IE screen goes blank randomly

[xanander]

Hi - I don't know if this is a known bug or not, so I took the chance of posting it here.

I have had the chat program up and running for my visitors for two days now, and my moderators reports a substantial amount of problems with blank screens. Two of the moderators were online for 7 hours last night and one didn't experience it once, while the other had it once per minute in periods. When they get a blank screen they have to log in again; writing /join + room does not help.

I have difficulty troubleshooting it any further, since I don't experience it. It seems again, however, to be related to Internet Explorer.

This is similar in nature to what they experienced when trying to use the command /identify + pass (which we spoke about earlier). That also blanked the screen and necessitated a new login. In this case, however, people get blank screens without typing any commands (both when typing normally and when not typing at all).

Do you have any idea what this is or how I can get rid of it?

Thanks a lot! If we can find a way to handle this, the chat room will be a definite success on the website. Those that don't experience it seems very happy

[phpfreechat]

I know the screen goes blank on IE6 when chinese characteres are posted. But maybe there is other buggy characteres that I don't know.

I will look at these problems as a priority next week. I hope I will found a workaround or a fix ... Feel free to help me because I'm out of ideas.

[xanander]

I see that you have found a solution to the /identify blank screen problems. Are these two sets of problems connected? They seem pretty similar in the way they are described by my users. Both lead to a blank screen where you can't see what you write yourself, but others can. To see the text again you have to enter the chat room again.

If it is the same thing that happens, then using the /identify command (before the last subversion revision) could force the otherwise random blank screen problem.

I don't know your code well enough to say anything concrete, but maybe it is possible to look closely at what exactly happend before when the /identify command was used? Is there any way the divs/layers are used that could provoke this?

According to my users it happens more frequently if you have a private chat room open as well... but it can happen more or less at any point in time, also before the room has loaded the first time. But always, at least according to all the reports I have got, with Internet Explorer and never with Firefox. And, another thing, it always happens with the same machines. Those that suffers the problem, get it time and time again, while those that doesn't suffer it, has a 100% error free experience. So maybe it is also related to a specific version of Internet Explorer?

A lot of talk, and very little concrete, I'm afraid...

[phpfreechat]

I found a solution for the chinese characteres.
Here is the patch : http://svn.sourceforge.net/viewvc/phpfr ... 706&r2=708

So, maybe it could fix also your blank screen problem ?
Can you try it ?

[xanander]

Thanks a lot! I have uploaded it to the site and well await feedback from the users. As soon as I hear something I'll report back to you.

[xanander]

I have spoken with the moderators again today, and according to them the blank screen problems have increased. Now also the people that didn't have blank screens before are getting them. The only change I have made is to copy in the font thing for the chinese characters that you posted above... so this is probably the reason. Can this help you to find out what is causing it in the first place?

Another thing they mentioned, was that if they had a private chat window/room open, they can get back into the chat without reloading by clicking on the chat bubble. Those who haven't had time to open such a window/room, has to re-enter the room.

Did this give you any ideas on how to fix it? Or what might be wrong?

[phpfreechat]

could you give me the url of your chat ?
Maybe there is a css conflict on the font problem

[xanander]

Yes, it would be great if you could take a look at it! I have sent you a private message with the url.

[phpfreechat]

I didn't received your private message...

[phpfreechat]

Ok I got it.

Could you copy/paste content of your customized css style ? (style.css.tpl.php)
I whould like to know what did you change in the CSS in comparison to the default style.css.tpl.php file.

[xanander]

I didn't do many changes, just the background colors and the font change. Here it is:

Code: Select all

div#<?php echo $prefix; ?>container * {
  border: 0;
  margin: 0;
  padding: 0;
}

div#<?php echo $prefix; ?>container {
  <?php if ($width!="") { ?>width: <?php echo $width; ?>;<?php } ?>
  border: 1px solid #555;
  color: #000;
  padding: 10px;
  min-height: 20px;
  background-color: #E4EBF3;
  bbackground-image: url("<?php echo $c->getFileUrlFromTheme('images/shade.gif'); ?>");
  bbackground-position: right;
  bbackground-repeat: repeat-y;
  font-family: Verdana, Sans-Serif; /* without this rule, the tabs are not correctly display on FF */
}

#<?php echo $prefix; ?>minmax {
  cursor: pointer;
}
div#<?php echo $prefix; ?>content_expandable {
  margin-top: 0.2em;
}

div#<?php echo $prefix; ?>channels_content {
  z-index: 20;
  <?php if ($height!="") { ?>height: <?php echo $height; ?>;<?php } ?>
  position: relative;
  width: 100%;
  border-right: 1px solid #555;
  border-left: 1px solid #555;
  border-bottom: 1px solid #555;
  background-color: #FFF;
  margin-top: 5px;
  font-family: serif;
}
div.<?php echo $prefix; ?>content {
}

