)
> I think we should track this Garmin bug for Firefox 29. If Garmin doesn't
> fix their website, we may consider adding their plugin to our plugin
> whitelist.

Chris, Have we reached out to Garmin already to try and address this?

Comment 12

[Chris Peterson [:cpeterson]]

bkerensa: yes. As noted in comment 5, I submitted a bug report (with my contact info) to Garmin's "Report a Website Error" page and their support email account. I have received no response. I'm not sure how to escalate, other than breaking with website. :\

Comment 13

[Henrik Skupin [:whimboo][⌚️UTC+2] (away 10/03 - 10/13)]

(In reply to Chris Peterson (:cpeterson) from comment #10)
> I think we should track this Garmin bug for Firefox 29. If Garmin doesn't
> fix their website, we may consider adding their plugin to our plugin
> whitelist.

As given above also other websites are using this plugin to allow users to upload their data. Not sure which others beside Garmin and Runtastic make use of it. But I also haven't heard anything more from 
Runtastic yet.

Comment 14

[Sylvestre Ledru [:Sylvestre]]

Chris, I guess you haven't heard back from them?

Comment 15

[Chris Peterson [:cpeterson]]

I haven't heard back from them, but I plan to disable the plugin detection change in Beta 29 (bug 952602) and then whitelist plugins for known broken sites in Aurora 30.

Comment 16

[Sylvestre Ledru [:Sylvestre]]

Thanks Chris. Since bug 952602 is fixed for 29, I am not going to tracking this one for 29.

Comment 17

[Henrik Skupin [:whimboo][⌚️UTC+2] (away 10/03 - 10/13)]

So I wanted to do some tests with this plugin in regards of e10s builds. I can remember we put this plugin on the whitelist. How can I temporary remove it? I cannot find anything in about:config. It's always present and no plugin icon is shown right next to the doorhanger for activation feedback. Has something changed here in Firefox itself what I'm not aware of? Chris, can you help me please?

Comment 18

[Chris Peterson [:cpeterson]]

Is your Garmin Communicator plugin still broken? My change to plugin detection has been disabled for a long time now because it broke too many websites.

The plugin enumeration whitelist still exists, but every plugin is implicitly whitelisted. See the "plugins.enumerable_names" pref. The current default value is "*" which means "allow all plugins to be enumerated (detected)". If you want to remove the Garmin Communicator from the whitelist, you can change "plugins.enumerable_names" to the empty string, which means no plugins can be enumerated.

Comment 19

[Henrik Skupin [:whimboo][⌚️UTC+2] (away 10/03 - 10/13)]

The pref contains the mentioned "*". So given that your code has been disabled, I might see something else which might be worth a new bug. Not sure why but plugins are no longer mentioned with the icon in the locationbar, and always active. So the plugin works and is detected.

Comment 20

[Georg Fritzsche [:gfritzsche]]

Click-to-play in e10s is still broken per bug 899347, you might run into that.

Comment 21

[Henrik Skupin [:whimboo][⌚️UTC+2] (away 10/03 - 10/13)]

No, my observation is with e10s disabled.

Comment 22

[Chris Peterson [:cpeterson]]

Henrik, in your comment 19, does "the plugin works and is detected" mean that the Garmin plugin is successfully uploading data from your Garmin device? Or do you mean that the plugin ought to work because the plugin detection is whitelisted ("*") and its click-to-play setting is "Always Activate"?

Comment 23

[Henrik Skupin [:whimboo][⌚️UTC+2] (away 10/03 - 10/13)]

FYI the old plugin is no longer maintained and has been replaced by Garmin Express. So not sure if we should keep this bug around.