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Topic: "Post #X" link is not working (Read 7882 times) previous topic - next topic
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"Post #X" link is not working

"Post #X" link is not working. Clicking the link will take you to the starting post of that page in the thread. Not good at all. It seems that the anchor code in the link is missing completely. Sometimes in some threads the link is:
Code: [Select]
http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=64619&st=25#

Note the ending #-char without the post number to anchor to.

And sometimes the link is like this:
Code: [Select]
http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=50273&st=1225

No ending #-char at all.

What's going on? I'm amazed that there's no posts about this, surely somebody has noticed this like I have (it took me over 6 months to post this  )

"Post #X" link is not working

Reply #1 –
Post #x is not the link to the post itself.

Clicking on it opens a JavaScript window where you can copy the actual link:



Link to your post

"Post #X" link is not working

Reply #2 –
Quote from: Frank Bicking on
Post #x is not the link to the post itself.

Clicking on it opens a JavaScript window where you can copy the actual link:

Weeelll jeez, I've always "middle clicked" the link to open it to new tab in Opera.

But this doesn't explain why the link sometimes ends with #-char and sometimes not.

Let's see, your post link copied from the JS popup:
Code: [Select]
http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index.php?s=&showtopic=64879&view=findpost&p=578866

Open it in new tab and the link changes to:
Code: [Select]
http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=64879&st=0&p=578866&#entry578866

And the actual link address is (this time with # char):
Code: [Select]
http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=64879#


Why the link is not like this?:
Code: [Select]
http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=64879#entry578866



OT: New forum bug: string &# changes into ? when "Preview Post" is clicked.

"Post #X" link is not working

Reply #3 –
Quote from: Akkurat on
Why the link is not like this?:
Code: [Select]
http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=64879#entry578866
Because it's supposed to be a permanent link.
The # anchors are processed by your local web browser and work in one page only, therefore the topic page, where the particular post is to be found, would have to be added to the URL too. Then, if someone uses different number of posts per page, or some moderator deletes a lolcat post earlier in the thread for clarity reasons, the link could lead to a wrong page.
Moreover, it would almost never work right for people using the threaded view.

On the other hand, when just the ID of the post to display is passed, the forum software can generate a proper redirect just for you and your viewing settings.


Quote from: Akkurat on
OT: New forum bug: string &# changes into ? when "Preview Post" is clicked.
Patterns like &#number; are obviously processed as HTML entities. Very useful thing - e.g., if you want to write the Place of Sajdah sign, but accidentally doesn't have a key for it on your keyboard, you just write &?#1769; and it appears like ?. Can be also used to do other interesting things...
Full-quoting makes you scroll past the same junk over and over.

"Post #X" link is not working

Reply #4 –
Quote from: Yirkha on
Quote from: Akkurat on
Why the link is not like this?:
Code: [Select]
http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=64879#entry578866
Because it's supposed to be a permanent link.
The # anchors are processed by your local web browser and work in one page only, therefore the topic page, where the particular post is to be found, would have to be added to the URL too. Then, if someone uses different number of posts per page, or some moderator deletes a lolcat post earlier in the thread for clarity reasons, the link could lead to a wrong page.
Moreover, it would almost never work right for people using the threaded view.

Yes of course, I should have thought about that (I'm very familiar with html, php, etc.). 

Quote from: Yirkha on
On the other hand, when just the ID of the post to display is passed, the forum software can generate a proper redirect just for you and your viewing settings.

Then using the JS popup address in the actual link would solve this "problem" easily. Right? I should have suggested this from the get go.

Quote from: Yirkha on
Quote from: Akkurat on
OT: New forum bug: string &# changes into ? when "Preview Post" is clicked.
Patterns like &#number; are obviously processed as HTML entities. Very useful thing - e.g., if you want to write the Place of Sajdah sign, but accidentally doesn't have a key for it on your keyboard, you just write &?#1769; and it appears like ?. Can be also used to do other interesting things...

Yesyes but, my point was that this should happen only with "valid" patterns (like: &#013 (decimal), &#x24 (hex)). The &#entry578866 (from forum links) shouldn't be converted to ?entry578866. Maybe rarely happening but when it happens, it could be hard to detect, especially when the link address is not shown, e.g. this is my link (in the actual post).

