Enabling Deprecated Web Features in Google Chrome

When Google released version 37 of Chrome, the Reports application in PME stopped working correctly. The reason that happened is because, by default, version 37 of Chrome no longer allows web applications to pop up separate windows (called modal dialogs) on top of a webpage, which is what the Reports application does to display the Source selector, Measurement selector and most of its other windows.

The following instructions provide a temporary way to get the Report application to work again. This solution will only be valid until April 30, 2015 when the feature that allows modal dialog pop-ups will be disabled permanently in Chrome.

Procedure for enabling deprecated web features

NOTE: The instructions below were developed based on running PME and Chrome on the Windows Server 2008 R2 operating system. The general procedure is similar for Windows Server 2012 R2. Any differences in the procedure are noted in the instructions.

  1. Download the file called policy_templates.zip, which you can get by clicking on the Zip file of Google Chrome templates and documentation link at the following URL: https://support.google.com/chrome/a/answer/187202?hl=en

  1. Open the policy_templates.zip file you just downloaded and locate the .ADM file that best matches your system:

·  For example, if you have an US English operating system, select the .ADM file from the …\Windows\adm\en-US\ folder in the .ZIP file:

  1. Extract the .ADM file to any folder on your hard drive
  2. Launch the Local Group Policy Editor:

·  In Windows 2008 R2:

·  Go to Start > Run, and run gpedit.msc

·  The Local Group Policy Editor should appear:

·  In Windows 2012:

o  Click the Windows button, either on your keyboard or on the screen

o  Using the Search feature (), type in gpedit.msc and hit ENTER:

o  The Local Group Policy Editor should appear, as above

  1. Right-click Local Computer Policy > Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates, and select Add/Remove Templates:

  1. Add the chrome.adm template that you saved to disk earlier:

·  You should now see the template underneath a Google Google Chrome section within Administrative Templates

·  Depending on which operating system you have, it might be under a Classic Administrative Templates (ADM) folder:

  1. Click on Google Chrome in the left-hand pane and then double-click on the item called Enable deprecated web platform features in the list within the right-hand pane:

·  NOTE: It helps to sort the table in the right-hand pane by the Setting column in order to find the Enable deprecated web platform features item more easily.

  1. In the new screen that appears, click the Enabled radio button:
  1. In the Options section of the same screen, click the Show… button
  2. On the new screen that appears, type ShowModalDialog_EffectiveUntil20150430 into the first cell of the table that’s displayed and hit ENTER:

·  IMPORTANT NOTE: Make sure there are no spaces either before or after the ShowModalDialog_EffectiveUntil20150430 value. Otherwise, Chrome will reject the setting (see the Troubleshooting section for more information).

  1. Click OK
  2. To verify that this policy has taken effect, navigate to the following URL in Chrome: chrome://policy

·  If everything is set up correctly, you should see a screen like the following:

Chrome should now be configured to allow the Reports application to display its windows as modal dialogs. You might also have to re-enable pop-ups in order for the Reports application to work fully again.

Troubleshooting

If you include any spaces either before or after the ShowModalDialog_EffectiveUntil20150430 setting value when you enter it into the Local Group Policy Editor, you might see the following error in the Status column of the table that appears on the chrome://policy webpage:

List entry “0”: Value is out of range $1.

To correct the problem, use the Local Group Policy Editor to delete all spaces from the setting and restart Chrome. Navigate to the chrome://policy URL again to make sure the Status column indicates that the policy is OK (see the screenshot from step 12 of the instructions above).