Problem: when a site is not available ...

Any feedback, suggestion, bug reports, problems....
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methuzla
Posts: 5
Joined: Mon Mar 19, 2012 8:52 pm

Problem: when a site is not available ...

Post by methuzla » Tue Mar 20, 2012 12:25 am

When a website is down (say), the "flag" shows as a []⊕ (I don't know what that is called, it's the same as one sees on a blank new tab - maybe for surrendering?).

Right-clic on this []⊕ site-not-there rag, and one sees the usual list, but everything is greyed (& unavailable), except for "My Info" and "Page Metadata".
(The same greying-out if the browser is still waiting, even if I stop the seek before time-out.)

Now, when you go for such a website that seems down, you might well want to check "is it down?",
.. . or "Internet Archive", or "Google cache"
... ... . . or "trace_route"
. . ... .... or "ping" or "copy IP" (if IP is found, but not responding)
.. ... or "whois" or "Alexa"
or even "site advisor" ...
... all manner of things you can't check, because they've been grreyed out.

Strikes me as a little silly, that does.

There's even a few that might be useful in a new empty tab, like "Your current IP", or, say, "speedtest.net" et al.

The funny thing is, that if one is patient enough to wait for a time-out, all options become available again.
I'm not patient.

If one gets a 404, 旗狐 returns a !⃝ red circle shriek "flag", with all options available, which is what I think ought to happen in "wait" state (depending on DNS availability).


PS more thoughts (should I post separately?):
1) . I've never liked the slightly twee "My info" label. Reminds me of M*cros**tâ„¢ . I think you mean to say, "Your IP info".
2) . "Page Metadata" is very disappointing. All I see is the page title, which isn't even copied to clipstore.
. . . I always hanker for an accurate page composition date, something that seems impossible because of caching sodding it up. It always seems to be today. :doh:
. . . But there is much more metadata to be had (some of it even accurate & useful), which could be presented to the clipstore for saving.
3) . When a site is misleading about its location, I'd like a stronger indication that I don't have to actually rt-clic query.
. . . A strike-through or red surround on the flag, maybe. Something obvious. Maybe moving, even.
4) . I want a ⚐ ☠ skull~and~crossbones pirate flag ! Not sure what for, I just want one. :lol:

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DaveG
Flagfox Developer
Posts: 723
Joined: Wed Oct 03, 2007 9:06 pm
Location: Philadelphia, USA

Re: Problem: when a site is not available ...

Post by DaveG » Tue Mar 20, 2012 6:06 pm

whereisit wrote:When a website is down (say), the "flag" shows as a []⊕
The icon you're describing is a white page icon with a plus; it's the new/blank tab icon. Yeah, I picked it out of the icon set I'm using and I can see now how it would easily be not recognized. I didn't see anything better though.
whereisit wrote:Right-clic on this []⊕ site-not-there rag, and one sees the usual list, but everything is greyed (& unavailable), except for "My Info" and "Page Metadata".
Basically, Flagfox goes off of what URL Firefox is currently at, and Firefox technically is still at the last page it was at until the next one loads. If you start from a blank page, or go to one in between pages (which sometimes happens) then until you load the next page you're still at the blank one. As a result, Flagfox doesn't know about anything else yet.

Yes, this has always bugged me a little bit, but last time I looked into it there wasn't a simple way around this. It's still on my todo list to investigate more thoroughly.
whereisit wrote:The funny thing is, that if one is patient enough to wait for a time-out, all options become available again.
I'm not patient.
How long are you having to wait for a timeout? Do you have an example URL?
whereisit wrote:If one gets a 404, 旗狐 returns a !⃝ red circle shriek "flag", with all options available, which is what I think ought to happen in "wait" state (depending on DNS availability).
No, the error icon should only come up once there's actually an error, not just a slow connection.
whereisit wrote:1) . I've never liked the slightly twee "My info" label. Reminds me of M*cros**tâ„¢ . I think you mean to say, "Your IP info".
It also has your location on a map, so it's more than just a self IP lookup. Also, "your" implies someone else's; "my" implies it's for the user. It's fine, MS flashbacks aside...
whereisit wrote:2) . "Page Metadata" is very disappointing. All I see is the page title, which isn't even copied to clipstore.
That action shows a lot more when the page has meta tags in it, which is what it's mostly for. It isn't copied to the clipboard automatically because on Windows, which most people sadly are on, you don't have any built in clipboard history. If it were automatically copied it could easily overwrite something else they were doing. The action could be copied and modified to do this, though.
whereisit wrote:3) . When a site is misleading about its location, I'd like a stronger indication that I don't have to actually rt-clic query.
There's no way for a site to be misleading about its location. Its IP is looked up in the database and its flag is shown. That's pretty much all there is to it.

Maybe you're referring to the little help notification when the domain name is registered in a different country from where the server is physically located. This isn't anything I'd call "misleading" and it's fairly common.

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