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Why does FF only display html for some word searches on the AP Stylebook website?

  • 6 replies
  • 1 has this problem
  • 13 views
  • Last reply by cor-el

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The Associated Press Stylebook allows searching for subjects by words. Sometimes Firefox returns only the html of the returned page, and usually html that is incomplete at the top of the page, that is, normal top-of-page html is missing as if the return begins somewhere further down. SeaMonkey returns a completely different-looking html page. Google Chrome is no better. IE returns a readable page but it is not in the normal format for a returned AP Stylebook designed page.

The Associated Press Stylebook allows searching for subjects by words. Sometimes Firefox returns only the html of the returned page, and usually html that is incomplete at the top of the page, that is, normal top-of-page html is missing as if the return begins somewhere further down. SeaMonkey returns a completely different-looking html page. Google Chrome is no better. IE returns a readable page but it is not in the normal format for a returned AP Stylebook designed page.

All Replies (6)

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Hi kaf3, Thank you for your question, https://www.apstylebook.com/?do=help&page=help_search this is a test search that gave this screenshot:

How do I create a screenshot of my problem? can you please provide a screenshot what this looks like?

webcompat.com is a great resource for webcompatibilty bugs as well, but let's compare to make sure there is nothing wrong with anything else. Normally Diagnose Firefox issues using Troubleshoot Mode will help see if it is an add on causing this, but I do not know exactly what you are seeing. :-)

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You wrote: "let's compare to make sure there is nothing wrong with anything else. Normally Troubleshoot Firefox issues using Safe Mode will help see if it is an add on causing this, but I do not know exactly what you are seeing." Here are the attachments: two PARTIAL screen shots. Snap 29 is with FF in regular mode. Snap 30 is with FF in safe mode. The difference is seen by comparing the html. FULL screen shots are too large to upload and are simply more of the same.

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Hi kaf3, Cheers for the screenshots. Here are some more troubleshooting steps.

  • Do you have a proxy? Sometimes a proxy can modify web content before it loads in the browser.
  • Have you disabled javascript? There are some scripts on the page that could have been disabled.
  • Do you have any exceptions for this site in your preferences?
  • Are there any errors in the web console when you load the page? (Web Developer > Web Console) This can give a hint as to why it is not being rendered.
  • On that page there is a cookie Javascript file, are cookies disabled for this site? Does it work in a private window?
  • Does this happen after you clear the cache or after searching on the site for a white? I ask this to see if there is any requests to remember styles from the server.
  • Do you have any modified about:config features including loading time or add ons that modify the scripts on the page like Ad Blocker?
  • Is there an antivirus on your computer that modifies internet traffic? Firefox can't load websites but other browsers can orWebsites look wrong or appear differently than they should

To answer your question why this happens sometimes, I do no know the answer, however these are some of the places where this can happen.

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NO Do you have a proxy? Sometimes a proxy can modify web content before it loads in the browser.

NO BUT I SHOULD NOT HAVE TO DISABLE.    Have you disabled javascript? There are some scripts on the page that could have been disabled.
NO   Do you have any exceptions for this site in your preferences?

YES Are there any errors in the web console when you load the page? (Web Developer > Web Console) This can give a hint as to why it is not being rendered. IT SAYS: "The character encoding of the plain text document was not declared. The document will render with garbled text in some browser configurations if the document contains characters from outside the US-ASCII range. The character encoding of the file needs to be declared in the transfer protocol or file needs to use a byte order mark as an encoding signature." I DO NOT KNOW WHAT THIS MEANS TO ME.

NO   On that page there is a cookie Javascript file, are cookies disabled for this site? NO Does it work in a private window?

YES Does this happen after you clear the cache or after searching on the site for a white? I ask this to see if there is any requests to remember styles from the server. YES, ADD BLOCKER BUT THESE WERE DISABLED WHEN I TRIED STARTING WITH ADD-ONS DISABLED . I ALSO DISABLED THEM MANUALLY. Do you have any modified about:config features including loading time or ADD ONS that modify the scripts on the page like Ad Blocker? NO Is there an antivirus on your computer that modifies internet traffic?

THIS IS THE ONLY ERROR BY FF and only on certain requests of the serving website. The error occurs with SeaMonkey and Chrome.IE DISPLAYS A DIFFERENT RETURNED PAGE THAT IS NOT WHAT IT SHOULD LOOK LIKE. Firefox can't load websites but other browsers can or Websites look wrong or appear differently than they should

THE ERROR DOES NOT OCCUR IN FF on a MACBOOK AIR.

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It happens in more than one browser? And it only happens sometimes on this site? It could in fact be missing the the specified encoding header:

<meta content="text/html;charset=utf-8" http-equiv="Content-Type"> <meta content="utf-8" http-equiv="encoding">

First try this:

  1. Go to View > Character Encoding > Unicode then refresh the page.
Then try:
  1. Set the character encoding can be set in Firefox, but to see this menu you need to turn this feature to true on the about:config page:

browser.menu.showCharacterEncoding

  1. It will allow the menu below to show up:
  • Firefox menu button > Web Developer > Character Encoding View > Character Encoding

If you would like to bore yourself with the details Secret of Character encodeing

Modified by guigs

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Boot the computer in Windows Safe Mode with network support (press F8 on the boot screen) as a test.