Looking for fast page load action.

Jamie_Turner1 · April 11, 2008, 2:47pm

Hi, everyone –

I seem to recall coming across an action that was designed to help pages load quicker. It used some technology where the website “talked” to the browser before loading and, if the browser had the capability, it allowed the pages to load all at once instead of item by item.

Does anyone recall where this action can be found?

Thanks,
Jamie

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waltd · April 11, 2008, 3:11pm

There is an Action called Web Fast, from Tim Plumb <http://
freewayactions.com> but it does not do what you are talking about. It
uses PHP to compress the contents of the page using gzip, but only if
the browser is able to unzip the files. While this can make certain
types of pages load faster, what it really does nicely is conserve
your bandwidth. Web pages are mostly text files, and text files are
like a souffle – mostly air. So a good compression algorithm can
compress them down to a fraction of their original size, and only
that compressed form has to travel over the wires.

Now if you want to make your entire page “pop” into view once it has
loaded, you could do this with JavaScript:

Apply Protaculous to the page <http://freewaypro.com/actions/
downloads> and select protaculous-packed from the Library picker.

Click on the first Function Body button and enter this:

$('PageDiv').hide();

Click on the second Function Body button and enter this:

$('PageDiv').show();

Publish or preview, and you should see the effect. You probably won’t
notice the difference locally, but on a server, over a slow
connection, the page will just suddenly pop into view all at once.

If you were to do this, but use the scriptaculous-packed library
instead, you could make the second function this:

Effect.Appear('PageDiv');

…and the page would slowly fade in over one second. Documentation
for this effect is here: <http://wiki.script.aculo.us/scriptaculous/
show/Effect.Appear>.

Walter

On Apr 11, 2008, at 10:47 AM, Jamie Turner wrote:

Hi, everyone –

I seem to recall coming across an action that was designed to help
pages load quicker. It used some technology where the website
“talked” to the browser before loading and, if the browser had the
capability, it allowed the pages to load all at once instead of
item by item.

Does anyone recall where this action can be found?

Thanks,
Jamie

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Jamie_Turner1 · April 11, 2008, 3:39pm

Hi, Walt. Thanks for your help.

Your protaculous action is the one I was looking for. Something that makes the page pop up all at once.

I’ve installed that action (several times) on my computer by dropping it onto the FW icon. I’ve checked in the Application Support file and, sure enough, it’s there. But it doesn’t show up in Freeway. To check for it, I’ve clicked on the page then checked the Page Actions, the Item Actions and the Actions Window with the little plus sign. It’s nowhere to be found.

Am I looking in the wrong spot?

Thanks,
Jamie

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waltd · April 11, 2008, 4:08pm

It should show up when you do this (main menu) Page > Page Actions >
Protaculous. If it doesn’t, then it isn’t really installed. Page
Actions (I think) can now we added to the page even if something else
is selected. You only have to click on the page to see the page
action interface.

Walter

On Apr 11, 2008, at 11:39 AM, Jamie Turner wrote:

Hi, Walt. Thanks for your help.

Your protaculous action is the one I was looking for. Something
that makes the page pop up all at once.

I’ve installed that action (several times) on my computer by
dropping it onto the FW icon. I’ve checked in the Application
Support file and, sure enough, it’s there. But it doesn’t show up
in Freeway. To check for it, I’ve clicked on the page then checked
the Page Actions, the Item Actions and the Actions Window with the
little plus sign. It’s nowhere to be found.

Am I looking in the wrong spot?

Thanks,
Jamie

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Jamie_Turner1 · April 11, 2008, 6:39pm

Hey, Walter –

I really appreciate your help. I’m about at witt’s end on this one. I’ve downloaded the action several times and I’ve installed it both by dropping it onto the FW icon on my dock AND by going into Edit:Actions:Install Actions.

One thin that worries me is thatI have noticed a folder in my Library:ApplicationsSupport:Freeway5:Actions:General folder that has Chinese characters in the title of the folder. I put it in the trash once, but it came back. Is it possible I have a virus? I hope not.

So, I have two problems:

The Chinese labeled folder;
The fact that I can’t find my actions, even though I’ve installed them by dropping them on the icon on my dock AND going into Edit:Actions:InstallActions.

Thoughts?

– Jamie

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waltd · April 11, 2008, 6:51pm

I would contact Support on this. I honestly have never had a problem
with installing Actions before, and since it’s highly unlikely that
your Mac has a virus, I would suspect that maybe it’s a preferences
thing on your machine.

Walter

On Apr 11, 2008, at 2:39 PM, Jamie Turner wrote:

Hey, Walter –

I really appreciate your help. I’m about at witt’s end on this one.
I’ve downloaded the action several times and I’ve installed it both
by dropping it onto the FW icon on my dock AND by going into
Edit:Actions:Install Actions.

