Diagnose Problems Using Differential Testing

Sometimes, you may find yourself reporting a problem, in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken - and observe that nobody else has the same problem.

If there's any normal problem activity in the forum, you might find yourself waiting - in vain - for an immediate answer to your problem report. While you wait for advice, why not do some basic analysis of your problem?

A differential test set of your problem, based on some reasonably basic details, can help you see where many problems may originate.

Sometimes, you can identify the basic source of your problem - or at least, offer some ideas to a forum helper.

Similar to affinity testing, differential testing can be a big help when you have a problem. Here are a few simple differentials, which you can perform, with a little determination and planning.

1. Account. Use a different Blogger account, and try the same procedures against your blog.
2. Blog. Setup a different blog, and try the same features and procedures on the other blog.
3. Browser. Use a different browser, and try the same procedures on your blog.
4. Computer. Use a different computer, and try the same procedures on your blog.
5. Connection. Use this browser / computer from a different Internet connection - or use a different computer which uses a different Internet connection - and try the same procedures on your blog.
6. Logout. Logout from Blogger completely, when diagnosing a problem that involves viewing the published blog.
7. Posts. Identify the last few posts, published before you first observed the problems. Edit those posts, and save them as Draft copies.
8. Template. Change the blog, to use a different template.

Maybe, you can think of still more differential tests.

By changing exactly one significant detail at a time, and carefully observing the result of the change, you can at least get an idea what actions which you may have made, to contribute to the problem.

Use a different Blogger account, to maintain / publish your blog. As an alternative, first clear cache, cookies, and sessions (yes, all 3, in this case!), then restart the browser. A second alternative would be to use an "incognito" / "private browsing" window, in this browser. Both alternatives may complement each other, when used simultaneously.

Set up a different blog, with similar features / content. As an alternative, ensure that your blog uses a standard Blogger template - then reset the post template, and remove any shiny third party accessories. Note that all problem third party code may not have been recently installed - but may still cause problems.

Use a different browser, to maintain / publish your blog. As an alternative, ensure that you have the latest browser update - then disable all add-ons and extensions, in this browser. The "incognito" / "private browsing" window may be useful, in this case also.

Use a different computer, to maintain / publish your blog. As an alternative, check (and update) all cookie and script filters, on this browser / computer.

Use a different Internet connection, to maintain / publish your blog. As an alternative, try changing your Internet address - if your ISP will permit this.

For problems which involve viewing the published blog, logout completely from Blogger. As an alternative, first clear cache, cookies, and sessions (yes, all 3, in this case!), then restart the browser. A second alternative would be to use an "incognito" / "private browsing" window, in this browser. In this case, all three alternatives may complement each other, when used simultaneously.

Remove any recently published posts, from the blog. As an alternative to deleting your recent work, edit each questionable post and save it as draft.

Use a different template, on this blog. After changing the blog template, remember to reset the post template. As an alternative, reset all gadgets and the post template. If you're using a custom, third party template, update to a Blogger standard.

If you have any experience with Blogger problem analysis and resolution, you'll note that none of the alternatives, suggested above, will create the full effect of the specific differential. However, each alternative will give you a partial differential - if the complete change is not convenient.

Many Blogger problems start with you - and can best be reproduced by you. That being the case, it's best that you try to reproduce the problems (or "bX codes"), through a differential analysis - and observe the results of your tests.

The best idea here is to try at least 2 differentials.

• Make one change at a time.
• Observe the results of each change, separately.

If you try a different browser - and magically the problem goes away, you're good - for right now. But what happens next week, if you experience a different problem? Do you want to try a third browser?

How many browsers can you use - and break - before running out of browsers, that you like? Using a second or third differential, now, may help you more precisely identify the cause of the problem - and that's when you are more likely to get the attention of Blogger Engineering.

It's a lot more useful to diagnose a problem, with you carefully making changes, and observing what happens, then it is for you to report

I can't see my blog!

and get the reply

Your blog is fine!

High level (differential) testing can go a long way, towards getting a problem identified - and possibly, resolved.

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Country Code Aliases Are Not In Use, In All Non USA Countries

One source of confusion, about the occasionally misunderstood country code aliasing of BlogSpot published blogs, comes from the way the aliasing is being installed, world wide.

