forum bug

Major Grubert · Post by **Major Grubert** » Tue May 20, 2014 9:07 am

Hi Vice,
sometimes when i try to reply inside a thread it "doesn't work", it take only the text i typed in the "subject" area, not what was typed in the "message" area...

it is really strange and not funny because it seems that the message area do not take pasted text from notepad or gedit or notepad++ whatever

so even if i saved what i wanted to post... it wont work..

i needed to post a blank message, edit it, then enter my text, save the edited message, and then it worked again as usual for next messages (as this one)

dunno really how to explain because its a little weird when it happens.. damn..

maybe you can see in the forum logs with my activity and things

I saw that happen to another forum user some days ago

see you, thanks for all

let me know if you want me to make a video screen cap of the situation next time it happen, maybe it can help to fix..

MG

Post by **DaveK** » Tue May 20, 2014 9:31 am

this was created in a text editor and cut and pasted to this post

this was created in a text editor and dragged to this post

this was typed in directly into this post

this was created in Word 2007 and cut and pasted into this post

this was created in Word 2007 and dragged into this post.

all of which suggests either an intermittent problem (it was mentioned a week or so ago by someone) or perhaps an issue on your PC? Frustrating!

Good luck!

picommander · Post by **picommander** » Tue May 20, 2014 12:31 pm

This happened before (in another thread) and happened to several people, me included. This is indeed a very strange bug. I'm on a dual boot machine (Linux Mint, Windows 7) and I'm running google chrom on both machines. The bug that Major Grubert describes appears only in Windows (to me, don't know about others). Others also told about "occasionally" seeing this bug that seems to disappear after while. Since this sounds like a browser cache bug I tried to clear the browser cache which didn't solve that bug though. If it happens it only happens in the Quick Reply box, not with any of the other reply methods. And it happens only with copy & paste more than 2 lines.

Only because a few people have never seen it doesn't mean this bug wouldn't exist at all or all browsers in which it happens would be broken (which my dual boot example with same browsers seems to refute).

Post by **Marvin** » Tue May 20, 2014 2:25 pm

From post: 170356, Topic: tid=11416, author=picommander wrote:If it happens it only happens in the Quick Reply box, not with any of the other reply methods. And it happens only with copy & paste more than 2 lines.

Which is why I always considered Quick Reply to be just that: a method of replying quickly. For anything more complicated, I always use the standard Reply button.

Post by **Vice** » Tue May 20, 2014 3:44 pm

Haven't run into this myself yet. Are you also running Chrome for your browser Major? Any plugins installed? I'm wondering if it might be related to a recent Windows/browser update. Nothing has changed with that part of the forum software for about 3-4 years, so it would seem to be something related to changes with the clipboard and/or browser software. Currently, everything seems to work for me with IE11, FireFox, and Chrome.

Major Grubert · Post by **Major Grubert** » Tue May 20, 2014 4:14 pm

this bug happen to me either in "new reply" mode or in "quick answer" mode

it happen if i type and send as well as if i take my typing from text editor

i'm gonna wait till next occurrence and investigate more

i use firefox only with some plugins and stuff, gonna wait for next time and check if related with those or ff or windows/firefox conflict, and so on..

[Edited on 5-20-2014 by Major Grubert]

picommander · Post by **picommander** » Tue May 20, 2014 7:44 pm

Right now (as of this writing) the bug is gone to me. Very mysterious...

Post by **Vice** » Tue May 20, 2014 9:08 pm

Indeed, very strange, seems to start and stop for both of you. Perhaps it's related to starting or stopping something else running in the background that is impacting entry fields in webforms?

picommander · Post by **picommander** » Wed May 21, 2014 10:25 am

And now it's back again, this time even worth: I also can't copy & paste in NEW REPLY and QUOTE.

Update:
This time there were only 2 pasted lines in my post, the rest was typed in. But even if I remove these 2 lines the whole post is getting deleted when trying to preview.

So far I've tried:
Formatting Mode from Normal to Advanced
Switching of Adblock Plus for this site
Switching Off and On Java script (including Browser restart)

[Edited on 21-5-2014 by picommander]

picommander · Post by **picommander** » Wed May 21, 2014 11:09 am

Update: It's definitely no browser bug! The bug still persists with a fresh install of firefox (newest version, nothing imported from chrome). Before I reproduced this bug I didn't touch anything, even no resizing. Just login, copy and paste and typed something. Must be a strange bug with this forum and Windows 7 since it doesn't appear on Linux. The really strange part is "why do some people see this bug and others not?"

Post by **Vice** » Wed May 21, 2014 5:22 pm

Indeed, I'm running Windows 7 64-bit and have tested the forum's entry forms with all 3 main browsers, never running into it. Do you have any other software installed and running in the background? Have you tried IE11 to see if the same issue occurs?

