If you can help me totally resolve this problem once and for all I will send you 2 free CDs and a t-shirt and a Hoodie for my band, Retching Red. You will be helping out the band, believe me.

The problem:

I have a paid Live Journal account. I embedded the journal into my website exactly the way I wanted it, no problem. Then one day, I renewed my paid account and BAM! the red background disappeared. This seems to happen in Firefox although it may also be happening in IE and I don't realize it because the red background is cached or something. I tried everything to fix it. LJ support has been no help at all. They keep blaming it on my script. They keep telling me to put in the address of my main LJ URL but I don't want all the junk at the top of the journal, I want text, red background and date, that's it.
If you wish to help, the most recent dialogue with LJ is below. Also check out the offending journal both at http://retchingred.livejournal.com (which is NOT how I want it to appear when it's embedded) and www.retchingred.com and click on the "Blog/News" link. It has a white background now, I want the red background back, the one that worked for months and then vanished, coincidentally coinciding with my LJ paid account renewal.

THANKS,
CINDER BLOCK


MY INQUIRY TO LJ SUPPORT:
It would be nice if you guys fixed this bug someday. If you embed your journal in your website the background color does not show up in Firefox. Trust me, I have had the greatest computer geniuses I know try to fix it. It is a bug on your side. Note I am not talking about what shows up normally on the web if you go to my URL. I am talking about my embedded journal that is placed on my band's website. I have even paid people to help me solve this. It is a bug. I love Live Journal otherwise. It would just be nice if my journal did not show up as plain white on my website.
Thanks,

Cinder

www.retchingred.com

LIVE JOURNAL'S RESPONSE:

(scroll down to BLOG/NEWS)Diagnostics: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8.0.4) Gecko/20060508 Firefox/1.5.0.4
ursamajor [info]ursamajor - she of the remarkable biochemical capabilities!
Answer (#2351949)
Posted: Wed, 21 Jun 2006 21:32:08 GMT (2 days ago), credit fix here

Support volunteers confirm that when they navigate to http://retchingred.com/blog_news.html, the background of the page is white, not red. This is because the blog_news.html file is using the incorrect address for your journal's style.

If you would like the embedded journal to appear exactly as it does at http://retchingred.livejournal.com, except within your website's frameset, you will need to edit http://retchingred.com/blog_news.html. I apologize for the inconvenience, and understand your frustration with this issue, but LiveJournal staff and volunteers cannot alter your files and styles for you, and there is no setting on the LiveJournal server that can be altered to make your embedded LiveJournal display with a red background while it is using the incorrect address for your journal's style.

To fix the blog_news.html file, open it, scroll down to the <script> tag, and remove the following passage:

<script language="JavaScript"
src="http://www.livejournal.com/customview.cgi?username=retchingred&amp;styleid=101&amp;enc=js">
<noscript><a href="http://retchingred.livejournal.com/">View my LiveJournal</a></noscript>
</script>

The reason this needs to be removed is because it is using a very basic style, not the style your journal is using on the LiveJournal server.

You will then need to replace the code you just removed with:

<script language="JavaScript"
src="http://retchingred.livejournal.com/data/customview?s2id=S2ID&amp;enc=js&amp;checkcookies=1">
<noscript><a href="http://exampleusername.livejournal.com/">View my LiveJournal</a></noscript>
</script>

You will need to change S2ID to your journal's actual style number. If you go to http://www.livejournal.com/customize/advanced/styles.bml while logged in, and look under the "Your Styles" header, the style that is bolded is the one you are currently using. There will be a linked number immediately following it; copy that number and replace S2ID with that number.

The tutorial explaining this process more fully can be found at http://community.livejournal.com/howto/32377.html.

Once you have done this, then you will need to delete the stylesheet in the http://retchingred.com/blog_news.html file. Everything between the <style> and </style> tags near the top of your file needs to be deleted. Once you have deleted the <style></style> section, and saved your blog_news.html file, your journal should display correctly within your website's frames.

Once again, I apologize for the inconvenience involved in resolving this issue.
Comment (#2355088)
Posted: Sat, 24 Jun 2006 05:53:20 GMT (6 seconds ago)

MY REPLY:

Thanks so much for your reply. The problem is that I don't want it to appear exactly as it does at http://retchingred.livejournal.com because it has all this junk at the top: (Retching Red [entries|archive|friends|userinfo]

retchingred

[ website | Retching Red ]
[ userinfo | livejournal userinfo ]
[ archive | journal archive ])



You said "If you would like the embedded journal to appear exactly as it does at http://retchingred.livejournal.com, except within your website's frameset, you will need to edit http://retchingred.com/blog_news.html." but I don't want it to appear as it does at http://retchingred.livejournal.com, wouldn't that just be linking and not embedding? I want it to blend in with my site, which it does if you open it in Internet Explorer. The problem started happening at the very same time I renewed my paid account with Live Journal which led me to believe it was on your side. Everything was fine up until then. I don't want all that stuff at the top that says user name and website and I also don't want people to see a comment link either. I want it exactly as it appears on my website now only with a red background. It worked fine for several months, I changed nothing in the HTML at all, nothing. The problem started happening when I paid again. I have had the finest computer minds I know try to fix it to no avail. Here is the offending script:

<script language="JavaScript"
src="http://www.livejournal.com/customview.cgi?username=retchingred&amp;styleid=101&amp;enc=js">
<noscript><a href="http://retchingred.livejournal.com/">View my LiveJournal</a></noscript>
</script>

Do I just change the style ID or something? All I want is the text and the date and a red background.

Whatever you can do to help would be appreciated.

Thanks, Cinder

Hmm.. if you go ahead and change the script as they suggested, does that make the background show up? Does it change anything else on the page other than putting the navigation and links and junk up top? If the navigation is what's bothering you, you can try taking it out with something we use for free accounts that might still work in your case:



If that doesn't work, post back here and I'll try my best to help out. By the way, it does work beautifully in Internet Explorer, so that's not a cache issue or anything.

If all else fails, you could try using a 1 pixel tiling red background? Then again, it could be the background properties in general and not just the color that's being taken out for some reason. Anyway, let us know.

Thanks for your reply but I already figured it out. The problem was that the page that I embedded the journal into did not have # symbols in front of the background color. It was showing up in IE because IE will display the color anyway. Firefox will default to white if you don't put the # symbol. So problem is solved - Live Journal support actually came through. I'll still give you a CD if you come to one of my shows. Tour dates are on www.retchingred.com

Thanks.

Haha, I've had the same problem with XMB forums before. In that case, the tiling red background would have worked but it was entirely unnecessary!

Anyway, glad you figured it out then.