RW7 looping in Preview

Classic
1

I noticed that often when my project grown in size and I wanted to preview it. The RW sometimes goes in a loop but preview never loads. The preview on the left corner would be circling but never completes then I go back to Edit but the preview is still circling forcing me to save and exit the project then reopen.

Any idea why it doing this?

Thank you

2

I get something similar to this. What happens for me in in a couple of my larger projects:

  1. Preview a page (in RW or Browser)
  2. Exit preview (in RW) or return to RW from browser
  3. RW loops through every single page in RW ‘generating preview’

I cannot do anything in RW until it finishes this. It is spectacularly annoying.

Keen to hear if this is a known issue or if there are any fixes. @dan? I am using the latest version of RW (7.5.5).

3

That exactly what I am experiencing here and sometime it stay in loop forever that I have no time and need to hurry along on the project so good thing it let me save and quit then restart it without losing anything.

4

I know a handful of things that can cause similar symptoms. But has a different workarounds or solutions. I think in order to point you in the right direction some more detail about the project.

  • If you create a brand new project (just for testing) and add one Styled Text page, do you still see this problem?
  • What operating system version are you using?
  • What plugins does this project use?
  • What theme are you using?
  • Have you added ANY Javascript or HTML of your project?
  • How big is your project (in both pages/megabytes)?

If your project makes use of some interesting tools (PlusKit, Extra-Content areas, Foundation) can you detail a bit about how you’re using that thing.

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5

Hi - My responses below…

No

10.13.3

Only plugin is Formloom

Foundry

No

13 pages & 16.2MB

6

There’s a couple good clues here:

  • the problem doesn’t happen on a simple document. this implies that RW itself is working well. yeh!

  • formloom

And one confusing bit of info:

  • “Foundry” – doesn’t Foundry require Stacks to use? Or maybe my info is out of date on this… hmmm…

I think the next step would be to try to see if disabling the plugins helps.

  1. Make a good backup of your file, just to be safe.
  2. Quit RapidWeaver
  3. Remove FormLoom from the RapidWeaver addons folder.
  4. Open A COPY of your document.

Obviously you won’t be able to see the FormLoom pages, but do the other pages still get stuck in the Preview Loop?

If the problem is removed, then we can say it’s very likely FormLoom is the culprit and you should contact YabDab and send them a copy of your file to show them the bug.

If the problem still remains without FormLoom we need to hunt for other possibilities. If I was correct in my guess above that you are using Stacks – then that’s the next thing to remove and test.

You probably won’t get to this point… but in the unlikely event the problem still remains after removing all plugins that then I think you may want to send the file directly to Realmac support and have them take a look at the file with their developer tools to see if they can spot the issue.

Isaiah

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7

Yes - I am using Stacks. Will try without Formloom…

8

yep - removing @yabdab’s formloom fixes the issue for me.

9

Sounds like incorrect Page was selected in Formloom Stack. Will know for sure when I get copy of the project file.

1 Like
10

As in setting the link in the stack to the plugin page? The link works fine and the form is displayed as it should be. It’s just in edit / preview mode that there are issues. I’ll zip it up the project and send it on when I get back to my computer.

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11

If you create a brand new project (just for testing) and add one Styled Text page, do you still see this problem?
Nope

What operating system version are you using?
10.13.3

What plugins does this project use?
Is plugins same as stack? If not then none but if same as stack then some Foundation stack and couple of BWD stacks.

What theme are you using?
Foundation

Have you added ANY Javascript or HTML of your project?
Yes to both for a custom search box.

How big is your project (in both pages/megabytes)?
8 pages but 7 is blank only Home page have stacks on it and it about 7MB

12

Reason why I have 7 blank pages, I added them to style the top bar and navigator menu then make it into a partial on the home page first but those blank pages will be filled with contents.

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13

No, a plugin is a page type, so Stacks is a plugin, Formloom is a plugin (both by 3rd party developers), but the contact page or the styled text page would also be considered plugins or page types as well. Since you are using Foundation, the only plugin you are probably using is Stacks.

To keep things separated, I usually write Stacks for the plugin and stacks for the addons for the Stacks plugin. I have seen others do it as well, but it is not a rule, so you will see others not do that.

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14

@zeebe Thank for clearing it up for me then the answer would be just stacks plugin.

Also, I would also like to add that I warehouse all my images so there are no images dropped in the stack on my pages. As for html and javascript - I used a HTML stack and put the html codes in it then I added the script in the body code inside the inspector.

15

@TechBill - when things break and you’ve added your own code then that is the highest suspect.

