Mozilla Browser - Firefox is not handling text files the way I want it to!

Author

Firefox is not handling text files the way I want it to!

Janice P.

2006-12-09, 7:12 am

If I'm visiting a website and find a link to a text and click it, Firefox
displays the plain text. If I right click the link and ask for a new tab,
Firefox displays the text in the new tab. No problem.

But if I have a local page on my own computer I'm working with, and it has a
link to a local text file, Firefox launches the external text viewer. I
cannot make it display the text itself, like it does for online files. It
will offer to save it to disk, or launch it externally, but it will not
simply display the text like it does when I'm online, and this is what I
want it to do.

I am using Firefox 1.5.0.4

Help appreciated!

J.

Ed Mullen

2006-12-09, 1:11 pm

Janice P. wrote:
> If I'm visiting a website and find a link to a text and click it, Firefox
> displays the plain text. If I right click the link and ask for a new tab,
> Firefox displays the text in the new tab. No problem.
>
> But if I have a local page on my own computer I'm working with, and it has a
> link to a local text file, Firefox launches the external text viewer. I
> cannot make it display the text itself, like it does for online files. It
> will offer to save it to disk, or launch it externally, but it will not
> simply display the text like it does when I'm online, and this is what I
> want it to do.
>
> I am using Firefox 1.5.0.4

I think this is the same in 1.5.0.4. Check in Tools - Options -
Downloads, View & Edit Actions. Look for a listing for "txt" in the
Extension column. Highlight it and click Change Action. See what it
says. Either change the action or (in the previous dialog) remove the
action.

--
Ed Mullen
http://edmullen.net
http://mozilla.edmullen.net
http://abington.edmullen.net
It is bad luck to be superstitious.

Janice P.

2006-12-10, 7:12 am

On Sat, 09 Dec 2006 11:23:59 -0500, Ed Mullen <ed@edmullen.net> posted:

>Janice P. wrote:
>
>I think this is the same in 1.5.0.4. Check in Tools - Options -
>Downloads, View & Edit Actions. Look for a listing for "txt" in the
>Extension column. Highlight it and click Change Action. See what it
>says. Either change the action or (in the previous dialog) remove the
>action.

Thank you for your reply, Ed. There is no action for the .txt extension,
and I can't see how to add one.

J.

Scott Hildenbrand

2006-12-10, 1:11 pm

Here's the link you want to use for your text files...

file:///C:/Path_to_file/blah.txt

Scott--

Janice P. wrote:
> If I'm visiting a website and find a link to a text and click it, Firefox
> displays the plain text. If I right click the link and ask for a new tab,
> Firefox displays the text in the new tab. No problem.
>
> But if I have a local page on my own computer I'm working with, and it has a
> link to a local text file, Firefox launches the external text viewer. I
> cannot make it display the text itself, like it does for online files. It
> will offer to save it to disk, or launch it externally, but it will not
> simply display the text like it does when I'm online, and this is what I
> want it to do.
>
> I am using Firefox 1.5.0.4
>
> Help appreciated!
>
> J.
>

Janice P.

2006-12-10, 7:12 pm

On Sun, 10 Dec 2006 10:22:34 -0600, Scott Hildenbrand
<"scott[dunspamme]"@fuzzywolf.com> posted:

>Here's the link you want to use for your text files...
>
>file:///C:/Path_to_file/blah.txt
>
>Scott--

Thank you Scott, but that's desperately impractical. As soon as I finish
editing my local pages I need to upload them, sometimes several times a
week. I'd have to stop and locate all of the file:///c:/ links and convert
them to relative links, every time I wanted to upload them.

That's asking too much, even with a convenient search and replace. It seems
to me that Firefox should be able to display a text file with a normal
(relative) link, whether it's local or remote. Why it works for remote but
not for local is what's bothering me.

J.

Scott Hildenbrand

2006-12-10, 7:12 pm

It's common practice in all browsers to treat files like that when
viewed local when it comes to text links...

Here's a question, why do you need to view them local as well as
remotely? Perhaps it would be best to stick with pulling the data
remotely. Either way not sure why you're needing both.

At any rate that's the best way to do it that I can think of. The only
other option would be to iframe the txt files in html pages so that it's
forced to load the content as is.

Sorry I couldn't help.

Janice P. wrote:
> On Sun, 10 Dec 2006 10:22:34 -0600, Scott Hildenbrand
> <"scott[dunspamme]"@fuzzywolf.com> posted:
>
>
> Thank you Scott, but that's desperately impractical. As soon as I finish
> editing my local pages I need to upload them, sometimes several times a
> week. I'd have to stop and locate all of the file:///c:/ links and convert
> them to relative links, every time I wanted to upload them.
>
> That's asking too much, even with a convenient search and replace. It seems
> to me that Firefox should be able to display a text file with a normal
> (relative) link, whether it's local or remote. Why it works for remote but
> not for local is what's bothering me.
>
> J.
>

Janice P.

