Problem: Posting Interface Malfunction

[Ricky Controversy]

As of three days ago, I am no longer able to interact with any of the posting interface's functions. While, as you can see, the text field itself works just fine and the post button itself is responsive, nothing immediately surrounding the text field is responsive. Italics, bold, underline, formatting, quote, spoiler, etc. Not only does this affect the buttons themselves, but it also affects the quick application of some of the functions: Ctrl+I no longer places italics tags, for instance.

In addition, since this error first appeared, I have been unable to edit or delete my own posts. This problem is exclusive to the AnimeSuki boards.

[SeijiSensei]

Running Noscript or anything else that would disable Javascript?

[Ricky Controversy]

No, nothing of the sort.

[felix]

Since I can run it just fine pretty sure you blocked the javascript here or simply blocked the address from where the javascript is loaded (same effect). You did this knowingly or it was done automatically by some program you are using (having a custom etc/host file will also produce same effect on windows). Try using another browser to check if you get same behavior (gonna assume you use firefox here).

[Ricky Controversy]

Originally Posted by Cats

Since I can run it just fine pretty sure you blocked the javascript here or simply blocked the address from where the javascript is loaded (same effect). You did this knowingly or it was done automatically by some program you are using (having a custom etc/host file will also produce same effect on windows). Try using another browser to check if you get same behavior (gonna assume you use firefox here).

Went ahead and did that. The interface functions properly on IE. The problem is that I honestly have no clue what would have effected this change. When it happened, I had sent out a private message on this forum in which I made use of the functional interface not more than ten minutes prior to the message in which I noticed the error. I can't recall doing anything other than browsing the fora during that time, so from your suggestions it seems to me that it would be something that does this automatically.

[felix]

Do you have Greasemonkey, Ad-block, Noscript or some other plug-in installed that manipulates site content in any way? Right, its rare but open the source file for the page and copy paste first line (or just check if doctype is there first) what happens is there are programs (proxy's etc) that will insert content ads on your browser pages or in case of mallware worse, these can affect other scripts or even the site rendering properly.

[NightWish]

Start by flushing your browser's cache. Then tell me if you have had any problems accessing the main site at all? Three days ago and/or now? Lastly, please confirm you can download a script file recently added to the forum.

[felix]

Originally Posted by NightWish

Lastly, please confirm you can download a script file recently added to the forum.

Oh NW I love you!
**goes to play with user scripts >xD

[Ricky Controversy]

Cache flushed. I haven't had any difficulties with the main site at all, and now the interface is working, though I'll need to see if edit/delete functions work again.

Edit: Delete and Edit are working. Looks like the cache flush was all that was needed. Thanks a lot! I ought to have thought of that, but when it didn't happen on other fora, I was thrown. I wonder why only this forum was affected?

[NightWish]

Okay; I can replicate your problem. I believe you've temporarily had problems connecting to the main site's server. The script was recently added to the forum to facilitate the collapse of the sub forums view in the anime discussion sections.

It only needs a short failure window when trying to download to cause a problem. When that script fails to load, the code that relies on it breaks and stops every other piece of JavaScript on the page from working. We'll have to move the script to the forum's server because I can't think of an easy (and clean) way to make the dependent code more resilient.

Originally Posted by Cats

Oh NW I love you!

Originally Posted by Ricky Controversy

Thanks a lot! I wonder why only this forum was affected?

You're welcome and see above. Though I am wondering if there is an odd issue with FireFox and cross-domain loading of scripts, generally speaking, because I often have to force a refresh or flush the cache on some sites, because it fails to download a bunch of JavaScript and then seems to remember that it failed and not try again. The few times I've looked at Facebook have been notoriously bad.

[felix]

Move the script to the bottom, bellow any forum scripts. I'm going to assume you are using something like:

 $(document).ready(function(){
   // Your code here
 });

[NightWish]

Yeah... that might work. I can't remember when the forum scripts become "active"; there is a sort of boot process that VB use if I recall correctly... Never-the-less, I'm going to just let GHDpro move the script because I think it is better having it all with the forum as a single unit, rather than having anything break if the main site has issues. Even if that means two copies of the file...

[GHDpro]

I moved the Javascript code to hide the subforums to the top of the footer (above vBulletin's own Javascript init() function) because there was a noticeable delay in hiding the subforums and I wanted it to be instant. I eventually made some other changes to make this happen but forgot to move the javascript back to the very bottom (of the footer & page), but I've done so now.

The piece of external javascript was jQuery btw, and I've changed the URL to this:
http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs.../jquery.min.js
This means jQuery should now load faster than the forum pages themselves for most users.

My apologies for any trouble/confusions caused by this issue.

[felix]

It also means its now updated to the latest 1.4.x, yey.