As you can see, the forum is using ordinary entry forms, so it's as though something is literally deleting/losing content from the form when you click to post/preview. Because this has happened on two browsers on your systems, it's probably something outside of the browsers entirely that is impacting text entry fields. Also since it is intermittent, where it works on your system one time, then doesn't at another time, suggests there could be something on the system intermittently effecting the ability to enter text into the webform. Another possibility is maybe a particular character value is being entered from time to time.

Since the clip point may also appear to be moving, perhaps there is also a particular character being entered that is clipping the text entered. A character that might not be compatible with the text format of the forum. If you can copy and paste a field of text into notepad, save it as a text file, then paste it into the forum's entry field and pinpoint where the clip occurred, please then send me the saved text file and exact character count location where it was clipped so I can test the same exact content here. That might help pin it down.

picommander · Post by **picommander** » Wed May 21, 2014 9:17 pm

I see where you are going with this but this wouldn't work. There is no such 'point' where the clip occurs since copy and paste always works properly first. It's always after the 'Preview Post' function where the whole text is NOT previewed, though it's still possible to go one page back and the text is still there in the entry field. If I could pin this effect down to a specific text while an other text would work we almost would have caught the bug. Unfortunately I'm still under the impression that we have a temporary appearance here though I'm not sure and still will do my best.

On the other hand it doesn't seem feasible to switch off blindly all kind of background services or stuff that is running in task-manager where most of its functions are completely unknown to me. But should you know about a certain common application or service that effects the clip board then please let me know.

A more promising approach IMO would be to find what Major Grubert's system and mine probably have in common. Something like e.g. language specific settings and/or applications. I guess Major's system is also not set to English (French I assume) while mine is set to German but I assume we're not the only ones with these settings.

Any ideas Major?

picommander · Post by **picommander** » Wed May 21, 2014 10:01 pm

I've got something: an error code! While I was pasting certain text lines from which I knew they seemed to provoke the bug (they don't, see below) I suddenly got this error message which is not the first time to me on this forum. I'll try to attach the copied lines of the error message since copy and paste is not possible right now. Before the error code appeared everything was fine though!

I'll try to translate the basic meaning:

Code: Select all

Confirm renewed form-transmission
To be able to show these website correctly the data will be need that you have typed in formerly.
You can send these data once again but then each actions would be repeated that would have been executed before.
Load this website once more. Click on this button for a renewed transmission of the data required for this site.
Error code: ERR_CACHE_MISS

After this error message I can't copy and paste anymore.
Strange enough, though these "renew button" doesn't seem to work (seems to be bugged in itself), I can still go one page back to the entry form which is still intact and carries all content.

Attached is the original error message (German language, sorry).

[file]839[/file]

Post by **Marvin** » Wed May 21, 2014 10:47 pm

I've seen something similar in English. Usually it's because my Internet connection goes all wonky while I'm working on a post. Sometimes I can back up and see what I've typed ... but usually, when I back up, I just get the Reply page with an empty window. This happens with the standard Reply option and not necessarily tied to a copy-paste operation. Nonetheless, it looks to me like a burp in the Internet. Ergo, the question to ask is: How good is your connection?

picommander · Post by **picommander** » Wed May 21, 2014 10:59 pm

My connection, while not the worst, has become shoddy during the last couple of month. Mainly the number of non-recoverable errors has increased so that I need to set a higher damping on my DSL-modem/router (FritzBox). But this is nothing new to me while this strange forum behavior is a novelty to me. And this is by far not the only forum where I'm active.

EDIT:
Just told my son about the issue (he is a programmer and a lot more active in various forums) and if he ever heard about such a strange forum behavior. He said no, but suggested that there's probably an expired session timer. He also told me that some forum software allow the admin to adjust this session timer. Could this probably be the case here, maybe too short?
Btw, my son is connected via the same router and if connection problems are the cause he should have the same problem in his forums as well.

[Edited on 22-5-2014 by picommander]

picommander · Post by **picommander** » Thu May 22, 2014 2:28 am

I found something that sounds suspiciously similar to our problem:
http://joomdonation.com/forum/os-proper ... oblem.html
Also follow the links in this thread. If it's actually the same bug then it is indeed a browser problem with Firefox and Chrome.
I consider to check out Opera now (wouldn't touch IE with a ten-foot pole), maybe that helps...

EDIT:
Nope, same crap with Opera. Meanwhile I've even trouble to edit my posts. If you can see this I was lucky...

[Edited on 22-5-2014 by picommander]

Post by **Vice** » Thu May 22, 2014 3:08 am

Just told my son about the issue (he is a programmer and a lot more active in various forums) and if he ever heard about such a strange forum behavior. He said no, but suggested that there's probably an expired session timer. He also told me that some forum software allow the admin to adjust this session timer. Could this probably be the case here, maybe too short?

No, this forum isn't dependent on session timers. Many forum members are taking upwards of 5-15 minutes to complete a pending post without trouble. It appears to be an actual text crop for whatever unexplainable reason(s).

It would be interesting to see if your son encounters the same problem through your same connection. Or if his separate system does not encounter the same issue.

