Is the Image Viewer Permanently broken now ?
Today the image viewer threw up the same old "Error loading image. Please try again later." error box, and I dropped into the mode of viewing the image via the right click option then increasing the scale by fiddling the value in the URL. That's fine when the page that's indicated is actually the right one otherwise it's another fiddle with the URL to find the right one. BUT… some of the images don't get handled by the same mechanism, and it becomes impossible to get the the correct page.
Example: https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:NJGN-J9X
When the image viewer fails to load properly, I right click on the actual image and select "Open image in new tab"
This pulls up https://www.familysearch.org/dz/v1/dgs:007574380.007574380_00412/scale?width=400
which I then edit to set the width to 4800.
Now I was looking for the image connected with the event on 14 Jul 1844, but the image that's thrown up is Dec 25 1845. So I have to muck around with the last digits of the code number preceding /scale to get the right page, which is actually this one https://www.familysearch.org/dz/v1/dgs:007574380.007574380_00356/scale?width=4800
OK result. That's fine when the images are managed by that method, BUT …
take https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:CF56-GDMM
go through the same right click "Open image in new tab"
This pulls up https://sg30p0.familysearch.org/service/records/storage/deepzoomcloud/dz/v1/TH-1951-39550-15087-40/scale?width=400
which I then edit to set the width to 4800.
and again, it's not showing the right image for the event date.
But because there's a different URL format, changing the value of the last digits of the code number does not produce the previous or subsequent image. When this happens I would usually resort to clearing all browser data and restarting the browser and logging in again, to try and get the viewer to work properly. But recently that's not happening, it fails all the time, so now I'm scuppered.
I'm open to ideas and suggestions
Answers
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I work from the image number rather than the URL. Depending on how far the target date is from the image presented, I'll change the image number by a few digits or a lot, and then work my way back or forward to find the exact date I want. I think I found the Woodhouse-Haigh marriage , on image 356, in 4 steps, from image 413.
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I've never had any problem with the old viewer, which is what the first index entry you gave goes to (after an "image links may be off" message). The image link is indeed off, but the index page says "Source Details: 19". On a whim, I tested if that was the page number, and yup: actual image is Film # 007574380 image 356 of 606, which is pages 18 and 19 of the register (instead of the image 413 that the index entry is linked to, which is pages 132 and 133).
You can actually construct the URL for the thumbnail view if you have the film and image numbers: https://www.familysearch.org/search/film/007574380?i=355. (I don't think there's a human-discernible pattern to the alphanumeric string in the URL that it resolves into when you switch to single-image view: https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-L9XQ-2CQX?i=355.)
The other index detail page links to the new viewer, but that "service/records/storage" stuff is completely and utterly not at all the format of the link I get: https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-996B-ZNGY?view=index&personArk=%2Fark%3A%2F61903%2F1%3A1%3ACF56-GDMM&action=view. (In this case, the index-to-image link is only off by one; the correct image is the previous one: https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-996B-ZNKC?view=index&action=view.)
You can get from the kind of new-viewer link that I get to the old viewer by deleting the question mark and everything after it: https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-996B-ZNGY. In that viewer, it's very easy to see that Elizabeth Woodhouse's death is on Film # 007570101 image 115 of 514.
If you ignore the "&personArk=" stuff that's sometimes in the new viewer's URL (which is what determines which index entry displays in the right-hand panel), then you'll notice that the new versus old don't differ by much: "?view=index&action=view" at the end. You can tack that onto your first example to view it with the new viewer: https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-L9XQ-2CQX?view=index&action=view. (Dunno why you'd want to, given how slow and bouncy and annoying it is, but perhaps that'll change in the future.)
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Thanks for the info. All useful for getting to the right place a bit quicker.
It seems that the viewer is working again, so the answer to my question is "No."
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Coincidentally, I was about to raise a general query about the usefulness (or otherwise) of viewing items using the IMAGES section - especially where links from the CATALOG section are available for the same material.
My recent experiences (with the "throttling" issue) had made it too painful to scroll through multiple images in a set: images taking ages to come into focus and slow movement between one image and the next.
However, I have just scrolled through 170 images of an item with no problems whatsoever. Am I just having a "lucky day", or has there been a fix that has at last made the image viewer fit for purpose? Please let it be the latter!
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Clear your cookies and it should work. We are working through an issue that is taking us time. Sorry for the invonvenience
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@Patrick Liechty BTDT in the past, sometimes it worked sometimes not. Perhaps it will behave better now. Clearing cookies forces me to login again of course, but it's better than closing the browser and starting again because tabs stay open so I don't lose my work.
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@Patrick Liechty You've commented on an OLD thread about problems with the Viewer. The NEW problem with the viewer started yesterday morning (14 June) and got slightly better late in the day US Eastern time.
I suggest you create a new post or have a mod create a new announcement regarding the current problem.
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@Patrick Liechty There's no improvement. It failed with the pink box "Error loading image. Please try again later." within ten minutes. The most significant thing is that the viewer will continue to work for the currrent film even though the failure message keeps popping up. Trying to open the viewer for another film will always fail. It appears that a flag is set by some error trap, and that never gets cleared because there is no corresponding monitor to determine that the error is not present when a film loads and displays and hence clears the flag. I've suggested in the past that we'd be better off without the error trap and the pink warning box because when an issue occurs it will be apparent without flagging it. Clearing cookies did not restore function.
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