Recent & Random Image blocks problem in 1.1.5

[novanilla]

Gallery Version: 1.1.4
phpBB Version: 3.0.9
Gallery-Link: http://www.nova-nilla.com/Members/phpBB3/gallery/index.php

PHP Version: 5.2.10
Database Version: MySQL 5.0.95


Error description and message
This is actually for 1.1.5 on phpBB 3.0.10 (those choices aren't in the drop-down).

My site seems much faster since the most recent update. I probably accidentally fixed something that was broken earlier when I did the update. But now I have a problem with the gallery behavior on different browsers.

Firefox: Pages with Recent and Random blocks - Portal, Forum, and Gallery Index all seem to load normally some of the time, but about 2/3 of the time, the thumbnails in the R&R blocks take a long time to load. Once the page is completely loaded, FF doesn't seem to recognize it, and there's still the "waiting" icon in the tab and the "waiting for http://www.nova-nilla.com" message in the bottom of the screen. All other pages load fine, and profiles with the random image block load normally as well, although sometimes slow.

Chrome and IE: Much faster, but still takes a while sometimes. Maybe up to a minute for ten thumbnails in all pages with R&R blocks. Most of the time, it's good though.

While testing different configurations, like recent blocks only, random blocks only, with comments, without comments, GD1 and GD2 (what are those?), with and without thumbnail caching, with and without image sizes in thumbnails, etc... It seems that I can't make it work properly. Although in setting everything back to the way it was, I seem to have lost all my images sizes in the thumbnails and even when I configure the gallery not to calculate image sizes for thumbnails, it seems to be trying, because there's a white strip at the bottom where the image sizes are usually presented.

BTW, it took me about three thumbnail cache purges to completely purge the thumbnails. I could tell this because there were some thumbnails with image sizes and some with just white stripes at the bottom. I don't understand this, but maybe the information helps. This is frustrating!

Thank you

EDIT: After further investigation, all of this seems related to the image size calculating feature.

[novanilla]

There is definitely a problem, but I have found a temporary work-around.

First of all, the cache feature DOES seem to be working okay. I needed to refresh my ftp client to get the cache to show as purged or to see new thumbnails in it.

HOWEVER, there is still a problem with the image size feature. I don't know how long the problem has existed, or if it's new in version 1.1.5, but image file sizes aren't calculated and FF sits in an endless state of trying to calculate.

ALSO (nickvergessen, this is a clue ), I discovered, after disabling the image size on thumbnail feature that there was still ONE image (image X) that FF always seemed to want to calculate the size of. Very strange. The image is not special, it's not resized because it's fairly small, and it's one of our recent images (uploaded during version 1.1.4 implementation). However, I did find one image in my uploads directory that was uploaded after that by another user (during 1.1.5), that had no database entry. It was a large file, and a smaller copy of it (image Y) was uploaded immediately afterward by the user. So I suspect the user received an error during the upload, and then resized his image to try again - and was successful. But still this file was sitting there, without a db entry. I used the tool in the cleanup gallery ACP section, and discovered that was the only file that needed removal (I do this occasionally). Once that file was removed, the OTHER image (image X) became correctly handled by FF and by the gallery. FF no longer tries to calculate its size and no longer sits in a waiting state.

Later today or tomorrow, I will try to duplicate the problem and see if it returns by forcing an error and uploading a large file, then a smaller copy.

[novanilla]

Still having trouble loading the thumbnails sometimes. The thumbnail cache has built itself back up again, and the gallery pages and blocks are faster now, but when several people are on line at once, I definitely have occasional troubles. Entire pages will load, but one or more thumbnails will just seem to take forever. All that's visible is the alternate text for a while. I have no idea if this is related to the gallery or not, but images are the biggest problem when the server seems slow like this.

I can't help thinking that the Social Network mod I have is making too many SQL queries, but I have that mod toned down quite a bit.

Just thought I'd let you know I haven't solved this issue completely yet. But it IS easier to deal with now that the thumbnail sizes are turned off.

[novanilla]

In case it's of any concern, I've done a matrix of tests of page loads with different configurations and found that the load issue exists in the center gallery block of the portal and the Recent and Random gallery blocks of the Gallery Index. This issue manifests itself most in Firefox 10.

I will load the gallery page and it sometimes never finishes loading, although the images and all the text is there. If I disable the blocks, the page loads normally.

If I load the portal page with a center gallery block (recent, random, with and without comments), again - it takes a long time to load - sometimes never, it seems. The side gallery block works just fine.

The gallery blocks in Index.php and in profiles work just fine as well. The problem must somehow exist in the way the Portal center block and the gallery blocks are loaded. It's likely a conflict with another mod (like Social Network), but because it works fine in the forum and the profiles, I'm inclined to believe it's easier to fix in the gallery blocks.

NV - I'll pm you a test account so you can see what I'm seeing. Unfortunately, I can't give let anybody view profiles, so hopefully the test account will be enough.

[nickvergessen]

Well I used Firebug (addon for firefox) and the network tab tells you which files are still loading. In most cases these were files from socialnet/ mostly javascript or notify.php. i wonder whether all of these js files are required! cause 26 files seem a bit much for me. However I can't reproduce the problem in my gallery here and on other boards. So I think I can't really fix much here.

[novanilla]

Thanks a lot for looking at it. I thought maybe the blocks were handled a little differently between the index and profiles, vs. the gallery and center portal block.

I'll keep working at it from the social network aspect.