Strange display errors [rendering?]

For general issues related to PWB v2.

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Scott
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Post by Scott »

To narrow it down by running an older version of PWB. This will determine if it is the new PWB or Windows.

--Scott

mattbsudp
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Post by mattbsudp »

Hi Scott,

I've downgraded to v2.10.2 and the problem happens far less often. Previously almost all of our PC's were experiencing the rendering problem over a 24 hour period. Now we're getting a maximum of 2 PC's becoming problematic in a 24 hour period. I have also now further rolled back to the original executable to see if the problem goes away completely.

Cheers,

Matt

Scott
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Post by Scott »

We added the ability to disable the image sizing when the image is bigger then the window in PWB v2.10.3 currently available on the beta download page dated 11-27-2007.

[Browser]
DisableImageSizing=True

This may correct the problem you are experiecning since sizing the image was not available in the earlier version of PWB.

--Scott

mattbsudp
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Post by mattbsudp »

Hi Scott,

I made the changes, but reverting back to v2.10.3 has made the problem worse again.

I decided to go back over our old setup and realised, to my surprise, that we were using v1 previously when we didn't get these problems. I'm very reluctant to go back to v1 as many of the nice additions for Java and IP filtering are missing from version 1 which make version 2 a lot better to use.

So the truth is that we never experienced any problems with v1 with rendering, but get it consistantly with v2. The homepage is libcat.bham.ac.uk

The problem seems to occur through use of the PC's as I've had a test PC running for several weeks now and it has not gone wrong once, but I have not touched it either. The live PC's are in use through much of the day as the library is very busy.

Sorry to have only just mentioned this, but it has only just come clear in my head :)

Cheers,

Matt

Scott
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Post by Scott »

I would like to get to the bottom of this, so I have some more questions for you.

Did you make the change to the PWB v2.10.3 INI file to disable the picuture sizing?

Is there any specific steps we can do to reproduce the problem?

Does this problem occur over time?

Is PWB ever allowed to exit and restart?

--Scott

mattbsudp
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Post by mattbsudp »

Hi Scott,

Here are the answers to your q's :)

>Did you make the change to the PWB v2.10.3 INI file to disable the >picuture sizing?

Yes, when I reverted back to v2.10.3 as explained in my previous post.

>Is there any specific steps we can do to reproduce the problem?

I cannot reproduce the problem myself on a test PC as I don't have the time continuously search for items in the library catalogue and put the test PC under the load experienced in the live environment. The thing that users usually do is search using the keyword feild. I have tried all the links on the library catalogue and no single link appears to cause the problem.

>Does this problem occur over time?

It appears so. If you restart or logoff/login the problem goes away and then appears again eventually.

>Is PWB ever allowed to exit and restart?

We restart the PC's every morning to ensure they get as long as possible before the problem occurs. If I'm made aware of problem PC's thorugh the day I reboot as and when I can. Other than that they do not reboot themselves at all because they're just too heavily used.

Cheers,

Matt

Scott
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Post by Scott »

Please send a copy of your INI file to support@teamsoftwaresolutions.com.

--Scott

Scott
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Post by Scott »

I do not see anything in your INI file that is out of the ordinary.

Unfortunately, or fortunately depending on how you look at it, anyone is able to create web pages, and sometimes poor HTML programming can lead to memory leaks in Internet Explorer, or any web browser for that matter. It sounds like you maybe experiencing memory leaks since it seems to happen over time.

http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/Bb250448.aspx

On our public access computers we allow, and encourage our patrons to close PWB. This allows PWB to clean up Internet Explorer and give the next patron a "fresh" browser.

We use the techniques detailed in the following post:
http://teamsoftwaresolutions.com/phpBB2 ... .php?t=536

You may want to consider using a similar technique to avoid memory leaks in Internet Explorer and thusly PWB.

--Scott

mattbsudp
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Post by mattbsudp »

Thanks Scott,

It's nice to know the source of the problem is with the page itself. I sat with IE open and I did sveral searches adn went through all the links. The memory usage for IE very slowly creeped up. I can imagine under heavy usage that IE would eventually swallow all the memory available over the course of a day or so.

Unfortunately the page author is pretty reluctant to do a load of testing for a problem that does not effect the 99% of the site's users. So we're going to have to employ AutoRestart or something similar. We just would like a method which does not effect a user who is in the middle of search the library catalogue, a sort of background reset (probably no easy answer :( ).

Thanks very much for your help Scott,

Cheers,

Matt :)

Scott
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Post by Scott »

It is not just a single site, but any web page that can cause memory leaks in any browser. I have seen web pages on professionaly done web sites with errors in them.

The problem is most people do not use their web browser constantly for long periods of time. From time to time when using the browser the browser is closed which clears up any problems.

--Scott

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