Ofline links in Flash Player take Firefox to howstuffworks.com ?

I was previewing a movie offline in Flash Player 6 and I clicked a link to a .jpg file stored in the same folder as the swf. At this point no browser was open.

Firefox 1.06 (my default browser) opened, with two tabs: one blank (active) and one behind it with http://www.howstuffworks.com/ in it.

It always works- if Firefox isn't already running when the links is clicked. Once it is running, links work as normal.

Has anyone else seen anything like this? Can't find anything on the Net about it. Weirdest thing I've ever seen Firefox do.

spyware?

homepage?

where did you get the image? maby its built in to goto the origin.

No, no, I made the image. And it happens when opening links to all offline jpgs. Flash Player 7 does the same thing. howstuffworks.com isn't a harmful site either - it's pretty good!

Not actually a threat, but very odd!

what happens when you type the address to the jpeg directly in FireFox?

I have a feeling your link is broken.

what is your homepage?

Just done more tests. A link to any-filename.anyextension (whether the file exists or not) produces the same result (as long as Firefox is NOT running when I click the link): two tabs open up, active tab shows {Untitled} (which is my homepage - about:blank) , inactive tab shows howstuffworks.com.

Tried modifying my home page to a web site, makes no difference. Not caused by malicious Firefox Extension either; tried disabling them. In fact, this doesn't seem malicious, it seems like someone somewhere likes howstuffworks.com too much, perhaps at Macromedia ? If not, it does seem like this is a Flash Player thing. Scanned all the player .exe files for viruses, they're all clean.

Take Flash out of the equation and run some more tests...

Try making a http://shortcut to something on your desktop and see what happens when you click it.

Nothing that severe: links beginning with http all work fine from Flash Player, from desktop and everywhere else.

It's only local links (in swf files stored on my HDD that are playing in standalone Flash Player) when Firefox is not running - and even then it only happens the first time. Once Firefox is open, all local links are fine.

Not a big threat, but interesting and I thought if anyone knows what's causing it, they'll be at Flashkit.

disconnect your internet and then try it.

If you type a word into Firefox, it will do a "I'm feeling lucky" Google search.

Try it. Type in http, for example.

Chances are the link it's trying is just a word, which when Googled, produces HowStuffWorks as the first page.

much like a AOL keyword search.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by asheep_uk

If you type a word into Firefox, it will do a "I'm feeling lucky" Google search.

---

OK - I think this is what it's doing. But no matter what filename the link leads to, howstuffworks.com always comes up. So what's Flash Player sending it?

If you key a filename into the address bar, e.g.: anything.jpg, it goes to www.anything.jpg.

I sure it has nothing to do with FlashPlayer.

It appears not.

I would like to know what line Flash Player is sending Firefox to make it go to the same site every time. Apparently there's no way of finding out.

what is the address in the address bar?

you need to start testing without flash player....
you are running a local host?
http://localhost/somejpeg.jpg?

Hmm... either Flash Player sends Firefox this
http://www.google.com/search?btnI=I%...e=UTF-8&q=work
or this is how Firefox interprets what Flash Player is saying.
Got the url from a cache map file

what is the URL in your
getURL("URL"); in Flash?

i just discovered what it is
wait, i'm posting the explanation

I tried on a new fla, created a button and added this code:

Code:

---

on (release) {
        getURL('this.jpg');
}

---

as a result,when i clicked on the button it opened firefox, two tabs, one empty and untitled, and one showing some page about alzheimer?!?!?!?! (http://www.nm-alzheimers.org/handout...lzheimers.htm).

Now, if i save the fla, and i click on it, and firefox is closed, then it opens with two tabs, one untitled, the other trying to go to www.this.jpg. On the other side, if i have firefox already opened it just says the file at that filepath can't be found....


Now, it seems to work this way:

why it opened a page with info of alzheimer in the first case? i noticed the title in that page is C:\DOCUME~1\Owner\Desktop\STAGES~1.HTM, and also, noticed that untitled documents, when previewed, are published in c:\documents and setting\username\temp or something like that. So it has to do with the path where your swf is stored.

Why doesn't this happen when i saved the fla in c:\? because it has no path, it's in the root itself


so i also did this: same fla, publishing to c:\flashkit\myname.swf, when i clicked on the button, it opened firefox with two tabs, one untitled, one displaying flashkit.com

same test under with the swf in c:\blog opens firefox and sends me to blogger.com

so it has a pattern :)

What i dunno is why it only does this when firefox opens for the first time. Why does it open two tabs? and why one tries to find a site with the path of your file (without the name of the file itself), but when it's opend it tries to find the name of the file itself or go to www.nameoffile.jpg or whatever extension you're using.

pretty interesting behavior

That's wierd.
I ran a similar test.
Made 1 button .swf that links to
picture.jpg in My Pictures folder
with getURL('picture.jpg');
click swf, click button
piture opens in FireFox as expected.
:confused:

def wierd but interesting. good work finding the cause of that.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by admedia

That's wierd.
I ran a similar test.
Made 1 button .swf that links to
picture.jpg in My Pictures folder
with getURL('picture.jpg');
click swf, click button
piture opens in FireFox as expected.
:confused:

---

:p i forgot to mention, that i used getURL('this.jpg') but there was no this.jpg, so i forced the error by not putting the file there :p

yeah, when i put this.jpg there with the swf, it opens normally.

So, this firefox thingie is nice

But the original problem with phantomflanflinger is not firefox nor the flash player, it has to be that he's link points to an unexistent file.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by argonauta

it has to be that he's link points to an unexistent file.

---

LOL, that's what I said all along!!!

I think you got a broken linky there. :D

edit: yep, and once i rename that jpeg to break the link, it pulls up a blank window with one behind it about documents... i guess it just pulls up a related page to what it thinks your looking for... directory name... like you said argo.

asheep was right.

I tried about twenty links to existant files and five to nonexistant, makes no difference.

Firefox 1.06 (on this PC) misinterprets the command Flash Player sends to it. The reason I asked is a client wants a standalone Flash job I have to deliver as a swf and as a projector.

No matter what the filename, Firefox simply adds 'work' to the I'm feeling lucky URL, http://www.google.com/search?btnI=I...oe=UTF-8&q=
Although, it does try to go to www.filename.whatever if I put the swf and the target file in C:\

ok, just to put it simple - if flash player can't find the file it just takes and sends the whole broken path as it is to ff? am i right?
so what's the hubab all about then?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by MechaPiano

ok, just to put it simple - if flash player can't find the file it just takes and sends the whole broken path as it is to ff? am i right?
so what's the hubab all about then?

---

exactly.

the link goes in a tab behind whatever the default page is.

with FF closed.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by phantomflanflinger

asheep was right.

I tried about twenty links to existant files and five to nonexistant, makes no difference.

Firefox 1.06 (on this PC) misinterprets the command Flash Player sends to it. The reason I asked is a client wants a standalone Flash job I have to deliver as a swf and as a projector.

No matter what the filename, Firefox simply adds 'work' to the I'm feeling lucky URL, http://www.google.com/search?btnI=I...oe=UTF-8&q=
Although, it does try to go to www.filename.whatever if I put the swf and the target file in C:\

---

try this: instead of getURL, load the pic inside a movieclip (as long as it is non progressive it should work) does it display? if not, then the problem is the paths, if it does display, then we have another type of problem.

The problem only happens with getURL, knew that.
I found ths problem quite interesting until I found the boringly logical explanation.
Anyway, maybe Firefox won't do it if Flash Player 8 is sending the command. We'll see.

I think this is not the fault of firefox, the webite has done something to promote or seems to be doorway pages in between.