Inconsistant recognition of visited links
I often create file based websites for my own use. These are simple html files and supporting documents. They are never served via a web server, but simply used by opening the file on the same computer that the browser is running on.
I have noticed on my last project that when I click on a link that is a local .pdf file, the link does not appear as visited. However, if I click on a link that is a .gif file, the link will appear as visited. I'm doing this on a Mac and the browser is configured to use Preview for pdf viewing, however the browser renders the .gif files itself. I'm wondering if this is the reason, but would like to resolve this if possible.
Preferences are configured to "Remember my browsing and download history", but also to "Clear history when Firefox closes" so I would think that visited links would register until Firefox is restarted.
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Thank you for your question.
As far as I understand this preference is set in about:config and
- "Edit → Preferences → Appearance → Colors / Link Colors → Unvisited Links"
- "Tools → Options → Privacy → History → Remember visited pages for the last ___ days [browser. history_expire_days]
- browser. visited_color is the color
The last issue I saw on this was really really old https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=271178 and the preferences above are the only ones that have an affect on the visited urls.
The easiest way to tell is to create a new profile and try the .pdf url in the new profile. Profile Manager - Create, remove or switch Firefox profiles
Let us know how it goes, or we can file a bug.
Does this also happen if you use the built-in PDF Viewer instead of the Preview application?
See also:
Thanks for your responses.
Regarding the first, the creation of a new profile does resolve the problem.
I don't seem to have the menu options that you delineate. That is, there is no "Preferences" options under the "Edit" menu, and no "Options" under the "Tools" menu, so I can't speak to those.
When I use about:config, I do find the "browser.visited_color is the color #551A8B" but I'm fairly certain that this is being over-ridden by my internal style sheet. When the links are recognized as visited, they are the color I have chosen them to be.
Also under about:config, I have no "browser.history_expire_days" listed, but rather have "browser.history_expire_days.mirror" and it is "user set, integer, 180"
Finally, using the built-in PDF Viewer instead of Preview does cause the links to be recognized as visited.
On Mac you find the Preferences under the Firefox menu: Firefox > Preferences (Edit > Preferences is for Linux and Firefox/Tools > Options for Windows).
I assume that Firefox doesn't consider links that are opened in an external application as visited or at least treats them differently. If you use the built-in PDF Viewer then this link is actually opened in a browser tab and thus appears as a visited item. You will probably also see them as visited if you save the file to the hard drive (Save Link As).
Yes, I checked the preferences, but there were no options with the specific titles you gave. I indicated what I thought were the relevant preference settings in my OP.
Using the "Save Link As" option is pointless in my case.
To me this is a bug in the sense that if only those links actually rendered by FF are indicated "visited" then there is a whole world of file types that can not be visited.
Anyway thanks again.