Dropdown Busted

Fi13r · Post by **Fi13r** » Sat Dec 28, 2002 4:08 am

I mentioned this in my other thread about the ad not working, but since the ad DOES work after all, and this appears to be a different problem, I decided to give it its own thread.

The storyline dropdown on my site appears to be completely busted. Since the server move started, it was only partially busted (e.g., it would display storylines, they just didn't work when you used the "go" button). The other day, when I uploaded a new copy of the dropdown.txt file and updated, it broke it so the only thing that displays is the first line.

Can anyone tell what's the matter? Any ideas on how I can fix it so it at least DISPLAYS the storylines(and yeah, I remember I've had dropdown problems before, it's not the same problem this time, trust me)?

Thanks.

Seven3 · Post by **Seven3** » Sun Dec 29, 2002 11:12 pm

The storyline dropdown calls on a CGI script to redirect your pages. And since it's on siteadmin.keenspace.com, it (like nearly everything else there) doesn't work anymore.

Fi13r · Post by **Fi13r** » Tue Dec 31, 2002 11:24 pm

Seven3 wrote:The storyline dropdown calls on a CGI script to redirect your pages. And since it's on siteadmin.keenspace.com, it (like nearly everything else there) doesn't work anymore.

Yeah, I know the redirect's broken, as I mentioned in my message. But it won't even DISPLAY the dropdown properly. It shows the first line of the dropdown text file... and then that's it. It seems to be refusing to show anything in the list beyond that. Is the code to make it display properly on siteadmin.keenspace.com too?

I'm just trying to figure out if the display is messed up because of the server move, or because of something I did in the text file.

Seven3 · Post by **Seven3** » Wed Jan 01, 2003 7:25 pm

Code: Select all

<form name=dropdown action=http://siteadmin.keenspace.com/cgi-bin/dropdown.cgi><input type=hidden name=domain value=rugg.keenspace.com><select name=section>
<option value="http://rugg.keenspace.com/
-------------------------------------------------------" SELECTED>RUGG STRIPS & STORYLINES</option>
</select>&nbsp;<input type=submit value="Go!"></td></form>

It looks like it from your code. Can you post the storyline text file here so we can take a look?

Fi13r · Post by **Fi13r** » Wed Jan 01, 2003 11:43 pm

Seven3 wrote:

Code: Select all

<form name=dropdown action=http://siteadmin.keenspace.com/cgi-bin/dropdown.cgi><input type=hidden name=domain value=rugg.keenspace.com><select name=section>
<option value="http://rugg.keenspace.com/
-------------------------------------------------------" SELECTED>RUGG STRIPS & STORYLINES</option>
</select>&nbsp;<input type=submit value="Go!"></td></form>

It looks like it from your code. Can you post the storyline text file here so we can take a look?

Certainly. Here it is:

Code: Select all

RUGG STRIPS & STORYLINES, /
-------------------------------------------------------, /
 Running Around Like A..., /d/20020802.html
 The Advantages Of Being Headless, /d/20020805.html
 The Timeless Question, /d/20020808.html
 Crisis In The Middle East, /d/20020811.html
 Headache, /d/20020904.html
 The Gathering: Part 1, /d/20020907.html
 Incredibly Stupid Bird Joke, /d/20020910.html
 Gratitude?, /d/20020913.html
 Waste Of Time, /d/20020916.html
 The Dark Arts, /d/20020919.html
 Calling All Vaticans, /d/20021004.html
 Back With The Demonic Hordes At Some Later Point In Time, /d/20021012.html
 How To Defeat An Evil Clown, /d/20021015.html
 The Chicken Gets A Pet! The Cartoon Gets A New Character!, /d/20021018.html
 A Scholarly Decision, /d/20021203.html
 School Days, /d/20021213.html
 And Then It Was Suddenly Christmas Eve!!, /d/20021224.html
 Resolutions For The New Year, /d/20030101.html

It was working fine until I updated it on the 24th, so I doubt it's anything from before then. I've tried reuploading it, and making a new copy from scratch and uploading that, and niether has worked.

Seven3 · Post by **Seven3** » Thu Jan 02, 2003 1:41 am

Looking at that, I don't see anything obviously wrong. It's strange then, that you're the only one with this problem. The only things I can suggest are taking out the lines that you've put in since you started having the problem [i.e. the last two], and/or putting all the titles in quote marks [" "].

BTW, what text editor are you using? Some of them do funny thing with their carriage returns that can mess with the output.

Fi13r · Post by **Fi13r** » Thu Jan 02, 2003 3:24 am

Seven3 wrote:Looking at that, I don't see anything obviously wrong. It's strange then, that you're the only one with this problem. The only things I can suggest are taking out the lines that you've put in since you started having the problem [i.e. the last two], and/or putting all the titles in quote marks [" "].

