1 (edited by wspollack 2013-09-13 17:06:59)

Topic: Display Captions option in JB Skin causes XML Not Found error

Steven:

I attempted to generate a new gallery earlier today, using jAlbum 11.5, Juicebox Skin Version 1.3.2.0, and got the preview to hang (Firefox) or the XML Not Found error (IE). By a process of experimentation and elimination, I determined that the error was the result of my checking the Display Captions box in the Juicebox settings window in jAlbum. This was the case whether or not I actually had any captions to display. Unchecking this box solved the preview problem, and uploading through jAlbum then also resulted in a working web page.

I have the following Pro options listed in the settings box...

galleryTitlePosition=NONE
imagePreloading=NEXT
imagePadding=10
showImageNav=FALSE
maxThumbColumns=50
showAutoPlayButton=TRUE
showInfoButton=TRUE
showNavButtons=TRUE
showBackButton=TRUE
backButtonText=<a href="http://www.billanddot.com/index.htm" target="_top"><img src="http://www.billanddot.com/house_2.png" width="32" height="32" alt="Home (Bill &amp; Dot's Excellent Pages)"></a>
backButtonUrl=http://www.billanddot.com/
backButtonPosition=OVERLAY
showSplashPage=NEVER

...and the following additional boxes checked:

Show Open Button
Show Expand Button
Show Thumbnails Button
Use Fullscreen Expand

Your thoughts on this?

Cheers,

Bill

[Edit: forgot to mention that this was my first use of 11.5, which I had downloaded and installed a few minutes before that.]

Re: Display Captions option in JB Skin causes XML Not Found error

It sounds like upgrading jAlbum may have reset some jAlbum settings.
Go to jAlbum's 'Advanced -> Metadata' tab and ensure that the 'Suppress Internet Explorer warnings' is deselected.
If this checkbox is selected, jAlbum will insert the Mark of the Web after the <html> tag on all output HTML pages which may prevent Internet Explorer from displaying the gallery locally.
I do not have any problems previewing galleries built with jAlbum v11.5 and Juicebox Skin v1.3.2.0 locally in Firefox 23.0.1.

Re: Display Captions option in JB Skin causes XML Not Found error

Steven, it turns out that the problem is with a particular photo. In jAlbum, the photos are displayed in the gallery grid with their file titles listed under them. For this one particular image, instead of its file title (2013-09-07-12-52-01.jpg), what is displayed is:

METADATA-START [a bunch of unprintable, unpasteable, etc., characters follow -- perhaps 5,000 in all, which mostly appear as ...UUUUU..., and concluded by:] METADATA-END

As I wasn't paying attention, and as I working with about 50 photos, and as only the start of ("METADATA-START... [some gobbledygook]") is shown in the grid with all the other photos, I didn't notice that in the gallery I created yesterday.

Working with a test gallery today, I noticed it. If that photo is left in the test gallery, and if Display Captions is set, it breaks the generation of the xml file. That file abruptly ends thusly...

        <image imageURL="slides/2013-09-07-12-52-01.jpg" thumbURL="thumbs/2013-09-07-12-52-01.jpg" linkURL="hi-res/2013-09-07-12-52-01.jpg" linkTarget="_blank">
            <title></title>
            <caption><![CDATA[METADATA-START

...wherever that particular photo is placed in the gallery. That is, there is no...

        </image>

</juiceboxgallery>

...and neither are any subsequent photos processed.

If Display Captions is unchecked, that file is processed fine, wherever it occurs among the other photos:

        <image imageURL="slides/2013-09-07-12-52-01.jpg" thumbURL="thumbs/2013-09-07-12-52-01.jpg" linkURL="hi-res/2013-09-07-12-52-01.jpg" linkTarget="_blank">
            <title></title>
            <caption></caption>
        </image>

That particular photo is one of three, among the 51 photos in that gallery, that originated from a Samsung S4 phone's camera (which I don't own or currently have access to). The other two were handled just fine; I experimenteed with a test gallery today, using all 50 photos, i.e., the same photos, including the two other Samsung pics, but minus the troublesome one.

