[Dspace-tech] incredibly shrinking text

[Platt, Alice]

A while back we made significant customizations to the metadata submission form, or input form file, “input-forms.xml”. We added a lot of metadata fields, so the forms are much longer than they once were.

 

Since then, and only when using Internet Explorer, the text within the form mysteriously gets smaller and smaller as I scroll down the page. The sidebar, which normally displays “communities” “administration”, etc., is also very, very, very tiny – it is in fact unreadable. The text at the bottom of the form is also unreadable.

 

The first page, where it asks if the item has Multiple Titles or has been Published before, looks fine.

The next two submission pages have the problem.

The Upload File page is fine.

 

I can send a screen shot to anyone who is interested in seeing what I am seeing. The only thing we’ve really changed is that we’ve added so many new metadata elements to the form, but I don’t understand how that could be causing this problem.

 

Again, this is only when I use Internet Explorer (I’ve tried it on different computers, of course). Firefox, Safari and Google Chrome work just fine. Does anyone have any ideas on what is causing this? Thanks!

 

Using DSpace 1.5.2 XMLUI

 

Alice Platt

Digital Initiatives Librarian

Shapiro Library

Southern New Hampshire University

2500 North River Rd

Manchester, NH 03106

USA

 

Please consider the environment before printing this e-mail.

[Tim Donohue]

Alice,

What version of Internet Explorer are you using? I've just tried IE8 and
IE7 and both of them seem to work fine with the out-of-the-box DSpace
1.5.2 XMLUI submission process.

It sounds like this could be something in what you've changed (to add
the new metadata elements). It sounds like a CSS / HTML issue here. It's
likely you could have invalid HTML that is confusing Internet Explorer
(look especially for odd HTML tags that have nothing in them, like
<div/> or similar). If you have odd empty HTML tags, sometimes just
adding a simple space (&nbsp;) in the tag will help IE figure things out
properly.

If you use Firefox at all, you also may want to install FireBug
(http://getfirebug.com/) plugin. This plugin will let you right click on
an area of the page and choose "inspect element" to see the HTML + CSS
source that is being applied by the web browser. You may want to inspect
the source right around the area where you see the "incredibly shrinking
text" start to happen in IE.

Good luck. Let us know if you need more help. If you figure it out, it'd
also be good to let us know what the resolution was, so that you can
help others who may come across the same problem in the future.

- Tim

Platt, Alice wrote:
>
> I haven’t gotten any feedback to the following question… hoping for
> some ideas.
>
> Currently, in Internet Explorer only, the submission form text gets
> smaller and smaller as I scroll down the page. The sidebar is also
> very, very, very tiny. The text gets so small that it is not readable.
> I have never seen this before and can’t imagine what is causing this
> to happen.

>
> I can send a screen shot to anyone who is interested in seeing what I
> am seeing. The only thing we’ve really changed is that we’ve added so
> many new metadata elements to the form, but I don’t understand how
> that could be causing this problem.
>
> Again, this is only when I use Internet Explorer (I’ve tried it on
> different computers, of course). Firefox, Safari and Google Chrome
> work just fine. Does anyone have any ideas on what is causing this?
> Thanks!
>
> Using DSpace 1.5.2 XMLUI
>
> Alice Platt
>
> Digital Initiatives Librarian
>
> Shapiro Library
>
> Southern New Hampshire University
>
> 2500 North River Rd
>
> Manchester, NH 03106
>
> USA
>
>
> Please consider the environment before printing this e-mail.

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>
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> https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/dspace-tech
>

[Platt, Alice]

[Platt, Alice]

Thanks for your response, Tim:

It seems to have started after we added several input fields to the submission form. I'm wondering if maybe adding several input fields caused a glitch with the way the input-forms.xml file is processed.

I saved the source of the two submission pages that have the problem and ran it through the W3C Markup Validation Service, which assured me that the XHTML code and the CSS code is valid.