Country Code Aliasing is a new feature - and it's still being tested. Since it's being tested, it's not being immediately installed in all countries, world wide - and this will cause confusion, until it is fully installed.

Google is installing Country Code Aliasing, one country at a time, as convenient to them.

Google is providing no notice, before - or after - any given country is being added, as an alias to "blogspot.com". This is a standard technique used in Information Technology environments - it's not new or unique to the Blogger / Google Country Code Aliasing feature. It's called by various names, in different companies. Some call it phased installation, others pilot testing, and others may have other names.

What it means - simply - is that not all blog owners will see the same effects, as the new feature is installed, in every country, as each new country is added. Every different blog will have a differing reader population, distributed over different countries. Readers in some countries - where aliasing is active - will see different results than readers in other countries, where aliasing is not active.

Combining the different content in every different blog, which makes some blogs more or less susceptible than other blogs to the effects of aliasing, with the different reader population, not any two blog owners will see the same problems, or have the same opinions, about aliasing.

Until every blog owner realises several details about aliasing, we're going to keep hearing complaints.

• Country code aliasing is not optional.
• Country code aliasing has a real purpose.
• Country code aliasing is beneficial to all of us.

We'll all just have to deal with the problems, one country at a time. We'll need to ask our readers, one crucial question.

What exact URL is displayed, by your browser, when you observe the problem?

And, we'll have to observe the difference between "blogspot.com", "blogspot.co.uk", and "blogspot.fr".

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Some Blog Owners Reporting The Template Designer Changes Do Not Update On Their Blogs

For several weeks, we're been seeing various reports in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken, mentioning problems with template updates, being made using the Template Designer wizard.

The reports are not so widespread to indicate a complete malfunction - but neither can we dismiss the problem, as being unique to one browser, one template type, or one particular update pattern.

It's likely that we are looking at a number of problems, aggregated and compounded, into one common symptom.

I cannot Save changes in Template Designer.

With a problem report like this, some examining of the details may be appropriate.

The Template Designer wizard, which is a component in the Blogger Dashboard, is a complex and sophisticated collection of menus and utilities, which runs on the blog owners computers.

Like most Blogger code, the Template Designer is subject to the effects of other programs, and various security settings - which may be installed or set on each individual computer, with or without the understanding of the blog owner and / or computer owner. In some cases, the blog owner and computer owner may be different people.

If you are seeing a problem with the Template Designer, when trying to update the layout on your blog, there are several tests which you can make, which may help to isolate the problem.

• Try making the same updates, using another computer.
• Try making the same updates, using another browser on your current computer.
• Try setting up a new blog, with the same template, and make the same updates to the new blog.

If you're able to make one or more of the above alternate updates, that will help to eliminate some, or many, alternate suspects, as the cause of your problem. If other people are reporting this problem, their results from the above tests may or may not correspond with yours - because their base problem may differ from yours.

Right now, we're seeing seven different causes of these problems.

1. Changes made by Blogger Engineering, to support new browser versions and browser updates, and to provide new template features.
2. Changes inherent in new browser versions, made by the browser vendors.
3. Third party browser add-ons, installed by the owners of the various computers.
4. Security settings, inherent in new browser versions and third party add-ons.
5. The cumulative effects of various template tweaks, both made using "Edit HTML" and the Template Designer itself.
6. Unrealistic expectations of blog owners, about effects of Template Designer settings, against all templates provided by Blogger.
7. Unrealistic expectations of blog owners, about effects of Template Designer settings, against templates not provided by Blogger.

Of these possible causes, only #1 (and possibly #2 and #6) are the sole responsibility of Blogger Engineering. The blog owners (and computer owners) must assume some partial responsibility for #2 - and sole responsibility for #3, #4, and #5. The blog owner, and the developer of any custom, third party template, must jointly assume responsibility for #7.

Recently, Blogger Support acknowledged the problem, in part.

Some users have reported that the Apply to Blog button in the Template Designer is non-functional for some Dynamic View templates.

We also have a Rollup Discussion, in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken, where individual details are being provided by various blog owners.

Right now, we're starting to suspect that some "problems" are actually caused by the blog owners, who are simply not aware that not all changes made, using the Template Designer (or the Layout or Template "Edit HTML" wizards), are designed to update all templates used in viewing our blogs.

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