Missing Comments or Wrong Comments Count on Blogger

This week many bloggers are reporting issues with the comments on their Blogger blogs. I faced this problem too on some of my blogs. The issues are:

• Missing comments: Some or all of the comments on blogs are missing. For example, on one of my posts, I had 15 odd comments of which 5 were my own comments, made in response to visitor comments. I could only see my own comments. All the visitor comments were missing. It made quite a funny read :)
• Comment count is incorrect

If you are facing similar problems on your blog, there's an official thread for this issue on Blogger Help forum that you can post your issue on. Here's the link:

Missing Comments and/or Comment Count Wrong

It's a Blogger issue and there's nothing you have done to cause it, or can do to fix it. You've just got to wait. In my case, the issue seems to have resolved automatically. But, I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

Blogger Error: Page Not Found ps/rpc_relay.html

Problem Statement

Google Webmasters Tools was reporting a crawl error on multiple pages of some of my blogs. The error message was:

Page not found http://page_url/ps/rpc_relay.html

Some other folks who encountered this error on their blogs saw a drop in their blog traffic too. However, in my case, there was no noticeable drop in traffic.

Root Cause

In order to identify the root cause, I looked for any reference to ps/rpc_relay.html on my blog. I looked into the template source code, but it was clean. Then I looked at the page source and did find the reference there. Looking at the source, it was clear that the problem was associated to the Follower widget.

To confirm my suspicion, I removed the Follower widget and as expected, the reference to ps/rpc_relay.html disappeared from the page source.

Solution

In order to fix the issue and also retain the Follower widget, I replaced the Follower widget with Google Friend Connect. Basically, both are same. The only difference being that the former comes as a standard widget from Blogger and the latter as html code that needs to be added to a HTML widget on the blog. Here are the detailed steps:

1. Remove the Follower widget.
2. Go to Google Friend Connect (GFC) and login with your Google account (the same account used for Blogger).
3. Click on your blog name (in the list of blogs) in the left hand navigation panel -> Overview -> Add the members gadget.
4. If you want, configure the member's gadget to match the color scheme of your blog.
5. Grab the widget code.
6. Come back to your blog and add an HTML widget. It can be in the same section where the Follower gadget used to reside.
7. Paste the HTML code from GFC into the HTML widget and save it.

After replacing the Follower widget with GFC, the reference to ps/rpc_relay.html was gone from the page source (except for one reference which was a comment).

Two or three days after making the change, the error was gone from Google Webmasters Tool. The blog was clean again.

The solution worked for me and I hope it works for you as well. Good luck !

Blogger Javascript Error "Permission Denied" in IE6

Problem Statement

I get a Javascript error (Line: 619 Char: 122 Error: Permission Denied) when my blog is loaded in Internet Explorer 6 (IE6) and the Google Friend Connect or the Follower widget doesn't load. Refer to the screenshot of the error below. The blog loads fine in Firefox 3.5 and Google Chrome 4.x.



Root Cause

The root cause is the conflict between the Poll widget and Google Friend Connect (GFC) or the Follower widget. If the page layout is such that the Poll widget loads first, I get the error. If GFC loads first, then there's no error.

Solution

I don't have a fix that addresses the root cause, but here are a few options that you could try:

• Change the page layout such that GFC (or the Follower widget) loads before the Poll widget.
• Remove the Poll Widget as a "widget" and embed it inside a blog post. This is the option that I've chosen. On the top menu, I've added a link to the Poll page. Obviously, this defeats the purpose of running a poll, but if your page layout cannot be changed due to some reason, then this is the next best option.
• The obvious option is to get rid of either GFC or the Poll widget.

I posted this issue on the official GFC forum, but unfortunately, there's hardly any help available there.

If I find a better fix, I'll post an update here, and if you know of a proper fix to address the root cause, do let me know.

Blogger Javascript Error Char 21131 IE6

Problem Statement

Recently I had been getting a Javascript error ( Line 3 Char 21131 Expected ')' ) on my blog, when viewed in Internet Explorer 6 (IE6). There was no problem with the blog when viewed using Firefox 3.5 or Google Chrome 4.x. Refer to the screenshot of the error message.



Despite the error, everything on the blog including the AddThis widget, works fine.

Root Cause

After spending a lot of time investigating into the issue, I figured out that the problem was due to the AddThis (Bookmark and Share) widget.

Solution

So far, the only solution I know is to get rid of the widget. You can use a similar widget from some other provider.

If you know of a proper fix, do let me know.

Blogger error bX-q957zg while updating Blog Posts Section

Problem Statement

When I try to edit the Blog Posts section on the blog layout page (Layout->Blog Posts Section->Edit), I get the following error:

===========================================

We're sorry, but we were unable to complete your request.
When reporting this error to Blogger Support or on the Blogger Help Group, please:

Describe what you were doing when you got this error.Provide the following error code and additional information.
bX-q957zg
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
blogID: 9179404155XXXXXXXX
host: www.blogger.com
uri: /rearrange
This information will help us to track down your specific problem and fix it! We apologize for the inconvenience.

