This site will have limited functionality while we undergo maintenance to improve your experience. If an article doesn't solve your issue and you want to ask a question, we have our support community waiting to help you at @FirefoxSupport on Twitter and/r/firefox on Reddit.

Search Support

Avoid support scams. We will never ask you to call or text a phone number or share personal information. Please report suspicious activity using the “Report Abuse” option.

Learn More

View source in external brouser stopped working

  • 3 cavab
  • 1 has this problem
  • 18 views
  • Last reply by Alex

more options

Firefox 102 beta stopped opening source of web pages in external editor

I have view_source.editor.external set to "true" and view_source.editor.path set to "C:\Program Files\Notepad++\notepad++.exe"

Before version 102, CTRL-U on any web page would open the page's source in the external editor.

In 102, the source is opened in the internal source viewer (in a browser tab).

The console shows:

   this._caUtils.getDefaultExtension is not a function viewSourceUtils.js:413
       getTemporaryFile chrome://global/content/viewSourceUtils.js:413
       openInExternalEditor chrome://global/content/viewSourceUtils.js:265
       openInExternalEditor chrome://global/content/viewSourceUtils.js:216
       BrowserViewSourceOfDocument chrome://browser/content/browser.js:3131
       BrowserViewSource chrome://browser/content/browser.js:3207
       oncommand chrome://browser/content/browser.xhtml:1
Firefox 102 beta stopped opening source of web pages in external editor I have view_source.editor.external set to "true" and view_source.editor.path set to "C:\Program Files\Notepad++\notepad++.exe" Before version 102, CTRL-U on any web page would open the page's source in the external editor. In 102, the source is opened in the internal source viewer (in a browser tab). The console shows: this._caUtils.getDefaultExtension is not a function viewSourceUtils.js:413 getTemporaryFile chrome://global/content/viewSourceUtils.js:413 openInExternalEditor chrome://global/content/viewSourceUtils.js:265 openInExternalEditor chrome://global/content/viewSourceUtils.js:216 BrowserViewSourceOfDocument chrome://browser/content/browser.js:3131 BrowserViewSource chrome://browser/content/browser.js:3207 oncommand chrome://browser/content/browser.xhtml:1

Modified by Alex

All Replies (3)

more options

Hi Alex, I notice getTemporaryFile and am reminded of a change in Firefox 102 related to downloaded files: they either can be saved in the "Save files to:" location per the updated flow in Firefox 98, or reverted to the system temp folder using a new preference. By any chance, did you change browser.download.start_downloads_in_tmp_dir from false to true?

more options

Actually, I get the same error either way. You seem to be learning more in Bugzilla:

https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1772906

more options

jscher2000 - Support Volunteer said

You seem to be learning more in Bugzilla: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1772906

A pleasant surprise to be sure. I am cautiously optimistic.