Internet Explorer: Operation Aborted, Internet Explorer: Operation Aborted using JS Banner Ads Options

[keanxsoul]

We have been seeing this issue, randomly while using OpenAds 2.4 on Internet Explorer 6 & 7. Is there any bug reported for this issue.

The browser starts loading the page and then just prompts this message and the page just stop loading and a generic connection problem page appears.

As from what I have researched on this issue. This issue is a bug on Internet Explorer 5 + and has not yet been corrected by MS. This does not occur on FireFox. Here is what can cause the issue:

The page is loading. The body has not yet been loaded. A javascript tries to add something to the body:

document.body.appendChild([some dom object])

Here is what Microsoft says about this and some "WORKAROUND" :S
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/927917

Can anyone tell me if this is an actual bug in the OpenAds 2.4 series ?

I also found out this issue on the forum that does seems to be the same problem that i am having

http://forum.openads.org/index.php?showtop...eration+Aborted

[Arlen Coupland]

I'm afraid I haven't actually seen this come up with OA - but I would expect it to if it affects any IE greater than version 5

I would suggest reporting this on developer.openads.org and letting me know the ticket. In the meantime, more information would be good:

What kind of invocation code?

Where/how is this code inserted into your website? Example?

What kind of banner/s are displayed with this invocation code (swf, html, local/external img, etc)

Is the issue fixed if OA banners are removed from a page? Does it happen if you view the OA invocation tags on an HTML page different than your website?

[coke]

just run into this
for me it occurs on ie7 when openads tries to deliver a flash banner using local and javascript
gif ones are ok


may be due to other script or clash ?
as found it only occurs when has a lightbox v2.5 drupal module running
turn this off and its ok

openads runs ok on other part of same site without lightbox module ?

[Arlen Coupland]

Does the page have the error when the lightbox is enabled and OA banners are not present ?

[jimwalczak]

I'm not sure if this is the same problem....

I have an ad - only 1 in campaign - with limited page views over a 2 month period. When the ad doesn't show IE 6 & IE7 shows a broken picture box (NOT full size) where the script is.

It's a iFrame ad - loaded in the as HTML using Java Script Invocation code.

Same issue? Or should I be posting this as a quesrtion elsewhere?

Thanks

[greenhil]

hello,

i am having this issue "ie operation aborted" on all ie 5 - 7 since upgrading to 2.4

i have updated all my invocation codes and currently have isolated the issue
to java script invocation BUT only when it attempts to pull a flash ad.

IE does not have a problem with the js code when pulling animated gif's - just the swf's

i did not have this issue with the 2.0 openads / phpadsnew.

obviously i need to show flash ads as well and they do not get called with the basic img invocation.

please advise if you have any help.

thx
jonathan

[Arlen Coupland]

Would you be able to provide an example of the flash banner please?

[reind]

Would you be able to provide an example of the flash banner please?

I'm having the same problem also on this website, http://www.aboutdj.nl


When serving an flash ad Internet explorer gives an error like -> Internet explorer cannot open the site http://www.aboutdj.nl Operation abborted.

Th strange thing is that firefox, opera and safari don't have any problems viewing the site. It's only with MS Internet Explorer.

This is one of the ads that's giving an error -> http://ads.vout.nl/www/images/banner_mixvibes.swf

[Arlen Coupland]

Hi,
Thanks for the details

Unfotunately I don't seem to see any flash banner on your website - perhaps you have disabled it

I took your example SWF banner and tried using it in many different settings, mainly with Javascript invocation, but I was unable to receive any error in Internet Explorer

I understand there is a problem, I'm just trying to re-create it so that we can find where the problem is.

What version of flash player do you use? Are you able to create a test page on your server which shows this flash banner with the error?

[reind]

Hi,
Thanks for the details

Unfotunately I don't seem to see any flash banner on your website - perhaps you have disabled it

I took your example SWF banner and tried using it in many different settings, mainly with Javascript invocation, but I was unable to receive any error in Internet Explorer

I understand there is a problem, I'm just trying to re-create it so that we can find where the problem is.

What version of flash player do you use? Are you able to create a test page on your server which shows this flash banner with the error?

I'll see what i can do tonight. I also mentioned something else, when i'm using the banner function of Joomla and copy the invocation in the banner field everything seems to works ok BUT when i put the invocation directly in my source it's going wrong.

And another detail, when using Vista i dont see the error every time (once in 250 page refreshes), but when using XP it seems to be al lot worse.

Pardon my French i'm Dutch

[reind]

Arlen i have send you an PM with login details so you can test the bug realtime on my website.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Edit: I think i have found the problem... it's mootols. I just downloaded Virtual PC and an VPC image from microsoft so i could test it with IE6.

And i know what the problem is, it's mootools that causes the error. When disabling mootools everything works fine and the banner doesn't give an error BUT when i enable mootools and an flash banner pops up it's going wrong and IE6 gives the message that the website could not be opened.

