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DNN 10.x Module Placement Issue

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JMD
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I'm looking for help troubleshooting a module placement issue that persists across multiple DNN versions.

Environment

  • Originally running DNN 10.2.3
  • Upgraded to 10.2.5
  • Upgraded again to 10.3.2
    • Hoping the upgrade would fix the problem, it did not
  • Using Mandeeps Porto 8 skin and modules
  • Also tested with built-in DNN skins and default modules

Original Issue

When editing a page and adding a module:

  1. Click Edit Page
  2. Click Add Module
  3. Select any module (HTML, default DNN modules, Mandeeps modules, etc.)

The module selection panel appears normally, but:

  • I cannot drag the module into a pane
  • I cannot reposition it
  • The UI appears unresponsive

If I refresh the page:

  • The module is added automatically
  • It appears at the top of the page (or in an unexpected location)
    • Any editing I do doesn't stick
  • I can only remove it from Page Settings

Additional Symptoms

Duplicate Shared Modules

When creating new pages using the Porto skin, I see shared modules automatically appearing in the footer.

Examples:

  • Shared Module 506
  • Shared Module 1008

Both display the same content.

Issues:

  • I cannot delete either module
  • They appear repeatedly on newly created pages
  • It seems like shared module references may be duplicated or corrupted

Theme Testing

To rule out Porto-specific issues, I tested:

  • Default DNN modules
  • Default DNN skin
  • Different page templates

Behavior remained the same:

  • Cannot drag or place modules
  • Modules appear after page refresh
  • Module placement UI does not function correctly

Browser Console Error

When attempting to add a module, the browser console reports an error similar to:

  • <!--ScriptorStartFragment-->Uncaught TypeError: Cannot read properties of undefined (reading 'left')<!--ScriptorEndFragment-->

The error appears to originate from:

  • <!--ScriptorStartFragment-->ModuleDialog.js

This occurs at the time the module placement UI is displayed.

Questions

  1. Has anyone seen module placement fail in this way on DNN 10.x?
  2. Could this be related to pane detection or pane registration?
  3. Has anyone experienced duplicated shared modules that cannot be removed?
  4. Are there any SQL checks or DNN diagnostic tools that would help identify pane or module registration issues?

Any guidance on where to look next would be greatly appreciated.

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Which browser are you using, and have you checked that browser settings and extensions are not blocking site functionality? Just a suggestion as I saw similar behaviour some years ago and it was the browser not the site.

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I also have seen this before.  I canot rememebr the speicfic details of what the problem was, but it was to do with the webiste setup (I think a JS error or CSS clash, but cannot be sure).

I do not think this is DNN.  I have just tried to add a module on one of my dev sites, which is 10.2.3 and it works OK.  Was your 10.2.3 website an upgrade or a fresh install of 10.2.3 ?

 

 

JMD
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So it happens in Edge, Firefox, and Chrome.

To add some context, this site was originally created as a fresh installation on an early DNN 10 release and was later upgraded to 10.2.3. As best as I can remember, that's around the time this issue started showing up.

Over the weekend, I upgraded the site to 10.2.5 and then again to 10.3.2 in hopes that a newer version would resolve the problem. Unfortunately, it didn't. During troubleshooting I ended up breaking the site completely, so I restored both the website files and database back to a 10.2.3 backup.

The interesting part is that after the rollback, the behavior changed slightly.

Initially, when I added a module, I could not drag or place it into a pane. After refreshing the page, the module would appear, typically in the top pane. The module selection UI seemed frozen and never behaved normally.

Now, when I add a module, a dashed placeholder box appears on the page representing the module, but the placeholder cannot be moved anywhere. It just sits there. However, I noticed that the module is actually being added behind the scenes to the top pane automatically. After a page refresh, I can move the module between panes using the normal module settings, so the underlying functionality appears to be working.

It feels like the module placement dialog or drag-and-drop interface is failing, causing DNN to default the module into the first available pane while leaving the placement UI frozen on the screen until the page is refreshed.

So the good news is that I can now add modules again. However, I'd still like to understand and fix the underlying issue because the site is clearly not behaving the way DNN normally does. Even if there is a workaround, I'd like to get back to a point where module placement and page editing behave as expected and I can be confident the site is healthy.

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I am still guessing here and trying to remember things I changed... in  Settings -> Servers -> System Info -> Web Servers  do you only have one entry and is it correct?

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I've seen this before, and it can be a number of things.
In this case, since you said that you see this with every kind of module, I suspect it is a more general javascript issue.
So this might be related to the skin. Perhaps a missing library (jQuSubmitery or something).
If you use another skin, perhaps the default (Aperture, or Xcillion) do you see the same issue?

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Are you using any injector modules that could be injecting CSS/JS even when you are falling back to trying the default theme?

As others have mentioned this is almost always a JS/CSS collision

JMD
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Sorry for the delay, This happens with all skins. I'm not doing anything special other than using some Mandeeps modules and their Porto 8 theme. I believe they are pretty well established, we've been using them for years.

I would agree, I do think it is a Javascript issue. I'm just not sure on what I need to check to see if anything is missing, older, etc. 

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