nFS overviews not working

#1

Some time in the past two years or so, newFamilySearch overviews quit working, at least for me. They worked a couple of years ago when I trained on using nFS. However, an attempt just now shows the same symptom on several of the overviews. The overview appears to load, and page 1 becomes visible, including the instruction, "To begin this overview, click the arrow at the bottom right of the page." When I hover over the arrow, I see the 'Next Page" tooltip. When I click the arrow, the tooltip fades out, then fades back in after I release the mouse button. Nothing else happens. Page 2 never shows up.

Most other Flash content appears to work, including the video on the main page at http://www.lds.org . I have seen a couple of sites where the Flash buttons appear to do nothing, but I don't know those sites well enough to know what should happen.

I'm using Firefox 3.0.17 and Shockwave Flash player 10.0.r32. My OS is Mandriva Linux 2010.0.

Any insights or suggestions?

Thanks,

#2

rmrichesjr wrote:Some time in the past two years or so, newFamilySearch overviews quit working, at least for me. They worked a couple of years ago when I trained on using nFS. However, an attempt just now shows the same symptom on several of the overviews. The overview appears to load, and page 1 becomes visible, including the instruction, "To begin this overview, click the arrow at the bottom right of the page." When I hover over the arrow, I see the 'Next Page" tooltip. When I click the arrow, the tooltip fades out, then fades back in after I release the mouse button. Nothing else happens. Page 2 never shows up.

I'm using Firefox 3.0.17 and Shockwave Flash player 10.0.r32. My OS is Mandriva Linux 2010.0.

Any insights or suggestions?

Thanks,

No suggestions other than you may wish to upgrade FireFox to the current version of 3.5.7

I just tried several of the overviews and they all worked perfectly.

#3

Thanks for the suggestion, Techgy. Switching to the latest Firefox 3.5 is definitely on my to-do list. In the mean time, I stumbled on something curious in case it might help someone else. By trying random actions on the arrow button, I found I can sometimes get it to work if I right-click on the button to bring up a tooltip-like list that includes the version of the Church's eLearning engine and an "about" for the Flash player, then double-click on the button.

A service missionary who called back in response to the trouble report said something about some of the newFamilySearch overviews needing both Flash and Java, but I'm not entirely sure I understand how that could be.

#4

Switching to Firefox 3.5.7 does not make the buttons work in the way they are supposed to. However, it does seem to make the workaround (right-click to bring up tooltip, then double left-click on the button) work more reliably. As I'm seeing similar behavior on some other Flash sites, I'm thinking it's not specific to nFS.

JamesAnderson · #5

Can you run the test program in the eLearning area? There is a module that checks to be sure you've got the right stuff for everything to work in any eLearning module. It checks Flash, Java, and several other things, then tells you along the way which things are needing updates to have the system work right.

To get there open nFS, click on Help Center, then look at the top for 'Training and Resources' as it should be the far right tab. Once that tab is opened, look for the eLearning courses, and the module should either be at the top or bottom of the list.