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Post Editor Preview Mode, In The New Blogger GUI

We're seeing a few reports from blog owners having problems with Previewing their posts, using Post Editor in the New Blogger GUI.
I can't preview my blog post, while I am composing it!
It appears that Blogger has changed the New GUI Post Editor, to open the Preview window in a popup, instead of a new tab or window.

Almost all browsers, by default, block popup windows. If you want to use Preview Mode, in the New GUI, you'll have to check all relevant filters, and ensure that popup windows are allowed. It's possible that Blogger decided that a popup window was easier to provide than a separate tab / window, involving cross-site scripting, as the Template Designer Live Preview currently requires.

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Comments

Adam said…
Holy SMOKE.

Telling people how they MUST configure their browsers--this is Microsoft behavior circa early 90s.

Yeah, cross-browser coding is hard. It's not a problem you can solve by administrative fiat.

Google should just suck it up and program it right.
Nitecruzr said…
Holy SMOKE, Adam.

Google makes no choice what filters you have in your browser, and on your computer. They don't tell people how they MUST configure their browsers.

If you want to filter popup windows, cross site scripts, or third party cookies, Google doesn't control that - nor do they try. It's just that Google can't program their features, specifically, to avoid interference by all of the filtering, that everybody may do with their computers.

You simply have to set your filters properly, if you want Blogger features to work. And, you have to understand why Blogger and Google have multiple domains, to serve content to us, safely.

http://blogging.nitecruzr.net/2009/02/two-domains.html
Adam said…
Chuck, I take it you do not agree with me.

I guess I am just a dumb naive kid who wishes Google would keep things simple and play by the same rules everyone else has to. (And it's been a long time since I could say anything like that about me.)

I'm still on the "old" interface (which handles this problem just fine), since the new one still has so many bugs (as documented by you, thanks for that).

However I assume that once I am forced onto the new ui this problem will prove trivial to circumvent--for me.

For less-experienced users it will be another barrier to entry.

If nothing else, it's an odd choice for a platform whose main feature is, or was, simplicity.
Nitecruzr said…
Adam,

It's not that I don't agree with you. It's that you don't understand the issues here.

Blogger did not design their commenting scripts so you (or any other blog owner) could be penalised, if they don't follow Blogger rules. They designed their commenting scripts so people could post comments, reliably, on their blogs.

Blogger uses two different domains, for maintaining and serving their natively published blogs.

http://blogging.nitecruzr.net/2009/02/two-domains.html

That's where you start, with the two different domains. Now, if you (or someone else) wants to publish a comment on a blog - and if they want to publish non anonymously - the comment script has to be able to identify them.

The identification used for commenting is cookie based. If the comment script is embedded in the blog page, then it runs as part of the domain that the blog page is served from.

The cookie that's needed, for commenting using an embedded comment form, is third party. That's a browser term, and a browser security issue. Not a Blogger security issue.

Blogger writes their scripts so they work, reliably. We have to not create filters that prevent Blogger scripts from working, if we want the Blogger scripts to run on our computers.

It's that simple. If you own a computer, you are responsible for the settings on your computer. You have to ensure that the settings, on your computer, allow the Blogger scripts to run, on your computer.

http://blogging.nitecruzr.net/2007/04/your-computer-and-blogger.html
Nitecruzr said…
And now, Adam, I have to apologise to you, if I have confused you by referring to "commenting" and "third party cookies" - when I re read your comments and see that your concern is with "post editor" and "pop up windows".

In my mind, the two concerns are the same - inappropriate filtering.

Blogger writes their code so it will work. If we filter various features - "third party cookies" or "popup windows" - we have to bear the loss of functionality.

No company can write code, and allow for all possible filtering of content by the users - so their code will run properly on all computers.

If Blogger were able to do that, then the hackers and spammers would have the same options - and no computer would be safe from hacking and spamming.

If your computer filters content, that's it. You have to open your filters, so code from trusted domains like "Blogger.com" can run properly. And code from "BlogSpot.com" has to run, conditionally.
Adam said…
You are absolutely right, Chuck. I don't understand.

You wrote a post about Blogger's use of pop-up windows in the new UI, noting (correctly) that almost everyone blocks these guys. I said, well, that's a bad thing.

Your reply is all about "commenting threads" and multiple domains. Since these are completely different issues, you are right that I am confused.

So, guilty as charged.

For WIW I get the commenting-thread stuff, which is not a new issue to me. You have written on it often. What does that have to do with the subject of THIS post?

Why does it follow from that that Google is compelled to use a technology that "almost all browsers...block" by default?

I don't see why you need a cookie to open a link in a regular browser window.
Nitecruzr said…
OK, Adam, at least we are back on the same page.

Now, in my mind at least, "popup windows" and "third party cookies" have the same problem.

They are both seen as "dangerous" or "evil", simply because evil people have misused them, motivating security experts into telling us to filter them.

Popup windows are simply misused, by hackers and spammers. But if Blogger uses them, they do so for a reason. Blogger does not use popup windows so they can punish you, for filtering them. Or to force you to endanger your computer.

I could speculate on why Blogger changed from the "separate tab / window" to the "popup window" form factor for the Post Editor Preview window - but not here. It gives me a headache thinking about the possibilities.

This actually might be a good discussion for Blogger Help: Feature Suggestions & Feedback.

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