Quicktime takes over Firefox's XPI Installer extension?

[Cleverboy]

I'm not sure who or why, but recently I went to download FireFTP, to re-evaluate it again as an FTP client through Firefox. I went to the website, and clicked to start the Firefox extension installer, and was surprised that it instead asked me to DOWNLOAD the file.

Odd, I tried again... checked that I WAS in Firefox, and it again asked me to download it. I downloaded the file, and in the Finder, it had a Quicktime icon. I double-clicked it, and Quicktime player opened, and couldn't play it. I tried dragging the installer to Firefox in my doc, but no go. Finally, I right-clicked on the file, and said "Open With..." and then chose "Other...". From my apps folder, Firefox was grayed out until I took off "Recommended Applications". I checked off "Always Open With".

Very very strange experience. I'm wondering if FlipForMac or maybe even a Flash video player (FLV) I downloaded recently... or something else is screwing around and co-opting the XPI extension. Seems a puzzle right now.

~ CB

[clevin]

you can always drag the xpi to firefox's addon window

[Cleverboy]

you can always drag the xpi to firefox's addon windowThat too I 'spose. It's weird to see the normal addon installation system broken because of an extension/filetype reassignment though. Namespace conflicts is a minor interest of mine. The amount of file types that have begun to conflict over the years continues to seem like something to keep an eye on. I think Filext.com and similar sites are a welcome presence on the web.

~ CB

[clevin]

dunno, xpi is pretty much only used by mozilla series, don't know why quicktime wants to do anything with it.

I hope firefox's extension system isn't broken for you. otherwise, a new fx profile is recommended.

[Cleverboy]

I can only wonder if something about the latest free FlipForMac player installer has messed up something in an attempt to reconcile unknown filetypes. In the Finder's "Choose Application" dialog, the system seems to believe it is an "MPEG-1 Video" file. Moreover, setting Firefox as its "Default application" allows it to run when double-clicked, but still won't prompt the installer clicking it from the actual website.

Oh, well. Otherwise it works fine, but clearly something is up with my profile or with the system environment. Only had this machine a week.

~ CB