XF 2.3 Admin CP UI issues: Development menus and Admin permissions "flashing" then disappearing

[FrancescoL]

Hi everyone,

I am experiencing a critical UI issue in my XenForo 2.x Admin CP that is preventing me from managing my custom add-on development.

The Problem:Even though I am a Super Administrator and have enabled development mode in src/config.php ($config['development']['enabled'] = true;, several UI elements "flash" for a fraction of a second and then immediately disappear.

Specifically:

1. Development Menus: When I click on the "Development" section or try to access the "Import" action for my add-on, the options appear briefly and then vanish, leaving the page incomplete or showing a "Requested page could not be found" error if I try to access the URL directly.
2. Admin Permissions: When I try to edit my own administrator permissions to ensure "Manage development items" is checked, the overlay/window with the checkboxes appears for a millisecond and closes itself instantly.

What I've verified so far:

• $config['superAdmins'] is set correctly to my User ID.
• The _output folder and addon-output.json exist and have correct server permissions (755/644).
• I've tried different browsers, cleared cookies, and used Incognito mode, but the "flashing" behavior persists.
• I've checked the browser console (F12) and I see [mention here if you see any red errors, otherwise say: "no obvious JS errors"].

It feels like a JavaScript conflict or a server-side permission check that is failing immediately after the page loads, causing the UI to hide these elements. Because of this, I cannot import my routes or templates from the filesystem.

Has anyone seen this "disappearing UI" behavior before? Could it be related to specific PHP settings or a core JS issue?

Any advice on how to force the Admin CP to stay "unlocked" would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance!

 

[StarArmy]

What browser are you using? I have a member that says a similar behavior is happening to her when she clicks links to my forum from Discord. The forum will appear for a moment, then "flicker" and vanish leaving only the background color of the page. She says she is using the Duckduckgo browser. I haven't been able to replicate it but I have a video she made of it.

 

[JustinHawk]

Hi everyone,

I am experiencing a critical UI issue in my XenForo 2.x Admin CP that is preventing me from managing my custom add-on development.

The Problem:Even though I am a Super Administrator and have enabled development mode in src/config.php ($config['development']['enabled'] = true;, several UI elements "flash" for a fraction of a second and then immediately disappear.

Specifically:

1. Development Menus: When I click on the "Development" section or try to access the "Import" action for my add-on, the options appear briefly and then vanish, leaving the page incomplete or showing a "Requested page could not be found" error if I try to access the URL directly.
2. Admin Permissions: When I try to edit my own administrator permissions to ensure "Manage development items" is checked, the overlay/window with the checkboxes appears for a millisecond and closes itself instantly.

What I've verified so far:

• $config['superAdmins'] is set correctly to my User ID.
• The _output folder and addon-output.json exist and have correct server permissions (755/644).
• I've tried different browsers, cleared cookies, and used Incognito mode, but the "flashing" behavior persists.
• I've checked the browser console (F12) and I see [mention here if you see any red errors, otherwise say: "no obvious JS errors"].

It feels like a JavaScript conflict or a server-side permission check that is failing immediately after the page loads, causing the UI to hide these elements. Because of this, I cannot import my routes or templates from the filesystem.

Has anyone seen this "disappearing UI" behavior before? Could it be related to specific PHP settings or a core JS issue?

Any advice on how to force the Admin CP to stay "unlocked" would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance!

Check in browser console and see if you can debug which js can be triggering this. And check that specific js trigger.

 

[FrancescoL]

What browser are you using? I have a member that says a similar behavior is happening to her when she clicks links to my forum from Discord. The forum will appear for a moment, then "flicker" and vanish leaving only the background color of the page. She says she is using the Duckduckgo browser. I haven't been able to replicate it but I have a video she made of it.

I'm using Chrome

 

[briansol]

throttle your page load to super slow so you can see it load in real time go super slow so it takes like 3 min to load the entire page. and watch the network scripts come in and see which one causes the initial flicker.

if none do, it may be a dom-load condition within one of them.

I'd start with disabling all addons (config file over-ride) and see if that helps any.
if it does, turn off all add ons and re-enable one at a time -- focus on ones that have admin tabs more than just options,