2006-12-10, 7:12 pm

On Sun, 10 Dec 2006 10:22:34 -0600, Scott Hildenbrand
<"scott[dunspamme]"@fuzzywolf.com> posted:

>Here's the link you want to use for your text files...
>
>file:///C:/Path_to_file/blah.txt
>
>Scott--

Just for argument's sake - and curiosity's sake, too - I did this. It does
not work. Firefox still forces the local text file into the external viewer
or offers to save it to disk, but will not display the text itself, like it
does when the link is on a web page.

This is frustrating!

J.

Scott Hildenbrand

2006-12-10, 7:12 pm

This is odd.. I just used <a href="./email.txt"> test2 </a> in a local
html file to test how it opens text files local and it worked fine,
opening it in the browser..

I looked through Content -> File Types and saw nothing about txt files
in there..

Checking Windows File Type settings showed the standard entry for txt
files, having an Open, Print and Print to entry; the open entry being
the following.

C:\WINDOWS\system32\NOTEPAD.EXE %1

Since IE uses what's in the Windows settings for File Types, there's no
settings in IE for it.

Really not sure what the problem is. BTW, what OS are you running (+SP,etc)?

Janice P. wrote:
> On Sun, 10 Dec 2006 10:22:34 -0600, Scott Hildenbrand
> <"scott[dunspamme]"@fuzzywolf.com> posted:
>
>
> Just for argument's sake - and curiosity's sake, too - I did this. It does
> not work. Firefox still forces the local text file into the external viewer
> or offers to save it to disk, but will not display the text itself, like it
> does when the link is on a web page.
>
> This is frustrating!
>
> J.
>

Timo Salmi

2006-12-10, 7:12 pm

Janice P. <none@nowhere.domain> wrote:
> Scott Hildenbrand posted:
[vbcol=seagreen]
> Just for argument's sake - and curiosity's sake, too - I did this. It
> does not work.

Actually, it does, if you already are reading a local page on your PC.
The easiest way to achieve that is to have the home page locally. Or you
can make the direction to the local disk utilizing the "Personal Toolbar
Folder". Used those tricks for ages, currently for 1.5.0.8. Also check
what you have in your "View & Edit Actions".

All the best, Timo

--
Prof. Timo Salmi ftp & http://garbo.uwasa.fi/ archives 193.166.120.5
Department of Accounting and Business Finance ; university of Vaasa
mailto:ts@uwasa.fi <http://www.uwasa.fi/~ts/> ; FIN-65101, Finland
Timo's FAQ materials at http://www.uwasa.fi/~ts/http/tsfaq.html

Ed Mullen

2006-12-10, 7:12 pm

Janice P. wrote:
> On Sun, 10 Dec 2006 10:22:34 -0600, Scott Hildenbrand
> <"scott[dunspamme]"@fuzzywolf.com> posted:
>
>
> Thank you Scott, but that's desperately impractical. As soon as I finish
> editing my local pages I need to upload them, sometimes several times a
> week. I'd have to stop and locate all of the file:///c:/ links and convert
> them to relative links, every time I wanted to upload them.
>
> That's asking too much, even with a convenient search and replace. It seems
> to me that Firefox should be able to display a text file with a normal
> (relative) link, whether it's local or remote. Why it works for remote but
> not for local is what's bothering me.
>
> J.
>

Nearly all of my Web pages are coded using relative links. The
directory structure is the same on my PC and Web server(s) so once I
finish editing locally I just FTP the files to the server. Works fine
in Firefox (and every other browser I have here).

- What O/S are you using?
- Try launching FF in Safe Mode and see if the problem goes away.
- Do you have any extensions installed that might be causing this?

--
Ed Mullen
http://edmullen.net
http://mozilla.edmullen.net
http://abington.edmullen.net
If you were driving your car at the speed of light, and you turned on
your headlights. Would anything happen?

Janice P.

2006-12-10, 7:12 pm

On Sun, 10 Dec 2006 13:29:17 -0600, Scott Hildenbrand
<"scott[dunspamme]"@fuzzywolf.com> posted:

>It's common practice in all browsers to treat files like that when
>viewed local when it comes to text links...

"Common practice in all browsers"?!??!? Huh? I have three browsers
installed on my system besides Firefox: Ancient netscape 3.03 does it
right. Newer netscape 7.2 does it right. Recent Internet Explorer 6.0 does
it right. So what makes you say it's common? I've never seen another
browser do it like Firefox does it.

>Here's a question, why do you need to view them local as well as
>remotely?

Scott! Why ask why? Let ME ask YOU why: Why is a text file any different
than an HTML file? What if I were to tell you that you should view the HTML
you're currently developing online, after you upload it, rather than locally
in your browser as you develop it? You'd think I was nuts. So how does the
fact that we're talking about plain text rather than HTML make it OK for you
to tell me the same thing?

>Perhaps it would be best to stick with pulling the data
>remotely.

Besides being just plain wrong - I covered this in the previous paragraph -
that's the kind of thinking that I will never go along with. You're
suggesting that I should adapt my human self to a deficiency in a program,
rather than expect the program to work properly. I find that preposterous.

