Title: Recent Post Listing Feature "Broken"
Post by: Casey on January 21, 2022, 01:47:28 PM
Post by: Casey on January 21, 2022, 01:47:28 PM
Clive reported yesterday that the "Recent Posts" feature, at the top of the forum pages, was broken ???
I spent more hours than I care to admit trying to fix it yesterday and have not (yet) managed to do so :(
In the interim, I have disabled that feature, as it simply resulted in the webpage locking up for a few minutes before displaying an "error 500" message.
For the time being, I have placed these features, pictured below, at the top of the page. The "New unread" option does much the same as the "Recent Posts", by highlighting (at the TOPIC level) where new posts have been made. By clicking on the symbol to the extreme right of a "New Unread" topic in the list, you can go straight to the last post in that topic.
I'll keep working on fixing the "Recent Posts" feature though.
For the record, in attempting to repair this issue, I have:
I spent more hours than I care to admit trying to fix it yesterday and have not (yet) managed to do so :(
In the interim, I have disabled that feature, as it simply resulted in the webpage locking up for a few minutes before displaying an "error 500" message.
For the time being, I have placed these features, pictured below, at the top of the page. The "New unread" option does much the same as the "Recent Posts", by highlighting (at the TOPIC level) where new posts have been made. By clicking on the symbol to the extreme right of a "New Unread" topic in the list, you can go straight to the last post in that topic.
I'll keep working on fixing the "Recent Posts" feature though.
For the record, in attempting to repair this issue, I have:
- Upgraded the Simple Machines Forum (SMF) software from version 2.0.15 to the latest release, 2.0.19 (which was less than straightforward due to file version discrepancies).
- I have updated a few "MODS" (extra features) that were out of date and added one extra, which provides the options we now have at the top of the page.
Title: Re: Recent Post Listing Feature "Broken"
Post by: Casey on January 21, 2022, 01:49:50 PM
Post by: Casey on January 21, 2022, 01:49:50 PM
Please let me know if there are any issues with the temporary "fix".
Title: Re: Recent Post Listing Feature "Broken"
Post by: clive on January 21, 2022, 04:35:44 PM
Post by: clive on January 21, 2022, 04:35:44 PM
Many thanks Malcolm :great:
Title: Re: Recent Post Listing Feature "Broken"
Post by: boosted on January 21, 2022, 04:49:28 PM
Post by: boosted on January 21, 2022, 04:49:28 PM
I cant get in via tapatalk today atall. ( on my laptop atmo). maybe unrelated.
Title: Re: Recent Post Listing Feature "Broken"
Post by: Casey on January 21, 2022, 05:23:58 PM
Post by: Casey on January 21, 2022, 05:23:58 PM
Ah, it may well be related Jon.
I checked all the "MODS" (modules added to the core SMF software) and one of those MOD's was a "Tapatalk" plugin. I noted it was one of several MOD's that needed to be updated. I think the current Tapatalk plug-in we are running is incompatible with the latest v2.0.19 forum software.I succeeded in updating all the others, but Tapatalk was more complex, requiring me to log in to their system to make a link, and I had trouble doing that.
I'll add it to the list................. ;)
I checked all the "MODS" (modules added to the core SMF software) and one of those MOD's was a "Tapatalk" plugin. I noted it was one of several MOD's that needed to be updated. I think the current Tapatalk plug-in we are running is incompatible with the latest v2.0.19 forum software.I succeeded in updating all the others, but Tapatalk was more complex, requiring me to log in to their system to make a link, and I had trouble doing that.
I'll add it to the list................. ;)
Title: Re: Recent Post Listing Feature "Broken"
Post by: Casey on January 21, 2022, 07:27:45 PM
Post by: Casey on January 21, 2022, 07:27:45 PM
Quote from: boosted on January 21, 2022, 04:49:28 PM
I cant get in via tapatalk today atall. ( on my laptop atmo). maybe unrelated.
Jon, I think I've fixed Tapatalk?
Can you confirm?
For the record:
Uninstalled old version of Ta[atalk MOD/Plugin (known to be incompatible)
Installed Tapatalk plugin v4.5.8
Title: Re: Recent Post Listing Feature "Broken"
Post by: boosted on January 21, 2022, 07:38:04 PM
Post by: boosted on January 21, 2022, 07:38:04 PM
Yay Im Back..weldone Casey
Sent from my SM-N950F using Tapatalk
Sent from my SM-N950F using Tapatalk
Title: Re: Recent Post Listing Feature "Broken"
Post by: Casey on January 21, 2022, 07:49:51 PM
Post by: Casey on January 21, 2022, 07:49:51 PM
Yippee!
Sent from my SM-A526B using Tapatalk
Sent from my SM-A526B using Tapatalk
Title: Re: Recent Post Listing Feature "Broken"
Post by: Casey on January 21, 2022, 09:56:05 PM
Post by: Casey on January 21, 2022, 09:56:05 PM
"Recents" is now working again!