I would recommend giving that code a once-over. Pay specific attention to areas near the failures. There’s a good chance that you’ve added some fancy-quotes “” instead of the required plain quotes "" or perhaps missing or mistyped a </div> </span> or </script> tag.

If just looking it over doesn’t uncover anything, a good way to quickly narrow things down is:

  1. Make a copy of the page.
  2. Remove ALL THE CODE
  3. Test to make sure the page works again. If it doesn’t – well, then you didn’t remove ALL the code or perhaps it’s something else on the page.
  4. Add your code back into the page. One section at a time. When it breaks you’ve found (at least one of) the culprit(s).

This is a general technique in problem solving: it’s always easier to start with a working things and slowly add complications. Testing after each. When the test fails you’ve found the complication causing problems.

more detail…

why is everyone’s own code the most suspect?

because all code has some bugs.

ALL. CODE.

mine, yours, theirs, his, and hers. lots of bugs.

but some bugs eventually get fixed. in a release product being actively used by thousands of users, only the well hidden bugs remain.

but code that you’ve written yourself is being used by just you. you may be the best coder in the world, but will still be a bit buggier than a released piece of software that is being used actively by thousands of users.

16

@isaiah

This generating preview loop does not occur every time. More like every 6th or 7th preview, it will start to take longer to generate the preview or get stuck in a loop that I needed to save the project and restart RW. This issue does appear on other of my projects that does not have any custom html or javascript codes in it. Just stacks alone with foundation theme.

I don’t know if it something in my project or if it a bug in RW, I just wanted to share it here to see if other have experience it too and maybe find a solution that it was something I did on my end and to avoid doing it in future. It annoying when it happen but I will live :smile:

I noticed this the generating preview loop occurs often for me when I leave it in Preview mode and adjust some settings on the inspection panel to see the result of the changes without going back to Edit mode. I am not really paying attention but it seem to happen after I make 6 or more changes in the inspections then it goes into a loop forcing me to either wait for the loop to stop or save and restart. But it does happen on my other protect with no custom html codes on it.

I am not saying it a bug in RW or this is RW issue. It could be my iMac can’t handle rapid repeat changes that I make in the inspection panel. Sometime, I even make change again and I didn’t wait fro the preview to end because I enter the wrong number or setting in the box and correct it then hit enter again.

I know it could be anything causing this but I just wanted to mention it and see if it something I can do on my end to avoid it happening often. I am a web developer for a large organization and I am sitting behind an iMac working with RW all day long 5 days a week so I noticed this often.

1 Like
17

I’ve seen this before where I might adjust a setting that uses up/down arrows to adjust percentage padding or whatever. If you click it 5 times, RW will start the preview process for each click. I don’t know if that is happening or something else…

2 Likes
18

Seen that as well, I try to remember to go back to edit or slow down.

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19

Even with this annoying occurrence, I still think RW is the best web editor in the world :smile:

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20

@TechBill these sorts of intermittent/transient bugs that show up occasionally almost at random are difficult for users to report and even more difficult for developers to fix.

One of the biggest challenges is that a user’s immediate goals when they see these things, are exactly opposite of a developers goals.

  • when a user sees a problem, they try to find a way to make the problem go away and never come back.
  • when a developer sees a problem, they try to make it reliably repeat again and again.

making a problem consistent and repeatable is essential to understanding and fixing a bug. for a bug like this that seems random, that can be tough.

i can’t say where this bug lives – in RW or Stacks, but I think it’s probably one of the two. we (meaning me and Realmac) could use some help in tracking this down.

  • if there’s any file that you have that seems more prone to the problem send it our way.
  • if there’s a particular page in that file, let us know
  • if there’s something one can do (like you mentioned clicking 5 times really fast) then let us know.
  • if there are 10 projects that show the bug, just send us the smallest one.
  • if there are 10 pages that show the bug – delete 9 of them.
  • if there are 10 ways to see the bug, just tell us the simplest one.
  • if there are any specific environmental factors that make the bug more likely, let us know – like perhaps it’s only when you’re running some other apps – or only when you’re using your laptop – or only when the wifi is disconnected.
  • and it goes without saying but always tell us about your setup: RW version, Stacks version, macOS version, and what plugins (like Stacks, Blocks, PlusKit, FormLoom, etc) and what stacks (like Foundation, Foundry, etc.) you’re using.

be as specific and stupidly detailed as you can. if you leave some ambiguity about how to do something, just assume that developers will absolutely do the wrong thing – miss the bug – and fix some other thing instead. :stuck_out_tongue_closed_eyes: we’re really good at that.

If you’d like some real-time one-on-one-chat help in digging down into the details of your project. I’m available on my Slack channel most days.
http://slack.yourhead.com

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