>At any rate that's the best way to do it that I can think of. The only
>other option would be to iframe the txt files in html pages so that it's
>forced to load the content as is.

This won't work for me because my visitors can download the text file as
well, and when they get it, I want it to be pure plain text for them, not
something in an html wrapper.

>Sorry I couldn't help.

Thanks for trying! I appreciate it.

Anybody else? There has to be a solution. For Firefox to behave this way
is just plain annoying!

J.

Janice P.

2006-12-10, 7:12 pm

On Sun, 10 Dec 2006 15:22:58 -0500, Ed Mullen <ed@edmullen.net> posted:

>Nearly all of my Web pages are coded using relative links.

Same here. I almost never use an absolute link.

>The directory structure is the same on my PC and Web server(s) so once I
>finish editing locally I just FTP the files to the server. Works fine
>in Firefox (and every other browser I have here).

That's precisely what I'm doing, but Firefox will not display plain .txt
files that are local. Example: I have "index.html" that contains the link:

<a href="text.txt">Read the text</a>

Now, text.txt and index.html are in the same directory, naturally. So it's
the simplest possible relative link. On my computer, Firefox will not
display that text file. It will offer to launch it into Notepad, or it will
offer to save it to disk, but it will not display it.

Next, when I upload these same two files, unchanged, and then visit
index.html online, and click that same link, shazaam, it works. Firefox
displays the text. This is my whole point: I want it to behave that same
way locally.

>- What O/S are you using?

XP Pro SP2

>- Try launching FF in Safe Mode and see if the problem goes away.

I've never done that but I'll see if I can figure out how.

>- Do you have any extensions installed that might be causing this?

I've never installed any extension to Firefox whatsoever.

Thanks for helping!

J.

Janice P.

2006-12-10, 7:12 pm

On Sun, 10 Dec 2006 14:03:27 -0600, Scott Hildenbrand
<"scott[dunspamme]"@fuzzywolf.com> posted:

>This is odd.. I just used <a href="./email.txt"> test2 </a> in a local
>html file to test how it opens text files local and it worked fine,
>opening it in the browser..

Wow. So it IS possible!

>I looked through Content -> File Types and saw nothing about txt files
>in there..

Same here.

>Really not sure what the problem is. BTW, what OS are you running (+SP,etc)?

XP Pro SP2

I am a FireFox newbie, as you can tell. I just discovered it about a month
ago and I **love** it, and I appreciate what Mozilla is doing, but there are
a few things I need to find solutions for.

J.

Janice P.

2006-12-10, 7:12 pm

On Sun, 10 Dec 2006 22:04:04 +0200, Timo Salmi <ts@uwasa.fi> posted:

>Janice P. <none@nowhere.domain> wrote:
>
>
>Actually, it does, if you already are reading a local page on your PC.

No, it does not. Sorry!

Perhaps it SHOULD, and that's what I'm trying to find out, but at the
present, it doesn't.

Janice P.

2006-12-10, 7:12 pm

On Sun, 10 Dec 2006 15:22:58 -0500, Ed Mullen <ed@edmullen.net> posted:

>- Try launching FF in Safe Mode and see if the problem goes away.

Safe Mode had no effect on the issue.

j.

Scott Hildenbrand

2006-12-10, 7:12 pm

Yes, it should and seems to be with everyone else's install. Now, as to
finding out why yours is not I'm not sure.

Ok, last thoughts from me then I'm bowing out on trying to figure this
one out..

1.) Have you tried accessing the page(s) in IE and seeing how they
handle txt files as links?
a.) IE should open it directly in the page.. If not there's a deeper
problem than just FF.

2.) Perhaps you could uninstall 1.5 and move to using 2.0, which is now
public and out of beta.
a.) A fresh reinstall may help? Maybe it did not set something in the
orig install. Plus 2.0 is better IMO than 1.5... ;)

Really hope you get this figured out.. Let me know for sure about how IE
takes them.

Janice P. wrote:
> On Sun, 10 Dec 2006 22:04:04 +0200, Timo Salmi <ts@uwasa.fi> posted:
>
>
> No, it does not. Sorry!
>
> Perhaps it SHOULD, and that's what I'm trying to find out, but at the
> present, it doesn't.
>

Janice P.

2006-12-10, 7:12 pm

On Sun, 10 Dec 2006 15:12:22 -0600, Scott Hildenbrand
<"scott[dunspamme]"@fuzzywolf.com> posted:

>1.) Have you tried accessing the page(s) in IE and seeing how they
>handle txt files as links?

Yes. IE and two different versions of netscape handle them correctly.

>2.) Perhaps you could uninstall 1.5 and move to using 2.0, which is now
>public and out of beta.

I hadn't checked for an update. Thanks for the tip.

>Really hope you get this figured out.

Me too! Well just watch this thread

Timo Salmi

2006-12-10, 7:12 pm

Janice P. <none@nowhere.domain> wrote:
> Timo Salmi <ts@uwasa.fi> posted:
> No, it does not. Sorry!

