JDK-6644623 : Java Console missing from FireFox3
  • Type: Enhancement
  • Component: deploy
  • Sub-Component: plugin
  • Affected Version: 6
  • Priority: P4
  • Status: Closed
  • Resolution: Won't Fix
  • OS: windows_vista
  • CPU: x86
  • Submitted: 2007-12-21
  • Updated: 2010-04-04
  • Resolved: 2008-05-15
Related Reports
Relates :  
JDK-6760484 - java console opens when using FF3 on Vista
Description
A DESCRIPTION OF THE REQUEST :
It isn't clear how to open the Java Console using the new plugin and FireFox3. The "Tools | Java Console" menu option is missing. One shouldn't necessarily rely on the tray icon because it might be disabled using the Java Console Panel.

A second related issue is that it isn't clear how one opens the Java Control Panel from within Windows Vista. It does not show up in FireFox3 or the Windows control panel.

JUSTIFICATION :
Ease of use for applet developers
Comments
EVALUATION We are not going to support this menu option going forward. As described above there are alternate mechanisms for accessing the Java Console. Closing as "Will Not Fix".
15-05-2008
EVALUATION Root cause is because we write Java Console directly to <FF_home>/extensions/ so that everyone on the system can see it. Starting with FF3, addon manager no longer takes addon/extension from vendor (non mozilla) who writes directly to <FF_home>/extensions/ (which is our Java Console case). Only addon written under <user_home>/Application Data/Mozilla/Firefox/Profiles/<profile_name>/extensions/ will be recognized. Rather than trying to find way to put the JC back in FF's Tools menu, we will obsolete JC access from the browser's Tools menu. Reasons: 1) With new Plugin, the JC should affiliated with each VM running. The concept of a single JC entry in the browser's Tool menu is therefore contradicting with new Plugin. 2) The JC extension designed back then has many flaws, one major headache was the fact that it's version tied with JRE version, and each can have a FF's version requirement different from one another. As FF's versioning progresses with time, this causes big hassle to manage the version for JC extensions. All version management for each outdated JC must be done manually on AMO, yet, failure to do so will result in "scary" warning received by user as they upgrade FF. 3) There's practically no way to both: making JC extension's versioning manageable while making extension itself global to all users on the system. These are contradicting requirements according to AMO rules and Mozilla had made various changes to prevent them from happening. 4) There's already many ways to access JC, including from Java Control Panel or from Java system tray icon or from deployment.properties' setting. We can document some more, and chances are, people who need JC would be knowledgeable enough to take on the few step to open up the JC. JC access from browser's Tools menu will also be obsolete for IE.
26-02-2008