Why are some icons not displaying correctly on my webpage?

[strangerep]

I get lots of little squares containing stuff like "F032", "F011", and so on.

When I position my cursor over them, I see they're obviously meant to be icons -- because the correct name pops up.

 

[DataGG]

Perhaps taking a screenshot would help. I don't see such behaviour. Are you using any add-on that could be blocking images?

 

[Borek]

Definitely post a screenshot.

Clearing your cache shouldn't hurt as well.

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

Clear your browser cache

 

[TurtleMeister]

I have the same problem, but I know what the cause is (for me). These icons are actually downloadable fonts from a third party. NoScript blocks them by default. At one time there was a security vulnerability with FireFox and downloadable fonts. I haven't been able to find out if this has been corrected so I am reluctant to allow these objects to be downloaded. If they were just ordinary gif images it would not be a problem.

 

[TumblingDice]

I have the same problem, but I know what the cause is (for me). These icons are actually downloadable fonts from a third party. NoScript blocks them by default. At one time there was a security vulnerability with FireFox and downloadable fonts. I haven't been able to find out if this has been corrected so I am reluctant to allow these objects to be downloaded. If they were just ordinary gif images it would not be a problem.

At the risk of adding smoke to the fire: I've noticed Greg "juggling" forum resources between servers as he strives to do his best. Yesterday I was prompted on several occasions by my browsers telling me that the security certificate was not valid for the current PF server. (This happens when you're playing three-card monte to keep the website available.) Around the same time I also noticed a couple of text areas that displayed the "Fnnn" numbers. Wondering if your browser wasn't downloading the req'd bits because of the certificate mis-match.

 

[SredniVashtar]

Ok, allowing scripts globally make the unicode placeholder into icons.
So, it is not a unicode problem of my installation.
Any hint on what site to whitelist? I cannot surf the web with my shields down. There are Romulans out there.

 

[TurtleMeister]

At the risk of adding smoke to the fire: I've noticed Greg "juggling" forum resources between servers as he strives to do his best. Yesterday I was prompted on several occasions by my browsers telling me that the security certificate was not valid for the current PF server. (This happens when you're playing three-card monte to keep the website available.) Around the same time I also noticed a couple of text areas that displayed the "Fnnn" numbers. Wondering if your browser wasn't downloading the req'd bits because of the certificate mis-match.

No, it's just NoScript blocking them in my case. I will keep them blocked for the time being until I have time to learn more about it. I was hit with malware two times about 6 years ago. Since then I've been using FireFox with NoScript and I haven't had any incidents.

 

[Jimmy]

Ok, allowing scripts globally make the unicode placeholder into icons.
So, it is not a unicode problem of my installation.
Any hint on what site to whitelist? I cannot surf the web with my shields down. There are Romulans out there.

https://maxcdn.bootstrapcdn.com

Here's the full URI to the resource:
https://maxcdn.bootstrapcdn.com/font-awesome/4.2.0/css/font-awesome.min.css

 

[strangerep]

Definitely post a screenshot.

OK,... let see if I can do this...

[Edit: and... I just found another problem. When I click on one of my thumbnails above, it doesn't display. Just a very dark overlay screen where the image is obviously meant to appear, but there's no actual image.

Clearing your cache shouldn't hurt as well.

Clearing my cache makes no difference.

 

[SredniVashtar]

Follow this instructions: Unicode placeholders

 

[strangerep]

Follow this instructions: Unicode placeholders

Thanks. I unchecked "Forbid @font-face", but it made no difference, even after reloading the page.
[Hmm, or do I need to restart Firefox?]
[Edit: no, that made no difference.]

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

Did you white list the CDNs?

 

[strangerep]

Did you white list the CDNs?

In the popup NoScript list, I don't see anything about "CDN". Or does it go by some other url?

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

In the popup NoScript list, I don't see anything about "CDN". Or does it go by some other url?

Those icons are all hosted on https://physicsforums-bernhardtmediall.netdna-ssl.com

 

[strangerep]

Those icons are all hosted on https://physicsforums-bernhardtmediall.netdna-ssl.com

netdna-ssl.com was always "allowed" at my end.

Hmmm, and now the whole line above is being interpreted as a link !?

Edit by Borek: corrected tags.

 

[Jimmy]

Try white listing maxcdn.bootstrapcdn.com

 

[SredniVashtar]

That's what made the trick for me.

 

[strangerep]

Try white listing maxcdn.bootstrapcdn.com

Thanks, I just tried that but... no effect. :L

The trouble with having an open mind, of course, is that people will insist on coming along and trying to put things in it.

That's because, having a too-open mind means some your brains can fall out.

 

[Svetlana]

Yeah, I do not use JavaScript, I hope we can support a working fallback version.

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

Yeah, I do not use JavaScript, I hope we can support a working fallback version.

I'm surprised you can even post without JS. You're only option is to use the app.

 

[Jimmy]

Actually, the forum's functionality seems to degrade very gracefully with javascript disabled.

 

[strangerep]

Meanwhile, the icons still fail to display for me. :(

 

[SredniVashtar]

Try to enable script globally, just to see if you can see the icons.
If you can you'll have to allow more sites.
Do you control cookies, too? Allow cookies for PF.