Yes, it does! Exactly the way I told it does. You either have some
crucial configuration difference or failed to follow my explanation on
how it is done. Either way, it works on my XP SP2 with Firefox 1.5.0.8.
This does not mean that you have an unsolved problem on your
system. But the problem is neither absolute nor universal.

> Perhaps it SHOULD, and that's what I'm trying to find out, but at the
> present, it doesn't.

Did you really try it the way I suggested?

All the best, Timo

--
Prof. Timo Salmi ftp & http://garbo.uwasa.fi/ archives 193.166.120.5
Department of Accounting and Business Finance ; university of Vaasa
mailto:ts@uwasa.fi <http://www.uwasa.fi/~ts/> ; FIN-65101, Finland
Timo's FAQ materials at http://www.uwasa.fi/~ts/http/tsfaq.html

Timo Salmi

2006-12-10, 7:12 pm

Timo Salmi <ts@uwasa.fi> wrote for Janice P.:
> Did you really try it the way I suggested?

To recount:

1) Type file:///c:/

2) The click any local text file that you can find by browsing your disk.

3) Make a local (I repeat LOCAL) html page where you have a
file:///c:/yourtext.txt link and click.

4) Tell me what the following link does for you
http://lipas.uwasa.fi/~ts/ts.asc

It is sraight text, even if it has a different extension. If your
Firefox does not show the text immediately (with no formatting), then
your XP SP2 Firefox 1.5.0.8 settings indeed differ from mine.

All the best, Timo

--
Prof. Timo Salmi ftp & http://garbo.uwasa.fi/ archives 193.166.120.5
Department of Accounting and Business Finance ; university of Vaasa
mailto:ts@uwasa.fi <http://www.uwasa.fi/~ts/> ; FIN-65101, Finland
Timo's FAQ materials at http://www.uwasa.fi/~ts/http/tsfaq.html

Janice P.

2006-12-11, 1:14 am

On Sun, 10 Dec 2006 23:30:28 +0200, Timo Salmi <ts@uwasa.fi> posted:

>Yes, it does!

Perhaps we had better define the word "it". IT does not work that way, when
IT is my machine. If your "it" works that way, fine. My "it" does not.

>1) Type file:///c:/

I covered this in another post. This is not a solution, it's a band-aid at
best, and not a very sticky one. I am developing my pages locally just like
I always have. When I have them where I want them, I upload them. I'm not
going to stop and change a bunch of links fron "File:///c:/blahblah" every
time I go to upload my files.

Thanks for trying to help.

J.

Scott Hildenbrand

2006-12-11, 1:14 am

>> Yes, it does!
>
> Perhaps we had better define the word "it". IT does not work that way, when
> IT is my machine. If your "it" works that way, fine. My "it" does not.

... LOL

>
> I covered this in another post. This is not a solution, it's a band-aid at
> best, and not a very sticky one. I am developing my pages locally just like
> I always have. When I have them where I want them, I upload them. I'm not
> going to stop and change a bunch of links fron "File:///c:/blahblah" every
> time I go to upload my files.

Besides, you said that way doesn't work either. So there's a deeper
problem somewhere. Just a matter of finding it..

Here's something I found... goto about :config in your address bar.
Filter by txt... I have NO clue what the settings are, but mine is set
to header: 1 structs: true..

*shrugs*

> Thanks for trying to help.
>
> J.
>

Lukan

2006-12-11, 1:14 am

> Thanks for trying! I appreciate it.

Could have fooled me.

Timo Salmi

2006-12-11, 1:14 am

Janice P. wrote:
> I covered this in another post. This is not a solution, it's a
> band-aid at best, and not a very sticky one. I am developing my
> pages locally ...

"Tell me what the following link does for you
http://lipas.uwasa.fi/~ts/ts.asc

It is sraight text, even if it has a different extension. If your
Firefox does not show the text immediately (with no formatting), then
your XP SP2 Firefox 1.5.0.8 settings indeed differ from mine."

All the best, Timo

--
Prof. Timo Salmi ftp & http://garbo.uwasa.fi/ archives 193.166.120.5
Department of Accounting and Business Finance ; university of Vaasa
mailto:ts@uwasa.fi <http://www.uwasa.fi/~ts/> ; FIN-65101, Finland
Timo's FAQ materials at http://www.uwasa.fi/~ts/http/tsfaq.html

Janice P.

2006-12-11, 7:12 am

On Sun, 10 Dec 2006 22:16:49 -0600, Scott Hildenbrand
<"scott[dunspamme]"@fuzzywolf.com> posted:

>Besides, you said that way doesn't work either.

It doesn't, and that's what Timo doesn't seem to understand. He keeps
insisting it does work. My point is that it does NOT work... here, on my
machine. And even if it did, it would be extremely impractical.

>Here's something I found... goto about :config in your address bar.
>Filter by txt... I have NO clue what the settings are, but mine is set
>to header: 1 structs: true..

