Problem with Blogger’s Embedded Comment Form! A Regression Bug?

If you have noticed recently, for past few weeks I am using Blogger’s Embedded Comment form in place of the pop-up version. This is done via combination of Blogger Draft's new experimental feature and a simple hack to embed the form beneath every post. This new embedded comment form had been working nicely till now and as I checked an hour back, to my horror I noticed that the "Comment as:" drop down is empty and does not show any options to choose from. At first look I thought it was due to some accidental change in my own template during recent code refactoring. But when I checked around the blogosphere I came to notice that other blogs using this feature are also showing this problem. Moreover even the Blogger in Draft itself shows the same problem!

Though it comes as a relief to know that this bug is not something in my blog alone, still it is a terrifying scenario for any blogger like me who likes to see readers leaving comment on their blog post. Hope the Blogger team has already spotted this minor looking yet critical (from a functionality stand point) bug and must be working on it to deliver a quick fix.
Here is a screenshot of the bug below:

I have tried it in different browsers like IE 6,7, Mozilla Firefox 3 and Google Chrome. And unfortunately the bug shows up irrespective of your browser and/or screen resolution. Moreover, in IE I am getting this script error that is pointing to a possible problem at Blogger's side:

I am waiting for a quick fix from the Blogger team. In case they fail to deliver a quick enough fix, I would probably revert back to the earlier less user-friendly but at least functional comment form for now. In the mean time if you wish to leave me a comment, feel free to use my Contact Me form.

Update1! Blogger has not yet fixed this bug. Looks like Blogger is having problem in replacing the Blog ID and the Post ID while retrieving data from it's server via this (http://www.blogger.com/comment-iframe.g?blogID=xyz&postID=abc) URL. Usually Blogger replaces the "xyz" with the publisher's Blog ID and the "abc" with the Post ID. In fact for some blogs, it is actually replacing the data correctly and importing the javascript file (www.blogger.com/jsbin/1858126393-cmt.js) successfully. But for others (like mine) it is failing to do so resulting in the empty "Comment as:" drop down box. [NOTE: Thanks to 'Kimberly Salem' for pointing this to me.]

However, as a temporary workaround I have reverted back to the earlier pop-up version of Comment form so that you (the readers) will be able to leave comments. I am tracking this Blogger bug and I am already with contact with the Blogger team. Hopefully I would be among the firsts who would be intimated in case there is a fix. It would be my pleasure to update you all when ever there is a fix. Stay tuned for more updates...

Update2! Looks like this issue has been mysteriously fixed now. I have reverted back to embedded comment form in my blog and it is working. I have seen it working in other blogs too. Though Blogger team is yet to announce this fix officially, it has started working again. If you had removed embedded comment form in your blog then revert back to it now and see if it is working!

Happy Testing…

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About Debasis Pradhan

Debasis has over a decade worth of exclusive experience in the field of Software Quality Assurance, Software Development and Testing. He writes here to share some of his interesting experiences with fellow testers.