[Forum] CSS Stylesheets sometimes don't load

[fishlore]

There are times when the stylesheets just won't load and the forum appears to be blank. It happens sporadically, at different times in the day and about once a week or so. It sounds like the exact same issue as mentioned here (

https://www.vbulletin.com/forum/show...d-all-the-time)

. Running version 4.1.12. It seems to happen about once a week where the forum will just not load - I get a blank screen. I go into the templates and resave the headinclude template and all is fixed. I've tried all of the recommendations in the linked thread and still have not been able to isolate the exact cause. It doesn't seem to happen at the same time either... was thinking it may be a cron job causing issues.

Tried disabling plugins and it still wouldn't load until I resaved the headinclude template.

I have the option checked to store the css in the file system.

Any ideas on where to look next?

Link: http://www.fishlore.com/fishforum/

[Maurd]

Is the page completely blank (no text, nothing at all) or do you get the page minus any formatting?

Looking at your page source, it looks like it's running through some sort of compressor/minimizer. Can you turn that off?

[fishlore]

Sometimes it's completely blank, other times the styles are just totally out of whack. Looks almost like a mobile version is loaded. The compressed code is vbseo's tool to remove white space and cleanup html code.

[Maurd]

If it is completely blank, it has nothing to do with your CSS.

This is what it would look like if your CSS failed to load:


I understand what the compression is, but with third-party products enabled you can't be sure it's a vBulletin issue. It is my understanding that just disabling the product is not enough for vBSEO, though I can be wrong since I do not use it.

[TheLastSuperman]

Sometimes it's completely blank, other times the styles are just totally out of whack. Looks almost like a mobile version is loaded. The compressed code is vbseo's tool to remove white space and cleanup html code.

Disable anything related to VBSEO and white space removal etc to see if that sorts it.

[fishlore]

Yep, it's looked just like your screenshot a time or two....

Question - why would re-saving the headinclude fix the issue? What exactly happens to cause the saving of the headinclude to fix the issue I wonder?

Also, thanks for the help Maurd - I appreciate it.

[fishlore]

Thanks LastSuperman - will do. I'll keep the vbseo html code cleanup turned off.

[fishlore]

This just happened again. The forum loaded a blank screen. I completely disabled the vbseo plugin and it was still broken, wouldn't load the forum correctly. So, I don't think this has anything to do with vbseo.

I looked at the page source and it looked ok so I went into the templates table and the headinclude template was different... I copied all the data and attached the broken and fixed versions (just had to resave the headinclude template to fix the issue).

I also see a couple of templates with styleid of -20 and -2 with a username of "freddie". I don't know who freddie is. In looking at the templates assigned to the username freddie I see the same strange code at the bottom of the template that is in the attached broken template that loads when the forum breaks. Look at the "$final_rendered .=". Is it ok to delete these templates assigned to the user freddie?

Any other ideas on what's causing this?

fields-template-broken.txt
fields-template-fixed.txt

[ZeroHour]

Can you tell us a bit more about your server? Aka nginx/apache/xcache etc
Does restarting the web server service fix it?

[Ramsesx]

Maybe a browser cache issue or something like that? Have you experienced this on different browsers? Have users complained about it?

[fishlore]

Apache server.

• Intel Xeon 3470+ (Quad Core)
• 8 GB DDR3 Memory

I have tried restarting sql and then rebooted the server and it did not fix the issue.

The issue appears to be that the default style is being overwritten with one of those older templates (styleid -20,-10,-2, etc) in some process that I don't know of...

- - - Updated - - -

Maybe a browser cache issue or something like that? Have you experienced this on different browsers? Have users complained about it?

Not a cache issue and yes, users have complained. They actually send me emails when it happens.

[Wayne Luke]

This just happened again. The forum loaded a blank screen. I completely disabled the vbseo plugin and it was still broken, wouldn't load the forum correctly. So, I don't think this has anything to do with vbseo.

A blank screen usually means a PHP error. It has nothing to do with the loading of CSS. Errors involving CSS not loading would still load the content.

I looked at the page source and it looked ok so I went into the templates table and the headinclude template was different... I copied all the data and attached the broken and fixed versions (just had to resave the headinclude template to fix the issue).

Sounds like you're having problems with database caching or someone is modifying your templates directly. This field is not exposed in the software and the broken is probably generating the PHP error.

I also see a couple of templates with styleid of -20 and -2 with a username of "freddie". I don't know who freddie is. In looking at the templates assigned to the username freddie I see the same strange code at the bottom of the template that is in the attached broken template that loads when the forum breaks. Look at the "$final_rendered .=". Is it ok to delete these templates assigned to the user freddie?

This is your Master Mobile Style. Freddie is a senior developer with vBulletin and has been working on the software for over a decade. Deleting the templates will destroy functionality in your software.

Any other ideas on what's causing this?

Off the top of my head, your server is compromised.

[fishlore]

When the forum broke today it still loaded the content but the page in the browser appeared blank. I right clicked and viewed source and attached the source as a text file to this post.

[Trevor Hannant]

Did you try navigating to the file that the CSS is being served from? Was it accessible in your browser or blocked for some reason?

[Muhammad]

I have the EXACT same issue. Haven't figured it out as of yet. The CSS errors out... and re-saving headinclude fixes it. Makes no sense.