That's the first place I went, and my settings are the same:

converter.html2txt.header_strategy default integer 1
converter.html2txt.structs default boolean true

J.

Janice P.

2006-12-11, 7:12 am

>"Tell me what the following link does for you
>http://lipas.uwasa.fi/~ts/ts.asc

It displays your public key. It would display it if it had the .txt
extension, too. However, when I change my local text file to .asc and
change the link accordingly, then click the link, it works properly. So in
local files Firefox will display the .asc file but not the .txt file,
whereas online, it will display both.

>It is sraight text, even if it has a different extension.

Yes, I'm seeing it correctly.

Now all I need is to make Firefox handle a local .txt file like it handles
an .asc file.

J.

Ed Mullen

2006-12-11, 1:11 pm

Janice P. wrote:
> On Sun, 10 Dec 2006 15:22:58 -0500, Ed Mullen <ed@edmullen.net> posted:
>
>
> Safe Mode had no effect on the issue.
>
> j.
>

I'm using XP Pro SP2 as well so there's something different in your
implementation of either XP, Firefox, or both. Just curious, if in FF
you File - Open File, navigate to the text file, does FF display it in
the browser window?

At any rate, here are a couple of other suggestions.

Suggestion 1: Create a new profile and see if that fixes things. If not:

Suggestion 2: Close Firefox completely and make sure no firefox.exe
process is left running in Task Manager (CTRL+SHIFT+ESC). If so, end
it. Go to your profile folder and rename the file mimeTypes.rdf to
mimeTypes.rdf.bak. Run FF and see if the problem still exists.

Suggestion 3: If that doesn't help I suggest uninstalling Firefox (your
profile will not be touched) and installing the latest release version
1.5.0.8 at:

<http://releases.mozilla.org/pub/moz....8/win32/en-US/>

Or, direct link to install file (right-click and choose Save Link As):

<http://releases.mozilla.org/pub/moz...p%201.5.0.8.exe>

--
Ed Mullen
http://edmullen.net
http://mozilla.edmullen.net
http://abington.edmullen.net
If toast always lands butter-side-down, and a cats always land on their
feet, what would happen if you strapped a piece of toast on the back of
a cat & dropped it?

Scott Hildenbrand

2006-12-11, 1:11 pm

Think Ed may be in the right direction. I opened the mime types file and
found the following for txt.

<RDF:Description RDF:about="urn:mimetype:text/plain"
NC:value="text/plain"
NC:editable="true"
NC:fileExtensions="txt"
NC:description="Text Document">
<NC:handlerProp RDF:resource="urn:mimetype:handler:text/plain"/>
</RDF:Description>

I hadn't even thought about there being a mime file.. hurm.. :}

Janice P. wrote:
> On Sun, 10 Dec 2006 22:16:49 -0600, Scott Hildenbrand
> <"scott[dunspamme]"@fuzzywolf.com> posted:
>
>
> It doesn't, and that's what Timo doesn't seem to understand. He keeps
> insisting it does work. My point is that it does NOT work... here, on my
> machine. And even if it did, it would be extremely impractical.
>
>
> That's the first place I went, and my settings are the same:
>
> converter.html2txt.header_strategy default integer 1
> converter.html2txt.structs default boolean true
>
> J.
>

Timo Salmi

2006-12-11, 1:11 pm

Janice P. wrote:
> that's what Timo doesn't seem to understand.

Perhaps I should just let go your perception of my faculties.

Yet this much should be clear. You have a problem on your system. No
doubt about that. I don't have the same problem on mine, nor have
obviously the others. This means that the problem is particular to your
configuration. When one (yours truly) can't reproduce the problem on
one's own machine, it makes helping much more difficult and partly
guesswork. It also means that the problem is not universal, but caused
by special circumstances. Which circumstances, that still remains
unclear despite the efforts by several posters to help.

All the best, Timo

--
Prof. Timo Salmi ftp & http://garbo.uwasa.fi/ archives 193.166.120.5
Department of Accounting and Business Finance ; university of Vaasa
mailto:ts@uwasa.fi <http://www.uwasa.fi/~ts/> ; FIN-65101, Finland
Timo's FAQ materials at http://www.uwasa.fi/~ts/http/tsfaq.html

Janice P.

2006-12-11, 7:12 pm

On Mon, 11 Dec 2006 20:54:30 +0200, Timo Salmi <ts@uwasa.fi> posted:

>You have a problem on your system.

I think that is correct.

>This means that the problem is particular to your
>configuration.

Fair enough.

>Which circumstances, that still remains
>unclear despite the efforts by several posters to help.

Right, and I appreciate that help. I just don't like being told "Oh yes it
DOES work!" when in fact, it does not... "it" being my install of Firefox,
the subject of my original post.

J.

Janice P.

2006-12-11, 7:12 pm

On Mon, 11 Dec 2006 17:47:37 +1300, Lukan <lukan@mail.org> posted:

>Could have fooled me.