So the problem is mootools, so who knows the solution
When using litebox OR lightbox (the heavy weight variant) the problem does not appear. And it's defenitly an IE error and has something to do with the DOM and adding while it's loading.

The fnny thing is that whn i use my invocation code from an dutch ad seller the error doesn't show up. So there has to be an way to fix this.

Disabling mootols forever isn't an option because i use it for my menu (not the menu on my site at this moment) and slimbox (image viewer) and it will be standard in Joomla 1.5. So if anyone has an solution for this that would be great.

[reind]

And i found the solution. I'm using the mootools library for transition effects on my website and found where the problem exactly is.

I'm using slimbox for my imags and at the end of the script you'll find this line,

CODE

window.addEvent('domready', Lightbox.init.bind(Lightbox));

That causes the dom error because the openads tries to ad stuff while it's still loading so it causes an error. This isn't realy an openads error but an bug in IE (all versions)

How to solve it, well i solved my problem with slimbox to change the code i posted before by changing it to,

CODE

var load_method = (window.ie ? 'load' : 'domready');
window.addEvent(load_method, Lightbox.init.bind(Lightbox));

So maybe it's an idea to correct the fl.js (i think that's the one that also uses the first posted piece of code) with the workaround for IE?

[Arlen Coupland]

Hello,

In an upcoming release we will have updated the Flash script used for displaying flash objects.

2.4.5 is currently going through QA/testing. When it is released, please let us know if this does or does not fix it for you.

If you would like to test a change *before* the official release, you could do the following customization:

You need to replace the contents of the openx/www/delivery/fl.js file with the following:
http://blog.deconcept.com/swfobject/swfobject_source.js

Make a backup copy of your current fl.js. Replace it with the contents from that link -- it is the most recent version of the 'swfObject' code used for delivering flash objects.

[kirblam]

Hi Arlen,

Just wanted t put in that my experience with http://blog.deconcept.com/swfobject/swfobject_source.js
is that it isn't stopping the Abort error.

At least not on my site. When I find a solution, I'll post.

Thanks for the lead though.

K

[kirblam]

The good news is that I found a fix which I believe would apply to any site experiencing this issue. The bad news is that it involves a hack to both fl.js and alocal.php.

I troubleshot the issue by saving a static copy of my page and trying a lot of different techniques for placement of the javascript. The only luck I had in avoiding the 'abort' bug was when I took fo.write out of the immediate ad block and place it almost at the very bottom of the html body. There's a couple issues with implementing this in openx.

1. that 'fo' would have to be dynamically named if there's more than one ad block on the page.
2. in my case, and I suspect many cases, openads isn't so integrated with the page that it could generate a block completely separate from the ad block

BTW, I tried creating a javascript function that could be called by the ad block and feed it the div id to perform the innerhtml/fo.write function. Still blows up with the abort error.

So from what I could see, there is/was no way to perform the innerhtml call from within the ad block. But then, the issue is that seemingly I don't see a way to make this call outside the adblock - at least not from a position that worke on my pages. There would have to be tighter integration with openads and whatever script/cms/whatever is generating the page.

So basically I bailed on innerHTML.
This line:

CODE

n.innerHTML = this.getSWFHTML();

...in fl.js, became:

CODE

document.write(this.getSWFHTML());

Which had no issues except it was slightly off in placement because you're writing directly to the DOM/page instead of targeting the correct div to alter.

So in alocal.php:

CODE

$code = "
<div id='m3_$rnd' style='display: inline;'>$altImageAdCode</div>
&lt;script type='text/javascript'>
<!--/"."/ <![CDATA[
var fo = new FlashObject('$fileUrl', 'mymovie', '$width', '$height', '$pluginVersion');";
if (!empty($aBanner['transparent'])) {
$code .= "
fo.addParam('wmode','transparent');";
}
$code .= "
fo.write('m3_$rnd');
/"."/ ]]> -->
</script>";

becomes:

CODE

$code = "
<div id='m3_$rnd' style='display: inline;'>&lt;script type='text/javascript'>
<!--/"."/ <![CDATA[
var fo = new FlashObject('$fileUrl', 'mymovie', '$width', '$height', '$pluginVersion');";
if (!empty($aBanner['transparent'])) {
$code .= "
fo.addParam('wmode','transparent');";
}
$code .= "
fo.write('m3_$rnd');
/"."/ ]]> -->
</script>
$altImageAdCode</div>
";

I moved the script block within the ad div and just before $altImageAdCode.

I don't know how you're going to to be able to keep the innerhtml call. I've seen examples where people have changed their DHTML/ajax code in their page and gotten around it but architecturally that innerhtml call is a problem if you can't move it from a nested div. That's explicitly described in the Microsoft support page. Ideally I think that fl.js should have a function that returns the html rather than decide how it gets printed to the page. That way, you could do an innerhtml set, document.write or probably some other javascript strategy to output the html.