Disappearing Graphics

ricklach

I am working on MS XP Pro with Apache/php/mysql. I cannot get my graphic files to render. I have checked the path, permissions and so on and everything seems to be OK. I did run into some interesting behavior.

One of my pages did in fact display the graphics. I checked that page and found that the logo for the top of the page was actually between two style tags. So I copied the style tag to the phpheader file I use and temporarily put it on that page - voila the top graphic rendered in each page - just like it was supposed to. I then did a ctrl-refresh and guess what - the graphic disappeared. Not only did it disappear but it was not visible anymore on the original page where it was working. I tinkered with it but I could not get it to reappear - it was just broken. I have no clue where to even start looking for a fix. You can try these graphic files at www.lacharite.ca/samples and you will find that there are no attributes for the graphic files when you check their properties. This seems to be where the problem lies.

Rick

TheDefender

I get "page not found" error with that link.
I went to http://www.lacharite.ca/images/ and see some image files in there, but your server keeps timing out trying to view or download the images. I can't preview any of them. I did manage to D/L maps.gif, and when I tried to view it locally, the file was empty. Something is happening to your files when you upload them, and your server's timing out thing should be addressed too.

ricklach

I checked the server time out issue and it is set at 300 seconds - which is normal. And the blank files you are seeing are the same ones I see through the web. These files exist and can be edited outside the web but cannot be seen inside the website. That is the crux of the problem. I run several other zope/plone websites and the graphics on them are working fine. In addition, some graphic files can be seen (e.g www.lacharite.ca/temp/green.gif) but the remainder of the files in that directory are not rendered. Is this a size issue? I copied that one file from another directory. How do I address the file upload problem if that is indeed the problem.

TheDefender

Not really sure... You may want to get your webhost involved though...In theory, I should be able to pull up one of those images in the browser and it should be fine since there is no HTML or PHP code around it, but I can't even do that for most of them.

ricklach

I am the web host so I can solve the problem if I can figure out what the problem is?

TheDefender

Have you tried switching to IIS instead of Apache, to see if the problem follows the webserver software? At least that way, you'd know where to look (whether it's more related to the WebServer software, or what have you...

rachel2004

ricklach: in your first post, you mentioned that you found your logo graphic between <style> tags. Can you post more info on what was nested inside of the <style></style> tags? Also when you say you cannot get "graphic files to render," do you mean you cannot display them even with the <img src = " ... "> tags or you cannot create them on the fly (as in a bar graph)? To me it sounds like you you have a directory (or directories) with graphics. If that's the case, are you putting the full path to the image?

TheDefender

Rachel, it is even wierder than that...

Go here: and click on the first image listed... No paths, no mislabeled attributes, no style tags... Just a straight link to an image.

I thought maybe the spaces in the filenames wee screwing things up, but click on larchar2.gif. No spaces in the name, yet it won't display either.

Now, right click on the file and try to save it. It will either timeout, or when it finishes downloading, the file can't be opened locally.

rachel2004

Seems like a problem during the upload process. In which case, code for the upload script should be posted (if he is indeed using a file upload script).

ricklach

It would be incorrect to say that no graphics will render. There are several small gif images in the directory that will render but not the rest of them. Images in <src ...> tags do not render. The behavior is erratic and seemingly impossible to nail down. As for the style tags here is what I had:
div#banner
{
color: #fff;
background-color: #E0E0E0 ;
background-image: url(images/lacharitelogo.gif);
background-repeat: no-repeat;
background-position: left center;
border-bottom: 1px solid #000;
padding: 5.5em 1em 1em 1em;
}
Initially, that graphic (which is the logo for the site) rendered on the page it was on (all other pages get their the same logo from the same code in a <link...> stylesheet. So I took that snippet of code and pasted it directly into my "header.php" file knowing that it would take precidence over the style sheet. Voila, I had the logo on all my pages. Then I did a ctrl-refresh - the graphic disappeared from all pages and would not even work on the original page from which it was taken. It is as if the file had been "overwritten" during the refresh process. I have a file called green.gif at http://www.lacharite.ca/temp/green.gif - it does not exhibit that behavior. However, none of the other files in that directory work.

