The Simile timeline is now blank in a WP/TNG integrated site

[PeterC66]

I have just noticed an issue with my live site that was not an issue a while ago. I have changed a few thing since I last know it was working, so I cannot yet identify what has caused it. Before I spend more time delving, I wondered if anyone else has found the same problem, or has any ideas. I use Chrome but I see the the same issue with Edge. The site uses TNG v.10.1.2; WordPress 4.4.1, Suffusion 4.4.8, and the WP/TNG Integration Mod.

You can see the issue at http://www.hcnhistory.org.uk/blank-for-people/timeline2.php?primaryID=I25813&tree=hcn&chartwidth= - the Simile timeline is blank, although everything else seems OK. The plain TNG version is at http://www.hcnhistory.org.uk/tng/timeline2.php?primaryID=I25813&tree=hcn&chartwidth= and this works fine. [Note that you will see I do have a mod to add in a choice of comparative events - national/county/local, but I have ruled this out as the cause.]

I have explored the issue in more detail on my WAMP, and have tried uninstalling all Mods, and WordPress Plugins, but the problem is still there. 

For the plain TNG version Chrome/Inspect/Console shows 2 identical errors
http://localhost/tng/__history__.html?0   Failed to load resource: the server responded with a status of 404 (Not Found)

I have not investigated this issue - but it does not seem to cause a noticeable problem.

For the WordPress/TNG version Chrome/Inspect/Console shows 4 errors
http://localhost/blank-for-people/__history__.html?0    Failed to load resource: the server responded with a status of 404 (Not Found)
simile-ajax-bundle.js:1541    TypeError: Cannot read property 'documentElement' of null "XmlHttp: Error handling onReadyStateChange"
simile-ajax-bundle.js:1543    Uncaught XmlHttp: Error handling onReadyStateChange
http://localhost/blank-for-people/__history__.html?0    Failed to load resource: the server responded with a status of 404 (Not Found)
 

I presume the TypeError at simile-ajax-bundle.js:1541 is causing the problem, but my initial look at it has not given me a solution.

I have had a look at a few WordPress/TNG sites

[Website Example URL Removed as Website is Defunct]
http://gregoryology.com/genealogy/timeline2.php?primaryID=I1854&tree=tree001&chartwidth=
http://www.hardwickfamily.com/genealogy/timeline2.php?primaryID=I69&tree=tree1&chartwidth=

But none of them has the Simile timeline. My main question is does anyone have the Simile timeline currently working in an integrated WP/TNG site? I know it used to work.

Any other advice would be welcome.

Thanks, Peter
 

 

 

Edited December 30, 2023 by theKiwi
[Website Example URL Removed as Website is Defunct]

[PeterC66]

Update: I have found one or two other WP/TNG integrated sites where the Simile timeline works OK. One is at http://imhoff.us/TNG_GeneologyFiles/timeline2.php?primaryID=I00010&tree=IMH001&chartwidth=, and interestingly this also has the same error about ../__history__.html not being found. It is because of an <iframe id="simile-ajax-history" src="__history__.html?0 near the very end of the page. So this is not my problem.

Secondly, I have managed on my test system to switch themes from my Suffusion-child theme to pure Suffusion: and the Simile timeline works again. So now I can start examining all the features of my child theme in more detail.

[klooster]

No problem here:

Kloosterman Time line

[theKiwi]

I'm late to the response here, but it's working on my WP-TNG site

http://lisaandroger.com/genealogy/timeline2.php?primaryID=I16&tree=Roger&chartwidth=800

Roger

[PeterC66]

Thanks Roger, but I do not see the Simile timeline at that page, just the original TNG timeline. The Simile one is the top one on Kloosterman Time line  or Darrin's demo where you can drag it left and right. Never matter, as I do know the Simile timeline works for most people.

As an update: I have made a little more progress on my problem. I have confirmed that the problem does not go away if I deactivate all mods and plugins, and there is no problem with the coding of my Suffusion child theme.