I'm not surprised... that doesn't take much, with some people

Janice P.

2006-12-11, 7:12 pm

On Mon, 11 Dec 2006 09:46:10 -0500, Ed Mullen <ed@edmullen.net> posted:

>Just curious, if in FF
>you File - Open File, navigate to the text
>file, does FF display it in
>the browser window?

No, it offers to launch it or save it to disk, exactly the same as when I
click a link to a local text file. It simply will not display a local file
with the .txt extension no matter how I get there.

>Suggestion 1: Create a new profile and see if that fixes things. If not:

I've never done this but I just went and found instructions so I'll try it
next.

>rename the file mimeTypes.rdf to
>mimeTypes.rdf.bak. Run FF and see if the problem
>still exists.

I did this first because it was fast and easy, but it had no effect.

>Suggestion 3: If that doesn't help I suggest uninstalling Firefox (your
>profile will not be touched) and installing the latest release version

OK. I'm saving that for a last resort, just because I tend to want to get
to the bottom of these things

Janice P.

2006-12-11, 7:12 pm

Lukan

2006-12-11, 7:12 pm

> Right, and I appreciate that help. I just don't like being told "Oh yes it
> DOES work!" when in fact, it does not... "it" being my install of Firefox,
> the subject of my original post.

...... but it does work.

Timo Salmi

2006-12-12, 1:13 am

Janice P. <none@nowhere.domain> wrote:
> Timo Salmi <ts@uwasa.fi> posted:
(snip)

> Right, and I appreciate that help. I just don't like being told "Oh
> yes it DOES work!" when in fact, it does not... "it" being my
> install of Firefox, the subject of my original post.

Dear Janice,

Depending on one's angle that also could be construed as "biting the
hand that feeds one". Anyway, I am off the subject, since I obviously
did not have a satisfactory solution for you and I am not motivated
enough to swim upstream. But sincerely hoping your "it" somehow will be
resolved. Aanyway, at least we learned that the problem is not universal
but particular, even if being told so apparently bugged you to no end.

Take care.

All the best, Timo

--
Prof. Timo Salmi ftp & http://garbo.uwasa.fi/ archives 193.166.120.5
Department of Accounting and Business Finance ; university of Vaasa
mailto:ts@uwasa.fi <http://www.uwasa.fi/~ts/> ; FIN-65101, Finland
Timo's FAQ materials at http://www.uwasa.fi/~ts/http/tsfaq.html

Janice P.

2006-12-12, 1:13 am

On Tue, 12 Dec 2006 06:40:35 +0200, Timo Salmi <ts@uwasa.fi> posted:

>I am off the subject

Timo, let's not have an adversary relationship, please? If you were the
local auto mechanic and I brought you my car...

"My car doesn't work."

"Oh, yes, it does!"

"No, it doesn't. I turn the key and nothing happens."

"But it DOES work! Just look at mine! Mine works!"

"I'm not talking about yours. I'm talking about MINE. It doesn't work."

"But... it DOES work!"

.... and so on, and so forth. Can you see why I'm frustrated with our
exchange? I've agreed with you that mine *should* work, like yours works,
but still, it doesn't work. Where are we not seeing eye to eye?

It's all moot now because Ed's suggestion to create a new profile worked.
My install of Firefox is now behaving normally. So please don't go away
mad. Different people respond differently to various styles of input,
that's all. I suppose the next time I need raise this question is if it
stops working in this new profile, and if that happens, I'll be back in here
trying to get to the bottom of it. I hope you'll still be willing to help.

J.

Janice P.

2006-12-12, 1:13 am

On Mon, 11 Dec 2006 09:46:10 -0500, Ed Mullen <ed@edmullen.net> posted:

>Suggestion 1: Create a new profile and see if that fixes things.

No more calls, we have a winner! Thank you, Ed.

Now it occurs to me that maybe, when I first installed Firefox, it handled
the local text links properly, and then stopped doing so. I'm not sure,
though. I was still relying heavily on netscape 7 at the time. Now I'll
watch closely and if Firefox suddenly starts acting up with local text files
again, I'll note exactly what was going on at the time and report back here.

From an earlier post:

>Check in Tools - Options - Downloads, View & Edit Actions.
>Look for a listing for "txt" in the Extension column.

Out of curiosity I did this again just now, and although it's now working
properly, there is still nothing in this section about .txt files. FYI.

Sincere thanks to everyone who spoke up to help.

J.

Janice P.

