Home   Help Search Login Register  

Author Topic: Problem expanding the OFPEC sites menus.  (Read 4223 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Offline DOA

  • Members
  • *
  • ArmA 2 Rules - Nothing else comes close!
    • The Graveyard Shift
Problem expanding the OFPEC sites menus.
« on: 21 Oct 2003, 04:36:09 »
Sometimes when I visit the Editors Depot I am unable to expand the menus ion the left side of the page. Like "Tutorials" or "Scripts". I click on the little + box and the page seems to refresh but the menus remail closed. Thanks...DOA
ArmA 2 - Nothing else comes close!
--
DOA

Offline toadlife

  • OFPEC Old Skool
  • Former Staff
  • ****
  • Official OFP Editing Center Toad
    • toadlife.net
Re:Problem expanding the OFPEC sites menus.
« Reply #1 on: 21 Oct 2003, 07:01:29 »
That will happen if you click on the expand button and then get impatient and click on it again before it loads. Keep in mind that when you click on a menu to expand it the setting gets written to the servers database immediately - long before the the page actually refreshes, so if you click on it again before the page refreshes with the expanded menu the menu will remain closed, because you actually opened it, and closed it by clicking on it twice.

This can also be caused by multiple people being logged in as the same account and clicking on the menu buttons at the same time , but I seriously doubt if that's the case.
"Whenever you want information on the 'net, don't ask a question; just post a wrong answer." -- Cancer Omega.

Torak

  • Guest
Re:Problem expanding the OFPEC sites menus.
« Reply #2 on: 21 Oct 2003, 14:27:11 »
Not just that, but some browsers just don't support whatever method is being used to open the menus. I use Netscape 7.0, but I have to go into IE to be able to use the Addon Depot.

Offline KTottE

  • Former Staff
  • ****
Re:Problem expanding the OFPEC sites menus.
« Reply #3 on: 21 Oct 2003, 16:12:58 »
I hope you're talking about the editors depot, because the addons depot uses regular links, no expanding tabs or anything like that.

And the expanding menus work excellent in Mozilla 1.5, which builds on the same engine as Netscape 7.0 (Gecko), so I don't see why you should have any problems with it.
"Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming 'WOW What a Ride!'"

Torak

  • Guest
Re:Problem expanding the OFPEC sites menus.
« Reply #4 on: 21 Oct 2003, 18:40:09 »
Yes, I meant editors' depot.

But nevertheless, it doesn't work; Netscape just doesn't seem support it. I've enabled all the relevant scripting methods, DHTML, the works, so unless it uses something else there's something weird going on.

Offline DOA

  • Members
  • *
  • ArmA 2 Rules - Nothing else comes close!
    • The Graveyard Shift
Re:Problem expanding the OFPEC sites menus.
« Reply #5 on: 21 Oct 2003, 18:59:14 »
Thanks guys,
I will try a differient browser. I use IE 6 at home and in the environment at work and I have the same issues at both places. I am sure it must be related to one of the endless security patches from Microsoft. I have been able to navigate the editors depot fine in the past, it seem like this issue started only a short time ago.  To be honest I have not researched it much myself. I was thinking that I was surely not the first with this issues and there would be a known quick fix.

I click the + box next to the link and I wait for the page to refresh. It blinks out and back in and it says Done in the status bar. The menu remains closed.

I would also like to thank Toadlife for his great scripts which I use in my custom missions. They are excellent work.

Thanks again...DOA
ArmA 2 - Nothing else comes close!
--
DOA

Offline KTottE

  • Former Staff
  • ****
Re:Problem expanding the OFPEC sites menus.
« Reply #6 on: 21 Oct 2003, 19:57:39 »
Yes, I meant editors' depot.

But nevertheless, it doesn't work; Netscape just doesn't seem support it. I've enabled all the relevant scripting methods, DHTML, the works, so unless it uses something else there's something weird going on.

I just found out that Netscape has developed their own branch of the Gecko engine, named Netscape Gecko, so it is possible that they have some issues with the site. May I suggest using Mozilla 1.5 instead?
It features the same capabilities as Netscape (as far as I am aware) and it renders OFPEC correctly :)
"Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming 'WOW What a Ride!'"