I tried copying new files into the directory from my backup set but they exhibit the same behavior. Yet these files are viewable from within the OS and can be edited.

ricklach

I am not using an upload script. I directly copy the files from one directory to another. It is my server and I have all privilages.

rachel2004

Can you post the snippet of code from your first post after you had moved the image to your phpheader file. And can you also post the code as it appeared (the one that was originally working) within the style tags.

There doesn't seem to be anything wrong with your stylesheet rules, but you are making a call to a .gif. When I try to view that gif, I get the broken image symbol. So was that gif working when when you first started (when it was still nested in the style tags)?

ricklach

Rachel,
The two code snippets are identical. The one in my stylesheet was copied from the stylesheet and placed on the page that was working (at least temporarily). The gif image in the style tag was initially working until I did a ctrl-refresh and then it stopped working everywhere.

rachel2004

TheDefender alluded to this earlier, but have you tried loading the image on a different web server and see if it is viewable in your browser(s)? You may want to use something free like geocities.com or web space provided by your ISP. Then you can at least rule out that there isn't a problem with the actual graphics.

AstroTeg

Ricklach, right-click and save-as one of your non-working image files.

Then open it up in your favorite image program. Does it open? If no, you have a corrupt image. If yes, then we need to address the web server.

I took a peak at lachar2.gif and it appears to be completely missing image headers. You can verify this by opening the file in a hex editor and view the raw data. Then compare it to a working JPG or GIF file. You'll see this file doesn't have the proper headers. If it was me, I'd just upload a fresh image. If you're using an upload script, then you may have some coding issues in it.

ricklach

Ricklach, right-click and save-as one of your non-working image files.
... When I right-click the graphic on the webpage the save-as is not available as an option (meaning that there is no picture?)

Then open it up in your favorite image program. Does it open? If no, you have a corrupt image. If yes, then we need to address the web server.
... I can open the file directly from its folder and I can edit the file. In win xp it shows the thumbnail and then I can open it with any number of editing programs. I have done this an resaved the picture.

Before going to the web server - why does one image open and not another (see my note above in a previous post)?

ricklach

I just uploaded one of the images from the images directory onto a new site (a zope/lone site) and the graphic image displayed as it should. So the graphic image is OK on another site.

AstroTeg

Originally posted by ricklach
I just uploaded one of the images from the images directory onto a new site (a zope/lone site) and the graphic image displayed as it should. So the graphic image is OK on another site.

Not enough details here...

You uploaded an image to another site. OK. Was the image that was uploaded the same exact image pulled directly from server A (the one with the image problems) to server B (the one that worked)? Or was this an image on your machine (lets say machine C) uploaded to server B? If so, have you repeated the process to server A? When you say "upload", are you using an FTP program or you doing it via HTTP or some other means?

ricklach

Was the image that was uploaded the same exact image pulled directly from server A (the one with the image problems) to server B (the one that worked)?
...The answer to this question is yes. Let me explain. I have several servers running - the problem child is on Apache. The others are behind Apache and are Zope/Plone server/CMS sites - all on the same box. So I logged into one of my Plone sites and uploaded an image (a module within the Zope management interface) from the directory http://www.lacharite.ca/images - the one that is run by the Apache server and the one that we are trying to fix.

Or was this an image on your machine (lets say machine C) uploaded to server B? If so, have you repeated the process to server A? When you say "upload", are you using an FTP program or you doing it via HTTP or some other means?
...For this case I did another test. I took a graphic file from a directory outside the web and FTPed it to the http://www.lacharite.ca/images directory. Then I tried to view it and it did nor display either. So I have tried just about every combination that I can think of. The only thing that stands out is that images of less than 1K can be displayed and anything greater than 1K are not displayed. You can check that out at the url I have noted above.

AstroTeg

You're FTPing in binary mode, right?

Um. Have you tried restarting Apache? Beyond that, I'm out of ideas. You're working with corrupt images and I'd say its at the point the image makes it up to the problem server.