I did take a close look at the source as you suggested (I do usually use Firefox; this problem with IE was discovered on someone else's computer), and unfortunately I don't see anything out of the ordinary.

I'm using IE Version 7.0.

Quite perplexing!

Alice

> I haven't gotten any feedback to the following question... hoping for

[Stuart Lewis]

Hi Alice,

Could you post a dump of the HTML for the page for us to look at?

Thanks,


Stuart Lewis
IT Innovations Analyst and Developer
Te Tumu Herenga The University of Auckland Library
Auckland Mail Centre, Private Bag 92019, Auckland 1142, New Zealand
Ph: 64 9 373-7599 x81928
http://www.library.auckland.ac.nz/

> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Let Crystal Reports handle the reporting - Free Crystal Reports 2008
> 30-Day
> trial. Simplify your report design, integration and deployment - and
> focus on
> what you do best, core application coding. Discover what's new with
> Crystal Reports now. http://p.sf.net/sfu/bobj-july

[Tim Donohue]

(Note for others: Alice forwarded on a copy of the HTML off-list)

Alice,

It looks like it is an odd HTML problem and a definite bug in the DSpace
XMLUI. It looks like the problem starts with your "Abstract" field, as
it doesn't have any hint/help text specified. So, under the "Abstract"
field you have an empty tag:
<span class="field-help"/>

I think this tag is confusing IE7 (for whatever reason). If I place
any text in there (e.g. <span class="field-help">test me</span>), then
the problem is fixed until the next empty "hint" text occurs. I've
also verified this same problem happens in out-of-the-box DSpace 1.5.2,
if I remove any of the default <hint> text in the input_forms.xml

I'm going to log a bug in DSpace Jira (our issue tracking system).
It's likely there's a relatively easy fix, and we can let you know once
we're able to resolve it. The quick fix (on your end) would be to make
sure that each field has <hint> text specified in your input_forms.xml.
Obviously, that's not ideal, so we'll look into a real fix to the issue.

Thanks for reporting this!

- Tim

[Tim Donohue]

Just an FYI. This bug is now logged in Jira under the following issue:

http://jira.dspace.org/jira/browse/DS-378

Thanks again for reporting it, Alice. Hopefully we can find a fix soon.
- Tim

[Platt, Alice]

Ahhhh! I'm so glad to hear that there is a reason for this weird problem! Yay!

I wonder if I just stick a space in the hint field, if that will do the trick.

Thanks again,

Alice

Date: Thu, 12 Nov 2009 14:39:32 -0600
From: Tim Donohue <tdon...@duraspace.org>
Subject: Re: [Dspace-tech] incredibly shrinking text
To: Stuart Lewis <s.l...@auckland.ac.nz>
Cc: "dspac...@lists.sourceforge.net"
<dspac...@lists.sourceforge.net>, "Platt, Alice" <a.p...@snhu.edu>
Message-ID: <4AFC7284...@duraspace.org>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed

(Note for others: Alice forwarded on a copy of the HTML off-list)

Alice,

It looks like it is an odd HTML problem and a definite bug in the DSpace
XMLUI. It looks like the problem starts with your "Abstract" field, as
it doesn't have any hint/help text specified. So, under the "Abstract"
field you have an empty tag:
<span class="field-help"/>

I think this tag is confusing IE7 (for whatever reason). If I place
any text in there (e.g. <span class="field-help">test me</span>), then
the problem is fixed until the next empty "hint" text occurs. I've
also verified this same problem happens in out-of-the-box DSpace 1.5.2,
if I remove any of the default <hint> text in the input_forms.xml

I'm going to log a bug in DSpace Jira (our issue tracking system).
It's likely there's a relatively easy fix, and we can let you know once
we're able to resolve it. The quick fix (on your end) would be to make
sure that each field has <hint> text specified in your input_forms.xml.
Obviously, that's not ideal, so we'll look into a real fix to the issue.

Thanks for reporting this!

- Tim

[Renate Morgenstern]

Hi,

We have a problem to create the administrator account on a new Dspace
installation (1.5.2)
See error message below:

When attempting to create the administrator account I run into
an error.
Any suggestion what we could do?

