Technical Support on Merger Zoo

[graham d]

Ditto- same problem Jules. The first of my favourites was unrecognisable but the second selection I made was correct.

[ottup]

My merger count is 0, and it hasn’t saved my favourites. (i had only saved a couple) What’s happened? 

Hope this can be fixed

Me too.  Nothing I can do causes anything to show up in the "my mergers" section.  I'm afraid to say this is a bit discouraging - it's not that I care about watching a number climb, it's that I find myself wondering if the classification I'm doing is actually going somewhere other than the bit-bucket. It's fairly labour-intensive work, and the doubt about whether my results are going anywhere is getting to me.  At least some kind of feedback that the work is actually contributing to something is needed.

- Richard

[jules]

Ditto- same problem Jules. The first of my favourites was unrecognisable but the second selection I made was correct.

The "post processing" mergers I save can appear very different in the selected sims pane and different again in favourites - often completely unrecognisable. I hope (and suspect) that this is just a software glitch and that the correctly processed version ends up where it should.

[Dave]

  Teething troubles are all part of the 'fun'.
 Just hope things get sorted soon, so we can crack on with this project with some confidence.

[dch]

On Ubuntu 8.10, I found out that the Merger applet would initially not work. Solved by installing the sun-java6-jre and sun-java6-plugin with the Synaptic Package Manager.

[jules]

  Teething troubles are all part of the 'fun'.
 Just hope things get sorted soon, so we can crack on with this project with some confidence.

Yep - and hopefully the more feedback the team get the better able they are to tweak things.

[dcortesi]

Whether I run the merger applet under Safari (4.0.3) or Firefox (3.5.5) under Mac OS X (10.5.8 ), it soon crashes the browser!

I believe that both browsers are using the same apple distributed JRE.

p.s. I just tried it on an older version of Opera I had around (9.02) and that also crashed, while the applet was starting up before it displayed it screen.

I believe you have written a fine "stress test" for Java...

[aholinch]

Whether I run the merger applet under Safari (4.0.3) or Firefox (3.5.5) under Mac OS X (10.5.8 ), it soon crashes the browser!

I believe that both browsers are using the same apple distributed JRE.

p.s. I just tried it on an older version of Opera I had around (9.02) and that also crashed, while the applet was starting up before it displayed it screen.

I believe you have written a fine "stress test" for Java...

Oh, no.     Crashing the browser is not the intended behavior.  I've tested on Safari (4.0.4) and Firefox (3.5.5) on Mac OS X (10.5.8 ) and not had any crashes (other than the two galaxies). 

That leaves checking your Java version.  For the Mac, go to Applications/Utilities/Java Preferences.  There you should have the option of choosing which version of Java you would like to use when running Applets.  I have been using J2SE 5.0 32-bit.  We've tested with 6.0 32-bit on Windows and some 64-bit on Ubuntu.  Haven't tried those on the Mac yet.  The applet has been known to run with Java 1.4.2, 1.5 (5.0), and 1.6 (6.0).  Hopefully one of those will work for you.

If changing the Java version used to run the applet doesn't work, please let me know.

Anthony

[echo-lily-mai]

Hi i did some more mergers today for http://cas.sdss.org/dr7/en/tools/quicklook/quickobj.asp?id=587736941981466667. My merger count is still 0, and it hasn’t saved my favourites. (i only tried to save one)

It was quite hard to get the correct spin directions as well. 

On a positive note though i just wanted to say it’s nice having the start up screen with the current date, current target and the SDSS link that we can click on. 

[aholinch]

Hi i did some more mergers today for http://cas.sdss.org/dr7/en/tools/quicklook/quickobj.asp?id=587736941981466667. My merger count is still 0, and it hasn’t saved my favourites. (i only tried to save one)

It was quite hard to get the correct spin directions as well. 

On a positive note though i just wanted to say it’s nice having the start up screen with the current date, current target and the SDSS link that we can click on. 

I'm sorry to hear the My Mergers page still isn't showing any results for you.  We've verified that even if that screen wasn't updating for some people (OK a bunch of us), the simulations are getting saved

We deployed a new version of the applets this morning that should have improved the feedback seen in the My Mergers page.  The easiest way to tell if you have the new version is to look at the My Mergers page.  Towards the bottom is a message that says "The scale used here is different than in the original simulation."  If you don't see that message, your browser hasn't loaded the latest applet.