===========================================

It prevents me from making configuration changes such as number of blog posts to display on the main page, date format, Adsense settings etc.

Root Cause

In my case, I found that the root cause was the way I had defined the font and color settings in the header of my custom template. Refer to the text in red below:

<Variable name="t2HeaderBgColor" description="Theme 2 Header Background Color" type="color" default="#885" value="#4b3c37">
<Variable name="t2HeaderColor" description="Theme 2 Header Color" type="color" default="#885" value="#FFFFFF">

<Variable name="t2SecHeaderBgColor" description="Theme 2 Sec Header Background Color" type="color" default="#885" value="#cde196">
<Variable name="t2SecHeaderColor" description="Theme 2 Secondary Header Color" type="color" default="#885" value="$t2HeaderBgColor">

I was referring to a previously defined font using $variableName syntax. Though I get the correct results with this notation, blogger apparently doesn't like it. This is the root cause of the problem.

Solution

Simply replace $variableName with the actual color code and the problem disappears !

<Variable name="t2SecHeaderColor" description="Theme 2 Secondary Header Color" type="color" default="#885" value="#4b3c37">

Note that the root cause and the solution was applicable in my case, but may not necessarily be applicable to yours. If this solution doesn't fix your problem, I suggest you look around for other similar problems in the font definition section of your template.

Good luck !

Display Adsense Ad on the Latest Post Only

I have browsed tens of websites that provide hacks to display Google Adsense ads in the post body. There are several drawbacks with these hacks. Just to name a couple:

1. As you might already know, you can display a maximum of 3 Adsense ad units on a page. The ads are displayed in the first 3 posts on the main page. That means that you cannot have ads in the side bars (unless sidebars are rendered first in your template).


2. If you do put ad units in the side bars, then on the main blog page, the sections of the side bar containing the ad units display as empty blocks, which looks awkward.

Then there are hacks which take this to the next level. They will make an ad unit display only on the item page. This way, you still have 2 more ad units at your disposal that can be added to the side bars, or any other section of your blog. However, the problem is that the ad units are not shown inside the posts on the main page. This way, you waste one ad unit on the main page, which is probably your no. 1 landing page.

I really wanted a better solution. The ideal solution I had in mind was:

1. On the main page, only the latest (top most) post should contain the ad unit. Same goes for the archive page.


2. On the item page, the ad unit should be displayed inside the post.

With this arrangement, I'll always have the top most post on any page (main, item or archive) contain an ad unit. And I'll always have 2 other ad units at my disposal.

Now coming to the point - how do I get such an arrangement? I spent a lot of time searching on the web trying to accomplish this. I left comments on popular blog posts on this subject, sent emails to blog authors, but all in vain. So, I decided to figure out a solution on my own, and that's exactly what I did.

How to Add a Sub-domain to a Custom Domain

If you own a custom domain such as www.mydomain.com, and you want to host a separate blog or website under a sub-domain (for example, blog2.mydomain.com), you need to create a new CNAME record with your domain host such as Godaddy or enom.

Follow the steps mentioned below to create a new CNAME record to a custom domain registered with enom.

1. Login into your enom account and go to the domain setting page. If you have registered your custom domain through Google, you can follow these steps.


2. You should see a screen similar to the following:
   
   


3. Click on the 'Edit' button under the 'Host Records' section.


4. Click 'Add New'.


5. Add the sub-domain name, for example, 'blog2' under the 'Host Name' field.


6. Add ghs.google.com. under 'Address' field.


7. Select CNAME (Alias) under 'Record Type' field.


8. Click 'Save'.

That's all. Your new CNAME record has been created and so is your new sub-domain.

How to access ENOM Domain Settings with Google Apps

If you have signed up for a custom domain through Google, and wondering how to access the Enom domain management services, here's a quick step by step guide to help you.

1. Go to the URL https://www.google.com/a/cpanel/yourdomain.com/DomainSettingsAdvancedDns
   
   (replace yourdomain.com with the name of your custom domain). The domain may not necessarily be .com in your case. It could be .org, .net etc. It will ask you to login into your Google Apps account, if you are not already logged in.


2. This page will give you the following information: To change Advanced DNS settings, sign in to your DNS console with the following information : Domain : <yourdomain.com> Password : <enom_account_password> enom customer service email : GoogleClients@enom.com It will have a link "Sign in to DNS console", which will take you to your domain management page on enom. You'll need this Domain name and password to login to your enom account.


3. On the enom domain management page, use the domain name and password (mentioned on the Google Apps page to login to your enom account).

If you have followed all the steps, you should be able to login to your domain settings page on enom.

Blog Fixer's Personal Diary

This blog is my personal diary for blogger related hacks, issues, fixes, notes and everything blogger.