This is an ‘html-only’ version of Scribblings with no database behind it. This means it is not possible to search it. I am working on a new version with which I am hoping to eventually put back into the main site. The new version is here but please note that there is no link directly back to the main site.
Saturday, 12th March 2005
Flippy triangles
The flippy triangle enhancement which I introduced to this weblog last week has a minor problem which has been bugging me all week.
If you are able to send two requests to expand article previews one after the other and the second goes out before the response to the first is received then whichever response is received first works fine leaving the other in limbo, probably with a rotating ‘please wait’ icon. It’s especially a problem if the response is delayed for a while.1
I now have a solution2 to this which works just fine on Firefox, Camino and Netscape 7 on my Mac. Because I don’t have a Windows box or a later version of Mac OS X I have not been able to test the new version on Internet Explorer 6 or Safari. I should be able to test it on these browsers from work next week and if all goes well I’ll make it live.
Update (14 March)
After a couple of minor tweaks to get the fix working on Internet Explorer 63 I have now installed it. You should now find you can merrily click away on flippy triangles to expand and collapse articles and it won’t matter two hoots whether the server’s responses are delayed or what order they arrive in back at your end. Chances are that no one noticed the problem with the original code anyway but it mattered to me.
Update (16 March 2005)
I’ve now added flippy triangles to the ‘complete articles’ display so that you can collapse them if you like. It works in exactly the same way though it’s probably of less value than the triangles in the preview display.
1 Speaking of which, if you do get the whirly icon you can click on it to cancel the request (well, to tell the script to ignore the response when it does arrive). Assuming the mini-bug doesn’t get in the way, that is.
2 The solution involves faffing around with Javascript objects in ways which I’ve never faffed before but which turned out to be rather interesting to my somewhat befuddled brain.
3 Sigh! Why is it nearly always that cussed browser which has problems? It really ought to be put out of its misery.
An apology
Since moving the site to a new server Scribblings is not as easy to find your way around as it used to be. It used to depend on a script and a database on the server but is currently served as ‘flat html’.
I have some ideas about how to make it a bit easier but they depend on writing another script. I hope to get around to it ‘eventually’.
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