Chess Tempo Forum

When I try to drag the piece, it just grabs the image. I.e., the browser is doing the image dragging not the javascript. Using FF 3.0.13 on OSX 10.5.8. Maybe things didn't load all the way? My internet connection can be spotty sometimes.

I have firebug installed (which could always be the problem, but none til now) so I opened it under the script tab it said

Failed to load source for: http://chesstempo.com/chess-endgames.html

although the source was visible under the html tab.

In the error console the only issues were css warnings.

I didn't have time to dig deeper and it's probably a one-off. Also, most users probably have more reliable internet connections than I do. But if this turns out to be a recurring problem, you might want to tweak your script so that the game is not initiated if everything is not loaded properly. That would have the possible side effect of making it seem _less_ fault tolerant but the user wouldn't lose anything from a refresh. That last bit is off the top of my head and maybe not a good strategy or unsuited to your setup.

So I did just refresh just now (and lost the game) and everything is working.

Hi Davre,

It sounds like there may have been some kind of javascript error that occurred during the initialisation of the problem.  Unfortunately firebug doesn't always catch all javascript errors (especially those that are triggered within an event handler).  Sometimes if you look at the error console instead of firebug you can see a javascript error message that firebug isn't showing.

If you remember the problem number I can have a bit more of a dig around the logs to see if there are any clues there as to what may have happened.

Richard.

It was in the standard error console that I looked. I don't know the number, but it was the one before last that I played (on the two-a-day limit).

Thanks Davre,

Sorry I didn't read your last post carefully enough , I see you meant the standard error console now.  Unfortunately nothing interesting showed up in the logs.  Of the people who had done the problem recently you were the only one who had an issue (the rest of them were able to at least play some moves when they faced that problem), so I don't think its an issue specific to that problem.  Please let me know if it happens again and hopefully some kind of pattern will emerge.  Marvellosity appears to have had the same issue a few times, but  I haven't managed to track down a cause yet. I think network connectivity is the most likely suspect, but I'm confused that the problem loads at all as normally connectivity issues should only impact ongoing moves , it sounds like you see the problem laid out ok, but are unable to move the pieces right from the start before you've tried any moves.  Actually , the strange piece dragging you described, did this occur the very first time you dragged a piece or after the first dragging (sorry, it might be hard for you to recall this detail given that it was a day or so ago now)?

Regards,
Richard.

I get that very often.

Hi Kacparov,

Can you quantify 'very often'? Do you also get the 'browser dragging the images' behaviour davre mention? If so, I'm interested to know if this occurs on the very first interaction with the pieces or perhaps after a piece is moved to a new square?

Richard.

For me, the not being able to move pieces business always happens on a new problem (never in the middle), and the problem always loads properly other than that.

Hi Marvellosity,

I understand this is not happening in the middle, but at the start of the problem. But what I'm most interested in is whether the 'can't move pieces' occurs right from when the problem first appears , or if it happens after an initial attempt to drag one of the pieces in the starting position.

Richard.

I'm 90-95% sure it happened right at the beginning. I don't think I was able to pick up a piece at any point.

Just to make sure I'm clear, when I refer to the browser dragging the image I'm referring to FF's default behavior when you try to drag an image (and there is no script to stop you).

So basically, the javascript that should allow you to move pieces was not active. I don't know whether it was loaded in the first place, or the events weren't bound properly, or it failed at some point. The last should cause an error, though. Given how you load the scripts, would you expect errors to show up in the console if a relevant file wasn't loaded? Or if the events aren't bound properly? I'm not familiar with YUI, if that's what you're using (I saw some in there), but with jQuery, for example, you bind with css identifiers and if you don't take any special steps, you won't know if the binding get's screwed up. That said, I'm not quite sure why the bindings would fail in such isolated cases.

Sorry for rambling, I'm sure you've got a much better handle on it than I do.

Thanks davre,

As you say you'd expect to see an error somewhere if the initial loading of the javascript failed. In any case the javascript used to handle dragging etc should be downloaded at the same time as the code which handles retrieving the initial position from the server and the latter seems to be being run ok.  There is possibly some race condition causing the drag listeners not to be applied in some situations, this also matches with the very intermittent nature of the problem, and will likely not be much fun to track down. I'll need to get a few other things off my plate before I can have a more detailed look into what is going on with this bug.

Regards,
Richard.

Very often = 1 out of every 10-15 problems. Keeps depriving me of getting to top 10 in practice! >:( :'(
I usually make my first move 2-3 seconds after getting the problem, so I can't say if it's from the beginning or just from when I want to play. Or at least I don't know how to do that.
I can drag the image, but when I let it go on a square it pops back into the starting square.

Hi, what's the difference? Surely you can only tell if it's happening the first time you drag a piece? Or do I misunderstand?

marvellosity: Davre mentioned that when the page malfunctions dragging doesn't work at all, I wanted to know if this happens right from the time the page loads or if the pieces drag on first attempt but then further dragging interaction is impossible after that. It sounds like that for Davre at least it is the former rather than the latter, which is unfortunate as if it was the latter it would have given me some clues on where to look for the cause.

