(150) Blank Lines of Code in Source

[kwgarrett]

Re: (150) Blank Lines of Code in Source

This morning I found I was back to 69+ blank lines. I must have hit a caching issue and did not properly determine the module that, when deactivated, reduced the number of blank lines.


A related question: Is it best to have unneeded Page Items unassigned on a page? I would expect that having an Item assigned causes Miva to do some work, even if there is no use of the Item in the page code. Naturally we would want to have the fastest response and use the least amount of resources to render a store page.

Kevin Garrett

[Datagg]

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.

Well said Bruce on all fronts.

[Bruce - PhosphorMedia]

Re: (150) Blank Lines of Code in Source

Understand, but its a numbers game. There are far more "store owners" than store developers so that's previously where the documentation focus has been. That being said, Miva is looking to do far more towards helping "Store Developers" in the future. But even then, its hard to draw the line as to what level to go for. Something like what I mentioned would be great for the "integrator" but would be useless for a system/module developer.

Doing a good job at even a high level store developer guide wouldn't be a quick task, and doubtful one (i.e., third party) could afford to take it on.

But as I said, Miva is addressing this current lapse.

[Bruce - PhosphorMedia]

Re: (150) Blank Lines of Code in Source

Kevin,

Absolutely. However, the processing time is rather minimal...but, everything does count in the end. This goes for modules too. Especially System modules. If they are not being used, De-activate them.

[kwgarrett]

Re: (150) Blank Lines of Code in Source

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.

I've never heard of this tag. I found this was introduced in the "Miva Merchant Empresa 5.18/5.19 Has Been Released" posting. Am I missing something? I hope that I am and can be simply pointed to information-nirvana for store developers. I'm not a module coder. I run a retail online store. I do all my own technical work (that's my background -- not retail sales). When new versions of Miva Merchant software are released, I print out and read the streaming-patch release notes. I download the new PDF of the updated Reference. But this document is not structured to communicate what's new. You have to wade through "How to create a new user," "How to Archive an Order," etc. It's structured for someone new to Miva Merchant who has just opened a store. Thankfully the Appendix has template changes (although the last one was missing two templates that were needed to implement the new email login features).

I guess I'll start printing out each new Reference and work to spot what's changed, but it would be of great help to me (and I assume others) if there was a better way to communicate to store developers the new features, and especially any new SMT tags. And I would expect that it should decrease the amount of questions you guys have to answer. Just a suggestion.

Kevin Garrett

[kwgarrett]

Re: (150) Blank Lines of Code in Source

Bruce,

Thanks for the info on deactivating Page Items and Modules.

Kevin

[Rick Wilson]

Re: (150) Blank Lines of Code in Source

Kevin, you said your store is up to date but what Engine version are you on?

[kwgarrett]

Re: (150) Blank Lines of Code in Source

Miva Merchant 5.5
Production Release 8 Update 12
Miva Merchant Engine v5.19
Database API: mysql

[alphabet]

Re: (150) Blank Lines of Code in Source

Can the white space be from server headers and not a module?

[alphabet]

Re: (150) Blank Lines of Code in Source

The white space is leaking from the .htaccess file.

I removed my root .htaccess file and the white space disappeared. I viewed source in Chrome and FireFox and the whitespace was gone in both browsers. I ran the test twice with same results. (Make sure you first backup your .htaccess file if you run this test. Don't run this test if you don't know how to or the results can be disastrous.)

This issue just started for me on Friday and I am on the new servers.

So I suspect there is a control panel configuration that is interpreting the .htaccess iteration with white space.

[kwgarrett]

Re: (150) Blank Lines of Code in Source

The white space is leaking from the .htaccess file.

Thanks. I'll try that. Good detective work. I think my experiments yesterday point in that direction but the answer had not ocurred to me.

http://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/13402750/temp/miva/blank_lines_problem.png

Big difference whether the user is logged in or not.

Kevin

[kwgarrett]

Re: (150) Blank Lines of Code in Source

I removed all whitespace from my .htaccess file but no change in the number of blank lines in the output. So it may have to do with the directives themselves. Unfortunately, I need a lot of what is there:

Options +Includes
AddType text/html .html
AddHandler server-parsed .html
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{SERVER_PORT} !443
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_METHOD} !POST
RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} Screen=(ACLN|LOGN|ORDL|OINF|ACAD|ACNT|OCST|OSEL|OP AY|POM_main)
RewriteRule ^/?(.*) https://%{SERVER_NAME}%{REQUEST_URI} [R=301,L]

The SSI is for SEO (all pages (including dynamic pages) have a static stub file). The rewrites are for conforming to PCI compliance, forcing https connections for the specified screens. I'll experiment with removing those lines.

Kevin

[kwgarrett]

Re: (150) Blank Lines of Code in Source

After laboriously disabling and enabling modules, I have found the (my) culprit. Netblazon's "Remember Me." Module disabled -- ZERO blank lines prepended.

Thanks for the suggestions and advice.

Kevin Garrett

[alphabet]

Re: (150) Blank Lines of Code in Source

Turns out the white space isn't coming from the .htaccess file.

(When I retested removing the .htaccess file I discovered a static html index file that has no white space. That file was producing the erroneous results.) My bad.

Miva told me to make sure all my modules are up-to-date as that is usually the cause of white space.

Turns out it was Sebenza's Additional Checkout Data Pro. When I de-activate the module, the white space is gone. When I activate the module, the six lines of white space reappear.

Ironically, it was the SS_ACDPRO module update that started outputting the white space. I had to recently update that module for a DB connections issue.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all.

[papi34]

Re: (150) Blank Lines of Code in Source

After laboriously disabling and enabling modules, I have found the (my) culprit. Netblazon's "Remember Me." Module disabled -- ZERO blank lines prepended.

Thanks for the suggestions and advice.

Kevin Garrett

We also use Netblazon's "Remember Me" Module (v5.13). After deactivating the module temporarily, we went from 87 lines of white space to 3 lines of white space. I don't know if this module is still supported by Netblazon. I can't find it listed on their website or mivacentral. Works well for us, other than the white space issue.