h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Okay, first off it's very slow to load threads. Sometimes the threads don't load at all, only the frame outlines, then it gives up.

Other problems I've found:

You can assume everything else I've tested so far works as expected.

* Sometimes, the bottom of yellow button bar cuts off bottom of buttons. I can't get any consistent examples of it, though...

* Can't get a response from PostJournal (failed after 2 mins), although the posting does appear.

* AddThread is very slow (more than 2 mins)

* Clicking on the 'click here' link in the User Data window brings up a small complaining window, which works fine. Clicking the submit button causes the folowing to appear:

SERVER ERROR
The server encountered an internal error or misconfiguration and was unable to complete your request.

* My journal entry has appeared under my 'My Most Recent Conversations' listing on my home page. Maybe it's meant to - I can't remember.

* The User Data badges link to bbc.co.uk/University and bbc.co.uk/SubEditors, which don't exist, obviously.

* The Front Page button in the toolbar seems to link to http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/MA39466?show=25&type=1 (i.e. the same as the last link I clicked)

* Read and Preferences buttons don't have a rollover graphic loaded... this is probably my browser cache being daft (Mac IE5)

A couple more things:

* Created new user U168524. Went to edit home page, URL in status bar was /h2g2/guide/UserEdit0 (should be UserEdit168524 ?)

* (Not really a bug) How about putting some title="xxx" attributes in all the button links, for pop-up explanations?

* Updating details works fine, but the confirmation screen has editable text boxes for the nickname and email address, instead of just using text. Any reason for this?

Testing Reply buttons...

[First time I got a browser error that AddThread had failed. Trying again, so may get double posting...]

Now that I've created this new user (yes, it's still me - beeline), I'm having a go at the preferences functions and doing it all in goo.

Still getting AddThread time-outs occasionally, although sometimes it's quite fast (2-3 seconds)...

* Sometimes, the bottom of yellow button bar cuts off bottom of buttons. I can't get any consistent
examples of it, though...

Are you using Mac Netscape? This is an ancient bug, beeen around for ages, probably will stay for consistency.

* Can't get a response from PostJournal (failed after 2 mins), although the posting does appear.
* AddThread is very slow (more than 2 mins)

Speed issues... ah yes. There do seem to be a few.

* Clicking on the 'click here' link in the User Data window brings up a small complaining window, which works fine. Clicking the submit button causes the following to appear:
SERVER ERROR
The server encountered an internal error or misconfiguration and was unable to complete your request.

Gawd. Dunno what that was, but I think a timeout or somesuch. I'll report it.

* My journal entry has appeared under my 'My Most Recent Conversations' listing on my home page.
Maybe it's meant to - I can't remember.

It is.

* The User Data badges link to bbc.co.uk/University and bbc.co.uk/SubEditors, which don't exist,
obviously.

Indeed. We shall fix it.

* The Front Page button in the toolbar seems to link to
http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/MA39466?show=25&type=1 (i.e. the same as the last link I clicked)

Weird. If I go to that page, the FP button works fine. If you go back there, does it always screw up the FP button link? We did have this as a bug before, but thought it had been fixed. Were you cookied or not cookied at the time?

* Read and Preferences buttons don't have a rollover graphic loaded... this is probably my browser
cache being daft (Mac IE5)

Cache is adrift (or, more likely, they took so long not to load that it gave up).

* Created new user U168524. Went to edit home page, URL in status bar was /h2g2/guide/UserEdit0
(should be UserEdit168524 ?)

Should be UserEdit168524?Masthead=1. I'll report it.

* (Not really a bug) How about putting some title="xxx" attributes in all the button links, for pop-up explanations?

Not really a bug = deferred until after my holiday.

* Updating details works fine, but the confirmation screen has editable text boxes for the nickname
and email address, instead of just using text. Any reason for this?

What do you mean by 'confirmation screen'? Not sure what this report means - sorry.

Groovy testing though, bee. Thanks!

Mark

Mark, in response:

* Button cut-off: I'm using Mac IE5 (which never used to cut off the buttons as fas I remember). I'll mail you a picture of it, although you probably know what it looks like. It only seems to appear when displaying a forum conversation thread.

* That SERVER ERROR was pretty instantaneous, and actually appeared in a window in HTML, not in a browser dialogue box, so it wasn't a time-out problem from this end, I don't think (i.e. it didn't look like the other time-outs from things like AddThread).

* In alabaster, the Fron Page button at the top always points (as displayed in the browser's status bar) to the last thing I clicked. For example, it now says ".../h2g2/guide/AddThread?inreplyto=836116" in the status bar when I roll the mouse over it. I think I'm cookied now as beeline.

* Registering: after you've typed in your id, password, etc, (and only if you're a new user entirely, not just re-registering) you get shown a screen basically confirming what you've entered and saying welcome-type things. Your email address and nickname are displayed on that page in editable type boxes, rather than just normal page text. Just wondered why.

While I'm talking about registering, I re-logged in this morning, after logging out last night, and although it's worked, it would have been nice to see a separate section for people that are already registered, and can just enter their email address/BBC login ID and password. At the moment, it looks like I'm registering for the first time again, as I have to confirm my password again. There used to be a "Registered Users" and "New Users" section, although you're probably assuming that everyone will be New (i.e. need to re-register) when you switch back on...

Cheers,

-C

Oo! It's nice and fast this morning!

I think that they've given it a really HOT cup of tea It's even allowing me to edit my user page

Woohoo!

I wonder if it will allow *me* to edit your user page...

*goes off to try*

Trust you to think of that one

Mark - about that bottom bit missing from the button bar:

As far as I can tell, the FRAMESET code for the whole page specifies that the button bar takes up 25 pixels height. However, the buttons are all 27 pixels high (as quoted in their tags, and as you can easily see by opening a button image by itself).

I may have misinterpreted the HTML here, of course, but I think that might explain why the buttons sometimes appear without their bottoms (as it were) - they're two pixels short of space.

Actually - there's an even better explanation. The font size of the text in the BBC drop-down list and Go button is browser-dependent, and the amount of space left for the buttons at the bottom of that frame will therefore depend on the browser - on Mac IE5 they're being pushed out of the frame, because Monace (the default list-box fint) is quite large.

Obviously you still want the buttons to be right at the bottom of that frame, so there'll need to be a table with a height-specified row set aside for the BBC list and Go button (with enough space inside to allow for different list-box sizes on different platforms), and another row for the buttons, which will always be the same size. I think that's the only way you can control it.

I think you're right. Netscape used to cut off the bottom of the button bar (in Forums only, when we use frames) because the search button and box was formatted differently.

Perhaps it's time I turned on non-frame forums. Any takers?

That'll be a no then