Offline DOA

  • Members
  • *
  • ArmA 2 Rules - Nothing else comes close!
    • The Graveyard Shift
Re:Problem expanding the OFPEC sites menus.
« Reply #7 on: 21 Oct 2003, 21:14:33 »
http://www.mozilla.org/

The Mozilla browser and its smaller little brother Mozilla Firebird displays the editors depot menus open.

It is not a problem for me at all; but, I will mention for the site developers benefit,  that I can't close them. They are displayed fully open with a small square box where the + - box should be on both mozilla and firebird.  

Thank you for provideing this excellent web site for OFP.  The site looks great and there is no better resource for OFP.

Thanks again...DOA
« Last Edit: 21 Oct 2003, 21:20:21 by DOA »
ArmA 2 - Nothing else comes close!
--
DOA

Offline DOA

  • Members
  • *
  • ArmA 2 Rules - Nothing else comes close!
    • The Graveyard Shift
Re:Problem expanding the OFPEC sites menus.
« Reply #8 on: 21 Oct 2003, 21:36:25 »
:-\ I spoke too soon.

I am now having the same issue with Mozilla and Mozilla FIrebird. The page that displayed the menus open was the main OFPEC page, not the editors depot.

When I visit the editors depot these menus are open:
EDITORS DEPOT HQ
DOA'S SETTINGS

The rest are closed and I can not open them.

I go to DOA's Settings and click "expand all" and it refreshes the page, status bar says "Done" but the menus remain closed.

I didn't mean to kick over a bucket of shhh. But this menu issue is a show stopper. I am unable to access the editors depot.

This is not an issue with any of the other depots, only editors depot.

I am behind a firewall and proxie at home and at work.

I am now experiencing the same issue on IE6, Mozilla and Mozilla Firebird browsers both at home and at work.


I will continue to work on this issue and I will post anything I find here.
Thanks...DOA  
« Last Edit: 21 Oct 2003, 21:50:01 by DOA »
ArmA 2 - Nothing else comes close!
--
DOA

Offline KTottE

  • Former Staff
  • ****
Re:Problem expanding the OFPEC sites menus.
« Reply #9 on: 21 Oct 2003, 23:00:26 »
That definately sounds like an issue with some other thing on your system, and not OFPEC or your browser, if IE6 and Mozilla (Firebird has the same rendering engine as Mozilla) both display it incorrectly (in the same fashion) the error lies somewhere else.

Wonder what it could be :-\
"Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming 'WOW What a Ride!'"

Offline DOA

  • Members
  • *
  • ArmA 2 Rules - Nothing else comes close!
    • The Graveyard Shift
Re:Problem expanding the OFPEC sites menus.
« Reply #10 on: 21 Oct 2003, 23:05:47 »
This is getting out of hand now. LOL  ;D
I am experienced in trouble shooting IT issues and I can tell you that the hardest ones to fix are the ones you can't reliably and regularly reproduce.
 
I am now seeing all menus at the editors depot open. Using Mozilla, Mozilla Firebird, and IE 6.

On my last visit to the site when I was having menu problems, I selected "Expand All" under DOA's Settings and I still could not see the menus or open them. Now a few hours later I get time to drop back by and all the editors depot menus are open. (Expand All)

I may be totally wrong; but, I am thinking now that it is a refresh issue or maybe some performance issue with the web server. It may just be slow changing my settings.

I am going to solve this thread and go with what I have.

Many thanks to the great people that run and support this site...DOA
ArmA 2 - Nothing else comes close!
--
DOA

Offline toadlife

  • OFPEC Old Skool
  • Former Staff
  • ****
  • Official OFP Editing Center Toad
    • toadlife.net
Re:Problem expanding the OFPEC sites menus.
« Reply #11 on: 22 Oct 2003, 01:08:37 »
Just for everyones info...

The only browsers I use Mozilla Firebird 0.xx and Mozilla 1.4. I only use IE6 when developing the site (just to make sure it works for the Evil Empire's browser). The ed-depot actually looks best in Mozilla/Netscape. I just downloaded netscape 7.1, and it works great with OFPEC. Even if they have made some changes to the engine from Mozilla, Netscape is still virtually identical to Mozilla.

