(150) Blank Lines of Code in Source

[diecastfast]

Every single page on my site has exactly (150) blank lines of code in the Source. I've spent an hour reading related threads to no avail. Any help?

http://www.diecastfast.com

[Rick Wilson]

Re: (150) Blank Lines of Code in Source

What engine version are you on and what version of the software? If you're on a recent engine and fully up to date, then it's a third party module causing it. The only way to track it down is to deactivate one by one until you catch it.

[diecastfast]

Re: (150) Blank Lines of Code in Source

Production Release 7 Update 10
Miva Merchant Engine v5.13

I guess my question about deactivating modules is "How does that fix the problem since you have to re-activate it to use it?" LOL Or is that for the purpose of isolating it to a specific module and then asking the developer for help?

[diecastfast]

Re: (150) Blank Lines of Code in Source

Rick, I'm very hesitant to upgrade the software at this time of year out of fear of module incompatibility. Do you recommend that I go ahead and do that?

[Bruce - PhosphorMedia]

Re: (150) Blank Lines of Code in Source

*I* recommend that you ignore it for now...doesn't really do anything but annoy you. Search engines and browsers could care less about white space.

[diecastfast]

Re: (150) Blank Lines of Code in Source

I'll sit tight for now, Bruce. As long as Google isn't complaining, what difference does it make? I was under the impression it was a problem.

[Bruce - PhosphorMedia]

Re: (150) Blank Lines of Code in Source

Its probably from some comment an "SEO Expert" made. (SEO Experts being like political pundits...who are the only things lower than the politicians themselves.) Search engines ignore white space...cause there is no reason for not to.

[Rick Wilson]

Re: (150) Blank Lines of Code in Source

I agree with Bruce on this. I do think keeping all of your software and modules up to date is very important but not urgent. And a month or three won't make a big deal in most cases.

Also you're right about why to figure it out, then you can go talk to the module developer for assistance.

I think your current Miva Merchant doesn't have that problem, so you could just start checking modules if you're bored

[wcw]

Re: (150) Blank Lines of Code in Source

If you decide to track down 3rd party modules to see which need updating, do not unassign from the menus or you will loose all your data. To deactivate, you go to admin > modules and search for the module on the right screen. Click the edit. Uncheck Active. Click Update. You will want to do that with two window (one with admin and the other with merchant) so that you can do it quickly. Deactivating a module means it has no affect in merchant, i.e. whatever it was supposed to do is now not being done. You want to inactivate, test, reactivate very quickly.

[diecastfast]

Re: (150) Blank Lines of Code in Source

Thanks for the info, guys. It is much appreciated.

Since I started doing this in 1999, SEO has stayed the same for me: It's 49% Content, 49% relevant inbound links, and 2% hocus-pocus from Matt Cutts that means nothing to me. Been #1 on Google the whole damned time.

Rick, unless there are major security enhancements I guess I'll just sit tight for now.

Thanks again for the help.

[kwgarrett]

Re: (150) Blank Lines of Code in Source

I've been haunted by this blank line problem for years and I want to fix it. Yes, I know the search engines ignore it, but I can't.

I created a blank test Page template with zero items assigned and nothing in the template itself, and I still get 69 blank lines in the output -- same as my other pages. I figured if a module's items aren't active on a page template, then why would it output to the page? But there are the lines.

Seriously, has no one found a fix for this? Supposedly there is a "culprit" module (or more), but someone will have to explain to me why a page template with no items assigned and no content has 69 blank lines.

My Miva Merchant software is up to date.

Kevin Garrett

[kwgarrett]

Re: (150) Blank Lines of Code in Source

Update: Deactivating modules, I got the blank test page down to 9 blank lines (from 69). I think it was turning off the body tag module that did it (I do not use that item). Turning it back on did not make the lines come back though.

Unfortunately, other pages with content still have lots of blank lines. My OSEL page has 109 blank lines.

Kevin Garrett

[alphabet]

Re: (150) Blank Lines of Code in Source

Hey Kevin,
I'm having the same issue. I also checked the MivaMerchant store and they're having the same issue too. I looked at other known merchant stores and some don't have the problem. Strange.

I noticed the problem start on Friday because of an AJAX failure. I don't think it is a third party module issue because I too have a page template with no modules assigned but get the white space.

I am getting four lines of white space on the top of every page. I have toggled different modules but cannot track down the culprit. I removed all white space from my html profile tag (it was never a problem I just wanted to be sure).

When I use the tag <mvt:miva output="on" compresswhitespace="off" /> I get more white space. When I use <mvt:miva output="on" compresswhitespace="on" /> I get less white space, but still four blank lines at the top.

The white space causes issues if I am making an AJAX request to a page template.

On the AJAX page template I have no items assigned and it still outputs four lines of whitespace. When I enable the toolkit to output headers the AJAX page template fails.

[Bruce - PhosphorMedia]

Re: (150) Blank Lines of Code in Source

The following is not meant to be technical description, just a general landscape of module/merchant interaction:

Modules, both third party and standard, come in several different flavors. Each flavor interacts with the Merchant system in different ways.

Modules that have 'items' associated with them are component modules. These can interact with the system either through an item on the page or just being selected as active.

System modules can interact with pages without being assigned as they have three functions that are called for every page.

Logging module are called for each page request as well (but they are called last, so they probably wouldn't dumb blank lines to the front of the page.

Fulfillment, payment, tax etc also have specific actions outside of being "called" specifically into a page. The only module that doesn't do a damn thing unless you tell it is a utility module.

Also, modules can now be several modules at once. I.e., utility, system AND component.

[kwgarrett]

Re: (150) Blank Lines of Code in Source

Bruce,

Thanks for posting. That's valuable information. The sort of information that is missing any kind of official representation (as far as I know) in Miva documentation. I have been frustrated for years by the lack of documentation for store developers. This forum seems to be the only place to get that info, and people like you must answer the same questions over and over. Perhaps a store developers FAQ or an eBook or something could be put together?

Kevin