2006-12-12, 1:14 am

On Mon, 11 Dec 2006 09:42:42 -0600, Scott Hildenbrand
<"scott[dunspamme]"@fuzzywolf.com> posted:

>Think Ed may be in the right direction. I opened the mime types file and
>found the following for txt.
>
> <RDF:Description RDF:about="urn:mimetype:text/plain"
> NC:value="text/plain"
> NC:editable="true"
> NC:fileExtensions="txt"
> NC:description="Text Document">
> <NC:handlerProp RDF:resource="urn:mimetype:handler:text/plain"/>
> </RDF:Description>
>
>I hadn't even thought about there being a mime file.. hurm.. :}

Creating an all-new profile did indeed work. My local text files are being
handled normally. In my new profile, mimeTypes.rdf looks like this:

<?xml version="1.0"?>

<RDF xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#"
xmlns:NC="http://home.netscape.com/NC-rdf#"
xmlns:RDF="http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#">

<Description about="urn:mimetypes">
<NC:MIME-types>
<Seq about="urn:mimetypes:root">
</Seq>
</NC:MIME-types>
</Description>
</RDF>

But in my old profile, it's a 150 line beast of similar content. I wonder
how it got like that? I haven't done that much tweaking. I think the only
thing I had ever done with about :config was disable the audio nag on a
failed find. But this time, I've started a text file and will log every
change I ever make so I can always try to get back to the root of a problem.

Many thanks for your help, Scott.

J.

Scott Hildenbrand

2006-12-12, 1:12 pm

Glad to hear your problem is fixed. Question on the old file, was it
just missing a pile of values, or was the end of the file turnicated?

Janice P. wrote:
> On Mon, 11 Dec 2006 09:42:42 -0600, Scott Hildenbrand
> <"scott[dunspamme]"@fuzzywolf.com> posted:
<snip>
>
> Creating an all-new profile did indeed work. My local text files are being
> handled normally. In my new profile, mimeTypes.rdf looks like this:
>
<snip>
> But in my old profile, it's a 150 line beast of similar content. I wonder
> how it got like that? I haven't done that much tweaking. I think the only
> thing I had ever done with about :config was disable the audio nag on a
> failed find. But this time, I've started a text file and will log every
> change I ever make so I can always try to get back to the root of a problem.
>
> Many thanks for your help, Scott.
>
> J.
>

Janice P.

2006-12-12, 1:12 pm

On Tue, 12 Dec 2006 09:58:14 -0600, Scott Hildenbrand
<"scott[dunspamme]"@fuzzywolf.com> posted:

>Question on the old file, was it
>just missing a pile of values, or was the end of the file turnicated?

It doesn't seem to be truncated. It's about 150 lines and ends with

</RDF:RDF>

whereas the one in the new profile is only 13 lines and ends with

</RDF>

Of course, knowing nothing about what purpose this mimetypes file serves, I
have no idea what the above facts indicate

Ed Mullen

2006-12-12, 7:13 pm

Janice P. wrote:
> On Mon, 11 Dec 2006 09:46:10 -0500, Ed Mullen <ed@edmullen.net> posted:
>
>
> No more calls, we have a winner! Thank you, Ed.
>
> Now it occurs to me that maybe, when I first installed Firefox, it handled
> the local text links properly, and then stopped doing so. I'm not sure,
> though. I was still relying heavily on netscape 7 at the time. Now I'll
> watch closely and if Firefox suddenly starts acting up with local text files
> again, I'll note exactly what was going on at the time and report back here.
>
> From an earlier post:
>
>
> Out of curiosity I did this again just now, and although it's now working
> properly, there is still nothing in this section about .txt files. FYI.
>
> Sincere thanks to everyone who spoke up to help.
>
> J.
>

Glad it worked out. A bit about MIME which you mentioned in another post.

When you request a page from a server with a browser the server (should)
send the file including the correct MIME type which identifies what type
of file is being sent. According to the standards with which the Web
operates, this enables the browser to know what to do with the file.
e.g., open it in the browser window, use a plugin, pass it to an
external program (such as a media player), etc. Some MIME types are
built into the browsers as standard. Others are not. When Firefox
encounters a MIME type it doesn't understand it will present you with a
dialog asking you what to do with the file (Save to disk, open with a
specified program). As you get these prompts and respond to them, the
information is recorded in the mimeTypes.rdf file for future reference.

It is conceivable that a Web server sends a requested file with an
incorrect MIME type. It's possible that your problem was caused by a
text file being sent with a MIME type of something else, FF didn't know
what to do, and you, knowing it was a text file, told FF to use your
external text viewer to see the file. That action was then recorded in
your mimeTypes.rdf file and FF dutifully performed that action.

http://mozilla.edmullen.net/moz_mime.html

--
Ed Mullen
http://edmullen.net
http://mozilla.edmullen.net
http://abington.edmullen.net
Boycott shampoo! Demand the REAL poo!

Leonidas Jones

2006-12-12, 7:13 pm

Janice P. wrote:
> On Tue, 12 Dec 2006 09:58:14 -0600, Scott Hildenbrand
> <"scott[dunspamme]"@fuzzywolf.com> posted:
>
>
> It doesn't seem to be truncated. It's about 150 lines and ends with
>
> </RDF:RDF>
>
> whereas the one in the new profile is only 13 lines and ends with
>
> </RDF>
>
> Of course, knowing nothing about what purpose this mimetypes file serves, I
> have no idea what the above facts indicate

>
> J.
>

http://kb.mozillazine.org/MimeTypes.rdf

Lee

Janice P.

