December 10, 2004

11:52 AM

I just finished programming a Flash site for a client. During tests, the client insists that scrollbars sometimes lose their ability to scroll. I can't recreate the error. Furthermore, I'm just using Flash's built-in scrollbar (I didn't alter it). This is the scrollbar component that came with Flash MX (not the MX 2004 TextArea). Has anyone encountered this (bug?) before. The site is here (sorry about the self-link, but I don't know how else to get help on this one). To test the scrollbar, click "Production Designers" and try the various names. NOTE: some names won't have a working scrollbar, because there's not enough text to scroll.
posted by grumblebee to (15 comments total)

Does the client know about the names that don't have enough text to require a scroll?

They're working fine for me. Tested using Flash 6, Mozilla Firefox 1.0, Windows 2000.
posted by knave at 12:04 PM on December 10, 2004

It works fine for me (firefox beta something, winxp). I don't know anything about flash, but two obvious questions:

Does the client know that not all the designer pages have scroll bars?

Does using a wheel mouse wheel still scroll the page when the scroll bar craps out?
posted by Rumple at 12:07 PM on December 10, 2004

Yes, they know about that. I've tried it on about ten different machines and browsers and I can't recreate the bug. I can't find anything about the bug -- if it exists -- on google. But the client INSISTS that this is happening for them. I'm not physically close to them, so I can't ask them to come over and show me. I have asked them to take a screenshot next time that happens. But my guess is that all I'll see is a non-functional scrollbar, which won't help me fix it.
posted by grumblebee at 12:09 PM on December 10, 2004

Works fine in the latest version of Safari, OS X 10.3.6.
posted by anathema at 12:22 PM on December 10, 2004

Is it even necessary to have the scrollbars on the pages that don't need it? On the pages that are too short to scroll, the bars still appear, they're just inactive. Might be best to just not have the bars there at all in this case.
posted by neckro23 at 12:51 PM on December 10, 2004

works for me on firefox
posted by Outlawyr at 12:53 PM on December 10, 2004

I think your client has maybe seen them on the pages where they are not needed. I would remove them from those pages and say you think you *fixed* it.
:-)
posted by xammerboy at 12:54 PM on December 10, 2004

I agree with you neckro. I'll implement that in the next version, but for now I just need to get to the bottom of the "bug." Thanks for all the tests folks! If nothing else, they may help me convince the client that it's not a real -- or serious -- problem.
posted by grumblebee at 12:54 PM on December 10, 2004

Here's what I would do:

1. Make sure you're testing in the same OS with the exact same version of Flash.


2. Ask them to specify exactly which "pages" aren't scrolling.


3. Are they grabbing the scroll bar and dragging, or just using a mouse wheel?


4. Does it happen when they first visit a page, or only after they've clicked around?

I'm noticing that if I haven't brought the text area into focus, my mouse wheel doesn't scroll the text. I have to click the area into focus first. But otherwise it's working fine for me (Win2K; IE6.0.2; Flash player 7.0.19)
posted by jpoulos at 1:45 PM on December 10, 2004

Works fine here, too. (Firefox 1.0, Windows XP, Latest Flash plugin). Maybe they need to update their flash player?
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 1:46 PM on December 10, 2004

You can ask them to install VNC (they'll need to install the server, you'll need the client). That will let you use their computer remotely - see what they see, manipulate the UI etc. It'll be painfully slow, but I've used that to debug software on client machines in Germany (from Boston).
posted by lbergstr at 2:13 PM on December 10, 2004

on preview, what jpoulos said about mousewheel.
posted by juv3nal at 3:10 PM on December 10, 2004

Jpoulos may have it. On Mac 10.3 with Safari, the text won't scroll with the mousewheel even if I click to focus on it. I have to drag the scrollbars.

(p.s. On skimming the content of one page, the names Stuart Copeland and Geoff Beck caught my eye as misspelled first names.)
posted by planetkyoto at 3:21 PM on December 10, 2004

Make sure they have the newest edition of Flashplayer, I had a similar problem with a client who had an old version.
posted by banished at 4:36 PM on December 10, 2004

Seems to be working fine for me. Flash 7,0,19,0 on Opera 7.23 on XP Pro.
posted by gd779 at 5:50 PM on December 10, 2004