Firefox 1.5 No Worky With WordPress (Updated 2x)

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Date: Thursday, December 1st, 2005, 12:45
Category: Software

Firefox-logo-150.jpgEveryone’s abuzz about the recent announcement of Firefox 1.5 but I can’t use it because it doesn’t work with WordPress, the blogging software behind my ZDnet blog The Apple Core. I’ve been using Firefox 1.0.x for quite a while now and I check the 1.5 beta releases every time they come out but I’ve had to go back to 1.0.x every time because of compatibilty problems. I was optimistic that the final version of Firefox 1.5 would work with WordPress, but alas, no dice. FF 1.5 betas had problems with Movable Type too, but I didn’t even get around to testing the 1.5 release with MT. Too bad, I really wanted to use some of Firefox’s new features too…
Click through for two updates on this strange bug…


Firefox-logo-150.jpgEveryone’s abuzz about the recent announcement of Firefox 1.5 but I can’t use it because it doesn’t work with WordPress, the blogging software behind my ZDnet blog The Apple Core. I’ve been using Firefox 1.0.x for quite a while now and I check the 1.5 beta releases every time they come out but I’ve had to go back to 1.0.x every time because of compatibilty problems. I was optimistic that the final version of Firefox 1.5 would work with WordPress, but alas, no dice. FF 1.5 betas had problems with Movable Type too, but I didn’t even get around to testing the 1.5 release with MT. Too bad, I really wanted to use some of Firefox’s new features too…
UPDATE:
Here’s how to reproduce the blocker bug in Firefox 1.5 with WordPress 1.5:
- Create a new entry “Write Post”
- Enter the Title
- Enter the Excerpt
- Enter the Post (the body)
- Click “Save and Continue Editing” or “Save”
- BAM the Post field disappears
I spent about an hour writing a piece for my blog this morning directly into the post field in FF 1.5 and BAM it’s gone. I had wicked flashbacks to this happening in the 1.5 beta releases and immediately threw it out and reverted back to version 1.0.7.
FWIW: Flock has the same issue.
UPDATE 2:
I can tell from your comments that no one can seem to duplicate my bug. I have been working with an engineer at Mozilla.org and still have the same issue.
Here’s what I did:
1. Removed ~/Library/Application Support/Firefox directory (copied it out for safekeeping)
2. Installed a fresh copy of Firefox 1.5
3. Launched it, logged into my WordPress 1.5 blog at ZDNet
4. Entered a title, excerpt and post.
5. Click “Save and Continue Editing” (Post gone)
6. Also tried “Save” (Post gone)
I verified that I don’t have any Firefox extensions or themes installed.
I am looking into whether this could be a problem specific to ZD’s installation of WordPress.
More as I find out what’s going on.
Platform: Mac OS 10.4.3
Hardware: PowerBook G4 1.5 GHz, 2GB RAM

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  • http://www.dria.org dria

    Could you be more specific about the problems you’re having with WordPress (and what version you’re using)? I’ve been using Firefox 1.5 with WP since beta1 and I’ve never had a problem with it.

  • http://rommel.wordpress.com rom

    What are your problems with WordPress? I am curious as I use FF1.5 with wordpress.com.

  • http://www.eideard.com Eideard

    Jason, I just dropped by because John Dvorak posted your problems w/Firefox 1.5.
    As I commented: — I’ve done the Mac upgrade. Works fine for me w/Wordpress [which we use at Dvorak Uncensored], iBlog [which I use at my own site] and the proprietary software used at the Free New Mexican blog.
    Most of it seems to be copying some of the neater features of Safari. Though I still prefer the latter for RSS.

  • http://snadiomena.net xsta

    What kind of problems do you have with FF & WordPress? I’m having no problems with the combination, but e.g. Safari + WP combination does have its problems.
    Also I’ve tried those three Firefox 1.5 release candidates, no problems with them and WP.

  • http://www.luckyspin.org Todd Papaioannou

    Dunno about that. FF 1.5 works just fine with WordPress for me. A bit more specificity about the problems might be useful..

  • http://photomatt.net/ Matt

    He’s probably running into a problem with some sort of WYSIWYG add-on, not WP itself.

  • http://baptiste.us Mike Baptiste

    I’ll chime in and also note I’ve been using Firefox 1.5 since the Beta 1 days with no problem on WordPress, both in standard edit mode and with a WYSIWYG editor activated. I’ve never seen the behavior you mention.
    A couple curiosities – do the Quicktags go away too? I assume this is WordPress 1.5.x and not 2.0? Do you use any type of WYSIWYG editing pluging? Does the JavaScript console show anything strange when saving your draft?

  • http://blogged.btvillarin.com Bryan Villarin

    I tried the steps you outlined, but nothing broke for me. I’m using the WP Tiger Admin plugin (http://orderedlist.com/wordpress-plugins/wp-tiger-administration/), so I tried it again without it. Nope, it’s fine for me. (I’m running Windows XP.) Sorry you’re having problems…

  • http://dougal.gunters.org/ Dougal Campbell

    I think this is definitely something specific to your environment (either your Firefox setup, the ZDNet WP setup, or some combination thereof). I’ve been using FF 1.5 betas and release with WP 1.5 with no problems. I even tried changing my Write options in WP to start with the advanced controls (as it appears that yours is setup, from your description), to make sure that wasn’t an issue, but everthing works fine for me.

  • http://www.fresharrival.com richard

    I’m also using WordPress to manage my site, with Windows XP Pro and Firefox 1.5 final, and have had no problems yet. I’m a little worried now, though :)

  • http://grabic.name Grendel

    Sorry, can’t reproduce your error. Try reinstalling FF or format c: and get Ubuntu ;-)

  • http://www.createdigitalmusic.com Peter Kirn

    Jason, I’m running WordPress 1.5.2 and Firefox 1.5 (final); I can reproduce the steps above without any issue. I don’t think you’re correct about this problem. Are you sure ZDNet isn’t using some kind of custom back-end code for the admin site, like a custom admin template?

  • http://www.sbishere.com/ Greg

    With FF1.5 and WP2 Beta RC1 I have had to turn off WYSIWYG as the Post field disappears, the other bug I found was that creating parent child relationships produces a database error. I am now using Safari for all posts w/o WYSIWYG which seems to work. I am running OS 10.4.3

  • http://www.electionfraudblog.com organik

    Having the exact same problem, and I AM using mudbomb’s wysiwyg editor. I believe that’s the problem, but I can’t get by without it – I’ll wait until something’s fixed.

  • http://www.sandro.org sandro

    i’m having the same issue with wordpress & FF on a macbookpro and hadn’t seen anyone else who had, until now of course. everything in a post makes it through a save/edit/publish except for the post body.
    i was firmly convinced that it was some combination of the plugins i have installed and the soup of options/settings/cfg that they create that was causing this for me; i never would have guessed that it was FF itself.
    Email me if you would like me to help out in trying to debug this hateful bug. Needless to say, i would love nothing more than to not have to ssh into my mysql db and manually update my wp_posts ;)