Blank Screen / Firefox bug?

notan
I often get a blank page, no menus or anything just blank, when trying to access pages I know exist. I have figured this is just because the sever is busy. After getting annoyed by not getting a certain page in Firefox I tried IE and discovered that while it did not get the page either it did give an HTTP 500 Internal Server Error message instead of a blank page.

I am not posting so much to report a bug as to let other FF users know that there is indeed something more than a blank page when this happens.
  • dstillman
    edited July 27, 2010
    Blank pages where? Examples?
  • notan
    In some of the categories and sub categories in a group library, also clicking on some aviators and probably more. Which pages these happen on changes from day to day. If you do a search for blank in the forums you will find another message like mine. Often if I just wait and try again on a blank page the real page will show up. In fact I just tried the page that was frustrating me earlier and it came up this time.

    http://www.zotero.org/groups/achalasia_atheneum/items/collection/2179042

    However clicking on the third aviator for that group still brings up a blank.

    http://www.zotero.org/johnkemlin
  • sander
    Same problem here. From the moment I log in, the site becomes very slow to respond, in the end giving a blank screen. For example, I can visit my library, but the 'profile' page or the 'groups' page very often won't load (blanks). Notan's description above fits with my experience, except that I tried and have the same problem in Chromium, so it probably isn't a firefox issue.

    Thanks a lot for any help.
  • fcheslack
    This is a problem with trying to load alot of data from a busy server. Its made worse on certain pages depending on how you use Zotero. For example if you're a member of a large number of groups the profile and groups pages perform worse, and if you have
    certain library structures (such as a very large number of collections, a very large number of items in individual collections, or a very large number of items in your trash) some of the library pages will perform worse. This sometimes leads to the server timing out when trying to load your data and your browser returning a blank page.

    We've got some changes in the pipeline that will fix this situation soon by offloading more of the work on the browser and loading sections separately.
  • notan
    "... have the same problem in Chromium, so it probably isn't a firefox issue."

    The only comment I have about FF is that FF does not give any indication on that screen that there was a server problem. In IE you get an error message.

    I am glad to see a fix is on the way.
  • sander
    @fcheslack: Thanks for the swift response. Indeed, my lab's shared library contains more than 9000 items. Very much looking forward to these improvements.

    @notan: sorry, misread your post. Indeed, FF (and Chrome/ium) should be a bit more informative about what's happening in these cases.
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