Facebook message feature completely blank. Topic is solved

Users and developers helping users with generic and technical Pale Moon issues on all operating systems.

Moderator: trava90

Forum rules
This board is for technical/general usage questions and troubleshooting for the Pale Moon browser only.
Technical issues and questions not related to the Pale Moon browser should be posted in other boards!
Please keep off-topic and general discussion out of this board, thank you!
BenFenner
Astronaut
Astronaut
Posts: 588
Joined: 2015-06-01, 12:52
Location: US Southeast

Facebook message feature completely blank.

Unread post by BenFenner » 2023-03-01, 14:13

Operating system: Windows 7 64-bit and Linux Mint 64-bit
Browser version: Pale Moon 32.0.1 64-bit
Problem: Facebook messages and messenger windows all completely blank.

TL;DR (JavaScript)

Code: Select all

SyntaxError: expected expression, got '='               310:3087
I know I truncated the diagnostic info above. I'm quite sure this is just Facebook's problem and not Pale Moon, so I'm just skipping most of that.

Yes, I'm still using Facebook on Pale Moon even after suffering their awful breakages over a year ago. Things have actually gotten a little better, and the main issue I'm still dealing with is that comment and message prompts still require me to paste text into them first before I can begin typing.

Anyway, about two days ago it looks like messages stopped working. I can't bring up the small message window, nor the messenger page. I get the error listed above.
I'm not really reporting this or looking for help with this, just musing, since this is a JavaScript syntax error I haven't seen mentioned on the forums much, if at all.
Hopefully Facebook will get their act together and fix this. I'll report it to them as usual.


Edit: Oh look, there is some mention of it on the forum: viewtopic.php?f=70&t=29404
Last edited by BenFenner on 2023-03-01, 14:42, edited 1 time in total.

User avatar
jobbautista9
Keeps coming back
Keeps coming back
Posts: 782
Joined: 2020-11-03, 06:47
Location: Philippines
Contact:

Re: Facebook message feature completely blank.

Unread post by jobbautista9 » 2023-03-01, 14:28

Might be related to Issue #2097 (UXP).
Image

merry mimas

XUL add-ons developer. You can find a list of add-ons I manage at http://rw.rs/~job/software.html.

Mima avatar by 絵虎. Pixiv post: https://www.pixiv.net/en/artworks/15431817

Image

BenFenner
Astronaut
Astronaut
Posts: 588
Joined: 2015-06-01, 12:52
Location: US Southeast

Re: Facebook message feature completely blank.

Unread post by BenFenner » 2023-03-01, 14:37

I think you've got it. With this info I looked at the source and found no instances of &&= and none of ??= but found exactly one instance of ||=.

I found it exactly on line #310, in column position #3,087 (as described in the dev console next to the error).

Code: Select all

if(f!==void 0&&c("bs_caml").i64_neq(f.id,b)){f.name||=d("MAWSubscribeToContactNames").getUnknownUser();return a.concat([[f,e[1]]])}else return a},[])},[f,b]);
Fun times. :eh:

User avatar
Moonchild
Pale Moon guru
Pale Moon guru
Posts: 35474
Joined: 2011-08-28, 17:27
Location: Motala, SE
Contact:

Re: Facebook message feature completely blank.

Unread post by Moonchild » 2023-03-01, 15:21

Yup, and JS is very unforgiving to syntax errors. the one occurrence breaks the entire script and therefore feature.

All to avoid having to write

Code: Select all

f.name=f.name||d("MAWSubscribeToContactNames").getUnknownUser();
instead :P
"Sometimes, the best way to get what you want is to be a good person." -- Louis Rossmann
"Seek wisdom, not knowledge. Knowledge is of the past; wisdom is of the future." -- Native American proverb
"Linux makes everything difficult." -- Lyceus Anubite

User avatar
Plume
Moongazer
Moongazer
Posts: 13
Joined: 2020-10-22, 18:18

Re: Facebook message feature completely blank.

Unread post by Plume » 2023-03-04, 06:35

I'm having the same problem. Can't load Facebook messages. I don't really understand the javascript talk, but I can assume there isn't, and won't be, a fix for it?

User avatar
Moonchild
Pale Moon guru
Pale Moon guru
Posts: 35474
Joined: 2011-08-28, 17:27
Location: Motala, SE
Contact:

Re: Facebook message feature completely blank.

Unread post by Moonchild » 2023-03-04, 07:58

Plume wrote:
2023-03-04, 06:35
I don't really understand the javascript talk, but I can assume there isn't, and won't be, a fix for it?
Facebook is trying to use a "short-hand" version of a logical operation. We currently don't support that syntax.
There currently isn't a fix for that but it is something we'll be working on - so eventually there will be a fix for it, but not today.
"Sometimes, the best way to get what you want is to be a good person." -- Louis Rossmann
"Seek wisdom, not knowledge. Knowledge is of the past; wisdom is of the future." -- Native American proverb
"Linux makes everything difficult." -- Lyceus Anubite

User avatar
Plume
Moongazer
Moongazer
Posts: 13
Joined: 2020-10-22, 18:18

Re: Facebook message feature completely blank.

Unread post by Plume » 2023-03-04, 08:26

Moonchild wrote:
2023-03-04, 07:58
Facebook is trying to use a "short-hand" version of a logical operation. We currently don't support that syntax.
There currently isn't a fix for that but it is something we'll be working on - so eventually there will be a fix for it, but not today.
Thank you for the reply. I appreciate all the effort being put into Pale Moon. As a visually impaired user I can say it's been a lifesaver since Firefox went into a direction that was bad for my needs.

BenFenner
Astronaut
Astronaut
Posts: 588
Joined: 2015-06-01, 12:52
Location: US Southeast

Re: Facebook message feature completely blank.

Unread post by BenFenner » 2023-05-06, 23:40

Seems a dupe of this thread was posted recently: viewtopic.php?f=70&t=29770

And in that thread, it looks like the solution ticket for this problem was posted (as it was in the second post of this thread as well): https://repo.palemoon.org/MoonchildProd ... ssues/2097

And it seems we can expect that fix to roll out to a production release very soon.

Thank you very much as usual to all those involved! :clap:

BenFenner
Astronaut
Astronaut
Posts: 588
Joined: 2015-06-01, 12:52
Location: US Southeast

Re: Facebook message feature completely blank.

Unread post by BenFenner » 2023-05-18, 17:01

I have an update. Pale Moon 32.2.0 seems to have fixed this particular issue. Using the Facebook messaging features is still like pulling teeth (requiring pasting into the text boxes to be able to type) but the issue that brought on this thread has been solved.

Thank you all for the excellent work and support. :thumbup:

Locked