One thin that worries me is thatI have noticed a folder in my
Library:ApplicationsSupport:Freeway5:Actions:General folder that
has Chinese characters in the title of the folder. I put it in the
trash once, but it came back. Is it possible I have a virus? I hope
not.

So, I have two problems:

The Chinese labeled folder;

The fact that I can’t find my actions, even though I’ve
installed them by dropping them on the icon on my dock AND going
into Edit:Actions:InstallActions.

Thoughts?

– Jamie

– Jamie

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Jamie_Turner1 · April 11, 2008, 7:08pm

Okay. Cool.

I’ve called Roxanne in the U.S. support number. She’s very nice and helpful, but I think this one was a little out of her range.

I’ll contact the guys at Softpress via the website.

Thanks for your help.

– Jamie

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Joe2 · April 12, 2008, 4:13pm

Hi Jamie,

Firstly: Are you running Pro? If you are using Express then you won’t
be able to install the Action.

Secondly: What language are you running Freeway in?

Thirdly: Could you try a couple of things for me.

If the Chinese folder is empty delete it and empty the trash.
Check you have an Actions folder in your Freeway 5/Application
Support folder. Providing you do, stick Walter’s Action in there, you
don’t even need to restart Freeway for FW to see the Action, it reads
that folder each time you move focus to Freeway by switching to the
application
Open the Page>Page Actions menu, can you reply with exactly what
you see in here please.
Draw a layer HTML item and with it selected go to the Item>Actions
menu, do you see the Carousel Action in the list?

If the Protaculous Action and carousel Actions aren’t in the list (and
you are running FW Pro) then go back to Application Support and look
though each of the folders making sure that there aren’t duplicates of
the Action, this could be the cause of the problem if there are.

Cheers,

Joe

On 11 Apr 2008, at 20:08, Jamie Turner wrote:

Okay. Cool.

I’ve called Roxanne in the U.S. support number. She’s very nice and
helpful, but I think this one was a little out of her range.

I’ll contact the guys at Softpress via the website.

Thanks for your help.

– Jamie

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waltd · April 12, 2008, 4:18pm

Don’t you get a friendly warning when you try?

Walter

On Apr 12, 2008, at 12:13 PM, Joe Billings wrote:

Firstly: Are you running Pro? If you are using Express then you won’t
be able to install the Action.

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Joe2 · April 12, 2008, 4:31pm

I don’t think so no. One fot eh suggestions list methinks.

Joe

On 12 Apr 2008, at 17:18, Walter Lee Davis wrote:

Don’t you get a friendly warning when you try?

Walter

On Apr 12, 2008, at 12:13 PM, Joe Billings wrote:

Firstly: Are you running Pro? If you are using Express then you won’t
be able to install the Action.

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Jamie_Turner1 · April 12, 2008, 6:06pm

Hi, Joe (and Walt) –

Here are the answers:

Yes, I’m running FW Pro 5.
Assuming I understand question #2, the language I’m using is XHTML 1.0 Transitional. If you literally mean “what language” then I’m in English.
3.1) I tossed the Chinese folder and emptied the trash. It didn’t show back up, so I think we’re good here.
3.2) I do have an actions folder. Oddly enough, the only actions in there are Protaculous, Tab Button and Tab Area. I don’t know why the rest of my Freeway actions aren’t in there, because they show up in the Actions window when I’m using the application.
3.3) When I opened the Page>Page Actions menu, I had the following actions: Google Analytics, Background Sound, No Cache, Not in frameset redirect, timed redirect, target load frame, random sequence, sequence timer, target group timer, pop up windo, self closing pop up window.
When I draw an HTML box and go to the Item>Actions menu, yes, I do see the Carousel Action on the list, but I don’t see the Protaculous action.

A few other thoughts:

I use the Carousel Action on this site, so I know that it not only shows up, but it works, too. (Although I couldn’t ever get TWO carousels to work on the same page.)
I have a “test” page that’s a separate file that I use to play with new actions. The “test” page does, in fact, allow me to use the protaculous action.
Is it possible that, since the “test” page was originally created in FW Pro 5 it shows the protaculous action? The other site was created in FW Pro 4 and then switched to FW Pro 5. Could that be the problem?
Final thought – I did have two Protaculous actions in my action folder a while back, but I deleted it when the alert box told me I had two.

Thanks, as always, for both you guys helping me on this. This is a ton of information. I hope it helps.

– Jamie

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kristof_allaert · January 25, 2010, 2:07pm

On 11 Apr 2008, 3:12 pm, waltd wrote:

There is an Action called Web Fast, from Tim Plumb

Hallo,

I’ve applied the action protaculous-packed + code as Mr. Walter Davis wrote in his thread. In safire it works very well; in IE it works the first time you click on a page, but when you return to the same page, it shows only the background.
Is there a way to let this action works as well in IE?

Thanks a lot!
Kristof
Belgium

ps. to see how it works on my site:
browse web.me.com/kristof.allaert/KALEO/dezangers2.html
and click meezingen (normally is blocks here already)

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waltd · January 25, 2010, 2:23pm

Does this problem happen only when you use the Back button in the
browser?

