posting in community

[JulieL34]

For some reason, recently, when I try to post to the community, every message is being rejected due to "html content"--but I have used not code. I get a message: Your post has been changed because invalid HTML was found in the message body. The invalid HTML has been removed. Please review the message and submit the message when you are satisfied."

What is going on? The only change I see when the program tells me it has removed the HTML, is at the bottom of the message there is this an x followed by an x in parentheses. I presume that is supposed to reference the removed html code but there really is nothing there that I can see. And like in the interface, I can't look at the source code to guess what your bot may be seeing and rejecting.

In a twitter DM I was advised to switch browsers. I don't know if that is just a stock answer or if they really "broke" something in forms capability in FF89. Anyone else have this problem? I'm now trying to post from Chrome.

[Zoe_H]

Hello @JulieL34,

Thank you for reaching out to the Community! It looks like posting was able to be achieved from a different browser. You may need to clear your cache and cookies in the past browser or continue to post from this one. This could also be caused by copying and pasting questions into the Community post. 

[JulieL34]

If anyone else is having this problem, I have the solution now (without having to change browsers).

After you click reply to post your comment (or rather after you try to) you will get a message that says:

Your post has been changed because invalid HTML was found in the message body. The invalid HTML has been removed. Please review the message and submit the message when you are satisfied.

More than likely you all, like me, have not added any invalid html but it has been added by Constant Contact's programming. The solution is to click to the html view in your comment field. You will see a bunch of <div> and <span> codes. at the end. Delete all that code that Constant Contact's programming added for you and then the comment will post.

Oh, and by the way, "solution" notwithstanding, I do not consider changing browsers in order to post a comment here a satisfactory solution. Ridiculous. I think most users will agree.

[Kyle_R]

Hi @JulieL34 ,

Thanks for the follow up. This does seem like something isn't working right. We'd like to do some more testing on our end, do you happen to remember if your reply contained any text that was copy/pasted into it? For example, text copied elsewhere in the thread to include in your reply. My initial thought is that our text box where you type your reply is also bringing over the code for all of the formatting for pasted text and part of the formatting is triggers some sort of content filter we should look in to.

[JulieL34]

Hi @Kyle_R,

I don't think I cut and pasted anything in any of the messages where this happened. If I ever did, it would be from sublime text, never from Word. It did seem like it was fixed for a while, I believer there were a couple days when I commented in here that I didn't have to edit the html code but mostly it happens every time. In fact, if this one I'm writing does it, I'll post the code in here and see if I can send it to you by putting it inside of quote marks. Obviously idk if that will be possible, but maybe you can replicate it on your end. I think it has ONLY happened using firefox, which is why they told me to switch browsers. That's fine for a test but it's no long term solution.

ok, it did cause the problem. I'm going to see if I can provide you the code:

"<div>
<div class="ir-ext-dimensions"><span class="ir-ext-rendered">x </span><span class="ir-ext-natural">(x) </span></div>
<div class="ir-ext-filesize">&nbsp;</div>
</div>"

[JulieL34]

It looks like I was able to provide it to you, so I'm hopeful this will help you solve it.

It happened again. Same code. I went back to HTML view and deleted it again in this message.

[Kyle_R]

Thank you so much for all of the additional information, that really helps!

I tested a bit with the code sample you provided. If I'm understanding correctly it does sound like that's coming through with some pasted text - which is fine, you should still be able to paste in text through your browser of choice without having to switch browsers and it will try to bring in the appropriate font styles/formatting. On the background of the Community it does check for any code we don't allow (as a security & spam mitigation feature) and will remove it. If it detects any it will remove it and sometimes it will give an error similar to the one mentioned. To resolve the error you should be able to just click "Post" a second time and your reply should go through without issue. The error isn't a hard block as much as it is an alert that parts of the background coding were removed, in case any additional edits need to be made before posting. Luckily that should remove any need to go into the HTML view and make edits in order to post.

Admittedly, it is quite jarring to see a red error message as more of a warning, I'll see if we can change anything with that. I also made a few updates to our content filters and stopped seeing that error in my testing, but I'm not if it just shows up inconsistently. Thanks for flagging us on this one, let us know if you experience any more troubles. Also, thanks for all your contributions on the Community  

[JulieL34]

Hello @Kyle_R

I hear you on the spam protection and all that, but to be clear, on those messages I sent you yesterday evening I did NOT cut and paste anything. It was all originally typing right into the content block, as I am again doing now. Could it be that it gets introduced during the auto-save? Just a thought.

It's good to know I should just try to submit it again. I think I probably tried that before but perhaps I didn't because, as you mention, the red type really feels like a hard error. I'm glad my message made it to someone who understood it to be a problem, sometimes the responses in the community are like a broken record. "We'll tell our team and they will consider your needs, please tell us more" or "Clear your cache and try a different browser"--variations on those 2 points on most things people ask about when it's a feature that was phased out. Anyway, Thanks for following up.

x (x)

[JulieL34]

you were right @Kyle_R. Just clicking the "Reply" button a second time was a solution. If you can't change the color due to other issues of styles in the programming, maybe you can just add some words. Also, the button I get after typing my reply does not say "post" as I would expect, it says "reply." That may be something else that needs fixing.

Thanks.

x (x)

[Kyle_R]

Hi @JulieL34 - Thanks for correcting me on the pasted text aspect. In that case, I'm wondering if this is a browser extension based on your previous comment that it was only happening in Firefox. I did some Googling from the little code snippet you provided earlier - do you use an extension in Firefox called "Image Info" for hovering your mouse over an image to see the image resolution? Google led me to some reviews on the extension of users saying this issue was also happening to them in other programs like Wordpress.  

[JulieL34]

I do have that extension and I only started using it recently because the standard right click for image info wasn't being offered to me by windows (I think that is a windows thing). I'll experiment with it but not able to work on that today. I was thinking of uninstalling it anyway because I was seeing some other odd behavior from it earlier today. Thanks for the research!

x (x)

[JulieL34]

Hi Kyle,

Removing the extension you suggested seemed to have solved the problem until today, when it suddenly started happening again. I can't post my comment until I go into the HTML code and  "save" it again. I am not running that extension any more.

[Kyle_R]

Hi Julie,

Thanks for the update. Sorry for the trouble! I'll have a look around and see what I can find. The next time it happens if it allows you to copy the HTML again and paste it into the actual comment text, I could take a look and see if anything stands out. 

[JulieL34]

At this point it seems pretty random. Thanks for checking.