Previous Thread
Next Thread
Print Thread
Hop To
Joined: Aug 2006
Posts: 111
member
member
Joined: Aug 2006
Posts: 111
I have searched and it looks like there were problems back with 6.5.2, but I haven't seen any posts since around August of 2005 about this. Is this fixed in 6.5.5?

The reason I ask is that most of the time it seems to work, but I get lightbulbs that don't go out. If you exit out and then back in I see lightbulbs for stuff I have already read.

I have seen this come up now and then on another board. They had major problems at first and they said something about cookies and sessions. I know they had to switch from one to the other.

We have not enabled the session check box. Our installation is right out of the box, downloaded it on Monday. Should we enable sessions? Is there a bug somewhere we need to fix? I saw this, but I have my account and an admin account on the board and thought I had read one with one account and not the other. However, I have confirmed it isn't working 100% and other members have reported the same thing.

Are all the none bugs updated in the current download (from Monday) or do we need to go plug stuff?

Thanks,
Fred

Joined: Jun 2006
Posts: 9,242
Likes: 1
R
Former Developer
Former Developer
R Offline
Joined: Jun 2006
Posts: 9,242
Likes: 1
You don't want to actually enable the sessions, but you should have something in the session storage directory in the config file. These are 2 seperate things, though worded a bit poory. Most of the time post tracking problems are related to the sessions directory not being set properly or writeable. The first thing would be to check your sessions directory and make sure that it is writeable and that you can see files within it.

Joined: Aug 2006
Posts: 111
member
member
Joined: Aug 2006
Posts: 111
Rick,

There is a sessions directory and there are files in it.

Could it be that I am using two different IDs (one for admin purposes and one to post with) is causing this? I am seeing it a lot, the others haven't reported it for a day or so.

Fred

Joined: Jun 2006
Posts: 9,242
Likes: 1
R
Former Developer
Former Developer
R Offline
Joined: Jun 2006
Posts: 9,242
Likes: 1
That could be contributing to it a bit. While it shouldn't make a difference the post tracking in 6.5.5 is pretty finicky and it could be throwing it for a loop. We've had to pretty much rewrite this area for 7.0.

Joined: Aug 2006
Posts: 111
member
member
Joined: Aug 2006
Posts: 111
Rick,

I found these mods, do you think this is a good idea?

__________

logout.php

original

$_SESSION['forumvisit'] = array(); //

Changed to

// $_SESSION['forumvisit'] = array(); //

Reason

Try to fix the read post to show as read on next log in.

__________

ubbthreads.php

original code

$laston = $user['U_LastOn'];

// -------------------------------------------------------------------
// If this is their first visit for this browser session, set a cookie
// and grab all entries to the w3t_Last table
if ((empty($user['U_LastOn']))) {
$user['U_LastOn'] = $html->get_date();
}


became


// -------------------------------------------------------------------
// If this is their first visit for this browser session, set a cookie
// and grab all entries to the w3t_Last table
if ((empty($user['U_LastOn']))) {
$user['U_LastOn'] = $html->get_date();
}

$laston = $user['U_LastOn'];

Reason

Same as above, to try to fix the read post to show as read on next log in.

__________

Fred

Joined: Aug 2006
Posts: 111
member
member
Joined: Aug 2006
Posts: 111
Rick,

I have a lot of users now (300) with a lot of posts (over 600 a day) and the light bulbs are still doing weird stuff.

Can you give me a hint as to what needs to be changed to fix 6.5.5? I really don't want to put up a beta version just to fix this. On a side note, the part that shows the number of new posts works great. When there are new posts it shows how many and when there are not it doesn't. Anyway to put this check in the code to show a lit light bulb or folder?

Fred

Joined: Jun 2006
Posts: 9,242
Likes: 1
R
Former Developer
Former Developer
R Offline
Joined: Jun 2006
Posts: 9,242
Likes: 1
Unfortunately there is no real fix for this in the current version. It's a variety of problems with the way it was implemented and I had to totally rewrite the new post tracking for 7.0. It's something I had to wait for a major upgrade to completely fix since it required redoing a variety of other pieces of the code as well.

Joined: Aug 2006
Posts: 111
member
member
Joined: Aug 2006
Posts: 111
Anyway to pull this out and fix it or are there so many modules that it isn't realistic? I have 5 complaints just today about this.

Here is how this one reads:
[] Fred,

When I first signed up here the software performed like it does at the other site. When I log on I see the yellow balloons to the left signifying messages that are either new since my last logon, or old ones that I haven't yet read.

