general.useragent.override no longer works!?!

[SouthOkanagan]

O.k., so, general.useragent.override has been taken out of Firefox in the latest release.
I ask you, WHY?
Was this small bit of code really hurting anything? Streamlining you say? Removing startup lag? Those who didn't need to use it could simply not use it, and voila, no startup lag.

But those of us who use it on a regular basis and have a rather extensive list of custom site specific settings have them for a reason, we need them!
I'm assuming, like myself, most people who utilize it are tablet users, tablet users have the ability to and power to load full web pages, so we do just that where we can, because we're kind of between a cell phone user and a laptop user we're kind d of right in the middle when it comes to screen size, rendering power etc.
So my point is, tablet users, at least ones that are technically inclined, like using the power they have we hand, yet some sites work better in mobile mode, it's kind of a fine line depending on the site. (My list of custom site specific user agent string settings is VERY extensive.)
Facebook for instance is very picky and glitchy with some options when displayed in full desktop mode, so having the option to set a user agent string for either mobile or desktop mode is (was) very helpful to me and I'm positive I'm not the only person who thinks so.

Ok, so it's gone from Firefox, Firefox Beta and Firefox Developer? Correct? Or am I wrong? If so, please tell me which version I can download (for android) that the general.useragent.override setting still works.

If there is any word if this will be re-added to Firefox or something you think I should know pertinent to this issue please let me know here.
If it's as simple as downloading an older release I can do that too, just please let me know where I can find the APK (android installer) to do so.

Thanks so much.
SouthOkanagan

[malliz]

Not reading your rant because of the visual overload of too many unnecessary smilies

[SouthOkanagan]

Not reading your rant because of the visual overload of too many unnecessary smilies

My apologies sir, new poster here, I understand and I'll remove them, I forgot there's a standard etiquette for forums.
Please accept my apologies.

Thanks.

[MarkRH]

No, it still works. I use the User Agent Switcher add-on https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefo ... src=search to change when I'm testing stuff. Right now you'll see at the bottom of this post it's set to a Test Bot.

At the moment I am using 37Beta4 but still works in 36.0.1. Now, the general.useragent.override name is not in about:config if the user agent is the default. Just need to right-click and choose New -> String and create the preference name and value.

[SouthOkanagan]

I understand the add-ons to change the user agent across the board for all sites still works, but to do it site specific using the general.useragent.override string doesn't work anymore, they removed it.


Here, I'll show you my settings....




The way I have it set up, as shown, is website specific, but as with an add-on it will only change the user agent string for ALL sites.

I thank you all for any help and assistance in figuring out my options here...

[MarkRH]

I understand the add-ons to change the user agent across the board for all sites still works, but to do it site specific using the general.useragent.override string doesn't work anymore, they removed it.

Oh that? Never used it like that. Can certainly see where that would be handy so testing a website as if you were a bot doesn't mess up the other open tabs. I hide several things on my sites when I detect a bot... links to contact pages and the like.

Well, I Googled https://www.google.com/search?q=firefox ... 8&oe=utf-8 and found https://addons.mozilla.org/en-us/firefo ... uacontrol/ which claims to work on a per site basis. Might try it out if you haven't.

[MarkRH]

Using that add-on I found. See if my UA is normal here.

[MarkRH]

That UAControl add-on I found does seem to work. My website saw "(Test Bot)" while this place still saw the normal UA.

[patrickjdempsey]

Not that it matters because he's on Firefox for Android Tablet which may or may not install that. The site-specific setting was disabled in Desktop Firefox 2 years ago, not in the latest release.

[SouthOkanagan]

Yeah I tried that addon, it's not compatible with android firefox unfortunately.

Oh well, I think I'm out of luck on this one, the feature/code is simply gone, the end.

Could someone tell me which file to look for on my android file system that controls the user agent string? Maybe I can edit or "jimmy" this myself/figure out a way to do it site by site, I do have root access to the Android file system.
These add-ons that change it for all sites must edit a file somwhere to make it work.

Maybe I can just switch to another release/version.
I'm currently using beta, but I know there's Aurora, Nightly and the regular version of firefox, did any of these versions NOT remove the general.useragent.site_specific_overrides / true and general.useragent.override.websitehere.com capability?

Thankyou

[patrickjdempsey]

Am requesting this be moved to the Mobile forum because this forum is for Desktop versions of Firefox. You are more likely to find someone who can offer advice there.

[SouthOkanagan]

Yes please, my apologies, if an admin is watching please do move it to a more suitable forum (mobile/about:config settings/user agents), much appreciated!

[MarkRH]

Just an FYI, found a bug about it: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=933959 where basically you have to install an add-on to do that now. Not sure why general.useragent.site_specific_overrides set to true still exists in about:config as a default value then. Oh well..

[SouthOkanagan]

It appears the feature is fully working again, I tested Firefox, Firefox Beta and Aurora just now and all of my general.useragent.override site specific settings are working again.
The Mozilla Support Forum, the org one, said in a post very recently that the feature was gone and no longer working, hmmm, I'm stumped.
Has there been any update releases in the past couple of days for ff, ff beta and aurora? Because the general.useragent.override.websitehere.com didn't work 2 days ago and now it does.


Thanks

[patrickjdempsey]

This is the middle of the update cycle, which generally lasts a few days.