Topic: Gallery Preview: First Image Does Not Load Completely Until...

When working on a new gallery, if I choose Gallery -> Preview throughout the build process, often that first image loads only partially (from the top down). This is also the case during a Preview if the browser's refresh button is pushed. (I'm using the latest version of Firefox.)

That first image will finish loading if the mouse is merely hovered over the first thumbnail.

I have uploaded only one gallery - that same one I was experimenting with - to my web host, and have not encountered this problem. That is, the problem only appears during "local" testing on my PC, via the Preview.

Anyone else encountered this?

Regards,

Bill

Re: Gallery Preview: First Image Does Not Load Completely Until...

Are you on Mac or PC? What version of FireFox? Can you please email the image to support@juicebox.net? Thanks.

Re: Gallery Preview: First Image Does Not Load Completely Until...

My O/S is Windows Vista Home Premium (SP2), and the browser in question is Firefox 12.0.

I'd like to adjust one statement: the image will load completely if the mouse is hovered over ANY thumbnail (i.e., not necessarily the first thumbnail). After that, it's smooth sailing. Again, note that this is in Preview mode only, NOT when viewing an actually hosted version.

Incidentally, rather than change my default browser (Firefox), I entered file:///C:/Users/[Me]/AppData/Local/Temp/fla3847.tmp/index.html in:

1) IE (9.0.8112.16421). I could not reproduce the problem. I did have to click the "Allow blocked button" because "Internet Explorer restricted this webpage from running scripts or ActiveX controls."

2) Safari for Windows (5.1.5). No problems.

3) Chrome (18.0.1025.168). Of course, as noted in your documentation ( http://www.juicebox.net/support/faq/#chrome_local ), Preview mode doesn't work in Chrome.

4) Opera (11.62). Opera decides, on its own, to change file:///C:/Users/[Me]/AppData/Local/Temp/fla3847.tmp/index.html to file://localhost/C:/Users/[Me]/AppData/Local/Temp/fla3847.tmp/index.html , which then returns the error "Juicebox Error: Config XML file not found." This error is also discussed within the Troubleshooting page; however, my path information is fine... or it would have been, if Opera didn't decide to make changes itself. I suggest that a note about Opera be added to the Troubleshooting section, like Chrome, and also only in terms of Preview.

The bottom line here is that I encounter this problem fairly consistently in the latest Firefox, but not in any of the other browsers I have installed on my PC.

Regards,

Bill

Re: Gallery Preview: First Image Does Not Load Completely Until...

Are you able to determine whether this always happens with certain images and never happens with others?
As Felix has suggested, if you could email an image that it always happens with and an image that it never happens with, then that may help us track down and solve the problem. Thank you.

5 (edited by wspollack 2012-05-03 14:24:08)

Re: Gallery Preview: First Image Does Not Load Completely Until...

I emailed that first image last night, but I really don't think that it's relevant. The image partially loads... but to different degrees. It strikes me as some sort of timing issue, bug, quirk, etc. in Firefox 12.0.

When I do a Gallery -> Preview, virtually all the time (or maybe actually all the time), that first image loads, from its top down, maybe a fifth of the way. If I press Firefox's Refresh button, the image re-loads, but maybe to a slightly different point, e.g., maybe this time a quarter of the way down.

I have discovered this: in order to complete the picture's loading, it's sufficient to hover the mouse over ANY thumbnail. And - this is new - another way to complete the loading is to hover the mouse of an UNUSED area in that top area of FF, the area where a new tab would appear (i.e., hover anywhere to the right of the tab that's being used for the preview page).

Doing this hovering somehow "unfreezes" whatever is being "frozen" during the initial load.

Bill

EDIT: I just deleted that first image from the gallery. Now, a Gallery -> Preview reveals the same problem with the formerly-second-but-now-first image. The partial loading doesn't always happen, but it happens most of the time.

EDIT2: Pressing the Windows key also allows the load to complete.

EDIT3: I just did a screen-capture for you folks. Here's what it looks like when it "sticks" at a partial load, before hovering over the thumbnail area, pressing the Windows key, etc.: http://www.billanddot.com/partial-load.jpg

EDIT4: I CANNOT get FF to exhibit this problem in its Safe Mode (i.e., add-ons, of which I have a lot, disabled). So, this MAY be a problem with a specific add-on, or else it's still a bug somewhere that involves a timing issue (and having the add-ons disabled just makes FF process the page faster, perhaps avoiding - but not solving - the problem). I will experiment with individual add-ons disabled in a bit...

Re: Gallery Preview: First Image Does Not Load Completely Until...

I CANNOT get FF to exhibit this problem in its Safe Mode

Interesting. Let us know if you can narrow it down to a specific plugin. Thanks!

Re: Gallery Preview: First Image Does Not Load Completely Until...

I've done a lot of work on this, and here is the latest summary:

I've disabled, one by one, each of my Firefox (12.0) add-ons. Then I'd test this problem, then enable the disabled add-on, disable the next one, and repeat. You can see a list of the 11 enabled add-ons I started this test with here: http://www.billanddot.com/firefox-add-ons.jpg . But, as I'll attempt to explain below, I don't think this is an add-on problem.

This test didn't help solve the problem. I really think this is a timing problem within Firefox, and so because some of these add-ons may be more "intensive" than others, I think this may effect how often I have to Refresh Firefox in order to see the partial-image-load problem. And this is why, I think, that I can't duplicate this problem in Firefox's Safe Mode: Firefox then has too little extra work to do, and so responds too quickly for this timing issue to show up.

In case you haven't followed me, I first noticed this problem doing a Gallery -> Preview. However, other times, this works fine, i.e., that first image loads fully. (I've never had a problem with partial loading looking at images 2 - N.) This led me to experiment with using Firefox's Refresh on the local file that Juicebox sent as the URL to Firefox. Pressing Refresh repeatedly - that is, right after I can see that that first image has just finished loading - reveals that the problem sometimes manifests itself, and sometimes doesn't. And that leads me to believe that this is mostly a Firefox problem, because pressing Refresh has nothing to do with Juicebox at that point, right? I suppose it could conceivably have something to do with the actual code that Juicebox generates, and how Firefox interprets that code.

Now, to show you exactly what I'm talking about, I made a video of this situation, and uploaded it to YouTube. It's 35 seconds long, is in real time (no video editing), and is here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NNKp0UHMYs8 . What you will see here, replete with mouse movements and clicks, is:

- I invoke Gallery -> Preview, and Firefox (already running) doesn't completely load that first image;
- I then switch my attention from Juicebox to Firefox, and repeatedly press the Refresh button;
- Most of the time the local page/first image is refreshed fine, and the image loads fully, but a couple times the image does not load fully;
- On the last such partial-load, I hover the mouse (but do not click anything) over the bottom thumbnail area, which hovering magically results in the completion of that partial load (i.e., the image is now fully loaded).

Fin.

I'm not about to disable all my add-ons when I want to preview a gallery; if the preview doesn't load that first image fully, all I have to do is move the mouse down to the thumbnails. So it's not a really big deal. Nevertheless, I'm convinced that there is a bug, somewhere, in Firefox itself, or in the way Firefox handles the code generated by Juicebox, or some combination of this. So I'm reporting it, but I'm done working to isolate it, because I really can't and I haven't got the time.

Hope this helps,

Bill

Re: Gallery Preview: First Image Does Not Load Completely Until...

Thanks for the detailed bug report. We have this in our queue to fix.