Source linker issues in Firefox

Justin Masters

Hi everyone,

I am having recent problems with firefox and source linker (the old one - I haven't been invited to the new one). It was working fine up until a few weeks ago. This is found happening in firefox on Windows 7 and Windows 10.

Is anybody else having similar problems?

This duplicates the identical problems I had a few years ago.

In source linker using firefox, the names on the right look like links, but when you right-click on them, the contextual menu that appears for the name is a graphic. I can't click the name and go to their page like I used to..

(I can't figure out how to get graphics to show up here. The links work though to see the pictures)

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1iZvTAl5YMIQSCk4jRQ1GhoC9DsqZwEEh/view?usp=sharing

In addition when I try to move info from the left side to the right side, nothing is seen on the right side, nor is it editable/fixable.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1VhKuU_uKxTI1M0uEy9yWldCuLqtmq3ym/view?usp=sharing

Looking through the source code of the page, I find stuff like this scattered throughout.
(function () {

    'use strict';

    const Set$1 = globalThis.Set;

    const Reflect$1 = globalThis.Reflect;

    globalThis.customElements?.get.bind(globalThis.customElements);

    globalThis.customElements?.define.bind(globalThis.customElements);

    const getOwnPropertyDescriptor = Object.getOwnPropertyDescriptor;

    const objectKeys = Object.keys;

    /* global cloneInto, exportFunction, true */

    // Only use globalThis for testing this breaks window.wrappedJSObject code in Firefox

    // eslint-disable-next-line no-global-assign

    let globalObj$1 = typeof window === 'undefined' ? globalThis : window;

    let Error$1 = globalObj$1.Error;

    let messageSecret$1;

and further down:

// Not supported in Firefox
        if ('ancestorOrigins' in globalThis.location && globalThis.location.ancestorOrigins.length) {
            // ancestorOrigins is reverse order, with the last item being the top frame
            framingOrigin = globalThis.location.ancestorOrigins.item(globalThis.location.ancestorOrigins.length - 1);
        }

        try {
            // @ts-expect-error - framingOrigin is possibly 'null' here
            framingOrigin = new URL(framingOrigin).hostname;
        } catch {
            framingOrigin = null;
        }
        return framingOrigin
    }

Julia Szent-Györgyi

Given that they're turning it off at the end of the month, they're not going to fix anything with the old Linker.

The new linker has been available for at least half a year now for everyone. Don't you have a stripe across the top, with the turn-off message at the left, and the switch/try message at the right?

(Image attachments broke in the Community a month ago for everyone who isn't a moderator. I have not heard/seen an ETA on a fix.)

Justin Masters

I do not have that banner across the top of my screen. Nor the switch try function.

Justin Masters

I will duplicate what I wrote this morning in the source linker group at

https://community.familysearch.org/discussion/161891/how-does-the-switch-to-the-new-source-linker-work

Áine Ní Donnghaile

Do you have any adblockers or malware blockers installed? Some of those will prevent some options from appearing on FamilySearch.

Justin Masters

I do have ad blockers and privacy add-ons on each of the Firefox installations. But it's usually for 3rd party sites and some are reputation based, so if

I don't have Facebook, so I don't enable that, and Googletagmanager as well. I'll try to find a way to enable enough to see if it works. I usually see new 3rd party add-ons, and adjust settings appropriately to enable functionality to work.

But I figured if I'd switched it in a chrome browser, it would transfer that preference to my account for all browsers.

I'll dig further. Thanks for the pointer.

Justin Masters

Subsequent to changing it in Chrome, I expected it to change in Firefox (as part of an account setting), but it didn't seem to do that. I use an/script blocker tool called NoScript, and it had a number of domains allowed, and some blocked.

I went ahead and blocked all of them, and got funky characters in Source Linker, similar to what others have reported - like having variable unfilled, etc. That happens with script blocking.

However, in blocking everything, a domain popped up (not previously seen) for cloudflare.com, and I typically don't allow it, because it hosts so much. But I enabled this, as well as most all of the ones I had blocked above, and then I could see the bar asking about the switch.

Thanks all.

Julia Szent-Györgyi

It has nothing to do with your FS account settings and everything to do with your ad blocker settings. It was clearly set to disabling Firefox in a way that it wasn't doing to Chrome.

(Given that FS is entirely and completely noncommercial and nonfinancial, I would think it would be an easy choice of exception to ad blockers.)

Áine Ní Donnghaile

Cloudflare is a well-known cybersecurity provider. My bank even uses it as a layer of protection.

Justin Masters

Julia, FS integrates in Facebook and Google logins, and I prefer to not have them tracking my interests. They use a Chrome development environment which may come with additional baggage. Working in cyber security, I see lots of notices regarding drive-by attacks and downloads, and by practice, I allow the least functionality that I need and still get things done. NoScript sometimes hides domains that it's blocking, so I didn't see it until I disabled everything first, which I never did, because so many other aspects were set to trusted and still worked. It's odd that the banner bar alone has to leverage cloudflare.

Aine, cloudflare does provide cybersecurity protection (against DDOS attacks, for instance), but also provides some level of anonymity for many domains, including bad guys. See also my last sentence in the previous paragraph.

Because so many sites load all kinds of third party tracking, ads and other functionality, I typically block them.

In this instance, there was no indication of missing/broken functionality, and as such, would not have known to even look for any blocked 3rd party domains. I don't typically have to untrust everything before I see other domains.

Thank you for your help in looking that direction.

Ashlee C.

Please direct your comments about the source-linker to the new source linker group. https://community.familysearch.org/en/group/324-new-source-linker-feedback This will help us better address concerns. Thanks!