Walter

On Jan 25, 2010, at 9:07 AM, kristof allaert wrote:

On 11 Apr 2008, 3:12 pm, waltd wrote:

There is an Action called Web Fast, from Tim Plumb

Hallo,

I’ve applied the action protaculous-packed + code as Mr. Walter
Davis wrote in his thread. In safire it works very well; in IE it
works the first time you click on a page, but when you return to the
same page, it shows only the background.
Is there a way to let this action works as well in IE?

Thanks a lot!
Kristof
Belgium

ps. to see how it works on my site:
browse web.me.com/kristof.allaert/KALEO/dezangers2.html
and click meezingen (normally is blocks here already)

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kristof_allaert · January 25, 2010, 2:31pm

Thanks for your quick reaction, Mr Davis.

No it doesn’t has to do with the back button,
it’s mosly when you just click on a link or on a page that’s already visited.

i’ve just tested again in IE

web.me.com/kristof.allaert/KALEO/dezangers2.html and click meezingen(web.me.com/kristof.allaert/KALEO/meezingen2.html), click on “wie is wie” and click again on “meezingen”…normally now you can see how it blocks!

Anyway thanks a lot for the answer!

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waltd · January 25, 2010, 2:47pm

IE might be caching the entire page, so the load event doesn’t fire
the same way. You could test this by removing the Protaculous Action
from the page, publishing again, and then add the following code
manually into your page using the Page / HTML Markup dialog. (This
will load a newer version of Prototype than the Action.)

Open the Page / HTML Markup dialog, and change the picker in the lower-
left corner to read Before /HEAD.

Paste in the following:

<script src="http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/prototype/1.6/prototype.js 
" type="text/javascript" charset="utf-8">
</script>
<script type="text/javascript">
document.observe('dom:loaded', function(evt){ $('PageDiv').hide(); });
Event.observe(window, 'load', function(evt){ $('PageDiv').show(); });
</script>

The good folks at Prototype did a lot of work around these events
between the version in the Action and current.

Another thing for you to try would be to set your page output to More
Readable in the Document Setup dialog. You’ll have to publish again
after you make that change. The starting line of the effect is
happening on the same line of code as Freeway’s generated IE style fix
code, and that might possibly be causing problems, although I would
expect that problem to be universal, not just on a reload of the page.

Walter

On Jan 25, 2010, at 9:31 AM, kristof allaert wrote:

Thanks for your quick reaction, Mr Davis.

No it doesn’t has to do with the back button,
it’s mosly when you just click on a link or on a page that’s already
visited.

i’ve just tested again in IE

web.me.com/kristof.allaert/KALEO/dezangers2.html and click meezingen(web.me.com/kristof.allaert/KALEO/meezingen2.html)
, click on “wie is wie” and click again on “meezingen”…normally
now you can see how it blocks!

Anyway thanks a lot for the answer!

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kristof_allaert · January 25, 2010, 4:04pm

Thank you very much Walter,
I did what you said,
Everything seems to be fine know.

It’s great to have people like you who concerns with online support.
Thanks a lot!

Kristof

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waltd · January 25, 2010, 4:20pm

It would be useful to know if the problem is fixed by the More
Readable setting or the newer Prototype.js library.

Would you please do a basic test and report back? Just make a copy of
the page with the Action rather than the hand-code, publish it with
More Readable on, and see if the problem returns.

I know I need to update the Actions to the latest Prototype, but I’ve
been so busy lately that I’ve hung back from that. It would be good to
know if the problem is more serious than I thought.

Thanks again,

Walter

On Jan 25, 2010, at 11:04 AM, kristof allaert wrote:

Thank you very much Walter,
I did what you said,
Everything seems to be fine know.

It’s great to have people like you who concerns with online support.
Thanks a lot!

Kristof

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kristof_allaert · January 25, 2010, 5:26pm

As far as my test is correct,
it does’t have to see something with the page making ‘more readable’,
because the same problems returns,

it only has to see with the changing of the script in the markup.

Kristof

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waltd · January 25, 2010, 5:32pm

Thanks for testing.

Walter

On Jan 25, 2010, at 12:26 PM, kristof allaert wrote:

As far as my test is correct,
it does’t have to see something with the page making ‘more readable’,
because the same problems returns,

it only has to see with the changing of the script in the markup.

Kristof

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kristof_allaert · January 26, 2010, 11:25am

Hallo again!

I still worked on a little on this topic and i’ve tested it again in internet explorer.
There is astill a problem with the script if we use it with IE;
if you browse my website in IE, you can see it:
web.me.com/kristof.allaert/KALEO

by switching the pages, you get first the background colour, than the background image…it looks not very “clean”
Is there a way to solve this in the script and let the background image stay the whole time?
Or are there other solutions to fix this problem?

THANKS A LOT!
Kristof

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