Dropbox is busted again Topic is solved

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Dropbox is busted again

Unread post by moonbat » 2022-02-18, 01:36

On a fresh profile, anything other than the main page (when you try to login) shows up a blank section in the middle with the console showing this:

Code: Select all

TypeError: Intl.Locale is not a constructor
  https://cfl.dropboxstatic.com/static/js/alameda_bundle/alameda_bundle_firefox_en-vflBQ1oJQ.js
    line 2, column 60381
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Re: Dropbox is busted again

Unread post by hackkitten » 2022-05-17, 19:59

Can confirm that this is still an issue with DropBox. For a while I could still see images and access files that were linked to, but now I'm just getting blank pages with that same error in the console.

Is this another JavaScript thing? =/

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Re: Dropbox is busted again

Unread post by Lurker_01 » 2022-05-17, 20:44

hackkitten wrote:
2022-05-17, 19:59
Is this another JavaScript thing? =/
Yes
https://repo.palemoon.org/MoonchildProd ... ssues/1819

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Re: Dropbox is busted again

Unread post by hackkitten » 2022-05-19, 09:13

Ah, I see. So the DropBox JS trips over a missing feature and then bails out. Very elegant...

Good to know that it should just work again once this feature has been implemented.

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Re: Dropbox is busted again

Unread post by Moonchild » 2022-05-19, 12:10

hackkitten wrote:
2022-05-19, 09:13
Very elegant...
It could be made elegant easy enough, but web devs apparently never heard of try/catch blocks to not abort an entire script at the first sign of trouble.
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Re: Dropbox is busted again

Unread post by hackkitten » 2022-05-19, 17:07

Moonchild wrote:
2022-05-19, 12:10
hackkitten wrote:
2022-05-19, 09:13
Very elegant...
It could be made elegant easy enough, but web devs apparently never heard of try/catch blocks to not abort an entire script at the first sign of trouble.
Back in the olden days when I did webdev, we designed for the lowest common denominator and put in fallbacks including for no CSS support. Somewhere along the way that seems to have changed to a demand on the user to always use the latest Google-blessed browser. Not demanding that websites support IE5.x today, but in cases like this DropBox issue it is rather glaringly obnoxious to demand such features in a browser...

Always a good reason to let DropBox support know my displeasure, I guess :)

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Re: Dropbox is busted again

Unread post by Moonchild » 2022-05-19, 20:10

Targeting something ancient and out of support is really not necessary, but given there is good support for MANY things in all supported browsers that will allow modern, dynamic websites to do everything they'd want without significant functional changes/detriment (e.g. targeting ES6 or ES2017 and before) and since there are only a handful of engines left to even care about, it's not all that difficult to at least target common feature support in those engines.

I mean, really. Does dropbox REALLY NEED the Intl.Locale API to function? No. It's just being used as a convenience. It has nothing to do with hosting or sharing their cloud service or files. So they now choose to break their entire website by not even making it optional. A non-functioning site is always worse than somehow not displaying everything in the visitor's native language/regional preferences.
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Re: Dropbox is busted again

Unread post by moonbat » 2022-05-20, 02:07

Chrome is nothing but job security for modern web developers. Normally there is zero need to change a website every other week.
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Re: Dropbox is busted again

Unread post by hackkitten » 2022-05-20, 18:53

I would not be surprised if it's not the DropBox devs themselves who picked this API, but some JS snippet 'developer' who felt they had to use it. After that such a dependency then percolates its way through anything that depends on it, or on a dependency that depends on this dependency. Ad nauseam.

From a cursory glance it appears that this 'Alameda' referenced is a dependency handler like requirejs, though with how tangled the JS 'ecosystem' is it's hard to say exactly...

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Re: Dropbox is busted again

Unread post by Moonchild » 2022-05-20, 19:34

hackkitten wrote:
2022-05-20, 18:53
From a cursory glance it appears that this 'Alameda' referenced is a dependency handler like requirejs, though with how tangled the JS 'ecosystem' is it's hard to say exactly...
The bottom line is that it's Dropbox who decided to use this dependency so you really can't say dismiss their role and responsibility for what is ultimately comprising their web interface. And since from the web side it becomes impossible to untangle a mess of minified interdependencies it becomes hard or impossible to directly find the one responsible for the "let's use a new shiny" code.
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Re: Dropbox is busted again

Unread post by hackkitten » 2022-05-23, 08:29

Oh, I absolutely agree. The fact that DropBox only seems to test their stuff on the latest & shiniest browsers is enough to condemn their development & testing processes :)

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Re: Dropbox is busted again

Unread post by lashkevi » 2022-06-04, 11:15

Now Dropbox only shows a blank page.
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Re: Dropbox is busted again

Unread post by Moonchild » 2022-06-04, 11:50

Don't expect it to work until at least Intl.Locale is implemented since they insist on querying the browser's locale information and fail if it's not being a good little servant and spilling your details.
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Re: Dropbox is busted again

Unread post by Sajadi » 2022-07-03, 16:23

moonbat wrote:
2022-02-18, 01:36
On a fresh profile, anything other than the main page (when you try to login) shows up a blank section in the middle
With a custom user agent override Dropbox can be made working again, logging in, browsing files and downloading so far worked without issues.

Go to about:config and do a rightclick - string - new:

general.useragent.override.dropbox.com
Mozilla/5.0 (iPad; CPU OS 15_5 like Mac OS X; rv:5.1) Goanna/20220506 PaleMoon/31.0.0

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Re: Dropbox is busted again

Unread post by Moonchild » 2022-07-03, 21:47

Looks like it's just choking on our current override of Firefox 99.9 since Firefox 99 is now actually a thing

I've bumped the version down and slotted it into the dynamic UA overrides and it seems to make Dropbox happy again for the time being while not having to pretend to be some Apple OS
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Re: Dropbox is busted again

Unread post by lashkevi » 2022-07-04, 11:21

Sajadi wrote:
2022-07-03, 16:23
general.useragent.override.dropbox.com
Mozilla/5.0 (iPad; CPU OS 15_5 like Mac OS X; rv:5.1) Goanna/20220506 PaleMoon/31.0.0
It works. Thank you!

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