Angel – Issues with Firefox 23 and IE 10

28 08 2013

One of our faculty members (thank you!) gave us a heads up about some issues that come up if you’re using Firefox 23 or IE 10 to work in Angel. Here’s a Penn State post about the issue:

Recent updates in Firefox 23 and Internet Explorer 10 now block mixed content by default, resulting in some content in ANGEL appearing as a broken link or not appearing at all. Many users do not notice this default setting change at the time of the update and this can result in possible confusion during their ANGEL experience. More information about this, along with a description for mixed content, can be found at https://wiki.mozilla.org/Security/Features/Mixed_Content_Blocker.

This issue is not specific to ANGEL and is browser-based. Currently, there are reports on the Mozilla bug tracking site (https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/buglist.cgi?quicksearch=mixed+content) for the New York Times, ESPN, and Flickr, just to name a few websites.

Internet Explorer 10 blocks non-secure content and is set to prompt a user by default. This option allows the user to permit that content providing that he/she knows and trusts the source. For details, see http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2625928.

As a work-around in ANGEL, instructors and instructional designers can edit “link” content item titles to include HTML, which will launch the links in a separate browser window outside of ANGEL. For more details and step-by-step instructions, see http://kb.its.psu.edu/cms/article/562.

Eugeniu and Brian over in CTLE did some troubleshooting (thank you!) and verified the PSU reports – here’s their summary and recommendation for Scranton faculty (emphasis mine):

We have verified that version 23 is indeed the problem. Firefox 23 provides no warning or prompt for the user to be able to open the mixed content.  We have also verified that this effects links to external sites in ANGEL content items. However, these links work perfectly well in Google Chrome, IE versions prior to 10 and FF versions prior to 23.
This is not an ANGEL problem.

We will advise faculty who call here, for the time being, to use Google Chrome.

Please spread the word!





IE 8 Deployment

2 09 2010

It’s a big day for IR announcements. This just came out over Bboard:

All staff and faculty using Windows XP are encouraged to visit the IT Services Installation channel in the Employee tab of the my.scranton portal to install Internet Explorer 8 (IE8). The IE8 installation package will update existing installations of Internet Explorer 6 and 7 to Internet Explorer 8 and will install the KACE KBOX agent. In an effort to better secure University desktops from malware infections, it is critical to install and maintain the KACE KBOX agent on all University owned computers. IT Services will continue to deploy third party patches to all office systems using the KACE KBOX systems management appliance.

Please be advised that because the KACE KBOX agent is included in the IE8 installation package, this package is intended for installation on University owned PCs only.

Before you begin the installation, please save your work and close all other programs.

Questions and concerns about the Internet Explorer 8 installation should be directed to the Technology Support Center at x4357.

Note: To complete the installation of IE8, you’ll have to restart your computer. Make sure you have everything saved!