It Is Impossible to Create File Associations for Some File Types in Firefox

 

Summary

In this example we are going to focus on the File Type Associations function in Firefox. We will verify that it works with different file types. The web browser Mozilla Firefox v0.9RC1 allows the user to associate actions with file types, so the next time the browser encounters a specified file type, it will perform the associated action. The problem is that this cannot be used for all file types (Source: bugzilla.mozilla.org).

Application Description

Mozilla Firefox is a web browser developed by mozilla.org. It can be used to read HTML documents online or on the local machine, check email, download files, and others. It has built in Tab browsing, pop-up blocking, image blocking and so on (Source: www.mozilla.org).

For this test we will focus on File Types Associations.

When Firefox encounters a file that is not plain text, it gives three options to the user - to open the file with the default application for that file type (determined by the operating system), or specify the application to open the file, or save the file to the hard disk. By checking the Do this automatically box the user adds a new file type association, and the next time this file is encountered Firefox will perform the specified action without asking the user again.

To change the specified action or remove it the user has to open the Options -> Downloads dialog (shown in the picture below).

Test Design

This example demonstrates the use of Function Testing. To test File Types Associations we can use Firefox to navigate to a web page or a directory on the local computer that contains files of different types.

We will test File Types Associations by opening files and creating default actions for them.

We would expect that the next time we encounter files of this type the default action, specified by us, will be performed by Firefox.

Performing the Test

  1. For our tests we will need files of different types. Just to make it easier, let's put them in the same folder. abc.test is just a copy of test.exe, but with changed file name.


  2. Start Firefox and navigate to the folder that contains the test files.


  3. Click on abc.test. The Opening dialog box appears, but the check box is grayed out. This means that we cannot create an association and the next time we encounter the same file type we have to go through the same dialog box again. Let's try to change it from the options.


  4. The File Types options allow the user to Change Action and Remove associations (an entry has to be highlighted first), but there is no button for adding a new association.

Results/Relevance

The result is that there is no way for the user to specify an action for an unknown file type (and some less common known ones), but it works for well known ones (e.g. .mp3 or .exe (see related tests)). This behavior is unnatural and confusing for the user because if the user wants the application to always save a file, it shouldn't matter whether the file has .exe or .tmp extension.

Similar Tests/Additional Notes

Repeating the same test with a file that has .tmp extension shows that the application cannot create association for .tmp either.

We can repeat the same test with the rest of the files. For example, click on test.mp3.

This time the check box is available, so select it. Click OK.

Clicking again on test.mp3 automatically saves to disk, just as expected.

Let's repeat the same test for test.exe. The check box is again available. Select it and click OK.

Again just as expected, the next time we click on test.exe in the browser the file is automatically saved.

We can also repeat these tests with files with files that are posted online. The results are the same.

Configuration

Testing mozilla.org's Firefox 0.9 RC1 on:

Created 11 June 2004 for the CSTER

All images and written material ©Copyright Georgi Nikolov 2004

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