User dropdown not working

KyussBishop

I use the Request Policy and NoScript plugins in Firefox, and just now I've noticed that the profile mouse-over-dropdown menu on the top banner (with the logout button) isn't working for me anymore, unless I enable googleapis.com in NoScript.

I'd like to keep that off, because I can't enable it per-site; is there any way to get the javascript-less dropdown back, or even just a logout button somewhere?

It'd be nice in general, to not have functionality break without javascript enabled; I don't mind enabling boards.ie in NoScript, but I keep all google stuff blocked, because it makes a lot of sites really annoying.

Boards.ie: Danny

What you're blocking is the jQuery library. Without jQuery the hover will not work. We have moved away from CSS-based hovering in favour of javascript implementations to provide a better user experience i.e. hover intent - where you accidentally and for a short period move off the dropdown by mistake but it will stay open. This is not possible with CSS-based solutions.

Danny

seamus

I suppose a "Logout" link in the bottom row beside "Contact Us" might not go astray.

You're right, core functionality should not be unavailable when JS is disabled. That doesn't mean JS-less people should be catered for, but simple links like a logout button should be otherwise available.

KyussBishop

Ah, was wondering where my post got to, heh; a logout button there would be a decent workaround, yes.

It's not javascript that is a problem for me in general really, it's more the reliance on googleapis.com, and how enabling that in NoScript messes up other sites for me; any scripts that can be local-hosted on boards.ie would work fine, but I'd say that's a rather non-trivial change for such a niche problem

Thanks for looking into it.

Boards.ie: Paddy

KyussBishop wrote: »

Ah, was wondering where my post got to, heh; a logout button there would be a decent workaround, yes.

It's not javascript that is a problem for me in general really, it's more the reliance on googleapis.com, and how enabling that in NoScript messes up other sites for me; any scripts that can be local-hosted on boards.ie would work fine, but I'd say that's a rather non-trivial change for such a niche problem

Thanks for looking into it.

The reason we load jQuery from Google APIs rather than use a local version is that it's much faster. The google APIs version is likely to already be cached by the browser and even if it isn't we get the advantage of google's CDN, which is probably quite a bit faster than our fast cookie free domain.

I'm not familiar with your extensions but if you can add a file based exception for: http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.7.1/jquery.min.js it should be fine. That will only ever load the jQuery library, it won't actually do anything, so even if some other site can now load it nothing else should change if you continue to block the rest of their JS.

All that said, I take the point that we should still offer a logout link if JS is disabled, we'll look at sticking one into the footer or something.

KyussBishop

Ah I've figured out per-site settings for NoScript, with this
http://noscript.net/faq#qa5_4

This seems to work well for boards.ie:

Site .googleapis.com
Accept INCLUSION from SELF++
Accept INCLUSION from .boards.ie
Deny

A logout button would still be good as well of course, but glad I've figured that out now