Options screen blank

[Miquel 'Fire' Burns]

I'm not sure what the issue is, but lately, whenever I first open the PasswordMaker screen where I can set the different options (Advanced options), it would come up BLANK with nothing but the close button. After closing it and opening it, it works from then on.

Windows 7 (both 32 and 64 bit, as it happens on two different machines for me)
Firefox 3.6.3 (All I know, I didn't really notice this issue until 3.6, which was around the time I upgraded to Windows 7)

I don't see anything in the error console that might be of use to tracking this down.

Extensions on the 32 bit machine:

• Adblock Plus
• Download Statusbar
• Firebug
• FirePHP
• Greasemonkey
• IdentFavIcon
• Read It Later
• Server Spy
• Tab Mix Plus
• Update Notifier
• Web Developer

I'll get the extensions on the 64 machine later.

[Eric H. Jung]

Do you have the showInConsole pref set to true? It needs to be true for you to see JS errors from addons.

[tanstaafl]

Haven't seen this on any of my machines, all XP - so maybe its a Win7 issue...

[Miquel 'Fire' Burns]

I got back to this thread too late. The 64-bit machine did not reproduce the issue this time after I turned on the option.

And Web developer is the only thing missing... Odd.

[Marsup]

I have the same error constantly, with the difference that even reopening it doesn't always work.

The error I have is this :
Error: tree.view is null
Source File: chrome://passwdmaker/content/tree.js
Line: 344

I'm currently on firefox nightly builds so it could explain it all but I had the same behavior on stables before, just less frequently.
I hope that still helps.

[Eric H. Jung]

I expect that it's because you're using nightly/minefield builds.

[Miquel 'Fire' Burns]

I think I found the issue in the code causing it (I need to do some testing first)

In chrome/content/passwdmaker/options.js, there's a function defined in another function. It's placement may be a result of some race condition happening that could be induced by the JIT Firefox is using. I think it's a race condition as it does work as needed at times.

I attached a patch of what may fix this issue in case someone who had this issue can test this out.

[edit] Found a computer to test this bug with, and this fix doesn't work. Now to see if I can find what triggers this bug.

[marklar]

I think this is the same thing.  Please know that when I say 4 it is 4 STABLE.

On two different 64-bit Win 7 machines (one at work, one at home) I have the problem with Firefox 3.6.x and 4 (now stable) that clicking the PasswordMaker icon opens up the dialog box, but i only see the "close" button inside the dialog box.

sometimes with the 3.6 (when you could open the options panel w/o being forced to another page) I would open that, then trying to reopen from the icon in the Add-On Bar would work.

Now, w/ FF 4 stable it doesn't seem to work that way, and while occasionally it will work, there doesn't seem to be any pattern to getting it to work...but it persists for a few weeks w/ 3.6 and now 4 stable.

THANKS

[Miquel 'Fire' Burns]

Only pattern I have noticed is that the first time it opens, it's blank, after that, it's just fine. Whatever the cause, a reboot is required for me to see it blank again.

[marklar]

for me it is now happening constantly w/ FF4 Stable, and whether or not I see it work via the options setting, it is very difficult to get to show up, whether I close and open it a bunch of times or not.  It is mostly useless the last few weeks.

[Miquel 'Fire' Burns]

Yea, looks as though we may need to revisit this part of the code. Something is causing it to not work, and tracking it down on our end had been useless. The fact it's constant with you, we may be able to debug it better now, however.

[marklar]

Please advise if I can generate some sort of report or activity log or something, would be happy to do so (or at least try...)

Thank you!

[Miquel 'Fire' Burns]

Seems there's an issue with the forums. Until that is fixed, here's a message I got via e-mail. As a result of this, I do wonder if every copy of Firefox I have this issue with does have Download Status Bar. If so, then that might be an issue. Marklar, do you have that extension? If not, could you provide a list of what you have installed?

First of all, let me thank for passwordmaker. It is an extremely powerful extension and I love it.

I am writing you since I suspect I have found an incompatibility between Passwordmaker and Download Statusbar that is causing the 'Option screen blank' problem mentioned by Miquel 'Fire' Burns in this thread

http://forums.passwordmaker.org/index.php/topic,1696.0.html

(BTW, notice that Download statusbar is in the list of Miquel's extensions)

Here are the step to reproduce the problem:

1 install both passwordmaker and download statusbar (you may want to use a fresh profile)
2 start Firefox and open the passwordmaker option screen by pressing either the button in the navigation bar (if present) or the button in the status bar
3 an option screen with just the 'close' button appears
4 the good news: if you are using Firefox 3.6 and you close the option screen, when you press the passwordmaker button again, in most cases it works fine (as Miquel already pointed out)
5 the bad news: if you are using Firefox 4 closing and reopening the option screen won't help

Further comments: if you open the option screen by using either the menu (Tools-Passwordmaker-Open Passwordmaker) or the 'Options' button in the extension manager you have no problem (thus providing a possible workaround). I don't know what it does happen by using the Ctrl+` shortcut: I use a keyboard without that symbol and I cannot test it.

I used for my test Passwordmaker 1.7.8 and Download Statusbar 0.98 (the most recent versions up to now).

I tested Firefox 3.6.15 on a Windows Seven 64 machine and on an Ubuntu 10.10 machine (I had the problem on both)

I tested Firefox 4RC only on the Windows Seven 64 machine

Of course I solved this issue by simply disabling Download Statusbar (this is just a cosmetic addon, while passwordmaker is a must-have for me), but with Firefox 4 on the way and with Download statusbar being one of the most popular Firefox's extension, I fear that several passwordmaker's users may face this problem.

If you think it can be useful I can do some more tests when I have time (e.g. using old versions of Download statusbar to determine when the incompatibility arose).

[marklar]

Yes! in fact I use Download StatusBar.

Disabled Download StatusBar, removed it, reinstsalled it, and everything seems to be working on the home machine--which of the two I use much much less.  Should've tested it first to see if it was still not working before removing it.  (this is sort of a secondary computer - and gets little use)

Will check a different machine in the proper sequence tomorrow afternoon--and that one's been a regular nuiscance--i'm 100% sure it's not working there.

thanks for making that connection - promissing.

[marklar]

sorry for the delay - thing were wacky this week at work - just got a chance to try there.

Disabling Download Statusbar did in fact bring back expected functionality to PasswordMaker on the 64-bit (amd) Win7 machine at work too.

Tried a site first, didn't work.  Disabled D.S. and it worked.  this time re-enabled DS and it reverted to not-working.

if it helps, here are other add-ons that are installed and active:

better privacy
colorful tabs
download statusbar
download helper
ghostery
java console
map this
no script
password maker



Thank you for your help and interest in resolving this. Please advise if you'd like further info or want me to test something out.