Another possible hurdle for the icons: do you have a host file?

Finally, just for the sake of trying: install Palemoon (you can have it side by side with Firefox and you can unistall it later) and see if you can see the icons from there.

I'm out of ideas.

 

[strangerep]

Try to enable script globally, just to see if you can see the icons.

Doesn't help.

Do you control cookies, too?

I thought I did (and I thought I'd allowed cookies for PF). But with my current version of Firefox I can't find where that's controlled!? I can't find it under Preferences.

Another possible hurdle for the icons: do you have a host file

I don't maintain my own /etc/hosts file, if that's what you meant. I just get everything via my ISP's nameserver.

But things worked fine with the old PF -- the problems only started with PF 4.0.

Finally, just for the sake of trying: install Palemoon (you can have it side by side with Firefox and you can unistall it later) and see if you can see the icons from there.

I'll try that later when I have more time. (Firefox has been annoying me lately with each new version -- sigh.)

Thanks anyway for your suggestions.

 

[TumblingDice]

Meanwhile, the icons still fail to display for me. :(

@strangerep : I'm cautiously optimistic this info will help. I've been able to repro your problem on my dev box:

What I found was buried under "Options" -> "Content" -> "Advanced":

Click the Advanced button to go here:

Does all this look familiar to you on your version of Firefox? I was able to reproduce the problem by clearing "choose their own fonts" option. Hoping this is where your problem can be resolved. If checking this option doesn't do the trick, I suggest taking a closer look at the other font options to be sure you aren't over-riding the Unicode font that contain the graphics.

EDIT: Hmmm... Pics display in Edit window but not in message. <sigh> I'll do add uploads for now. ARRRGH! Fighting with the edit display! Maybe because they're sourced from http and not https...?

Edit by Borek: edited that for you; no idea why the external images were not displayed. When it comes to attachments - for some reason numbers used in tags in the post body were different from the numbers of attachments themselves; have you tried to attach them twice? Post preview when there are images present is apparently somehow broken, you are not the first person to complain.

 

[Jimmy]

⇈ Even if that's not the problem it's still a great suggestion and will doubtless help someone in the future. I bet I haven't touched those preferences in years.

 

[strangerep]

[...] What I found was buried under "Options" -> "Content" -> "Advanced":

OK, you've diagnosed it correctly. Thank you.

Trouble is, I dislike the default fonts for ordinary text, and prefer serif style. This is going to be a pain.

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

Trouble is, I dislike the default fonts for ordinary text, and prefer serif style. This is going to be a pain.

Someone here once posted how a plugin for FF could override some CSS values. Using that you could choose your own font.

 

[Jimmy]

I use Stylish for managing custom CSS per site. It wouldn't be difficult to set up.

You can also do global styles which is probably what you need in this case.

 

[TumblingDice]

OK, you've diagnosed it correctly. Thank you.

AWESOME!

Trouble is, I dislike the default fonts for ordinary text, and prefer serif style. This is going to be a pain.

Let's see what we can do to improve that attitude! :p One step at a time. I'll look further at my desktop tomorrow in the unlikely event that others don't provide suggestions first.

 

[Jimmy]

IF you decide to try Stylish, once it is installed:

• Click its icon > Write new style > Blank Style
• Fill in the name field (e.g. All Sites)--any name will do though.
• Paste the following CSS into the editor and save.

@namespace url([PLAIN]http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml);[/PLAIN] 

*
{
  font-family: serif !important;
}

@-moz-document domain("physicsforums.com") {

  .fa
  {
    font-family: FontAwesome !important;
  }

}

If you don't want to install a new extension, the above CSS can be added to userContent.css. (Without the namespace declaration). That file resides in your Firefox profile. A lot of people have trouble finding it but here's a pretty simple way to get to it:

• Help > Troubleshooting Information
• Click "Show Folder" under "Application Basics" near the top.
• Open the Chrome folder.
• Open "userContent.css" with a text editor and add the CSS below any existing CSS.
  
• Save the file and (Re)start Firefox.

If userContent.css isn't there, then just create a new text file and save as "userContent.css". The name is case-sensitive so it needs to be exactly as shown.

ETA: Forgot to mention that once you get the style in place, you can select whichever font you want for serif in the advanced font settings and that font will be used.

 

[Jimmy]

Well, I forgot to take MathJax fonts into account; equations look really funky without them. So, hopefully this is my last edit:

*:not([style*="font-family: MathJax"])
{
  font-family: serif !important;
}

@-moz-document domain("physicsforums.com") {

  .fa
  {
  font-family: FontAwesome !important;
  }

}

 

[strangerep]

First, thanks everyone for the suggestions. But,... TBH,... I'm reluctant to introduce any more customizations into my setup. (I already have too long a list that I have to re-apply every 2-3 years when I do a total OS upgrade or switch.)

I think I'll just tolerate the partial lack of functionality/appearance for a while, then see how I feel later.

I want to spend more time studying/researching actual physics, (generalized dynamical groups, and Finslerian extensions to relativity), but I can't do very much of that on PF. :(

Thanks again.