For some reason DEVONthink (version 3.3.9) reliably quits unexpectedly (i.e., crashes) whenever I attempt to import a bookmark of a certain web page, using the menu selection Data > New > Bookmark…
The URL in question is:
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/apple-now-lets-you-move-digital-purchases-from-one-apple-account-to-another.2449217/
Don’t know why this is happening. Wondering if it’s reproducible.
That happens sometimes with certain URLs, and it has been often related here in the forum. It has to do with how they were built (i.e., the technology used to program them), and the fact that the webkit, which is an Apple-provided piece of code used by DEVONthink (and many other apps) to render these URLs, may have a hard time “digesting” these URLs. So it’s Apple, not DEVONthink - even if Safari can render these URLs without any issues.
How “they” were built? How what were built? They’re just URLs. You must mean the pages’ source, somehow, or the way its code was called.
So there are URLs that Safari can open but DEVONthink can’t? To the point of crashing the entire app?
What does DEVONthink’s rendering engine choke on so catastrophically, exactly?
Does that URL reproduce the crash in DEVONthink for you?
Let me explain it to you then.
There is no “just URLs”. And there is no “DEVONthink’s rendering engine”.
As I said, the “rendering engine” is something called webkit, which DEVONthink and many other apps use, which is a piece of code, made by Apple, which is used to render the URLs, the millisecond you click the URL. Got it? Webkit will try to read the code that gets loaded when you click the URL and build a visible page. Some URLs, by virtue of how the “page” they “contain” was programmed, for example, lots of dynamic page-rendering stuff, javascript, whatever, will cause webkit to crash. This is well-known in this forum, if you cared to search here.
And yes, my copy of DEVONthink crashes when trying to build the macrumors page. And it is NOT a DEVONthink problem, it is an APPLE problem.
I can reproduce this on macOS 15.4. There are two workarounds:
Let me explain to you. The world and his brother know that javascript gets loaded in web pages. That’s not the issue.
The URL is rendered perfectly well (aka “digested”) by Apple’s implementation of WebKit (i.e., Safari), and by others’ (e.g., Keep It’s implementation), but not in DEVONthink’s implementation (what I termed “DEVONthink’s rendering engine”). But it is remediable in DEVONthink by workarounds. Thus it is not an Apple problem. (unless you want to blame WebKit for not being perfect).
Got it?
Honestly this forum.
No comment.
Well, the page is full of bugs. Not astonishingly, Safari doesn’t figure those out. Here’s a screenshot from Chrome’s console:
Although Safari uses WebKit, afaik, it may well work around bugs known to exist in WebKit (known to Apple, that is).
Did you write a pure WebKit app that loads this app and does not crash? Or one that does crash, and then you added a workaround preventing that crash?
I’m just asking because you seem to know a lot more about that than many others here. Why not share this knowledge?
Safari uses its own engine, it’s not identical to the WebKit framework available to third-party developers (one of the reasons why we can’t support Safari’s extensions). And even the WebKit framework offers two possibilities - an old, powerful one used by DEVONthink for documents (including bookmarks) and a new, very limited but faster & more reliable one (used by DEVONthink e.g. in the chat assistant, help viewer, support assistant and sidebar extras).
But in this case it’s actually not even caused by the WebKit directly but by an assertion in Core Graphics, probably due to an incompatible/corrupted image.
You heard from 2 extremely knowledgeable people.
This forum, works well with users willing to learn without being argumentative.
Many, many years here, love DEVONthink, love the creators and fellow foraminiferans, they are always listening and helping understand. This can’t be said about most other apps out there. Part of my pleasure and satisfaction in using DT daily is the forum.
That’s interesting to know - thanks! - and it might even be a very minor, small image somewhere I suppose…
Hm, plenty warnings and errors. Thanks Christian.
Hey guys, DEVONthink crashes when it tries to open pages that Safari and lots of other WebKit apps can ..
OK. I’m holding it wrong. The emperor is fully dressed. Hail the leader. Everything is fine.
Again…
Jim, I do admire your fortitude.
I think it is a vast conspiracy against readers of macrumors