The menus are not controlled in any way by JavaScript, DHTML, or any other client side scripting language. Then menu settings are processed on the server and are spit out as plain old html. I did this on purpose - to avoid any of these browser specific issues.

The collapsible menus actually work in a similar way to the forums collapsible feature.


Quote
...I can't close them. They are displayed fully open with a small square box where the + - box should be on both mozilla and firebird...

This is caused by not being logged in. Because menu settings are part of a users profile, the menus are pinned open with the little square box icon for guests (guests have no profile). Log in and you will be able to close and open the menus.

Also: try scrolling down to the menu options and clicking "Expand All" or "Contract All". I've never heard of this happening, but it might be remotely possible for the server to somehow corrupt the menu settings up in your profile. Clicking on "Expand All" of "contract all" will defnitely clear any corrupted settings out.

Also: Take note of the "save defaults" and "load defaults" controls at the bottom too. If you have a certain way that you ususally like your menus, you can click on "Save defaults" and the current menu settings will be saved to your profile - think of it as your "favorite" menu settings. LAter you can click on "load defaults" and these same menu settings will loaded. This can save time, since the site can be painfully slow at times.

EDIT: One more thing. It also might be possible that your ISP is using a web cache and the web cache is feeding you outdated material. I have run into this myself and I was forced to clear my cache every time I loaded a new page. Luckily the problem cleared up for me after a week, which is a typical default expiration time for web cache data. Clear your temporary internet files (or 'cache' in mozilla), and reload the site, and see if that fixes things.
« Last Edit: 22 Oct 2003, 01:13:27 by toadlife »
"Whenever you want information on the 'net, don't ask a question; just post a wrong answer." -- Cancer Omega.

Offline Noon416

  • Old Bugger
  • Former Staff
  • ****
Re:Problem expanding the OFPEC sites menus.
« Reply #12 on: 22 Oct 2003, 04:10:26 »
I've done some basic testing on IE6 here at work.

When you click +/-, the new setting is definitely being passed back to OFPEC as described by toadlife.
However, while the page also "reloads", nothing changes.
It takes a manual refresh to bring up the new menu state

ie:
Mod Editing is closed
Click the +
Page reloads but nothing changes
Mod editing is still closed.

Now manually refresh the page (F5)
Mod editing is now shown correctly as open.


Default settings and Expand/Collapse also fail to update as described above.

The F5 refresh is not a server-side refresh (Ctrl-F5) so this won't be related to an ISP cache (the F5 refresh would simply refresh from the ISP cache, and show the "closed" page over and over)

To me (and as stated by DOA), it seems like the menu bar is not refreshing from the OFPEC server when clicked, merely pulling up the menu page stored in the computer's own webcache.

I use Mozilla 1.4 at home as well, I'll give that a try there too.

[EDIT]

Well, I'm trying it on Mozilla 1.4 & IE6 here at home, and its working 100% fine.
Clicking on a link results in the entire page refreshing properly (even with page caching active in both browsers) and displaying the changes to the menu's.

[/EDIT]
« Last Edit: 22 Oct 2003, 07:41:32 by Noon416 »
"If a man talks in the woods and no woman hears him, is he still wrong?"

Offline toadlife

  • OFPEC Old Skool
  • Former Staff
  • ****
  • Official OFP Editing Center Toad
    • toadlife.net
Re:Problem expanding the OFPEC sites menus.
« Reply #13 on: 22 Oct 2003, 08:41:57 »
My only other thought is that the Database Server is delaying the profile update long enough for the menu to reload before the update actually happens, but I don't know enough if that can happen with MySQL.
"Whenever you want information on the 'net, don't ask a question; just post a wrong answer." -- Cancer Omega.

Offline Planck

  • Honoured
  • Former Staff
  • ****
  • I'm never wrong ....I'm just not always right !
Re:Problem expanding the OFPEC sites menus.
« Reply #14 on: 22 Oct 2003, 20:49:17 »
Well, I tested this on my machine.

Unfortunately I am using IE6 only, so I cant compare with any other browser.

The menus expand and contract with no trouble at all.
Everything works fine here.


Planck
I know a little about a lot, and a lot about a little.