Below is the error.

Regards
Renate
============================

dspace@ir1:/usr/local/dspace/bin$ ./create-administrator
Creating an initial administrator account
E-mail address:
First name:
Last name:
WARNING: Password will appear on-screen.
Password:
Again to confirm:
Is the above data correct? (y or n): y
Exception in thread "main" java.lang.NullPointerException
at java.util.regex.Matcher.getTextLength(Matcher.java:1140)
at java.util.regex.Matcher.reset(Matcher.java:291)
at java.util.regex.Matcher.<init>(Matcher.java:211)
at java.util.regex.Pattern.matcher(Pattern.java:888)
at
org.dspace.storage.rdbms.DatabaseManager.findByUnique(DatabaseManager.java:475)
at
org.dspace.storage.rdbms.DatabaseManager.find(DatabaseManager.java:445)
at org.dspace.eperson.Group.find(Group.java:684)
at
org.dspace.administer.CreateAdministrator.createAdministrator(CreateAdministrator.java:232)
at
org.dspace.administer.CreateAdministrator.negotiateAdministratorDetails(CreateAdministrator.java:209)
at
org.dspace.administer.CreateAdministrator.main(CreateAdministrator.java:113)




--
Renate Morgenstern
P O Box 30664, WIndhoek, Namibia
Tel/Fax: 242124
Email: rmorge...@iway.na

[Stuart Lewis]

Hi Renate,

We've just been discussing this on the #dspace IRC channel, as it is a
strange problem.

> When attempting to create the administrator account I run into
> an error.
> Any suggestion what we could do?
>

> dspace@ir1:/usr/local/dspace/bin$ ./create-administrator
> Creating an initial administrator account
> E-mail address:
> First name:
> Last name:
> WARNING: Password will appear on-screen.
> Password:
> Again to confirm:
> Is the above data correct? (y or n): y
> Exception in thread "main" java.lang.NullPointerException
> at java.util.regex.Matcher.getTextLength(Matcher.java:1140)
> at java.util.regex.Matcher.reset(Matcher.java:291)
> at java.util.regex.Matcher.<init>(Matcher.java:211)
> at java.util.regex.Pattern.matcher(Pattern.java:888)
> at
> org.dspace.storage.rdbms.DatabaseManager.findByUnique
> (DatabaseManager.java:475)

Can you check in your Postgres (or Oracle) database that all the
DSpace tables have been created successfully? The main table to check
for this problem is 'eperson'.

[Tim Donohue]

Alice,

I had a little time to look at this today, and figured out the fix.
I've described the fix as a comment to the issue in Jira:

http://jira.dspace.org/jira/browse/DS-378

You should be able to fix it in your version by adding the template I
detail in DS-378 to your local XMLUI theme. It will be fixed
out-of-the-box in DSpace 1.6.

Let us know if you have any other questions.

- Tim

Platt, Alice wrote:

[Renate Morgenstern]

Hi,

Thanks for your message.
I checked the dspace database and there is a table called eperson, and no data in it.
Any other suggestion what we could do?
Renate

[Jizba, Richard]

I see that problem too. But it doesn't always happen, and I think it
only happens when someone is logged in and using an input form. I've
been meaning to play around with the ie style sheet (style-ie.css).

Unfortunately, I won't get to it soon, but I will post what I find if no
one else has.

Richard Jizba

[Tim Donohue]

Richard,

This problem has already been resolved. See the patch in the following
issue for the fix. This fix will also be released in DSpace 1.6:

http://jira.dspace.org/jira/browse/DS-378

- Tim

[Renate Morgenstern]

Hi again,
We were not able to solve the problem with the administrator account. We now have used Dspace 1.4 to get started, which works fine.
Will it be possible to upgrade from 1.4 to 1.6 (when tested)?
Regarding the handle server - will it be possible to migrate this as well from one version to the other one?
Regards
Renate