User prefs not being honored during "Embed this gadget" or "Add to iGoogle"

[GoogleCodeExporter]

I have a gadget which has been running for over a year.  It has several user 
preference fields, one of which is "state".  The value of this pref has been 
edited in the "Embed this gadget" code by many others to change the state from 
it's default of US-NY to other states.  This was working just fine until 
recently, now all of these embedded gadgets are using the default state instead 
of the up_state setting in the embed URL. 

==================================

PLEASE FILL OUT THE FOLLOWING FOR A BUG REPORT ONLY (delete everything
below this line for a feature, alias, or deletion request):

What steps will reproduce the problem?
======================================
1. Embed the following  <script 
src="http://www.gmodules.com/ig/ifr?url=http://ebird.org/tools/google/notable-bi
rds.xml&up_state=US-AZ&amp;up_heightOption=0&amp;synd=open&amp;w=400&amp;h=200&a
mp;title=Notable+US+eBird+Sightings&amp;border=%23ffffff%7C3px%2C1px+solid+%2399
9999&amp;output=js"></script>

What is the expected output?
============================
This should display data for US-AZ (Arizona), but instead it's using the 
default of US-NY.

What is the actual output?
==========================
It's displaying data for US-NY, which is the default setting in the Gadget.

Original issue reported on code.google.com by jeffgerb...@gmail.com on 21 Jul 2010 at 9:35

[GoogleCodeExporter]

We're looking in to this issue.

Original comment by robruss...@google.com on 21 Jul 2010 at 11:25

• Changed state: Accepted

[GoogleCodeExporter]

I'm having trouble reproducing this problem. Any additional details you have 
are helpful.

Original comment by robruss...@google.com on 22 Jul 2010 at 6:58

[GoogleCodeExporter]

I've embedded the script on this page

http://ebird.org/tools/testGulf.htm

On initial load, it shows New York data but the up_state in the url is
set to US-AZ.   You can subsequently change the state in the UI to
Arizona but the up_state is not being honored in the script tag.
   Jeff

Original comment by jeffgerb...@gmail.com on 22 Jul 2010 at 7:06

[GoogleCodeExporter]

Another example is the Directions by Google Maps gadget at 
kalafarski.com/directions (also emerils.com/restaurants and 
http://www.admissions.college.harvard.edu/visit/directions.html and all partner 
embed locations from http://maps.google.com/help/maps/gadgets/directions/).

The issue occurs when the gadget is syndicated and embedded.  I am seeing it 
occurring with string userpref datatypes.  The default value is being used, 
even though a value is specified for the userpref in the embed code 
querystring.  This did not seem to be occurring until early yesterday morning.  
These strings often include the pipe character | to simulate a list datatype, 
which isn't explicitly supported by the syndication creator page.

E J Kalafarski

Original comment by e.j.kala...@gmail.com on 22 Jul 2010 at 7:45

[GoogleCodeExporter]

Thanks for the additional links. I've been able to reproduce it in some cases 
and we have someone on the team looking in to it.

Original comment by robruss...@google.com on 22 Jul 2010 at 10:25

[GoogleCodeExporter]

A related thread here:
http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/maps/thread?hl=en&tid=3fad810c67a21714

Before finding this issue, I did some investigation and confirmed that the 
iframe url that gadget javascript (its output=js that embedded on the page) 
creates doesn't include the user-pref. Adding it manually makes the iframe 
work. 

Original comment by BarryBHu...@gmail.com on 23 Jul 2010 at 11:02

[GoogleCodeExporter]

This should be fixed now. Please have a look and comment here if you're still 
having the same problem.

Original comment by robruss...@google.com on 26 Jul 2010 at 5:22