dasch wrote:

Okay, well. CSS somehow appeard again. But on Firefox Crtl+Shift+R makes the Factbox disappear.

mike wrote:

Same here, disappearing factbox. SMW 1.7.1, MW 1.18.2 with CACHE_ACCEL (APC) for $wgMainCacheType, $wgMessageCacheType, and $wgParserCacheType. Fact box appears after SMW_refreshData.php or page edit, then disappears after Crtl+Shift+R (usually) or dummy edit (always).

Setting $wgParserCacheType = CACHE_NONE corrects the problem.

dasch wrote:

It does not correct the problem.
This only shows that this is a problem with caching. I will not disable cache for this!

The Factbox is produced in a different way when a page is created from the existing parser cache of MediaWiki instead of being parsed directly. This explains why the behaviour is different when reloading a page (the cache exists at reloading). Further analysis will be needed to find out what exactly happens here.

mike wrote:

Another workaround is the refresh tab. It makes the fact box reappear.

Other than having the refresh tab option, I'd like to hear some alternatives how to resolve this so it can be included in [1] but I have no sufficient knowledge of how the parser/parser cache is working and how to go around the cache.

Because $parser->disableCache(); won't make it.

[1] https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/#/c/30426/

I think the vanishing is related to our process for recovering data when pages come from the parser cache. We have a special process for this which may not always be effective. I don't think this is otherwise related to Special:Browse or action=browse.

We can discuss the general status of the Factbox together with Special:Browse when considering the above change.

mike wrote:

I wrote a script as a temporary workaround. If the fact box doesn't appear, then it appends a prompt to the footer, including a link to purge the cache. You can see it running here: http://zelea.com/w/Stuff:Election_Methods

If the fact box shows there, then just do a dummy edit. It will disappear and you'll see the prompt instead.

The code is here for anyone who wants to borrow it (grep for factbox): http://zelea.com/system/host/u/home/v/votorola/web/wiki/pollwiki.js
You'd also need this: http://zelea.com/system/host/u/home/v/votorola/web/dom.jsm

Is this still present in the latest release?

dasch wrote:

yes

Resolved with SMW 1.9 (for some details see [1] and [2]).

[1] http://wikimedia.7.x6.nabble.com/Why-do-FactBoxes-only-display-once-td5019607.html#a5019609

[2] http://www.semantic-mediawiki.org/w/index.php?title=Help_talk:$smwgFactboxUseCache&offset=20140110100514&lqt_mustshow=1160#Don.27t_get_it_1160