I'm really pleased with that, but please let me know if there are any residual issues.
Looking back, I think the outdated Tapatalk MOD/plugin was causing the"Recent" function to fail and by upgrading the forum and related plugin, it has resolved the issue.
:sign0096: :beer:
I'm really pleased with that, but please let me know if there are any residual issues.
Looking back, I think the outdated Tapatalk MOD/plugin was causing the"Recent" function to fail and by upgrading the forum and related plugin, it has resolved the issue.
:sign0096: :beer:
Title: Re: Recent Post Listing Feature "Broken"
Post by: MattScott on January 21, 2022, 10:12:53 PM
Post by: MattScott on January 21, 2022, 10:12:53 PM
All good! Thanks Malcolm. 
Sent from my SM-G973F using Tapatalk
Sent from my SM-G973F using Tapatalk
Title: Re: Recent Post Listing Feature "Broken"
Post by: Casey on January 24, 2022, 05:07:32 PM
Post by: Casey on January 24, 2022, 05:07:32 PM
Oh dear, we do still have some gremlins!
I noticed that boosted's topic, "BOOSTED FD BUILD" cannot be replied to, or modified or, anything :(
http://mazdarotaryclub.com/forum/index.php?topic=83528.2940
On trying, I just get the spinning wheel and after about a minute I get the dreaded:
I have tried a database repair.
I have successfully moved the topic elsewhere to see if this would fix it - no dice - so I moved it back.
Jon, if you are reading tis, I suggest, as an interim, you start another topic, "BOOSTED FD BUILD CONTINUED".
When (if?) I can fix the original topic, I can merge the two and it will be as though nothing had happened.
If anyone spots any other gremlins, please post in here.
Looking back, I've spotted that something happened on the 19th Jan. That was just about the time Clive reported to me that the "recent posts" feature wasn't working AND the Tapatalk feature failed too.
Thinking this was due to a need for a forum update (v2.0.15 needed to be updated to v2.0.19) I did this on 20 Jan, and updated the TapaTalk plugin at the same time. This fixed the issues we knew about, but there may be others lurking. I have looked at the performance logs for our hosting service and spotted a concerning series of spikes in the CPU activity, starting ~5.30pm on 19 Jan. The graph below shows CPU activity from 14 Jan to today. Those spikes are STILL happening today, but with less frequency. I have raised this with UK2 support and they've made a change, but it's not had any impact.
I do a bit more digging....
I noticed that boosted's topic, "BOOSTED FD BUILD" cannot be replied to, or modified or, anything :(
http://mazdarotaryclub.com/forum/index.php?topic=83528.2940
On trying, I just get the spinning wheel and after about a minute I get the dreaded:
QuoteInternal Server Error
The server encountered an internal error or misconfiguration and was unable to complete your request.
Please contact the server administrator at webmaster@mazdarotaryclub.com to inform them of the time this error occurred, and the actions you performed just before this error.
More information about this error may be available in the server error log.
Additionally, a 500 Internal Server Error error was encountered while trying to use an ErrorDocument to handle the request.
I have tried a database repair.
I have successfully moved the topic elsewhere to see if this would fix it - no dice - so I moved it back.
Jon, if you are reading tis, I suggest, as an interim, you start another topic, "BOOSTED FD BUILD CONTINUED".
When (if?) I can fix the original topic, I can merge the two and it will be as though nothing had happened.
If anyone spots any other gremlins, please post in here.
Looking back, I've spotted that something happened on the 19th Jan. That was just about the time Clive reported to me that the "recent posts" feature wasn't working AND the Tapatalk feature failed too.
Thinking this was due to a need for a forum update (v2.0.15 needed to be updated to v2.0.19) I did this on 20 Jan, and updated the TapaTalk plugin at the same time. This fixed the issues we knew about, but there may be others lurking. I have looked at the performance logs for our hosting service and spotted a concerning series of spikes in the CPU activity, starting ~5.30pm on 19 Jan. The graph below shows CPU activity from 14 Jan to today. Those spikes are STILL happening today, but with less frequency. I have raised this with UK2 support and they've made a change, but it's not had any impact.
I do a bit more digging....
Title: Re: Recent Post Listing Feature "Broken"
Post by: boosted on January 24, 2022, 07:04:16 PM
Post by: boosted on January 24, 2022, 07:04:16 PM
Ive been getting multiple notifications for the same post to Casey.
Sent from my SM-N950F using Tapatalk
Sent from my SM-N950F using Tapatalk
Title: Re: Recent Post Listing Feature "Broken"
Post by: Eccentric shaft on January 24, 2022, 08:33:55 PM
Post by: Eccentric shaft on January 24, 2022, 08:33:55 PM
Yup. I couldn't access Boosted's posts the other day, but managed to open earlier posts in his thread. Then, it looks like all embedded video links I have posted since aren't working. "invalid video link" comes up. Tried the same today in the "Rx4 of the week thread". Same thing happened, but url works. So suspect the gremlins are in the youtube-embed function.