How are you able to get it to work after it appears to fail initially? It looks like you encounter the issue, but are then able to complete the post with the text intact. Are you changing something in the text, or just reposting until the full content goes through?

PaulB · Post by **PaulB** » Thu May 22, 2014 4:10 am

I would suggest that when someone is having the problem that they try some tracerts to the website and see if there any hops along the path that are giving timeouts.
Only you have to be careful judging timeouts since some hops can be set to not respond to ICMP. But in those cases that hop should timeout on all 3 of it's pings and on a consistent bases.
If you get one or more hops that appear ro have random timeouts then one of those hops - usually the 1st to occur - is having problems.
Sometimes, depending on where that hop is located, if may affect other web site you use - say yahoo or google or whatever. It just depends on the routing in your area of the country.
I had problems a few weeks back - but it was also affecting Yahoo and other sites as well - some hop about 8+ hops along the route someplace in Atlanta.
It was quite obvious when I did the trace routes.

Post by **Marvin** » Thu May 22, 2014 4:37 am

From post: 170424, Topic: tid=11416, author=Vice wrote:No, this forum isn't dependent on session timers. Many forum members are taking upwards of 5-15 minutes to complete a pending post without trouble.

This is probably not the same problem but, quite often, when I spend fifteen minutes answering a post, all the rest of the "unread post" lights are no longer lit ... which, since I'm logged on for the entire time, seems to be some kind of timer.

picommander · Post by **picommander** » Thu May 22, 2014 12:26 pm

From post: 170424, Topic: tid=11416, author=Vice wrote:It would be interesting to see if your son encounters the same problem through your same connection. Or if his separate system does not encounter the same issue.[/quote]

He's not using Windows 7 anymore. Windows 8, Android and some sort of Mac OS on his Macbook. All I can say is he never encountered such a problem before (same as I on any other forums, while my behavior of how I post surely hasn't change) and he is on the same connection via same router for about 1 year now. Since he's very busy in his job I don't want to bother him making any tests on this forum though.

From post: 170424, Topic: tid=11416, author=Vice wrote:How are you able to get it to work after it appears to fail initially? It looks like you encounter the issue, but are then able to complete the post with the text intact. Are you changing something in the text, or just reposting until the full content goes through?
Very good question. The bitter truth is: Not at all if and when it happens. I can go one page back and save my text in an editor but can't send (no preview => no send). Meanwhile the issue has become even worth. While at first it appears to be only a copy and paste problem it also happened with ordinary typed text and even when edit an existing post (the whole post would vanish if I would send). And even now, where I'm almost finished with my post, I pray to the gods of all clipboards to not let me down mad:;):D:(:)

picommander · Post by **picommander** » Thu May 22, 2014 1:50 pm

As an addition to your last question Vice, since last night I'm trying to edit my last post in
http://www.starwraith.com/forum/viewtop ... #pid170422.
Seems to be impossible: meanwhile I've tried at least 5 times and in this case even my typed in text has disappeared after moving one page back.
This is a tooth grinding bug and I slowly start to hate this forum.

Strange enough, here I can edit w/o any problems (if you can read this).

[Edited on 22-5-2014 by picommander]

picommander · Post by **picommander** » Thu May 22, 2014 2:27 pm

Guess I've nailed it:
The forum seems to have a Unicode problem!
As soon as I use (no matter if typed or pasted) a German special character (Umlaute) the bug is triggered!
Same should be true with French special characters.

And this BTW is what the Major and I have in common: special characters.
This would also explain why most of us have never seen this bug since they are native English speaker.

EDIT:

This bug (I guess it's just a small mis-configuration from the forum admin) has nothing to do with copy & paste as I initially thought. It's also 100% reproducible: To trigger the bug you only need to type one single [insert German Umlaut here] in the topic line, then press PREVIEW and enjoy an empty window. Seems to be true for all special characters, not just German and French (tested also with some Spain special characters). For some strange reasons there's no problem in signatures though. Other than that I couldn't find any special character in a normal text body anywhere on this forum. Now you know why.

[Edited on 22-5-2014 by picommander]

Post by **Vice** » Thu May 22, 2014 5:22 pm

Good catch, so it was indeed a special character issue. After some testing and research, it appears this was related to an upgrade to php 5.4 by my webhost, which broke some internal functionality with the forum (seems to have happened around the net with other forum software and blog software). I've applied a fix that should allow such characters, but it may not yet be complete. See if it works for you now though.

Major Grubert · Post by **Major Grubert** » Thu May 22, 2014 5:54 pm

merci beaucoup

i dunno if it work or not yet

but till now the infamous text bug didn't show up..

thanks for those search and things on php side

MG

picommander · Post by **picommander** » Thu May 22, 2014 11:14 pm

Ã£Ã¨ÃªÃ¬Ã¼Ã¶Ã±čęΨδюђє∑∫ℓâ„¢

Random special characters above. If you can see them it should work now!
Kudos to our master bug fixer!