RationalWiki:Technical support

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Contents 1 Herein goeth anything regarding the technicalities of the wiki 2 Still having that Safari problem 3 Should I just delete this borked image? 4 How ... 5 Drop down 6 Request for magic

[edit] Herein goeth anything regarding the technicalities of the wiki

FAQs & Problems:

• Problems with accessing the wiki
• Queries about extensions
• Javascript Help
• CSS Help
• Wikitalk Help

If you've written, or are using, some extension or script that either might give others problems or is giving you a problem, then either describe it or link to it on this page.

If you've written some piece of code that you want help with, ask here with linkage.

If your browser acts up with some code,ask here.

In short, anything techy, ask, tell or link on this page.

If you think it is a server-type issue, feel free to email the goat at ttoulouse@gmail.com or touloutm@mcmaster.ca for best results.

[edit] Still having that Safari problem

Visit RW - load a page - any page. 7 times out of 10 (guesstimate), the Safari page load indicator spins, and the page doesn't load - complete hang. Sometimes the page blanks, then hangs - leaving me with a blank unloaded page. I can at any moment move to any other website and immediately load pages - this is only happening on RW. Once it has happened to one page on RW, no other page on RW will load. Always, the problem eventually goes away and I can finally load the requested page, but not for usually five or ten minutes. Once it's 'fixed' like this, I get a few minutes of RW working fine, then it will happen again. DogP^{Marmite Patrol} 18:34, 10 January 2010 (UTC)

If you allow it to time-out, do you ever see a 404 error or something similar? I'm noticing an occasional problem with Camino in that it'll refuse to load a page, but if I open a new window and try again it works fine. --^{Ask me about our person} 13:59, 11 January 2010 (UTC)

No, I never see a 404. If I wait perhaps three or four minutes, it eventually 'gives up' and simply doesn't deliver the page, usually leaving me with a blank window. But I can at any moment in the same session (in another tab, for e.g.) surf anywhere else successfully - this is an RW-only issue. DogP^{Marmite Patrol} 15:40, 11 January 2010 (UTC)

I'm unable to reproduce the problem on Safari Windows. Do you also experience it if you log out or if you disable javascript completely? -- Nx / talk 21:52, 11 January 2010 (UTC)

Get a proper browser? Stupid stupid Hoover! 22:00, 11 January 2010 (UTC)

I have Safari as well, everything seems fine for me. Τe†rоиіαn ^{Mei is useful} 22:02, 11 January 2010 (UTC)

Nx - this is Safari on a Mac. Yes, I see it under any user's account. I'll check without javascript. Phantom - I think we all know better than to get into that lame debate. Tet - what version OSX are you on? DogP^{Marmite Patrol} 07:14, 12 January 2010 (UTC)

Update: OK, yes, it does seem to help if I turn off Javascript. DogP^{Marmite Patrol} 08:18, 10 February 2010 (UTC)

Does it eliminate the problem entirely? What if you turn off all gadgets (that's why I asked you to try logged out) -- Nx / talk 08:38, 10 February 2010 (UTC)

It's hard to be definitive ad say that it entirely eliminates the problem, but it looks like it - I haven't yet had any problems with pages not loading if I disable Javascript. Next, I'll try being logged out. DogP^{Marmite Patrol} 15:49, 10 February 2010 (UTC)

OK, after a few days testing of this, I think I would have expected to see the problem again, so I can confirm that I do not experience the issue either a) with Javascript turned off, or b) when logged out as a user. DogP^{Marmite Patrol} 16:21, 13 February 2010 (UTC)

Do you have any gadgets? Are you using Monobook or a different skin? I seem to remember you said you tried with different users, and that you still had the problem, is that correct? -- Nx / talk 09:50, 14 February 2010 (UTC)

I use Safari on Mac OS Snow Leopard and don't have this problem. There are times when I can't access RW but I think that's to do with the odd few minutes of RW server downtime rather than my browser. Have you tried using Firefox, DogP? I think you can download it for free somewhere and it works quite well on Mac as far as I understand. SuperJosh ^{celebrates over 2500 contributions to a liberal vandal site} 16:28, 13 February 2010 (UTC)

