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Friends & Invitations (!) Panel On Webpages Not Always Working

• Faterson 2,902 Posts

  Tue, Aug 25 2009 3:33 AM

  The issue reported by Dharrison returned. This time, though, it was not disappearing of its own for a few days in my account. For the last 3 days or so, my list of Friends in the lef-hand panel of all webpages had been empty. (I currently have 135 friends.) Tested in Chrome, Opera, Firefox and Internet Explorer. Restarting the browsers, logging off and on multiple times did not resolve the issue.

  The issue was only resolved by launching the game window. In the game window, the Friends list displayed correctly. What is more, I found 3 unanswered invitations waiting there for me, although I had previously visited the forum webpages a number of times in the last 3 days. (I just didn't have the time to play.) So, the webpages failed to notify me of those invitations. (Having the option to receive an email whenever someone invites you for a game or requests friendship would be nice, too. Facebook and last.fm do this, for example.)

  After opening & closing the game window (even without launching a round), the Friends & Invitations panel on the webpages recovered, too, displaying both lists properly now.

• marioh 1,055 Posts

  Tue, Aug 25 2009 4:12 AM

  Unless they recently fixed it, it sounds like a problem on your end.

  It works for me and judging by the forums, just about everyone else too.

• Faterson 2,902 Posts

  Tue, Aug 25 2009 4:18 AM

  It works for me, now, too. But the same thing happened to Dharrison a few days ago, and I thought it could be useful to draw WGT's attention to the fact that the webpages sometimes fail to notify the user of a received invitation, which I think I heard a few other users mention as well (failing to notice a received invitation). That's why sending an email to the user for every invitation might be a useful option.

• marioh 1,055 Posts

  Tue, Aug 25 2009 4:28 AM

  Agree with the email.

  It sounds like a Flash problem, probably the Flash content just not loading properly.   Could be due to running multiple copies of the browser (with Flash content in the originally launched browser).   When it happens, your best bet is to check Task Manager and verify that all your browsers are properly closed (in the Process tab).

   

• Faterson 2,902 Posts

  Tue, Aug 25 2009 4:36 AM

  When testing this, I didn't have multiple browsers open (not verifed via the Process tab). I always closed one browser before launching the other one. (This is even necessary, because you get logged out in both browsers if you access WGT.com in more than 1 browser simultaneously.) The left-hand panel itself was displayed properly, it just said 0 Friends & 0 Invitations for three days, instead of 135 Friends & 3 Invitations.

  In contrast, the Messages notification icon was functioning properly during that time (lighting up in green when there were new messages during the last 3 days, etc.). It's just that the figures related to Friends & Invitations were set to zero until I launched the game window earlier today.   

• marioh 1,055 Posts

  Tue, Aug 25 2009 4:51 AM

  Weird.

  I've seen Flash content hang browsers.   The browser will seem to be closed (not in your task bar or listed in applications in task manager, but it is still running as a process), but it'll be in either a hung state or a state where it takes much longer than normal to properly close out.   When I've seen that happen, Flash content in a newly launched browser will act unpredictably or not at all in some cases.   It reminds me of when a JVM crashes, any Java based applets will cease to function until the browser(s) are fully shut down.

  If you rebooted in that 3 day span and did not visit other websites with Flash content prior to visiting WGT in that login session, then maybe it's a Flash cache issue (which should be fixed by flushing the Flash cache).

   

• Faterson 2,902 Posts

  Tue, Aug 25 2009 5:04 AM

  I haven't rebooted Windows for some time now. I do visit other Flash sites regularly (a Slovak news site I visit daily happens to have Flash content, too). The issue wasn't observed in just one WGT login session, but in a number of sessions throughout the 3 days (I also had to log into each of those 4 different browsers when troubleshooting this).

  You may be right, though: flushing the Flash cache might possibly have resolved the issue, too. I'll try that next time if the bug returns. (Flushing the Flash cache has the disadvantage that it resets some of your game options, such as Rotate Avatars & Friends Sound Alert, and you need to adjust them to your liking manually again.)

• cobra4 359 Posts

  Tue, Aug 25 2009 5:08 AM

  When i recieve a message through the MY MESSAGES inbox it flashes green,but i also get confirmation that i have a message through an e.mail as well.

• Faterson 2,902 Posts

  Tue, Aug 25 2009 5:12 AM

  Yes, emails work fine for private messages & Wall posts. They do not work for invitations, although an invitation is potentially a weightier issue, requiring a more immediate response than a Wall post or private message.    

  (Email notifications currently do not work for the forums, either, unless you happened to start a thread.)

• marioh 1,055 Posts

  Tue, Aug 25 2009 5:43 AM

  It would be nice if WGT remembered your game settings so they don't need to be setup after you flush your Flash cache.  

  Since I turn off the music, it's the first thing I notice when I flush my cache (and a reminder to redo my settings).