Now that feature isn't working, there aren't any balloons on the left, ever. The only way I can figure out if there are new posts in forums of interest is to look at the date. I'm in essence having to work backwards, look through all the forums, then look at each thread to see when it is dated, click on the thread and then begin at the end and read forward to find a post I haven't read. As you can imagine this is very time consuming. I haven't changed anything on my computer re: cookies or anything else. And it was working correctly for me.....

Any clue?

edit: A balloon just showed up, this makes me think that balloons are shown only for posts that are created after I log on, and when I leave there is no cookie that identifies to the software what has been posted since I last logged off.
[/]

I have seen on several 6.5 boards where it works correctly (most of the time). They obviously have found a work around, but have not "shared" with the rest of us.

I need a work around or for version 7 to be released quickly. Any idea on either?

Fred

Joined: Dec 2003
Posts: 1,796
Pooh-Bah
Pooh-Bah
Joined: Dec 2003
Posts: 1,796
I haven't heard of any work arounds... if someone has one they're being awful secretive <img src="https://www.ubbcentral.com/boards/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />


- Allen
- ThreadsDev | PraiseCafe
Joined: Jun 2006
Posts: 9,242
Likes: 1
R
Former Developer
Former Developer
R Offline
Joined: Jun 2006
Posts: 9,242
Likes: 1
There were so many places things needed to be changed it's not even possible to make the changes in 6.5.5 without rewriting a huge chunk of the code. What's strange is there are some server/setups this works flawlessly on. I talk with some people that never have a problem or complaint about it, while others have all sorts of problems. And then sometimes it's down to invididual users. Some people can visit and post all of the time without any problems and some people have all sorts of issues on the very same site. This is the reason I had to junk everything related to new post tracking and rewrite it all is I couldn't isolate it down to a single problem.

Joined: Aug 2006
Posts: 111
member
member
Joined: Aug 2006
Posts: 111
Well,

We are up to about 400 users now and I'm getting beat up left and right over it. For the most part it works for me, but then there will be a forum that the light bulb will just not go out in. I have other users with similar issues and now I am getting reports of all the lightbulbs being off even when there are new posts. It is frustrating and all I can tell them is it will change when version 7 comes out. I get about 5 to 10 complaints a day about this.

Fred

Joined: Aug 2006
Posts: 1
R
stranger
stranger
R Offline
Joined: Aug 2006
Posts: 1
[]What's strange is there are some server/setups this works flawlessly on. I talk with some people that never have a problem or complaint about it, while others have all sorts of problems. [/]

I run our boards from multiple servers behind a load balancer and, before the upgrade to 6.5.5 (from 6.4.4 I think), I had straight, round-robin balancing; meaning anyone who hit a page had, pretty much, an equal change of hitting one of the 4 servers behind the load balancer and each user would hop around between servers the whole time they were looking at the boards. When I did the upgrade, we started having the same problem mentioned here and in a couple other threads.

It looks like, during a user's visit, posts that they have read during that visit are stored in a PHP session, which is local to a particular server. So, when a user would bounce between our 4 servers, they'd get all sorts of weird results because each server behind the balancer had a different idea of who had been where. All I had to do to fix it was turn on 'persistence,' which basically means that a user, over a period of time (usually a single visit via a temporary cookie), keeps hitting the same server over and over again instead of bouncing around all over the place.

I bet most people in a hosted environments don't even know if they're site is being served from one host or from multiple hosts behind a balancer and, if so, whether that balancer has a notion of session persistence or not.


Link Copied to Clipboard
ShoutChat
Comment Guidelines: Do post respectful and insightful comments. Don't flame, hate, spam.
Recent Topics
spam issues
by ECNet - 03/19/2024 11:45 PM
Looking for a forum
by azr - 03/15/2024 11:26 PM
Editing Links in Post
by Outdoorking - 03/15/2024 9:31 AM
Question on barkrowler and the like
by Mors - 02/29/2024 6:51 PM
Member Permissions Help
by domspeak - 02/27/2024 6:31 PM
Who's Online Now
2 members (Havenofsobriety, rootman), 624 guests, and 106 robots.
Key: Admin, Global Mod, Mod
Random Gallery Image
Latest Gallery Images
Los Angeles
Los Angeles
by isaac, August 6
3D Creations
3D Creations
by JAISP, December 30
Artistic structures
Artistic structures
by isaac, August 29
Stones
Stones
by isaac, August 19
Powered by UBB.threads™ PHP Forum Software 8.0.0
(Preview build 20230217)