Nx, I've got Nav popups, HotCat, wikEd and AutoWIGO turned on, then a few other random gadgets. Maybe I should try turning some of those off? I'm using Monobook. I haven't tried with different users, no. Josh - no problems with Firefox - but I get more pleasure out of fixing potholes than I do from driving around them, so I want to get to the bottom of this. DogP^{Marmite Patrol} 16:21, 14 February 2010 (UTC)

Yeah, definitely try disabling them all. If you can, try enabling only one gadget, starting with the bigger ones (navpop, wiked, hotcat). Also open the resource view in developer tools, which gives you a timeline of page loading, and see if you can spot anything there, e.g. does it hang on the same file every time, is there an error message etc (this is how it looks).

Every time I had problems like this it was independent of the browser. One time I can confirm it was due to a connection problem (ping showed dropped packages, and other websites at the same ISP had problems), but it only manifested if I had a lot of gadgets. The problem is that the web browser won't display anything until all the scripts have been downloaded. If you have a lot of gadgets, it increases the chance of a package getting lost, and then the page won't load, while disabling javascript/gadgets reduces this chance so the problem appears to go away entirely. The second time though I couldn't find any problems with the connection, and it was driving me mad, but it fixed itself in a few days (and again, it was browser independent).

Your problem is different yet similar, so it's very puzzling. -- Nx / talk 19:07, 14 February 2010 (UTC)

OK, this is making sense now, as I only turned those on a few months back, and IIRC it was around then I started to notice this problem. I'll go through them one by one and see if I can identify the troublemaker. One of these gadgets may believe in God or something, so it may need some reeducation, if you get my drift. DogP^{Marmite Patrol} 21:52, 14 February 2010 (UTC)

Interesting. First, I turned off all the gadgets for a day. No page load fails. Then I turned them all back on again. Still no hangs. It seems like simply reloading them has solved the problem. One presumes memory cruft clogging up the tubes. DogP^{Marmite Patrol} 04:54, 17 February 2010 (UTC)

I wouldn't be so sure about that, you did clear you cache a while back, and that didn't help. But if the problem goes away, then I'm not complaining. BTW, the more gadgets you have, the slower page loads will be. I used to have a ton, but I've recently cut back on my gadget addiction. -- Nx / talk 07:56, 17 February 2010 (UTC)

Yeah, I log on under a gadgetless sock on my phone now & also use Myskin skin. Surprising the difference it makes. ^yummy &  ^honey_{(or marmalade)} 08:16, 17 February 2010 (UTC)

Some more knowledge - it just happened again, and this time the only gadget I had enabled was Navigation Popups. So I guess that's it? DogP^{Marmite Patrol} 17:06, 20 February 2010 (UTC)

I consider this case closed - since I've turned all the gadgets off, I've not had a single problem with page loads or anything else. And NavPopups seems to be the principle culprit. Thanks for helping me get to the bottom of it Nx. DogP^{Marmite Patrol} 16:44, 7 March 2010 (UTC)

Oh, I didn't notice your previous update... navpopup is huge, so I wouldn't be surprised if that's why it doesn't work. -- Nx / talk 16:48, 7 March 2010 (UTC)

[edit] Should I just delete this borked image?

There seems to be something wrong with the File:The-new-godspeed.jpg. It's giving the following error when trying to render the image: "Error creating thumbnail: convert: unable to open image `/home/rational/public_html/wiki/images/f/fe/The-new-godspeed.jpg': No such file or directory. convert: missing an image filename `/home/rational/public_html/wiki/images/thumb/f/fe/The-new-godspeed.jpg/800px-The-new-godspeed.jpg'."

Shall I go ahead and delete it, or is there anything that can be done to recover the image? I've no idea what the image is, or even if it's worth saving. --^{Ask me about our person} 21:10, 26 February 2010 (UTC)

[edit] How ...