The problem is there only when I use a child theme and there is a functions.php in that child theme - even if the file is just <?php ?> or even empty. It was never a problem a few months ago (before a recent update to Suffusion?)

I have not had time to examine it in much detail but I shall try to soon. I have logged the issue on both the Aquoid/Suffusion and Simile support forums but have had no replies there. It looks like I shall have to clear my brain and get into JavaScript debugging to find what is probably a simple problem in the gaps between WordPress and Simile!

[theKiwi]

Sorry Peter - I thought that TNG now included the Simile Timeline by default - but didn't realise I had to turn it on - it's now on and works on my site.

But I'm not using a Child Theme so I guess that's the reason why it works based on what you write.

Roger

[PeterC66]

Thanks Roger.  That is very interesting because I see a blank Simile timeline (see attached) when I look at yours with Chrome or Edge; but in Firefox it works fine. Mine is still blank in Firefox. Can you see the Simile timeline on your site in Chrome? Maybe it is not the child issue?  I am really not understanding what is happening!

The errors I get in Chrome when on your site and inspect are 

http://lisaandroger.com/Genealogy/js/tngmenuhover2.js Failed to load resource: the server responded with a status of 500 (Internal Server Error)
http://lisaandroger.com/genealogy/timeline_2.3.0/timeline_ajax/simile-ajax-bundle.js Failed to load resource: the server responded with a status of 500 (Internal Server Error)
timeline2.php:301 Uncaught TypeError: Cannot read property 'dd' of undefined
timeline-bundle.js:2277 Uncaught TypeError: SimileAjax.EventIndex is not a function
timeline.js:54 Uncaught TypeError: Cannot read property 'layout' of undefined(anonymous function) @ timeline.js:54
timeline.js:54 Uncaught TypeError: Cannot read property 'layout' of undefined
timeline.js:54 Uncaught TypeError: Cannot read property 'layout' of undefined

[theKiwi]

Try mine now - when I tried it in Chrome it was a mess, but restarting the MySQL server daemon has cleared it up and now it works in Safari and Chrome for me

http://lisaandroger.com/genealogy/timeline2.php?primaryID=I16&tree=Roger&chartwidth=800

Roger

[PeterC66]

Thanks again Roger. I now see yours working OK in Chrome and Edge as well as in FireFox. And the only error on Inspection is

Quote

.../__history__.html?0 Failed to load resource: the server responded with a status of 404 (Not Found)

Which is the same error mine has.

This is now all consistent with mine. Just to summarise, on my test site the Simile timeline:

• fails to work if I have a Suffusion child theme within any (even a blank) functions.php
• works fine if I do not have functions.php in my child theme

When I have the time I shall investigate further.

Peter

[PeterC66]

Solved it!! Mea culpa. The Chrome console did not show this, but Firefox showed the first error as:

Quote

XML or text declaration not at start of entity ajx_timelinexml.php:2:1

A quick Google search led me to the solution... I had a blank line after the <?php ?> in my child functions.php! 

Lesson learnt. My live site now works properly eg http://www.hcnhistory.org.uk/blank-for-people/timeline2.php?primaryID=I25813&tree=hcn&chartwidth=)

Now I need to put my test site back together properly.

Thanks again, Roger.  I doubt if I could have done it so quickly without this conversation.

Peter

[klooster]

I am glad you found the solution.

As I mentioned in my Trouble shooting section of my WP_TNG integration instruction page:

• PhP coding mistakes: one little wrong character or an empty space can create havoc in a PhP coded website like TNG/Wordpress. One of the most common, and basic, mistakes made when coding in PHP is to either forget or misplace a quote, brace or semi-colon causing a syntax error. If you like to read more, check this article: PHP Mistakes. 

   

[Steve1200]

I too had problems with timeline then I thought I had it working correctly. It turns out my site still had page errors. I checked Roger's and Cee's websites and they have page errors as well:

 

To correct these errors, copy the history.html file from timeline_2.3.0/timeline_ajax/content/ to your TNG folder. Rename the file to __history__.html. The only issue is the timeline history file does not declare the document type or character set which means you can get a warning especially with Firefox. 

