how would you debug this javascript problem?
- by pedalpete
I've been travelling and developing for the past few weeks.
The site I'm developing was running well.
Then, the other day, i connected to a network and the page 'looked' fine, but it turns out the javascript wasn't running. I checked firebug, and there were no errors, as I was suspecting that maybe a script didn't load (I'm using the google api for jQuery and jQuery UI, as well as loading google maps api and fbconnect).
I would suspect that if the issue was with one of these pages not loading I would get an error, and yet there was nothing.
Thinking maybe i didn't connect properly or something, i reconnected to the network and even restarted my computer, as well as trying to run the local version. I got nothing.
The local version not running also hinted to me that it was the loading of an external javascript which caused the problem.
I let it pass as something strange with that one network. Unfortunately now I'm 100s of miles away.
Today my brother sent me an e-mail that the network he was on at the airport wouldn't load my page. Same issue. Everything is laid out properly, and part of the layout is set in Javascript, so clearly javascript is running.
he too got no errors. Of course, he got on his plane, and now he is no longer at the airport. Now the site works on his computer (and i haven't changed anything).
How on earth would you go about figuring out what happened in this situation? That is two of maybe 12 or so networks. But I have no idea how i would find a network that doesn't work (and living in a small town, it could be difficult for me to find a network that doesn't work).
Any ideas?
The site is still in Dev, so I'd rather not post a link just yet (but could in a few days).
What I can see not working is the javascript functions which are called on load, and on click. So i do think it is a javascript issue, but no errors.
This wouldn't be as HUGE an issue if I could find and sit on one of these networks, but I can't. So what would you do?
EDIT ----------------------------------------------------------
the first function(s - their linked) that doesn't get called is below.
I've cut the code of at the .ajax call as the call wasn't being made.
function getResultsFromForm(){
jQuery('form#filterList input.button').hide();
var searchAddress=jQuery('form#filterList input#searchTxt').val();
if(searchAddress=='' || searchAddress=='<?php echo $searchLocation; ?>'){
mapShow(20, -40, 0, 'areaMap', 2);
jQuery('form#filterList input.button').show();
return;
}
if (GBrowserIsCompatible()) {
var geo = new GClientGeocoder();
geo.setBaseCountryCode(cl.address.country);
geo.getLocations(searchAddress, function (result)
{
if(!result.Placemark && searchAddress!='<?php echo $searchLocation; ?>'){
jQuery('span#addressNotFound').text('<?php echo $addressNotFound; ?>').slideDown('slow');
jQuery('form#filterList input.button').show();
} else {
jQuery('span#addressNotFound').slideUp('slow').empty();
jQuery('span#headerLocal').text(searchAddress);
var date = new Date();
date.setTime(date.getTime() + (8 * 24 * 60 * 60 * 1000));
jQuery.cookie('address', searchAddress, { expires: date});
var accuracy= result.Placemark[0].AddressDetails.Accuracy;
var lat = result.Placemark[0].Point.coordinates[1];
var long = result.Placemark[0].Point.coordinates[0];
lat=parseFloat(lat);
long=parseFloat(long);
var getTab=jQuery('div#tabs div#active').attr('class');
jQuery('div#tabs').show();
loadForecast(lat, long, getTab, 'true', 0);
var zoom=zoomLevel();
mapShow(lat, long, accuracy, 'areaMap', zoom );
}
});
}
}
function zoomLevel(){
var zoomarray= new Array();
zoomarray=jQuery('span.viewDist').attr('id');
zoomarray=zoomarray.split("-");
var zoom=zoomarray[1];
if(zoom==''){
zoom=5;
}
zoom=parseFloat(zoom);
return(zoom);
}
function loadForecast(lat, long, type, loadForecast, page){
jQuery('div#holdForecast').empty();
var date = new Date();
var d = date.getDate();
var day = (d < 10) ? '0' + d : d;
var m = date.getMonth() + 1;
var month = (m < 10) ? '0' + m : m;
var year='2009';
toDate=year+'-'+month+'-'+day;
var genre=jQuery('span.genreblock span#updateGenre').html();
var numDays='';
var numResults='';
var range=jQuery('span.viewDist').attr('id');
var dateRange = jQuery('.updateDate').attr('id');
jQuery('div#holdShows ul.showList').html('<li class="show"><div class="showData"><center><img src="../hwImages/loading.gif"/></center></div></li>');
jQuery('div#holdShows ul.'+type+'List').livequery(function(){
jQuery.ajax({
type: "GET",
url: "processes/formatShows.php",
data: "output=&genre="+genre+"&numResults="+numResults+"&date="+toDate+"&dateRange="+dateRange+"&range="+range+"&lat="+lat+"&long="+long+'&page='+page,
success: function(response){
EDIT 2 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Please keep in mind that the problem is not that I can't load the site, the site works fine on most connections, but there are times when the site doesn't work, and no errors are thrown, and nothing changes. My brother couldn't run it earlier today while I had no problems, so it was something to do with his location/network. HOWEVER, the page loads, he had a connection, it was his first time visiting the site, so nothing could have been cashed. Same with when I had the issue a few days before. I didn't change anything, and I got to a different network and everything worked fine.