To get the latest applet, it is sometimes necessary to clear your browser cache.  Do that and then restart your browser.  Even if you do have the latest applet, refreshing the cache and restarting the browser can improve the situation.  If you need help clearing the cache, please let me know.

Also, to ensure proper initialization of the communication path between the applet and the server, it is necessary to go through a "gateway" of sorts before launching the Merger applet or the My Mergers applet.  If you have bookmarked either applet page or are going directly to those URLs, the gateway won't have a chance to initialize your cookies properly.  So please be sure to get to the applets by clicking on a link from within the web page.

One last note, if you have multiple browser windows open, please only have the Merger Zoo going in one of them (with the exception being the pop-out dialog of the applet).  Multiple windows accessing the site while the applet is running can cause cookie issues.  Feel free to browse to other sites (especially the forum and the blog) on the internet in multiple windows while running the applet.  Just please only have Merger Zoo running in a single window/tab at a time.

Please let me know if you're able to get the latest applet but still have this problem.

Thanks,
Anthony

[ElisabethB]

I've got the correct message "The scale used here is different than in the original simulation."
But still nothing in 'My mergers'  
and now for a really stupid question : how do you save a merger in your favourites?    

[aholinch]

how do you save a merger in your favourites?

First be sure you are logged in.  From the Mergers applet, find one you would like to save in the list of selected sims on the right.  Put your mouse over it.  You can right-click (or shift-click on a Mac) to get a pop-up menu.  From the menu, click "Save as Favourite".  It should be available the next time you go to My Mergers. 

Switching between applets will end your current exploration in the main applet.  So if you want to check up on your favourite, please be sure to save your work by clicking on the Stop button.

[ElisabethB]

how do you save a merger in your favourites?

First be sure you are logged in.  From the Mergers applet, find one you would like to save in the list of selected sims on the right.  Put your mouse over it.  You can right-click (or shift-click on a Mac) to get a pop-up menu.  From the menu, click "Save as Favourite".  It should be available the next time you go to My Mergers. 

Switching between applets will end your current exploration in the main applet.  So if you want to check up on your favourite, please be sure to save your work by clicking on the Stop button.

If I right click on a selected sim I only have the following options : Enhance - Select as Best - Remove
 

[jules]

how do you save a merger in your favourites?

First be sure you are logged in.  From the Mergers applet, find one you would like to save in the list of selected sims on the right.  Put your mouse over it.  You can right-click (or shift-click on a Mac) to get a pop-up menu.  From the menu, click "Save as Favourite".  It should be available the next time you go to My Mergers. 

Switching between applets will end your current exploration in the main applet.  So if you want to check up on your favourite, please be sure to save your work by clicking on the Stop button.

If I right click on a selected sim I only have the following options : Enhance - Select as Best - Remove
 

That's odd Els. Merger count and my favourites working for me. "Select as favourite" is an additional menu item on right click too.

[aholinch]

If I right click on a selected sim I only have the following options : Enhance - Select as Best - Remove
 

OK, sounds like you're not logged in, or that the sight had trouble with your login information, or that there was a "tutorial" issue.

The single sign-on that the Zoo projects and the forum shares should work fine, but one way to check if that is your issue is to logout and then try logging in again directly from the mergers home page mergers.galaxyzoo.org.  Again it shouldn't matter where you login, but it might have an impact in your case.

The other thing to check is to make sure you haven't bookmarked the applet page directly and that you launch it from the menu at the top. 

If you're still not seeing that option, then it is possible that there was two other issues.  One being related to single sign on, the other related to the tutorial.

If you launch the applet with out having "completed" the tutorial, it will still be in preview mode.  To "complete" the tutorial, you have to first go to the How to Take Part page and click on the link that says "Click here to Merge Galaxies with live data".  If this was your issue, though, there should have been a flash message when you loaded the applet reminding you to complete the tutorial.  We should probably make that more obvious.

The "New To Mergers" button on the home page takes users to the How to Take Part page.

I'm so sorry for not making this more obvious to returning professionals like you     from the beta site.   The flash message probably isn't sufficient to communicate this to people who are already familiar with the beta site.  Honestly, expert galaxy colliders like you already know the main functionality of the system, and I totally see why you would want to just get to it.

If this still doesn't help your issue, then let me know via personal message and I'll work with Arfon to double check your account is configured correctly in the database.