Thread

Very odd thing: Recently, when logged in to the CP, all background images defined in my CSS file stopped displaying.  When I log back out everything is fine again.  So it’s not affecting my users, just frustrating me as I work on the site.  I can also fix it by clearing browser cookies, or by changing my CP Session Type to Session ID Only…so it seems to be cookie-related. 

I think this started when I added my domain to the Cookie Settings->Cookie Domain, which I didn’t know to do until recently. (This fixed a problem I was having even logging in the CP without clearing cookies.)

This happens in Firefox, Safari, and IE6.

I could just set my CP Session Type to Session ID only, and forget about this problem…except leaving a mystery like this unsolved just doesn’t seem right. 😝 What the heck could I be missing here?

Thanks,
Jack

Hi, Jack.

When you added your cookie domain, did it have a . in front of the domain?

An example would be .example.com versus example.com

Yep, I put the dot in front.

You really are having cookie weirdness.  Do the images disappear from just the backend control panel- or does it affect the frontend as well?  And just so I’m sure- what build/version are you currently running?  Hm- and if you change your default theme, does that make a difference?  Also- try logging out and clearing all cookies.  See if it still happens.  (Yes- I always like to get to the bottom of weirdness too.)

Hi Robin,

I probably wasn’t very clear: Everything looks normal in the CP, but when viewing my site rendered in a browser, none of the background images display while I’m logged into the Control Panel.  I can then clear browser cookies, refresh the page, and the background images reappear…but then I’m logged out of the CP and have to log back in, at which point the bg images disappear again.

I’m currently running Build 20070815.  My server admin is out this week and I plan to update the build soon as he returns. 

It’s not anything close to a crisis, as I set the CP session setting to Session ID Only, and I’m tooling along just fine.  But hey, this is bizarre isn’t it?

Thanks,
Jack

Yep- bizarre!  Does it do it in different browsers?  Wait- you already confirmed- FF, IE, Safari.

It’s just the images- the rest is styled ok?  And if you view the rendered code- are you missing bits the links or anything?  Er- and are you viewing with the www and without?  Try both- see if it matters.

I just noticed a similar problem (after I’d fixed a little thing noted here). If I change the User Session Type to anything but cookies only, I lose the CSS background images from the front-end. This apparently happens only for the admin (me) when I’m logged in. When I log out, the images return.

It’s not that big of a deal; I was just playing a bit when I found the problem, and I had User Session Type set to cookies only to begin with. But like the original poster, I like these little mysteries solved.  😊

Are you linking to images with the same domain (exact, including the www in both your browser URL and the image path) as you’re logged into?

Ah, brilliant. Right again, Lisa. I checked my CSS, and for those graphics I had not included the whole path. I changed the CSS path to the graphics to:

<a href="http://www.parisjc.edu/path/to/graphics">http://www.parisjc.edu/path/to/graphics</a>

Now everything works fine. Thanks yet again, Lisa.

While it’s on my mind, what is the suggested setting for users? Cookies only or something else? I’ve had no complaints or problems thus far with cookies only. Just curious.

It depends - if you have many users that login from public Sites and need to be logged out automatically, then using sessions is important.  If you prefer them logged into the Site and Control Panel at the same time, and to be able to be automatically logged in on new visits - then cookies only.

Ultimately it depends on the Site and the Site’s admin.  I prefer cookies only as an end-user - I hate having to re-login every time I visit a site.  However, for something like say - my bank - that would be incredible unsafe.  It depends on the data, eh?

Just a quick affirmation here - I recently changed the security settings from cookies only to session & cookies and anyone logged in lost some css background images (which were podcast images recently put in - see them here: http://www.hotyogadoctor.com/index.php/site/tips/) and was puzzled as this wasn’t happening before.

Found this thread - looked at the css background selector; hey presto a relative url for the image.

Changed it to a fully qualified url - the images returned.

Thanks for this forum!

Robert

Glad to hear things are working again! Closing the thread…