XML Parsing Error - Blue Tracker

#1 - Nov. 5, 2010, 12:13 p.m.

The battle.net site is only working in IE for me, for all other browers it is not loading in a usable manner.

With Chrome I get:
This page contains the following errors:
error on line 22 at column 64: EntityRef: expecting ';'
Below is a rendering of the page up to the first error.
Uncaught TypeError: Cannot read property 'nodeType' of null
c.event.addchrome-extension://gighmmpiobklfepjocnamgkkbiglidom/jquery/jquery-1.4.2.min.js:49
c.each.c.fnchrome-extension://gighmmpiobklfepjocnamgkkbiglidom/jquery/jquery-1.4.2.min.js:65
(anonymous function)chrome-extension://gighmmpiobklfepjocnamgkkbiglidom/blacklister.js:45
TypeError: Cannot read property 'style' of null
TypeError: Cannot read property 'clientWidth' of null

With Firefox I get:
XML Parsing Error: not well-formed
Location: http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/968626873?page=8
Line Number 22, Column 83:
<script type="text/javascript" src="/wow/static/local-common/js/core.js?v8&sfgdata=+sfgRmluamFuX1R5cGU9amF2YV9zY3JpcHQmRmluamFuX0xhbmc9dGV4dC9qYXZhc2NyaXB0+a"></script>
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------^

And with Opera:
XML parsing failed: syntax error (Line: 22, Character: 74)
Error:
invalid entity reference in attribute value
Specification: http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-xml/

If any of that makes sense... :P

I've cleared my IE cache, firefox cache, chrome cache, my java cache, not quite sure what else I can attempt on my end to resolve it, or if there is something server side that can be done.

dvd

Web Team

#14 - Nov. 5, 2010, 8:08 p.m.

Hi, Geden + all. Thank you for the bug report. It looks to me that this particular issue (at least in the Firefox example cited above) is caused by a network security appliance that either your corporate network (if you're accessing from work) or your ISP is using. I'd urge you to reach out to someone responsible for network technical support to let them know that one of their network appliances is making invalid HTML changes to webpages. Some technical background: Something is clearly modifying the HTML of the page between our servers and your browser. We don't use a URL parameter called "sfgdata" anywhere. This means either a browser add-on, some other program on your PC, or something on your network intercepting traffic. If you search online for "sfgdata", there's results for an older version of a network security appliance that does some kind of JavaScript detection using that parameter. Blizzard's newer websites tend to be sensitive to invalid HTML because of how we're taking advantage of optimizations and standards supported by browsers like Firefox, Chrome, Opera, and Safari.

dvd

Web Team

#19 - Nov. 6, 2010, 12:40 a.m.

Hi, Renovatio. Are you using a web accelerating service through your ISP? If so, that's the culprit. I recommend contacting your ISP to let them know that their service is causing compatibility problems. Many browser add-ons and network devices aren't compatible with XHTML, which Battle.net makes extensive use of.

dvd

Web Team

#22 - Nov. 6, 2010, 2:47 a.m.

We simplify our web pages for Internet Explorer, which has the side effect of making it more tolerant of bugs caused by something rewriting the HTML en route to your browser. But barring any technical problems, Chrome or Firefox will give you the best experience on Battle.net.

It's common for ISP to use tricks like this to minimize website loading time over low-bandwidth connections, like wireless.