And it only happens when clicking the "Preview Post". This doesn't happen when posting the message without clicking the preview.

"Post #X" link is not working

Reply #5 –
Quote from: Akkurat on
Quote from: Yirkha on
On the other hand, when just the ID of the post to display is passed, the forum software can generate a proper redirect just for you and your viewing settings.
Then using the JS popup address in the actual link would solve this "problem" easily. Right? I should have suggested this from the get go.
I assume the reasoning behind this is that not all browsers out there have some kind of "Copy Link Address" command in link's context menu, but the editbox in the dialog shown by the prompt() JavaScript function is always easily copyable.
(Yes, the link could as well go to that address directly, with an "onclick" handler showing the dialog instead in JS-capable browsers, or whatever.)

Quote from: Akkurat on
Yesyes but, my point was that this should happen only with "valid" patterns [...]
And it only happens when clicking the "Preview Post". This doesn't happen when posting the message without clicking the preview.
OK, valid points.
Full-quoting makes you scroll past the same junk over and over.

"Post #X" link is not working

Reply #6 –
Quote from: Yirkha on
I assume the reasoning behind this is that not all browsers out there have some kind of "Copy Link Address" command in link's context menu, but the editbox in the dialog shown by the prompt() JavaScript function is always easily copyable.
(Yes, the link could as well go to that address directly, with an "onclick" handler showing the dialog instead in JS-capable browsers, or whatever.)

At least Opera, IE7, Firefox (I'm sure it has, couldn't test because I don't have it installed) have got "Copy Link Address/Copy shortcut/etc." commands in the context menus. Also these browsers do open the link in a new tab when middle-clicking it. So I could say that "every" browser (these are the most common ones.. at least IE and Firefox are) is affected by this. I don't have anything against the JS popup, it's actually a good idea, but the link is totally wrong and should be corrected.. thank you.

"Post #X" link is not working

Reply #7 –
Quote from: Yirkha on
I assume the reasoning behind this is that not all browsers out there have some kind of "Copy Link Address" command in link's context menu

What browser is that? Even Internat Exploder can show link target (but not image target).

Quote
Weeelll jeez, I've always "middle clicked" the link to open it to new tab in Opera.

Same here (Shift-Click). JavaScript links cause nothing but delays. As I discover, often just to show some useless animation, or enable an user to close the popup by clicking on it. It is indeed too hard to find that small close button - lol.

For example this site. You really have to know how to operate the browser just to get the sound clips saved.

"Post #X" link is not working

Reply #8 –
Quote from: j7n on
What browser is that? Even Internat Exploder can show link target (but not image target).
Quote from: Akkurat on
At least Opera, IE7, Firefox [...] have got "Copy Link Address/Copy shortcut/etc." commands in the context menus. Also these browsers do open the link in a new tab when middle-clicking it. So I could say that "every" browser [...] is affected by this.
I started that sentence with "I assume..." because I can only assume what the reason is. If "every" browser has this functionality (now - we don't know when this feature has been added), then there might be something else behind this, like "Ordinary people do not know what to do, but if we give them this kind of dialog, we can say that they should copy the link below and yadda yadda.". I don't know, you should ask Invision Board developers why they made it like this, not me.
(Please note that I'm in no way defending the current state, I agreed earlier that the link should be valid even as it is, and overriden by JavaScript for left-clicks only, to avoid the confusion when opened in another tab and to ensure compatibility with non-JS-capable browsers.)

Quote from: Akkurat on
I don't have anything against the JS popup, it's actually a good idea, but the link is totally wrong and should be corrected.. thank you.
Right, but don't thank me, I can't do anything with the forum except trolling.
Full-quoting makes you scroll past the same junk over and over.
 

"Post #X" link is not working

Reply #9 –
Quote from: Yirkha on
Right, but don't thank me, I can't do anything with the forum except trolling.

Sorry.. it was not directed to you.  I added the thank you for not sounding like an idiot demanding something without tact. I'll have another go at it; could somebody with admin rights please fix this if it's not too much trouble? I thank thee.