/* channels tabpanes */
ul#<?php echo $prefix; ?>channels_list {
  list-style-type: none;
  display: block;
  z-index: 50;
  border-bottom: 1px solid #555;
  margin-bottom: -5px;
}
ul#<?php echo $prefix; ?>channels_list li {
  display: inline;
  margin-left: 5px;
}
ul#<?php echo $prefix; ?>channels_list li div {
  display: inline;
  padding: 0 4px 0 4px;
  border-top: 1px solid #555;
  border-right: 1px solid #555;
  border-left: 1px solid #555;
  border-bottom: 1px solid #555;
  background-color: #DDD;
}
ul#<?php echo $prefix; ?>channels_list li.selected div {
  background-color: #FFF;
  border-bottom: 1px solid #FFF;
  color: #000;
  font-weight: bold;
}
ul#<?php echo $prefix; ?>channels_list li > div:hover {
  background-color: #FFF;
}
ul#<?php echo $prefix; ?>channels_list li a {
  color: #000;
  text-decoration: none; 
}
ul#<?php echo $prefix; ?>channels_list li a.<?php echo $prefix; ?>tabtitle {
  cursor: pointer;
}
ul#<?php echo $prefix; ?>channels_list li a.<?php echo $prefix; ?>tabtitle img {
  padding-right: 4px;
}
ul#<?php echo $prefix; ?>channels_list li a.<?php echo $prefix; ?>tabclose {
  margin-left: 4px;
  cursor: pointer;
}


div.<?php echo $prefix; ?>chat {
  z-index: 100;
  position: absolute;
  top: 0;
  left: 0;
  width: 80%;
  height: 100%;
  overflow: auto;
}

div.<?php echo $prefix; ?>online {
  position: absolute;
  right: 0;
  top: 0;
  padding: 0;
  overflow: auto;
  width: 20%;
  height: 100%;
  color: #000; /* colors can be overriden by js nickname colorization */
  background-color: #FFF;
  background-image: url("<?php echo $c->getFileUrlFromTheme('images/online-separator.gif'); ?>");
  background-position: left;
  background-repeat: repeat-y;
  /* borders are drawn by the javascript routines */
}
div.<?php echo $prefix; ?>online ul {
  list-style-type: none;
  margin: 0;
  padding: 0;
  margin-left: 8px;
  margin-right: 8px;
}
div.<?php echo $prefix; ?>online li {
  font-weight: bold;
  font-size: 90%;
  /* bottom borders are drawn by the javascript routines */
}

h2#<?php echo $prefix; ?>title {
  font-size: 110%;
}

img#<?php echo $prefix; ?>minmax {
  float: right;
}

.<?php echo $prefix; ?>invisible {
  display: none;
}

div.<?php echo $prefix; ?>message {
}
.<?php echo $prefix; ?>words {
  font-size: 90%;
}

div.<?php echo $prefix; ?>oldmsg {
  background-image: url("<?php echo $c->getFileUrlFromTheme('images/oldmsg.gif'); ?>");
  background-position: right;
  background-repeat: repeat-y;
}

span.<?php echo $prefix; ?>heure, span.<?php echo $prefix; ?>date {
  color: #bebebe;
  font-size: 70%;
}

span.<?php echo $prefix; ?>nick {
  color: #fbac17;
  font-weight: bold;
}

div#<?php echo $prefix; ?>input_container {
  margin-top: 5px;
}

input#<?php echo $prefix; ?>words {
  border: #555 solid 1px;
  background-color: #FAFAFA;
  width: 100%;
  height: 1.3em;
}

div#<?php echo $prefix; ?>cmd_container {
  position: relative;
  margin-top: 5px;
  width: 100%;
}

input#<?php echo $prefix; ?>handle {
  border: black solid 1px;
  padding: 0 4px 0 4px;
  color: black;
  <?php if ($nick!="") { ?>background-color: #CCC;<?php } ?>
  text-align: center;
  margin-bottom: 5px;
}

a#<?php echo $prefix; ?>logo {
  position: absolute;
  right: 0;
  top: 0;
}

div.<?php echo $prefix; ?>btn {
  display: inline; 
  cursor: pointer;
}
div.<?php echo $prefix; ?>btn img {
  /* doesn't work */
  /*  border: 1px solid #393;*/ /* same as container color */
}
div.<?php echo $prefix; ?>btn img:hover {
  /* doesn't work */
  /*  border: 1px solid #000;*/
}

p#<?php echo $prefix; ?>errors {
  display: none;
  margin-top: 5px;
  padding: 2px;
  height: 18px;

  border: 1px solid #555;
  color: #FC4A1F;
  background-color: #FFBA76;
  text-align: center;
  font-style: italic;
  font-weight: bold;
}

/* commands */
.<?php echo $prefix; ?>cmd_msg {
  color: black;
}
.<?php echo $prefix; ?>cmd_me {
  font-style: italic;
  color: black;
}
.<?php echo $prefix; ?>cmd_notice {
  font-style: italic;
  color: #888;
}

/* commands info */
pre.<?php echo $prefix; ?>info {
  color: #888;
  font-style: italic;
  background-color: #EEE;
}

div#<?php echo $prefix; ?>colorlist {
  display: none;
}
img.<?php echo $prefix; ?>color {
  padding: 1px;
  cursor: pointer;
}

.<?php echo $prefix; ?>nickmarker {
  white-space: pre;
}

div#<?php echo $prefix; ?>smileys {
  display: none; /* will be shown by javascript routines */
  background-color: #FFF;
  border: 1px solid #555;
  padding: 4px;
  margin-top: 4px;
}

div#<?php echo $prefix; ?>smileys img {
 cursor: pointer;
}

[phpfreechat]

The blank screen problem is fixed (I hope) : http://www.phpfreechat.net/forum/viewto ... 2705#p2705