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osdc / osdc-backpack-chrome

"OSDC Backpack" Chrome extension. OSDC Backpack is a collections of open hacks, tools developed & contributed by community. This Chrome extension first hack in the Backpack.
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Switch User Agent instead of turning off Javascript #6

Open vaidik opened 11 years ago

vaidik commented 11 years ago

@drecodeam @pravee-n @flyankur @blotmandroid

Its been reported by a few 3rd year students that they have faced problems while using web kiosk for freezing their 4th year elective courses. They say the form doesn't seem to work on Chrome with this plugin. Perhaps, webkiosk is using Javascript in that form for something.

IMHO, the best way to make this work is not turning Javascript off and switch User Agent from Chrome to IE.

pragunbhutani commented 11 years ago

Here's another interesting observation, if you simply choose 'open in a new tab' instead of 'open', everything seems to work like a charm. No JS blocking or user-agent switching needed. Could that be used for a cleaner solution?

vaidik commented 11 years ago

Is that really that clean? You are asking the user not to use something how it is naturally supposed to be used. That's a work around without trying to fix something in our own code base.

drecodeam commented 11 years ago

Ya and u never know if they add a JS check somewhere else too … so I guess what Vaidik proposed is the right solution …  — Ankur anand

On Sat, May 11, 2013 at 8:30 PM, Vaidik Kapoor notifications@github.com wrote:

Is that really that clean? You are asking the user not to use something how it is naturally supposed to be used. That's a work around without trying to fix something in our own code base.

Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub: https://github.com/osdc/osdc-backpack-chrome/issues/6#issuecomment-17761374

pragunbhutani commented 11 years ago

On second thoughts I agree. I'm curious though, doesn't switching user agents break anything?

vaidik commented 11 years ago

No really as far web kiosk is concerned. They don't have it in them to think that much. But, yes it can be an issue if a web app checks UA and responds accordingly.

pragunbhutani commented 11 years ago

We could check out how one of these extensions does it and then mimic. https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/user-agent-switcher-for-c/djflhoibgkdhkhhcedjiklpkjnoahfmg

Also, should we hard-code the user-agent switch or give the users an option with, say, IE set as default?

vaidik commented 11 years ago

Is there a reason to give user an option? The web kiosk works only with Internet Explorer. Can you come up with a use case in which the user would want to change the UA? On May 15, 2013 4:45 PM, "Pragun Bhutani" notifications@github.com wrote:

We could check out how one of these extensions does it and then mimic. https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/user-agent-switcher-for-c/djflhoibgkdhkhhcedjiklpkjnoahfmg

Also, should we hard-code the user-agent switch or give the users an option with, say, IE set as default?

— Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHubhttps://github.com/osdc/osdc-backpack-chrome/issues/6#issuecomment-17932628 .

pragunbhutani commented 11 years ago

Ahh wait, I think I was a little confused there. So the user agent gets switched only when you open the webkiosk, is it? I had been thinking that it'd be always on. In that case, we don't need to give an option.

vaidik commented 11 years ago

Yep. Only gets switched for web kiosk. On May 15, 2013 4:49 PM, "Pragun Bhutani" notifications@github.com wrote:

Ahh wait, I think I was a little confused there. So the user agent gets switched only when you open the webkiosk, is it? I had been thinking that it'd be always on. In that case, we don't need to give an option.

— Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHubhttps://github.com/osdc/osdc-backpack-chrome/issues/6#issuecomment-17932788 .

vaidik commented 11 years ago

You may want to give an option to disable UA switching though. God knows when the web kiosk team goes crazy :-P On May 15, 2013 4:50 PM, "Vaidik Kapoor" kapoor.vaidik@gmail.com wrote:

Yep. Only gets switched for web kiosk. On May 15, 2013 4:49 PM, "Pragun Bhutani" notifications@github.com wrote:

Ahh wait, I think I was a little confused there. So the user agent gets switched only when you open the webkiosk, is it? I had been thinking that it'd be always on. In that case, we don't need to give an option.

— Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHubhttps://github.com/osdc/osdc-backpack-chrome/issues/6#issuecomment-17932788 .