2006-12-13, 1:14 am

On Tue, 12 Dec 2006 15:11:09 -0500, Ed Mullen <ed@edmullen.net> posted:

>As you get these prompts and respond to them, the
>information is recorded in the mimeTypes.rdf file for future reference.

Ah! So that's why my mimetypes.rdf had gotten so big.

>It is conceivable that a Web server sends a requested file with an
>incorrect MIME type. It's possible that your problem was caused by a
>text file being sent with a MIME type of something else, FF didn't know
>what to do, and you, knowing it was a text file, told FF to use your
>external text viewer to see the file.

Indeed.

>That action was then recorded in
>your mimeTypes.rdf file and FF dutifully performed that action.

That is a most clear and understandable possible explanation, Ed. Thank
you. Now I would suggest to the Firefox developer programmers that they add
a new option for an unknown type: Rather than save it to disk, or launch an
external viewer, how about "Go ahead and display it as plain text!"

Or how about, add a tickbox for "treat it such and such a way this time, but
ASK ME AGAIN NEXT TIME!" Instead of making it permanent and burying it in
some obscure file fifteen directories deep in the C: drive so I have to go
looking for help in the newsgroups and end up creating a whole new profile
and losing all my passwords and image blocks and about :config preferences
and bookmarks and EVERYTHING! DAMMIT!

Then I'd cool off and thank them for a great free product

Janice P.

2006-12-13, 1:14 am

On Tue, 12 Dec 2006 23:36:34 GMT, Leonidas Jones <Cap1MD@att.net> posted:

>http://kb.mozillazine.org/MimeTypes.rdf

Thank you for the link, Lee. That's a steep learning curve for a person
like me, though.

J.

Ed Mullen

2006-12-13, 1:11 pm

Janice P. wrote:
> On Tue, 12 Dec 2006 15:11:09 -0500, Ed Mullen <ed@edmullen.net> posted:
>
>
> Ah! So that's why my mimetypes.rdf had gotten so big.
>
>
> Indeed.
>
>
> That is a most clear and understandable possible explanation, Ed. Thank
> you.

Happy to help.

> Now I would suggest to the Firefox developer programmers that they add
> a new option for an unknown type: Rather than save it to disk, or launch an
> external viewer, how about "Go ahead and display it as plain text!"

Not a good idea. In the scenario I described a non-text file could be
served as an unknown type. If you elect to display that in the browser
it would serve, usually, no purpose and, probably, result in no readable
text in your browser.

> Or how about, add a tickbox for "treat it such and such a way this time, but
> ASK ME AGAIN NEXT TIME!"

Actually, the first time you click an unknown file type the dialog
Firefox presents includes a check box labeled: "Do this automatically
for files like this from now on." If you do NOT check it you will
always be asked what to do.

> Instead of making it permanent and burying it in
> some obscure file fifteen directories deep in the C: drive so I have to go
> looking for help in the newsgroups and end up creating a whole new profile
> and losing all my passwords and image blocks and about :config preferences
> and bookmarks and EVERYTHING! DAMMIT!

Well, in SeaMonkey (previously the Mozilla Suite) there is still an
editor for MIME types (called Helper Applications) which gives one much
more flexibility in dealing with MIME types. It's one of my pet peeves
that such things were removed from Firefox to, ostensibly, make it
simpler for non-technical users.

Also, if you still have your original profile on disk, simply rename its
mimeTypes.rdf file to mimeTypes.rdf.bak, restart Firefox and see if that
fixes the problem. I think I suggested that at one point but don't
recall if you tried it or not. If that doesn't work you can always
migrate your various settings from your old profile to the new one where
the original problem is fixed. See:

http://kb.mozillazine.org/Migrating...o_a_new_profile

> Then I'd cool off and thank them for a great free product

Cool off anyway, life is too short! ;-) And thank them too: It /is/ a
great product. No software is perfect but with patience and practice
one can most often come to terms with the quirks. Many of the regular
posters here maintain sites that contain a wide variety of tips and
tricks as well as answers to common issues with Mozilla-based software.
Spending sometime reading these pages and learning about how the
programs work is well worth the investment. Links are usually in our
signatures (see below).

--
Ed Mullen
http://edmullen.net
http://mozilla.edmullen.net
http://abington.edmullen.net
A truly wise man never plays leapfrog with a unicorn.

Janice P.

2006-12-15, 1:13 am

On Wed, 13 Dec 2006 09:56:01 -0500, Ed Mullen <ed@edmullen.net> posted:

>Janice P. wrote:
>
>Not a good idea. In the scenario I described a non-text file could be
>served as an unknown type. If you elect to display that in the browser
>it would serve, usually, no purpose and, probably, result in no readable
>text in your browser.

But what could it hurt?

>It's one of my pet peeves
>that such things were removed from Firefox to, ostensibly, make it
>simpler for non-technical users.

That right there is, to me, the bane of modern computing. They keep dumbing
it down to the point it becomes aggravating for an intelligent person.

J.