A Frustrating Glitch
Something that has amazed me about web design is how omitting a single word or character in a line of code can mess up how a website is displayed on a browser. For me, messing up with how my blog is displayed on browsers has stressed me out.
About two weeks ago for instance, I was coding the video pages of this blog when I omitted typing one dot in a line of code. And yikes! That stressed me a little bit as I looked into what could be making my videos not play on my blog. I was elated when I finally realized that the hitch was caused by the missing dot.
Then for about three years since I made this blog secure, my tablet's browser has been flagging it as insecure. That didn't go down well with me because I have always wished to make this blog a world-class website. So I informed my web hosting company's employees about it.
The company's employees I contacted informed me that all was well on their end. Their response made me believe that the problem was with my aging tablet. I therefore put the issue aside.
Recently though, I became concerned about why my tablet's browser, which has been flagging my blog as insecure, was marking some other high-quality websites as secure. Last Thursday, after sharing the blog story I wrote that day, I decided in earnest to find out the cause of the glitch.
As I went about solving the glitch with my limited web programming knowledge, a few solutions flashed through my mind. Should I change the organization that certifies my blog as secure? I wondered.
However, I never at any one time thought the glitch was due to my web hosting company's software system, for its services have been undeniably first-rate. The company's computer systems are always bang up to date, and it has excellent customer relations.
I did consult the company's employees while finding out the cause of the glitch. And this time, I was determined not to take "no" for an answer from them. Despite them reassuring me that my blog was functioning well, I still desired to understand why my tablet's browser has been flagging other high-quality websites as secure and mine as insecure.
Finding out the cause of the glitch ate into my time, making me postpone reading the newspaper I had planned to devour that day. I spent the whole Thursday afternoon poring over my blog files, searching for solutions on the internet and chatting with employees of my web hosting company.
While still in the process of cracking the glitch, I discovered that my tablet's browser was only flagging as insecure the pages of my blog that had images and videos, which made me know that the problem lay in the way I was displaying the images and videos on my blog.
Try as I might, I couldn't discern anything wrong with the codes for displaying images and videos on my blog. When it reached 5 o'clock, my time for taking a one-hour walk, I requested one of my web hosting company's employees to look into the matter.
And wow! When I came back from my walk, the employee informed me that the glitch was probably caused by a line of code for displaying on mobile devices the WhatsApp icon on my blog. I had failed to replace "http" with "https" in the code after I made my blog secure three years ago.
Upon adding an 's" to "http" in the line of code, I cleared the cache of my tablet's browser. Then I loaded my blog, and bingo! The browser flagged my blog as secure. Needless to say, the successful outcome elated me beyond measure. I jigged in my room and then thanked God as well as the employee of my web hosting company who had traced the cause of the glitch.
It boggles my mind to think how a missing 's' in a line of code made my tablet's browser flag my blog as insecure for three years. And solving the glitch made me agree with the poet and essayist T.S. Eliot when he quipped, "Sometimes things become possible if we want them bad enough."
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RECOMMENDATION: If you've enjoyed the above story on a glitch that frustrated me last Thursday, you might also enjoy a similar story on another glitch that frustrated me sometime back. Just click on that link in blue to dive straight into the story.
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