Edited December 25, 2018 by Steve1200
Link removed

[stores]

I know this has been talked about a couple times over the past recent years and while my original timeline has always worked, i could never get the Simile timeline to work and while i never look at the timeline myself, that still bugged me... I replaced the said html file with yours and now both the Original and the Simile timeline are working at the same time, after i turned the Simile timeline back on in Admin/Setup/Configuration/Chart Settings... Thank you very much...

[theKiwi]

9 hours ago, Steve1200 said:

I too had problems with timeline then I thought I had it working correctly. It turns out my site still had page errors. I checked Roger's and Cee's websites and they have page errors as well:

To correct these errors, copy the history.html file from timeline_2.3.0/timeline_ajax/content/ to your TNG folder. Rename the file to __history__.html. The only issue is the timeline history file does not declare the document type or character set which means you can get a warning especially with Firefox. Alternately you can download the html file with the declaration from SKDavis and extract the file to your TNG folder.

Thanks - I've added the __history__.html file to my site(s). I still get the errors on the WordPress site from the NextGen gallery, but in plain TNG there are now no error messages - hooray.

Roger

[theKiwi]

On 2/4/2016 at 2:00 AM, klooster said:

No problem here:

Kloosterman Time line

@klooster

Your site is showing a couple of errors due to including http content into https pages

[Warning] [blocked] The page at https://www.kloosterman.be/genealogy/timeline2.php?primaryID=I2162&tree=001&chartwidth= was not allowed to run insecure content from http://www.kloosterman.be/genealogy/css/mytngstyle-wp.css. (timeline2.php, line 13)

[Warning] [blocked] The page at https://www.kloosterman.be/genealogy/timeline2.php?primaryID=I2162&tree=001&chartwidth= was not allowed to run insecure content from http://www.kloosterman.be/genealogy/css/mytngstyle-wp.css. (timeline2.php, line 56)

Roger

[Steve1200]

Finding issues in complicated scripts like timeline can be difficult. In Windows I use a program called FileSeek which works great because it can search for files or locate code within a file. They have a free version but I liked it so well I purchased the Pro Standard version which is $15US. Here is a screen shot of a search for code.

 

[klooster]

Thanks Kiwi for noticing my "http content into https pages" problem

I Installed the "SSL Insecure Content Fixer" Wordpress plugin.

 

 

[tngrlkrz]

I use Everything software for file search and notepad plus plus for searching within files. That combo works well along with Beyondcompare. Will look at File Seek though. This is on PC. 

[Steve1200]

I believe my timeline issue started after a server update because it used to work fine. In any case I made a couple more changes to get rid of the remaining script errors.  I originally created a MOD but after some thought, I did not want to add another MOD. So once everything was working, I created a new timeline folder. This version of timeline corrects the history.html issue and a few lines that try to loads scripts from a non-existent MIT link. 

If you have a blank simile window or script errors, you can download the modified version of timeline here. (Link to Files removed due to updated version)

Edited December 29, 2018 by Steve1200
Added link to timeline 2.3.1 update

[Pops57]

Hi all;

I'm still struggling to get the Simile Timeline to work properly. I've made the changes referenced earlier in this thread, in terms of changes to the history_html file, and by installing the  revised Timeline by SKDavis. I much appreciate all the help.

Here are the errors that are showing on the page. Can anyone help me with these errors, or point me to things to read or learn that might help me?

simile-ajax-bundle.js:1541 TypeError: Cannot read property 'documentElement' of null "XmlHttp: Error handling onReadyStateChange"

 

I have additional errors - similar verbiage - that I did not include, just for brevity. If I can find the error in this one, perhaps it will lead to the solution in the others. Maybe?

 

Thanks for any help or direction.

