[R] R search engine and Mozilla

[Marc Schwartz]

John Hendrickx wrote:
> Not really an R question but I'm hoping someone can help me out. I'm
> having problems with the R help page "The R language" and Mozilla 1.3
> with the Java 2 runtime environment 1.4.1_02 under Windows XP. The
> problems occur on the "Search Engine & Keywords" page. I can open two
> links, but after that links aren't recognized.
> 
> The problem seems to be javascript related. When I open the "Search
> Engine" page, the status bar shows "Applet SearchEngine started". If
> I move the cursur to a link, e.g. "attribute", the status bar shows
> the link refers to
> "javascript:SearchInIndex('attribute',false,true,false);") . 
> 
> If I click on the link, the page opens but the status bar shows
> "stopped" and the Mozilla JavaScript Console shows an error:
> 
> Error: [Exception... "Component returned failure code: 0x80004005
> (NS_ERROR_FAILURE) [nsIURI.hostPort]"  nsresult: "0x80004005
> (NS_ERROR_FAILURE)"  location: "JS frame ::
> chrome://navigator/content/nsBrowserStatusHandler.js :: anonymous ::
> line 350"  data: no]
> Source File: chrome://navigator/content/nsBrowserStatusHandler.js
> Line: 350
> 
> If I move the cursor over a link, it appears correctly on the status
> bar and I can open the link with no problems. But if I open e.g. the
> "attr" link, then go back, the links no longer work. The status bar
> shows nothing, right-clicking to open the link in a new window or tab
> doesn't work either. The JavaScript Console shows the same error as
> before and the following:
> 
> Security Error: Content at
> wyciwyg://0/file:///C:/PROGRA~1/R/rw1062/doc/html/search/SearchEngine.html
> may not load or link to
> file:///C:/PROGRA~1/R/rw1062/doc/html/search/SearchEngine.html.
> 
> Reloading the current page doesn't help, it just reproduces the above
> JavaScript errors.
> 
> A workaround is to use I.E., which works fine. However, I rather like
> Mozilla. Any suggestions on what the problem is here? Is this an R
> problem or should I report it to Mozilla.org? I'm afraid I'm
> unfamiliar with JavaScript or I might have a bit of a clue as to
> what's going on.
> 
> Advanced thanks for any help,
> John Hendrickx


This is a known Mozilla problem that has been raised here under Linux as 
well.  It has to do with the use of the 'wyciwyg' protocol to display 
dynamically generated pages in Mozilla. It results in the inability to 
use the Back and Forward buttons to retrieve such pages from Mozilla's 
cache.

One Bugzilla post that I saw suggested that this is actually an 
intentional security feature to prevent URL spoofing, hence the security 
warning that is given.

Lacking additional data, it is this difference (the wyciwyg protocol) 
that allows IE to work but not Mozilla, in this scenario.

The best "workaround" at this point is to use Mozilla's tabbed browsing 
feature to display the specific help page that you want to display from 
the search results.  Open that page in a new tab. Then just close that 
tab and go back to the main search page.

Perhaps this is something that will get resolved when the Moz folks make 
further progress on breaking out the browser, now known as Firebird 
(formerly Phoenix, though the use of Firebird results in other issues).

Time will tell.

HTH,

Marc