Richard.

Had this happen again today, it was the former - no dragging possible at all right from the off.

Ok, I'm still somewhat inclined to think it's network issue, although there might be something I can do to work around it at my end.  If Drahacik is following this thread, I'd be interested to know if he sees this , it sees most people who are doing reasonable volumes of endgame problems are seeing it eventually.  Haven't seen it myself when testing, but I'm not doing much endgame training so might have just been lucky (or unlucky as the case may be) so far.

Richard.

Aye, well I'm running on cabled business high-speed broadband this afternoon.

While some forms of networking are certainly more reliable than others, even the most reliable network can drop packets under the right conditions. There are also several network entities between you and the chess tempo servers so even if your network is 100% reliable you can still see packet drops caused by issues further up stream.  Anyway it could still turn out to be non network related, I'm especially interested at the moment if there is anybody that does a reasonable number of endgame problems that NEVER sees the problem.

Richard.

Never had that happen to me, that an endgame was loaded but I couldn't move any pieces.

The only problems I've had are when I'm dropping a piece after dragging it, and I accidentally double-click or pick up the piece again.

Thanks Drahacik,

The fact that some people never see the problem and others do is mainly what makes me think the 'can't move pieces' problem has something to do with individual differences in end user setups, but so far no useful pattern has emerged on what that might be.  I don't think it's browser related as I believe a number of the users who are are seeing the problem are using Firefox 3.x which is the same browser that both Drahacik and I are using.

Drahacik, the double clicking issue, are you still seeing that since the fix for the highlight drop square change was made a week or two ago? (I think from memory you have highlight drop square turned on [or at least did last time I checked]).  There is still an issue where double clicking or double moving a piece that is about to be taken can cause issues, but that is a bit less common than the case where pretty much any double move or click for users with highlight drop square was causing a problem.

Richard.

I've been away so haven't done many endgame problems recently.  Haven't had the double-clicking problem though.

My son bubak uses IE 7 instead of Firefox and has never had an endgame problem where he couldn't move pieces on move 1.  He seemed to have more of these double-clicking problems than me in the past, though.  We have a 2 kilometer wireless connection to the provider, but it's a good connection.

I don't want to insult anyone's intelligence or anything, but I just noticed that if you're playing, say black, and you try to move white, you can't. Just sayin'.

davre:These are pretty experienced CT users reporting this issue, so they are probably trying to move the correct colour pieces.  HOWEVER, you may be on to something in terms of what could be causing the bug, it is possible the 'to move' status has got confused and isn't allowing the user to move their own pieces.  The next time someone notices this bug, I wonder if they could attempt dragging their opponent pieces and see if it lets them.

Regards,
Richard.

 ???

FWIW Im having issues w the endgame section as well.  OS 10.5.7  Most recently, a successful completion of the study fails to terminate the clock-- it just ticks away.

Previously, I have also experienced blank boards (no pieces) and a dialog box that lacks the resume problem button, and the abandon button is dysfunctional (registering repeat failures for the same problem.

Hi Jack,

Which browser are you using on the mac?

Richard.

Hi Richard,

Safari here, via a cable modem. 

Thanks jack,

I haven't done extensive testing on Safari 4 yet (which I assume is the version you are using).  It is possible there are still some incompatibilities, although it is unlikely that Safari is soley to blame here. There is a daily quota on the number of problems you can resume, the resume dialog will only have the abandon button after that quota has been reached, although I'm concerned that you are getting repeat failures for the same problem.  Can you please let me know the problem number of the problem involved next time you see this issue. Do you know what is leading you to get the resume dialog in the first place? Usually the resume dialog is shown either after a  network outtage, or when the browser is killed while a problem is active, are you getting the dialog in other circumstances?

Richard.

Safari 4.0.2

I wasnt aware of the quota limitation for resuming problems, but perhaps thats the cause as I am rather sloppy with open windows.
Also upon upgrading my membership, I attempted quite a few endgame problems yesterday--  is this possibly an issue?

Standard mode is presently functional, but my endgame option is frozen.



JM

Hi JM,

The number of endgame problems you've done shouldn't be an issue given that you are a gold member. Can you give me some more details about what you mean by 'my endgame option is frozen'? Do you mean whenever you go to the endgames page you are not given a problem? Could you please try closing Safari and opening it again and see if that helps.

Regards,
Richard.

Yes, Im not seeing an endgame problem:  instead, a blank chess board + multiple problem solving/viewing dialog box which lacks a resume button.  

I power down/ restart the  computer on a daily basis.

JM

addenda--  good news, the issue has resolved itself; the dialog box finally appeared sporting the resume button; played the problem out... and, as before the clock just kept ticking after the mate. Sooo...
I "gave up" the result, and now everything is working as it should. :D

Thanks JM,

It seems like there may be some buggy interaction with the resume dialog and endgames, please let me know if this happens again.

Regards,
Richard.