Mike

[Steve1200]

The revised timeline you mention on SKDavis is for older versions of timeline. The version Darrin distributes with TNG v12.2 works perfectly without any modifications although I did hide the GMT dates. It would be helpful to know which version of TNG you are running and a link to you problem timeline screen.

The error you mentioned is usually in the error handler for new objects when displaying a timeline. If you have modified timeline, it might be better to upload your original files and start from there. A missing colon, comma or quotation mark can wreak havoc and is difficult to find. Additionally any incorrect or missing code in timeline2.php will cause errors and a blank timeline window.

On the other hand it may not be SImile TImeline or TNG at all. If you are using WordPress or have added other scripts that could cause timeline problems as well. Here is a link to a similar issue: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/simile-widgets/eAq6gXhk82U

[Pops57]

Thank you Steve. I just saw your response.

I am running TNG Version 12.2. Here is a link to the timeline screen, showing the Simile Timeline but without any of the links I was expecting to see; meaning the colored dots and the data actually being in the Simile portion. Use guest/guest if required to login.

I did as you suggested and uploaded all the original files from the 12.2 update. I still can't seem to get events to show up (i.e. the colored dots and event links) within the Simile part of the timeline. I am not using Wordpress. I am using a new template - Template 207, that I got from genealogoywebtemplates.com. 

https://ellisofelkpark.com/timeline2.php?primaryID=I379&tree=ellis_Elk_Park&chartwidth=

 

Thank you for your help and let me know if you'd like me to upload any files to review or anything. Still on a learning curve with the coding.

-Mike

[Steve1200]

Simile Timeline is very sensitive to any running scripts. If something is incorrect it may not run even if the script is not directly related to timeline. When I viewed your website the Simile Timeline is not completely blank, it just doesn't contain any data.

Inspecting your timeline page there are some errors directly affecting timeline:

The timeband inner layer should contain content but on your site it does not, as shown below:

So I checked my site (note the presidents in the label lines):

The TNG v12.2 upgrade does not come with timeline.php. You might try downloading the complete version of v12.2. Uninstall any timeline mods and then extract and upload timeline.php and timeline2.php to your website.

If that doesn't work try using one the TNG templates. While I have not used every TNG template, I've tried most of them and know they work with timeline.

If that doesn't fix the issue, try uninstalling all mods. If that fixes the timeline reinstall each mod one by one to determine which one causes the issue.

If none of the above fix your timeline then there is probably corrupted code somewhere on your TNG website. This happened to me when I first started using TNG. I deleted a mod without uninstalling it and then installed a new version of the mod. This little error was a disaster and I was forced to do a complete fresh installation which resolved my self-induced problem.

Hopefully one of these suggestions will help you fix your timeline issue.

[PeterC66]

Hi Mike

A few years ago I managed to get Simile working on my public WP/TNG site (hcnhistory.org.uk), and recently I have managed to do the same on my completely new development site (with Avada theme, TNG 12.2, WP 5.3.2 - currently on my WAMP). I cannot remember exactly what issues I had with it, but I do remember some issues I had specifically with WP affecting TNG.  

Sometimes WP plugins can conflict with TNG (and Simile?). You can find out if they do by temporarily deactivating the plugins. I had several months of debugging before I found a way around, and just in case it is relevant to you, you can see the solution I found at https://www.hcnhistory.org.uk/2014/06/tng-technical-problem-solved/ 

Peter

[Pops57]

Thank you both!

Peter, I'm not using WP so not sure that's my issue.

Steve, your analysis is much appreciated. I had seen those errors but do not know how to specifically address them. Dumb question, but where, or in what file, do I see the code shown in your two screen shots that show I have no events in the timeband inner layer? That seems like a significant hint that no content shows up there for me.

I don't have any timeline mods, nor other mods that affect timeline - as far as I can tell anyway.

I also tried other TNG templates, but got the same result.

But, if running down the lack of events in the code where the timeline band inner layer is (assuming I can do that), then I will uninstall the few mods I do have and try again.

And again - thank you!