my question is why cannot we (others have also complained) print off the first page of a profile?

Question

Months ago a problem appeared where one could not print off the first page of a profile (other pages would print). Only a header with the person's name at the top appeared, the rest of the page was blank,  Numerous people had the same problem. Wiki tried to blame Windows but the problem only happened on WIKI. Eventually the problem disappeared , until 4 February  when I reported it again. It still exists, 26 Feb/        which makes Wiki  basically useless to make copies for my files.

Comments

For reference your earlier question seems to be at this link.

What browser are you using? Chrome? Does switching to a different browser, for example Edge, give a workaround for the problem?

For the record, I can print profiles from WikiTree (not "Wiki": that is a much more general term :-) successfully using the Safari browser on an iPad.

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W.M., if you don't mind installing an extension, I've just added something that I think will fix this to WikiTree BEE (though I'm not on Windows 10 right now, so I can't be sure). 

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Ian, if you know a fix via an extension, shouldn't that be applied to the base WikiTree code? Have you identified a bug?

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It's much easier for me to add something to an extension than for anyone to change anything in the base code.

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Sounds as if indeed you have identified a bug :-)

Sure it may be easier for you to fix in the Bee, but it's not necessarily easier for hundreds of WikiTreers to have to use an extension if they weren't already doing so. Moving towards an agile approach for the base software is important.

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Yes, I agree, but I have no power to change the base code.

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Jim, what would you consider an agile approach? Fixing a bug with an extension is easy and has little risk (if something breaks, it's only for the specific browsers the extension is for, and only for the users using the extension), as opposed to a change for everyone using the site, with all sorts of various operating systems, devices, and browsers.

Considering printing is a feature of the browser, and not a feature of WikiTree (although there is a printer-friendly version in the extension), something like this is a super low priority to fix, especially when the cause is a bug in the browser and not something we changed.

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Jamie, Michel and I discussed agile (or Agile) development here. Another good analysis by Atlassian, from an IT project management point of view, is at this link. An agile approach could be of general benefit in lessening rigidity and speeding up introduction of improvements and bug fixes for WikiTree, well beyond the current case.

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Right, I'm familiar with what agile development is. I was curious what you believed it is, since you seem to think that's not what WikiTree is doing.

We are constantly introducing bug fixes and making tweaks to the software, but we rarely make announcements so it may not be noticeable to the average user unless it's a huge change.

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Jamie, I'm glad to hear you're using an agile model. The fact remains that many bugs remain unaddressed for long periods, even sometimes ones where the actual code change would be trivial. It had seemed to me that this might be because there could be a preference not to address individual issues separately when they arise, but instead to bundle requirements and changes up into large groups by theme or subsystem. From that point of view, it seemed more like waterfall.

To address perceptions, I wonder if you would consider regular brief release notes, indicating just as one-liners what changes have been introduced and when.

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Jim, Like this?

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Space:Unofficial_WikiTree_Changelog

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Yes, thanks Ian, that looks good, assuming it's complete, and "unofficial" isn't a red flag. Has it ever been publicised?

As I said however, there are many other bugs that have been reported and improvements that have been requested that remain to be addressed, at least some of which are very easy.

Answer 1

W.M., another idea to fix your problem would be to simply use Firefox when you want to print.  I don't think you'll have a problem with that.  This problem is specific to Windows 10 and Chrome-based browsers. I'm sure it's a pain, but it's not only WikiTree that this happens with (the discussion that Jamie linked to on the other thread shows you that), and it's not a WikiTree bug as such.  It can be fixed by a few lines of code (I think), but you can also just use a different browser to print.  Firefox is pretty good.

Comments

I'm going to try Firefox to see if this print issue goes away.  I'm guessing this issue started after WikiTree made its profile page format changes where the ancestors tab was removed from the horizontal section of tab functions which now begins with the Edit tab. The Ancestors tab was repositioned a bit further down the page but positioned just above the descendants button. If you envoke the ancestor button feature it expands the profile's family tree into a first page of five generations situated before the bio.which now occupies the 2nd print page. I can successfully print this way in Chrome. Whereas, if I don't expand the Ancestors tab the first printed page is a blank except for the top WiliTree header.

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It's not just Windows and Chrome. It's also a problem on MacOS (MacBook) and Chrome.

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Hi Jillaine. Not being a Mac user, I didn't realize that.  I thought this was specifically Windows 10 and Chrome (it's fine on Windows 11).

Answer 2

My previous Question/Comment was posted 27 Feb.  It is now 12 Mar and the problem still exists. I cannot get the front page of a profile to print, it only displays a header at the top of the page.  I am thankful that people responded with things to try but the reality is that I am not "geek" enough attempt various "solutions".  Since I have no printing  problem with any other sites this has to be an internal problem with WikiTree.  They fixed it , briefly, several months ago.  Why not again?????

Answer 3

I made my original Question/Comment Post over a  month ago. It is now 12 March. I cannot print off the front page of a profile. Only a top of page header appears. I want to thank everyone that suggested fixes but the reality is that I am not "geek" enough to attempt fixes.  The problem is only with WikiTree so it must be an internal coding problem. "They" fixed it , briefly, about a month ago but it came back.  Why can'st it be fixed again???

Comments

As Jamie has previously pointed out, this is not a bug in WikiTree but in the Google Chrome browser. So it is not incumbent on WikiTree to fix it, and even if it were, this could take years as there are many much higher priority issues to deal with.

W. M., I'm not a Windows expert, so maybe somebody will correct me, but if you are using Chrome on Windows, you probably had to install it originally, since it is not part of the operating system. If you did that, it shouldn't be much harder to install Firefox as well. As Ian has pointed out above, this may well provide a good workaround for your problem.

Firefox for Windows can be downloaded at this link.

Edited to add: Looking at the history of this, I see that the default Windows Edge browser also has the issue, so maybe you are using that. Installing Firefox will still solve the problem. Maybe a Windows person here can provide detailed instructions or a more helpful link.

You say that you only see the issue on WikiTree. Fair enough for yourself. But other people have reported it on a wide variety of sites, so it is not a WikiTree-specific problem.