BUG - Quotes in Section Details / Meta Description break site

[NormanRouxel]

In a Section Details / Meta Description, if you enter text like:

This will "break" the site.

then the quotes are passed unaltered into the generated META tag. This means that the tag is corrupt and this affects the following line of code (which usually loads the Actinic stylesheet).

Problem is especially bad in IE where the stylesheet isn't loaded and the page therefore looks pants.

Fix:

Amend layout Standard Meta Tags and add encoding="actinic" to the two variables involved:

   <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1" />
   <meta http-equiv="MSThemeCompatible" content="yes" />
<actinic:block if="%28%3cactinic%3avariable%20name%3d%22PageType%22%20%2f%3e%20%21%3d%20%22Section%22%20AND%20%3cactinic%3avariable%20name%3d%22PageType%22%20%2f%3e%20%21%3d%20%22Brochure%22%29%20OR%20%3cactinic%3avariable%20name%3d%22IsStoreFrontPage%22%20%2f%3e" >
   <actinic:block if="%3cactinic%3avariable%20name%3d%22GlbMetaKeywords%22%20%2f%3e%20%21%3d%20%22%22" >
		<meta name="keywords" content="<actinic:variable name="GlbMetaKeywords" />" />
   </actinic:block>
   <actinic:block if="%3cactinic%3avariable%20name%3d%22GlbMetaDescription%22%20%2f%3e%20%21%3d%20%22%22" >
		<meta name="description" content="<actinic:variable encoding="actinic" name="GlbMetaDescription" />" />
   </actinic:block>
</actinic:block>
<actinic:block if="%28%3cactinic%3avariable%20name%3d%22PageType%22%20%2f%3e%20%3d%3d%20%22Section%22%20OR%20%3cactinic%3avariable%20name%3d%22PageType%22%20%2f%3e%20%3d%3d%20%22Brochure%22%29%20AND%20%3cactinic%3avariable%20name%3d%22IsStoreFrontPage%22%20%2f%3e%20%3d%3d%20FALSE" >
	<actinic:block if="%3cactinic%3avariable%20name%3d%22MetaKeywords%22%20%2f%3e%20%21%3d%20%22%22" >
		<meta name="keywords" content="<actinic:variable name="MetaKeywords" />" />
	</actinic:block>
	<actinic:block if="%3cactinic%3avariable%20name%3d%22MetaDescription%22%20%2f%3e%20%21%3d%20%22%22" >
		<meta name="description" content="<actinic:variable encoding="actinic" name="MetaDescription" />" />
	</actinic:block>
</actinic:block>
<actinic:block if="%3cactinic%3avariable%20name%3d%22InTestMode%22%20%2f%3e">
	<meta name="robots" content="noindex, nofollow">
</actinic:block>

Bug seen in 9.0.5. Probably in all versions including V8.

[Kirthi]

Hi Norman,

Thanks for that. However, I cannot replicate the same either on V9.0.5 or V10.

Steps I tried were -

1.On a default site, went to a section, Details | Meta Description and entered the text

This will "break" the site.

2.Uploaded the site to a server and viewed online , the section page appears fine without any problem here. Checked on both FF and IE.

I am not sure if I am doing anything different or missing something here. Can you please post a URL where we could actually see the problem please?

[Duncan Rounding]

I can replicate this Kirthi - it's definitely a bug.
The fix suggested of adding actinic encoding also fixes the issue.

You can see the bug in action as it were here:
http://community.actinic.com/showpos...94&postcount=1
(which is I assume Norman came across the problem)

[Rich Brady]

Lee made a post about this along time ago and I did some testing at my side an couldn't replicate it at all, so Lee pulled the thread.

I'll have another go once this upload has finished...

[Duncan Rounding]

It took me two goes but then it broke and the site linked to in the attached post link is a living example.

[leehack]

This used to happen across a number of fields, but they fixed some of them. Section name and product name used to be the killers. I presume the quotes interfere with on page html, causing incomplete/incorrect markup. CSS was always screwed as I recall. There does seem to be an intermittent nature to this though too, i think it may have revolved around actinic not liking 2 sets of quotes as though they fixed for one instance only.

Given it's reared its ugly head again, i think should actinic should this time look at all design related fields that could screw something up and fix them once and for all. Quotes should just be banned from META fields surely?

[Rich Brady]

Quotes should just be banned from META fields surely?

They already are for keywords it seems...

Just tested and it seems fine in FF & IE, latest V9 install.

WIERD

[NormanRouxel]

Those who see a working page may be using a browser that's forgiving of the dodgy HTML. Just look at the source code of the generated page and you'll see:

<meta name="description" content="This will "break" the site" />

which is clearly wrong.

[Kirthi]

I have had a word with the development team about this and according to them -

For SEO ratings it is recommended that encoding is not used in the META
tags so it is better to construct a Description that does not use double
quotes.

In this case either change the section description to use single
quotes or the Standard Meta Tags layout to use single quotes for the
content field e.g. content='GlbMetaDescription' and
content='MetaDescription'

> encoding="actinic"
This is not an option in the encoding drop down list for a variable HTML
should be selected instead if the customer really wants to encode the
description but encoding is not recommended.

[Mike Hughes]

For SEO ratings it is recommended that encoding is not used in the META tags so it is better to construct a Description that does not use double
quotes.

I disagree.

The description tag is not hugely relevant for SEO.

It's most important function is as the text the gets displayed under the title in the search engines results. The key thing here is to have a description that encourages the viewer to click through to the page. The use of quotes is entirely appropriate in these circumstances.

Mike

[Golf Tee Warehouse]

Would it be possible to at least give a users a warning/error message when they enter double quotes in the Meta Tags so that thye are aware and have chance to change the double quotes.

[brucet]

It's true that the Meta Description tag is relatively unimportant for SEO in the strict sense of the phrase, and I can see that it may be appropriate sometimes to include quotes for the reasons stated. And I agree that Actinic should either prevent entry of quotes, or render them in a form that works.

In spite of repeated efforts, though, I too cannot reproduce the problem in any current version of the top 4 browsers; either with my own site or with yours, Mike. Since 98% of surfers use one or other of those browsers, I believe it is a diminishing problem that will be resolved by the improved standardisation in browser behaviour.

In the meantime, or until we can put a fix in place, I can only suggest trying the workaround that our technical team recommended.

[Mike Hughes]

Hi Bruce,

I have no problem with quotes in the description tags. I don't use them (or can't remember using them, at least). I was simply replying to the position the developers seemed to be taking which I read as:

1. We don't think you should use double quotes.

2. Use single quotes instead.

3. I have to admit I didn't understand the last paragraph. I assume it's saying Norman's suggested fix doesn't work.

Mike

[brucet]

AFAICS the advantage of Norman's fix is that it allows you to mix single and double quotes in the Description field to your hearts content, so from a usability pov, it definitely seems the better of the two.

However, using encoding may have some small impact on SEO. I don't say that it will, the Description field is of very minor importance from that pov anyway. But it's impossible to say for sure that it won't.

Personally I would not worry about it, there are other factors that have infinitely greater impact on SEO. But if anyone is concerned about it, AIUI the alternatives are either:

1) Only use single quotes in the description;
2) Change the delimiters for the description to single quotes in the HTML, and thereafter, only use double quotes and never single quotes in the description; or
3) Wait a few months and most people will be using modern browsers which don't seem to suffer from the problem.

I hope this clarifies.

Btw thanks, Norman, for the fix - a top notch suggestion as always.