I am running Drupal 6 on an older PC for development (i mention this in the event that someone thinks it might be a mempry or processing speed issue).

I had timeline running successfully on both Simile and locally. Then, while working on other elements, it simply stopped showing up. I cannot recall exactly what I was working on (possibly taxonomy). I ignored the issue as i was fully invested in resolving the other issues, thus i cannot recall.

I develop primarily in Chrome, and for a while, the timeline would show up in only the preview mode of the previously successfully created block, though it would not appear on the rendered page.

after several weeks, it has now come to pass that it did not show up anywhere (not the WSOD, but a blank area of the proper size. I have chosen the dark theme so i can be sure it is not just poor eyes or a bad screen). NOW, it appears in, (or all places) IE (8.0), but only sometimes. When i load a page, it is not there. When I F5, it often appears.

It will not, however, appear in Firefox (3.6.15) or Chrome (10.0), no matter how many times I make the call. One interesting new note from the previously successful renderings is that my Nicemenu drop down bottom items are hidden behind the Time line when it is visible, but the manu items appear over the blank area where timeline ought to be.

I have several timelines configured (default, a modified clone, and a "from-scratch"), all of which show up after two calls in IE, but do not show at all anywhere else.

it is the random nature of this that suggests to my weak diagnostic skills that it might be some cache issues. I note another forum spoke to issues code in headers and footers in certain browsers, but i suspect that was resolved.

Can anyone replicate my issues? I have well under 25 nodes. I run Firebug in Firefox (based on a Xamanu recommendation, but 1) I have no idea what i am looking for; and 2), i see nothing that screams or looks like an error.

Please let me know what else i need to report on.

Thanks,

Hamish
(Toronto)

Comments

hamish_s’s picture

hamish_s commented

Let me add a new discovery ...

Directing my site to the Simile servers now produces the error: "Failed to derive URL prefix for the Timeline API ...". I dug around for hours and finally, did a search of my entire PC to find files with that embedded text, and found the timeline.js files in the Ajax folder. So, i modified the error message in my folders to validate that i had found the trigger point. And voila, no modified message appeared.

I then simply disconnected my PC from the net and ran it again. No message at all. I can now conclude that it is the Simile servers that is delivering that message. ie: the Simile servers are not able to extract from the data array my server sends to MIT the correct URL to process the data array.

i am not a programmer, but i hope the experts who maintain the Timeline module will be able to reflect and work through the information - perhaps the issue with a blank screen where Timeline ought to appear using the local install, is the same problem as when using the Simile servers.

A final note, even though the timeline does not appear n my screen, i have noted that the place where it ought to be is filled with white space ... except for the area in the corner where the developer links to , , and appear.

Thanks for your help.

Hamish

hamish_s’s picture

hamish_s commented

I have installed and replaced all the timeline files - and treid the six combinations of the two 6.x versions and the 6.3 dev modules, with the two versions of the library files. No change. Therefore, it must be something buried in a core module where a conflict has arisen.

So, to confirm this, i tried a system check. I copied my entire Drupal 6.2 module to a back-up, and backed up the database. I loaded Easyphp onto another PC, copied over my 6.2 module, and inserted the db (problems with a db >9MB, so modified the php and htaccess files). and abracadbra ... all my timelines work. same files as on the first PC - on which the timelines had originally worked, but had stopped.

So, now i am going to replicate my exercise with the original PC - erase EVERYTHING and re-install the original files.

It is clear that some file is corrupted on the original PC. Any thoughts on why this is a "bad idea"??

xamanu’s picture

xamanu commented
Version: 6.x-2.1 » 6.x-3.x-dev
Status: Active » Postponed (maintainer needs more info)

Sorry, I don't have any clue what is/was happening on your computer. None of the problems seem common to me. Please test the newest 6.x-3.x-dev version. Maybe this will help.

To address errors I'd have to rebuild the error in my machine. Please try to rebuild your errors and if they persist tell me how to rebuild them, so I can fix them. Thank you.

xamanu’s picture

xamanu commented
Status: Postponed (maintainer needs more info) » Closed (cannot reproduce)

No more information has been provided. So closing here. Please re-open if necessary.