character encoding - lithium forum

[#1]

 ... starting a new topic for this, as requested.

Last week I tried to use some code posted on the forum, to create an .htaccess redirect.  However what was visible (in IE11) on the page was not actually the same as what had been posted (visible text truncated at a right-hand curly brace).

Details of the issue are at https://community.plus.net/t5/Everything-else/SEO-improvement-with-redirect/m-p/1331970#M15724

and a screenshot of how the post appeared in IE11 is enclosed in the post at https://community.plus.net/t5/Everything-else/SEO-improvement-with-redirect/m-p/1331974#M15726 .

@jaread83 said at https://community.plus.net/t5/Community-Site-Feedback/What-web-browsers-do-Lithium-officially-suppor... that the issue was probably to do with character-encoding, which is why this new thread has been started.

[#2]

Hi @Penny,

Thank you for creating a new thread with this issue. I have just taken the example htaccess code from the thread and popped it into a test thread. I have just had a look at the test thread I started and there are no issues from what I can see in Edge, IE11, IE10 and IE9 (no point going any lower than that). I thought that maybe I had got the text wrongfully inputted correctly so I had a look at the original thread you posted in and I could see no errors there either, the text is shown in full and it hasn't been cut off after the curly brace.

Does the text still display incorrectly for you? I am guessing there was some kind of input error but I can't say for sure as it is all displaying correctly for me. Here is a screenshot of my internet explorer/edge browser.

Is this post still not displaying for you correctly? I will need to do some more investigating if this isn't being displayed correctly. It could be a case of the post not loading correctly at the time? Did you reload the page and then it worked? Any info you can provide would be a great help

Thanks

[#3]

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@jaread83 wrote:

Hi @Penny,

Does the text still display incorrectly for you? I am guessing there was some kind of input error but I can't say for sure as it is all displaying correctly for me.

---

@jaread83 ... randomly, it's now displaying *fine* : )   I enclose the before-and-after screenshots below (both with time and date). I'd have put them in the post but haven't quite figured out how to do that bit yet ; )

Is this post still not displaying for you correctly? I will need to do some more investigating if this isn't being displayed correctly. It could be a case of the post not loading correctly at the time? Did you reload the page and then it worked? Any info you can provide would be a great help

No, the original screenshot (20160503) shows the original display (in the box) of the code I tried to use (wouldn't work because not fully-displayed).

I then (when I discovered the *actual* code through using "reply"), tried to replicate what I'd found, only to discover that it still wouldn't display (in preview-message).  Eventually I discovered that by using } for the right-hand curly bracket (after HOST) I could get the text following that } to display.

@am going to paste in the full code that I can (now, not before) see in David ( @spraxyt )'s post:

RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^trugmakers\.co\.uk [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://www.trugmakers.co.uk/$1 [R=301,L]

... and test on preview whether that appears in this post - and it does.

Sooooo - my guess would be that lithium (or whoever) have become aware of the issue, and pro-actively fixed the character encoding for the } symbol.  Both the visible-display on the page, and the character-behaviour in the HTML-write option, have *changed* since I made the original post on 3rd May.

... from which I'd make two observations.

(1) that if lithium are now pro-actively monitoring this forum and applying fixes at all possible speed, then they're a good company to do business with.

(2) that the PlusNet forums - because of the technical capabilities of so many of the people here, and their willingness to (a) identify issues (b) offer potential solutions - are the perfect test-bed for helping resolve any lingering issues with the whole lithium platform.  So PlusNet should be getting a discount ; )

[#4]

Thank you very much for the detailed reply. I will of course keep my eye on this and please do feel free to flag up with me (via the @ mentions functionality) if any other issue similar to this as soon as you see it. I will then have a look on IE/Edge browser to see if I see the same thing.

The Lithium guys have been very helpful so far and have been proactively helping us with things when raised, not sure if they are also spotting issues and hotfixing them on the go but I'm glad that this particular issue has resolved itself.

As I said before, I will be keeping my eye out for this.

[#5]

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@jaread83 wrote:

@please do feel free to flag up with me (via the @ mentions functionality) if any other issue similar to this as soon as you see it.

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... actually there *was* something, though it's not related to character-encoding.  In my previous post on this thread (#3) I put ( @spraxyt ) in brackets, and it didn't make the link.

I went back to edit the post (to remove the brackets) but the link still didn't display, so I put the brackets back.

Why didn't @spraxyt auto-link?  It seems to have appeared, fine (with or without brackets) in the preview for this post.

Really didn't want to start yet-another-thread with this, but figured I should probably mention it, as noticed, anyway : /

[#6]

@Penny Some time ago I discovered that @mentioning isn't detected if the character preceding the @ is not a space. So putting (@spraxyt) in brackets won't be detected. Once that state is reached no editing round the @mention short of reverting the string to just @ will restart the linking process.

However once the link has been picked up brackets touching either side of it can be added as with (@spraxyt). This works because the editor has already generated the HTML by then.

[#7]

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@spraxyt wrote:

@Penny@ Some time ago I discovered that @mentioning isn't detected if the character preceding the @ is not a space.

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... fair point - was aware of that, and hadn't left out the space intentionally : /

however have just been back and edited that post - added a space, no link, so took out the whole thing in the html (brackets + @spraxyt), and tried just @spraxyt - still no link : /    have added back the brackets (space either side).

... then I thought maybe I should have been making the change in the rich-text view, so went through the whole process again there.  still not linking.

not to worry, clearly some anomaly in that particular post, glad it's working otherwise : )

[#8]

@Penny This looks to be a case of the computer has decided and the answer is "no" whatever you try. 

[#9]

@Penny,

... from which I'd make two observations.

(1) that if lithium are now pro-actively monitoring this forum and applying fixes at all possible speed, then they're a good company to do business with.

Hi Penny,

I'm not going to say sorry for completely disagreeing with you, but I intend no offence towards you either...

If what has been said is actually happening then they are a very bad company to work with.  I spent 35 years in IT application management on outsourced services to DVLA, NHS, Post Office and the rail industry to name but a few.  If we had made any change to a production platform in the same manner which lithium appear to be doing, we would have been sacked on the spot.

Nothing should be released to live without the client's knowledge and consent.

[#10]

I share @Townman's observations and time served in the IT business.  Lithium may be an industry leader in terms of product sold, but have not demonstrated much commitment to resolving the many the issues raised in this new version of their platform.

M