While I already tried your first suggestion (it didn't work), your suggestion about putting the titles in quotation marks is interesting, since it's not mentioned in any of the initial how-to documentation. Could you explain? Does that help the scripts distinguish URLs from labels in the dropdown better or something? Do the quotes show up in the dropdown? And does it make it so you can have commas in your titles?

Seven3 wrote:BTW, what text editor are you using? Some of them do funny thing with their carriage returns that can mess with the output.

Aha, but this was suggested the last time I had a similar problem, and that was indeed what was causing the problem.

I can tell you it's not, this time, since I've been using BBEdit ever since then, which doesn't have that problem.

ZOMBIE USER 54 · Post by **ZOMBIE USER 54** » Thu Jan 02, 2003 4:44 am

BBEdit is a tool sent to us by the gods. wOOt!

ZOMBIE USER 12172 · Post by **ZOMBIE USER 12172** » Thu Jan 02, 2003 7:04 am

Seven3 wrote:It's strange then, that you're the only one with this problem.

Actually, the dropdown at my site (if then else) is also malfunctioning. As stated earlier, it is making a call to siteadmin.keenspace.com when the call needs to go to schlockadmin.keenspace.com. I changed siteadmin to schlockadmin on one of the 404 Errors and was successful in navigating to the desired storyline. I know the Keenspace admins are busy these days, but this error is a bit frustrating not only for me but also my readers (three by my last count

). Any actions taken to remedy the problem would be greatly appreciated.

Seven3 · Post by **Seven3** » Thu Jan 02, 2003 12:59 pm

D-bugg: all the storyline dropdowns have that problem, but Fi13r's is different, it's not even being displayed correctly, let alone pointing to the right server.
(Compare his source code [above] to your own. Notice the long line of dashes that's in the 'value' attribute - it's meant to be between the <option...> </option> tags.)

Fil3r:This is what I meant;
"Resolutions For The New Year", /d/20030101.html
If the problem lies within the titles, this *should* catch it.

Seven3 · Post by **Seven3** » Fri Jan 03, 2003 2:10 am

I've got an idea for a stop-gap solution to the 'wrong server' issue:

Code: Select all

document.getElementsByName('dropdown').action='http://schlockadmin.keenspace.com/cgi-bin/dropdown.cgi';

It should theoretically be able to change the URL that the form calls, but I've not been able to do it (yet).

Fi13r · Post by **Fi13r** » Fri Jan 03, 2003 11:12 pm

Well, the quotes didn't work. As a matter of fact, they just seemed to make things much, much worse (for some reason, Autokeen thought there was only one item in the list and one value, and that's it). I figure I must be putting the quotes in wrong or something. This is the way I was doing it:

Code: Select all

"RUGG STRIPS & STORYLINES", /
"-------------------------------------------------------", /
 "Running Around Like A...", /d/20020802.html
 "The Advantages Of Being Headless", /d/20020805.html
 "The Timeless Question", /d/20020808.html
 "Crisis In The Middle East", /d/20020811.html
 "Headache", /d/20020904.html
 "The Gathering: Part 1", /d/20020907.html
 "Incredibly Stupid Bird Joke", /d/20020910.html
 "Gratitude?", /d/20020913.html
 "Waste Of Time", /d/20020916.html
 "The Dark Arts", /d/20020919.html
 "Calling All Vaticans", /d/20021004.html
 "Back With The Demonic Hordes At Some Later Point In Time", /d/20021012.html
 "How To Defeat An Evil Clown", /d/20021015.html
 "The Chicken Gets A Pet! The Cartoon Gets A New Character!", /d/20021018.html
 "A Scholarly Decision", /d/20021203.html
 "School Days", /d/20021213.html
 "And Then It Was Suddenly Christmas Eve!!", /d/20021224.html
 "Resolutions For The New Year", /d/20030101.html
 "Snow!", /d/20030103.html

What am I doing wrong??

Seven3 · Post by **Seven3** » Mon Jan 06, 2003 2:12 pm

Sorry, but it's got me beat. Normally I'd point you to help@..., but it's bouncing back everything sent to it.

The only thing I can suggest is to keep checking this forum, and when Atrus and/or Kasai show up, bump this thread back to the top.
They may be more help.

Seven3 · Post by **Seven3** » Thu Jan 09, 2003 3:34 pm

Still no clue for fi13r's problem, but this'll fix D-Bugg's:
<a href="viewtopic.php?t=47376" title="general disucssion topic">click me!

</a>

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