All three of these photos are 4128x2322 to start with (my gallery reducing them to 1024x1024, Link to hi-res* via scaled images, Copy originals). The problem one is 2477KB, while the other two are 1848KB and 1602KB. Incidentally, the problem one lists normally in terms of title, 2013-09-07-12-52-01.jpg, in Windows Explorer and any of several programs with which I've opened it. I've also done a Windows (Vista Home Premium 32-bit SP2) drag-and-copy several times, and the copies exhibit the same behavior. I also saved a version of it that I personally cropped (using Faststone Image Viewer), and that, too, appears with this strange title in jAlbum.

So, what I think we have here is some odd combination of events. Perhaps something is corrupted with this one particular file, and perhaps jAlbum needs some additional defensive coding, as well. I attached the photo to a POP3 email, which I then sent to myself, via a POP3 mailer, to a gmail address, retrieved it, and saved it as a new title. That new file still presents this jAlbum problem, so I think if you (or someone at jAlbum) want to take a look at it, I think that I can preserve the problem even via email; let me know.

Cheers,

Bill

Re: Display Captions option in JB Skin causes XML Not Found error

It would, indeed, appear that the image has some corrupt metadata.
If you want to include the image in a gallery (and want to use metadata from all other images as titles and/or captions), then perhaps you could strip out the metadata from the image in an imaging program, include the image in your album and then manually add a caption for the image once the album has been created.

That new file still presents this jAlbum problem, so I think if you (or someone at jAlbum) want to take a look at it, I think that I can preserve the problem even via email; let me know.

Sure thing. Please email the image to me or upload it somewhere (e.g. Dropbox) and post a link. I'll take a look (though I'm not sure what I'll be able to do other than confirm that there is a problem with it).

Re: Display Captions option in JB Skin causes XML Not Found error

Steven: just emailed you the photo. If you're experimenting with it, you should make a copy or two of it first.

All it takes to correct this problem, with this file, is to put it in a jAlbum Juicebox gallery, and blank out the area below the picture -- the area that normally (for me, anyway, with whatever jAlbum settings that I have) just shows the file title, if you haven't entered a caption. Put another way, just add a blank caption to it; once you do that, the gallery generates (and previews) just fine... and the image appears to be permanently fixed. That is, I did that to it in one gallery, and then I dragged the same image from its location on disk to another test gallery; this (second) time, there was no caption present (and, as with the other images, just the file name appeared below the pic).

What I emailed you is a copy of that original image. This copy still has whatever bad metadata -- which, coincidentally(?), appears to start with "METADATA" -- that the original had, before I blanked the original's caption area. This emailed copy will still appear with "METADATA..." as a caption, if dragged onto a jAlbum screen.

As a side note, I rarely enter any captions. I think only two or three of the approx. 60 Juicebox jAlbum galleries I have up actaully have any captions. I just leave that Display Captions set, anyway, as a default template, which is why I bumped into the problem in this latest gallery (where, as usual, I wasn't adding captions).

Cheers,

Bill

Re: Display Captions option in JB Skin causes XML Not Found error

Thank you for emailing me the image.

There is no doubt that the problem is with the corrupt metadata embedded in the image.
However, when I create an album with the image in jAlbum 11.5 using Juicebox Skin v1.3.2.0, the album's 'config.xml' file is complete (not truncated like you reported) but the gallery does not display (due to the metadata now being in the 'config.xml' file).

Deselecting the 'Exif User' checkbox ('Album -> Settings -> Advanced -> Metadata -> Comment sources') is another workaround (as long as you do not want to use 'Exif User' data from other images as comments).

I tried stripping Control Characters from the metadata before it is used as an image caption and the gallery displays but the data still interferes with other image captions (and this is not simply due to the length of the data).

Unfortunately, I do not see a quick and easy fix for dealing with corrupt metadata in images from within the skin.
The best course of action is probably to fix the problem at the source (to delete the metatdata from the image as you have done) rather than to deal with it each time it is encountered.

Re: Display Captions option in JB Skin causes XML Not Found error

OK, understood. Thanks for your help.