... did two edits by a BON get flagged as bot? Rather unsettling if BONs are hiding like that. Or was it the reversion wot done it? Explanation please.   ^Contribs_Talk 01:19, 6 March 2010 (UTC)

Sysops can flag edits as bot edits on rollback. - User = 01:20, 6 March 2010 (UTC)

mediawikiwiki:Manual:Parameters_to_index.php#cite_note-3 -- Nx / talk 01:21, 6 March 2010 (UTC)

Not a good thing to do. Leads to paranoia - on my part anyhow. If someone's blocked or binned I wanna be able to see it (without messing about with Rc.   ^Contribs_Talk 01:26, 6 March 2010 (UTC)

It only works on rollback. - User = π 01:29, 6 March 2010 (UTC)

Unless you're a bot... -- Nx / talk 01:31, 6 March 2010 (UTC)

True. - User = 01:32, 6 March 2010 (UTC)

[edit] Drop down

Is it possible to put a drop-down box in an article (like the "block reasons" etc). I'm thinking about using them here to select the Blog & author.   ^Contribs_Talk 16:23, 7 March 2010 (UTC)

"No answer", came the swift reply! 02:00, 11 March 2010 (UTC)   ^Contribs_Talk

It's surely possible. Look at how Nx implemented the file copyright choices in common.css perhaps? ħuman 03:42, 11 March 2010 (UTC)

But no-one's telling me! (stamps feet & scowls) 03:52, 11 March 2010 (UTC)   ^Contribs_Talk

Why do you want ruin my wiki? ħuman 04:28, 11 March 2010 (UTC)

I didn't implement it, I just enabled it. And it's a in a form which you have to submit. That wouldn't work so well in this case I think. -- Nx / talk 08:57, 11 March 2010 (UTC)

DOES NOT COMPUTE. DOES NOT COMPUTE. DOES NOT COMPUTE. DOES NOT COMPUTE. DOES NOT COMPUTE. ħuman 09:05, 11 March 2010 (UTC)

It does, I see what he means: its as a form, I think. 09:15, 11 March 2010 (UTC)   ^Contribs_Talk

Well we have the Simple Forms extension installed, but all I can get it to do is generate the html, which looks good, but doesn't really help :) Worm^{(t | c)} 09:19, 11 March 2010 (UTC)

We do? Do we use it anywhere? Anyway, I think that won't help because it's still a form you have to submit. (To human: every time you select something you have to click button then page reloads and displays result. What Susan wants is instant change without reload without button-clicky) -- Nx / talk 09:26, 11 March 2010 (UTC)

Nx hath it right. 09:30, 11 March 2010 (UTC)   ^Contribs_Talk

Well, it can be done using javascript. Specify which columns to filter using classes (the same way sorting works, which can be done on a per-column basis, see wikipedia:Help:Table#Sorting), find them the same way sorting does, get all the cells in column, remove duplicates, build dropdown and insert it above/below column with javascript even handler that filters out everything not matching stuff in dropdown. The only tricky part is multiple filtered columns interfering with each other (e.g. you select one option from dropdown 1, it hides stuff. Then you select option from dropdown 2, it hides stuff too. Ok so far, but then select no filtering from dropdown 1, it unhides everything. Maybe by hiding both the cell and the entire row the script can figure out if the row was hidden by another column, since it can just check the other cells in a row to see if there's a hidden cell, and leave the row hidden if there is) -- Nx / talk 09:44, 11 March 2010 (UTC)

"Obviously"? To you, mayhap. To me "WTF"! 09:47, 11 March 2010 (UTC)   ^Contribs_Talk

The obviously was referring to my statement that it can be done using javscript. -- Nx / talk 10:11, 11 March 2010 (UTC)

I know: I's teasing! 10:15, 11 March 2010 (UTC)   ^Contribs_Talk

[edit] Request for magic

Can someone build a thing that shows the date of a user's most recent edit and is linked to the diff? It would be nice to have a thing for the RW:Shrine that says "Last edit: dd/mm/yy; all edits" and perhaps floats off to the right. (obviously "all edits" is easy, that's just a link to their contribs) ħuman 20:50, 12 March 2010 (UTC)

Probably Certainly DPLable. Also probably very slow. -- Nx / talk 20:55, 12 March 2010 (UTC)