firefox opens files read-only

Bug #229952 reported by Randall
14
This bug affects 1 person
Affects Status Importance Assigned to Milestone
firefox (Ubuntu)
Invalid
Undecided
Unassigned
firefox-3.0 (Ubuntu)
Invalid
Undecided
Unassigned

Bug Description

Binary package hint: firefox

this bug relates to #90378 but since that is marked as fix-released i open a new one.
please let me know if this is not the correct way of doing this.
Firefox3 Hardy Heron.

firstly i actually consider this new behavior as a bug as it does not solve what it intended to do in the first place.
second i' m not sure if its desirable to want this in the first place.

if you don' t save your file, you loose it. that is something i can explain to someone and makes sense, besides firefox opens it from a read only place (the internet) so you can always retrieve the original.

i can understand that the "SAVE" button should not be available and only the "SAVE AS" or should default to a "SAVE WHERE" dialog when in /tmp but this workaround simply doesn' t cut it in my opinion.

i find this highly annoying and disruptive behavior, i have 70 users depending on firefox and a web application that makes contracts, invoices, custom documents etc.... opening in openoffice.org

1 they don' t understand why their document is read-only all of a sudden
2 using the "edit" button gives two confusing messages that look like error messages
3 after they used the "edit" button and went through the two errors, the file itself is still not saved anywhere else the /mp
4 the web application gives files an understandable name, e.g contract-number-5642 (where this number is the actual contract number) and it should be saved this way, after the "edit" button it is untitled25455454545

I' m pretty confident that i am not the only one who sees it this way so i ope this gets fixed in Hardy but i might be wrong off course so i will try to find a way to let firefox3 return to its default behavior or use firefox2 instead.

Revision history for this message
Nikolaus Rath (nikratio) wrote :

> if you don' t save your file, you loose it. that is something i can explain
> to someone and makes sense, > besides firefox opens it from a read only
> place (the internet) so you can always retrieve the original.

The point is that even if you save the file, you loose it. With the current behaviour,
you at least notice that something is wrong. Hence I don't think that reverting to the
old behaviour is an option. As you say yourself, the internet is read-only, hence it
is only natural that the file is also read-only when you edit it.

Concerning you web application, your description makes it very difficult to
understand what the problem actually is, but it sounds more like a bug is
the web application.

Revision history for this message
jsandeo (jsandeo) wrote :

This is not a bug, strictly speaking, but it is actually a usability problem.
The problem is that the behavior that a user expects when downloading an OpenOffice document is: it opens in OpenOffice, and then one can do with it whatever one normally does with OpenOffice documents (modify it, keep it, print it, whatever).
Users learn, by their browsing experience, that when they want to keep something (be it a web page, a pdf file, a sound file, whatever), they must first download it and then do a "save as".
They also learn, by their desktop experience, that when OpenOffice opens a document, they can do with it whatever they want.
Anything that breaks those well learnt, expected easy behaviors will be annoying.
Check for instance the behavior of the MacOS platform (the Apple bunch is pretty good at usability). Dang, even Microsoft got it right!

By the way... if the web is read-only, then there is no way you can loose the document: it is on the web.

Revision history for this message
Andreas Moog (ampelbein) wrote : Reassigning issue to firefox-3

Thank you for your bugreport. Since this seems to be an issue with
version 3 of the firefox browser, I'm reassigning the package.

 affects ubuntu/firefox
 status invalid

 affects ubuntu/firefox-3.0
 status new

Changed in firefox:
status: New → Invalid
Revision history for this message
Martin Mai (mrkanister-deactivatedaccount-deactivatedaccount) wrote :

We were wondering if this is still an issue for you. Can you try with the latest Ubuntu release? Thanks in advance.

Changed in firefox-3.0:
status: New → Incomplete
Revision history for this message
jsandeo (jsandeo) wrote : Re: [Bug 229952] Re: firefox opens files read-only

Yes, this is still an issue for me.
My Ubuntu system is up to date.

My Firefox version as displayed in the "Help -> About Mozilla Firefox" menu:
Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.9.0.5) Gecko/2008121621
Ubuntu/8.04 (hardy) Firefox/3.0.5

Regards,
Jose

On Thu, Jan 22, 2009 at 5:22 PM, Martin Mai <email address hidden> wrote:
> We were wondering if this is still an issue for you. Can you try with
> the latest Ubuntu release? Thanks in advance.
>
> ** Changed in: firefox-3.0 (Ubuntu)
> Status: New => Incomplete
>
> --
> firefox opens files read-only
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/229952
> You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
> of the bug.
>

Revision history for this message
JDS (jsilveronnelly) wrote :

My take on this issue: I think it should at least be a configurable option somewhere.

Whenever I download an OO doc from the web, via FireFox, sometimes it would be nice to just be able to manipulate the document without having to "Save As" first.

There are MANY instances where I want to just take a peek at data or information in a spreadsheet or writer doc, and even move it around or highlight something, and THEN JUST THROW IT AWAY! But in this case, if I "Save As" first, I am actually not doing what I want. I don't want to save the thing at all! But OpenOffice in read-only mode doesn't even let you highlight text to copy and paste, which is a huge friggin pain in the ass.

I think that imposing this read-only restriction on downloaded docs is a bit of a misfeature, at the very least, and makes assumptions about the users intent with a particular type of file.

Thank you and good night.

Revision history for this message
Nikolaus Rath (nikratio) wrote :

It seems to me that what you are actually complaining about is the way Openoffice handles read-only files. The proper way to fix this is to change the OpenOffice behaviour. Making firefox pretend to OpenOffice that the file is writeable may work around this particular problem, it it is bound to introduce new ones. So personally I would report this as a bug in OpenOffice. Many other programs allow to edit read-only files.

Revision history for this message
JDS (jsilveronnelly) wrote :

It turns out that I agree with you, Nikolaus, especially given that it seems the issue is on OO's end.

Anyway, I found a workaround that is fine for my needs: Click on the "Edit this File" button in OpenOffice. (Between the PDF icon and the Email icon on the normal toolbar) and it pretty much does what I want. The problem was that it was in no way obvious that this icon even existed, let alone would do what I want it to.

THanks!

Revision history for this message
jsandeo (jsandeo) wrote :

Even better:
http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?p=3836465#p3836465

Jose

On Tue, Feb 24, 2009 at 7:01 PM, Jeffrey Silverman
<email address hidden> wrote:
> It turns out that I agree with you, Nikolaus, especially given that it
> seems the issue is on OO's end.
>
> Anyway, I found a workaround that is fine for my needs: Click on the
> "Edit this File" button in OpenOffice. (Between the PDF icon and the
> Email icon on the normal toolbar) and it pretty much does what I want.
> The problem was that it was in no way obvious that this icon even
> existed, let alone would do what I want it to.
>
> THanks!
>
> --
> firefox opens files read-only
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/229952
> You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
> of the bug.
>

Revision history for this message
cajunlibra (rossmkennedy) wrote :

I am running Ubuntu Jaunty with FF 3.0.10 and have the same issue. I have IE6 installed via Crossover Pro and OO opens the files normally when downloaded from IE6.

Revision history for this message
xteejx (xteejx-deactivatedaccount) wrote :

Thanks for reporting this to us, but I don't believe this is a bug. Since this seems to be a request for change of defaults, you are invited to share this idea on http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/ where it can be voted on by the community for inclusion (or not) into Ubuntu. Thank you.

Changed in firefox-3.0 (Ubuntu):
status: Incomplete → Invalid
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