Title: Re: Recent Post Listing Feature "Broken"
Post by: Casey on January 24, 2022, 08:39:43 PM
Post by: Casey on January 24, 2022, 08:39:43 PM
Quote from: boosted on January 24, 2022, 07:04:16 PM
Ive been getting multiple notifications for the same post to Casey.
Sent from my SM-N950F using Tapatalk
Notifications for just one particular post Jon? If so, which one?
Has anyone else experienced this problem?
I'm just pleased that the forum appears to be 99.99% working, but concerned about a few issues under the surface.
I have raised a couple of issues in the SMF community support forum, to see if anyone can assist.
Title: Re: Recent Post Listing Feature "Broken"
Post by: Casey on January 24, 2022, 08:40:11 PM
Post by: Casey on January 24, 2022, 08:40:11 PM
Quote from: Eccentric shaft on January 24, 2022, 08:33:55 PM
Yup. I couldn't access Boosted's posts the other day, but managed to open earlier posts in his thread. Then, it looks like all embedded video links I have posted since aren't working. "invalid video link" comes up. Tried the same today in the "Rx4 of the week thread". Same thing happened, but url works. So suspect the gremlins are in the youtube-embed function.
Thanks, I'll take a look.....
Title: Re: Recent Post Listing Feature "Broken"
Post by: Casey on January 24, 2022, 08:50:31 PM
Post by: Casey on January 24, 2022, 08:50:31 PM
Yngvar, I think I've fixed the youtube links - can you confirm they are OK now?
Title: Re: Recent Post Listing Feature "Broken"
Post by: boosted on January 25, 2022, 09:22:49 AM
Post by: boosted on January 25, 2022, 09:22:49 AM
Its stopped now it was notifications for the most recent post im subscribed too.
Sent from my SM-N950F using Tapatalk
Sent from my SM-N950F using Tapatalk
Title: Re: Recent Post Listing Feature "Broken"
Post by: Jamie R on January 25, 2022, 01:06:53 PM
Post by: Jamie R on January 25, 2022, 01:06:53 PM
.
Title: Re: Recent Post Listing Feature "Broken"
Post by: Casey on January 25, 2022, 03:30:48 PM
Post by: Casey on January 25, 2022, 03:30:48 PM
Looks like you have the answer there Jamie ;) ;D
Title: Re: Recent Post Listing Feature "Broken"
Post by: Eccentric shaft on January 25, 2022, 06:40:06 PM
Post by: Eccentric shaft on January 25, 2022, 06:40:06 PM
Ok. testing, testing. This is one of the vids that failed earlier:
AND IT WORKS! Thanks, Malcolm! :sign0098:
AND IT WORKS! Thanks, Malcolm! :sign0098:
Title: Re: Recent Post Listing Feature "Broken"
Post by: Casey on February 01, 2022, 11:56:15 AM
Post by: Casey on February 01, 2022, 11:56:15 AM
An update.
On advice from the (very helpful,)SMF support forum, I did some checks to see who/what was accessing our forum and discovered we were being visited by huge numbers of very persistent "crawler bots".
It appears as though their activity was so intense, they were causing the CPU hosting our site to hit 100% routinely as they searched through our site, indexing stuff to add to various search engines.
I have now installed an updated robots.txt file which lists 100's of undesirable crawler bots and requests they do not index our forum. Not all crawlers obey that request, but 99% seem to have done so and the spikes have now disappeared over the past 4 days or so.
I can only speculate that the loss of the "recents" and Tapatalk functions was caused by some file corruption caused by these persistent 100% CPU spikes which started on 19 January.
It's good in some ways though, as it has forced me to update the forum software to the very latest release AND to implement a robust defense against the bots.
I think all should now be OK, but please continue to report anything untoward in this topic, should you spot anything.
You can see that the top graph below, showing CPU %age over the past 5 days, that CPU usage has settled down to the low level I would expect.
On advice from the (very helpful,)SMF support forum, I did some checks to see who/what was accessing our forum and discovered we were being visited by huge numbers of very persistent "crawler bots".
It appears as though their activity was so intense, they were causing the CPU hosting our site to hit 100% routinely as they searched through our site, indexing stuff to add to various search engines.
I have now installed an updated robots.txt file which lists 100's of undesirable crawler bots and requests they do not index our forum. Not all crawlers obey that request, but 99% seem to have done so and the spikes have now disappeared over the past 4 days or so.
I can only speculate that the loss of the "recents" and Tapatalk functions was caused by some file corruption caused by these persistent 100% CPU spikes which started on 19 January.
It's good in some ways though, as it has forced me to update the forum software to the very latest release AND to implement a robust defense against the bots.
I think all should now be OK, but please continue to report anything untoward in this topic, should you spot anything.
You can see that the top graph below, showing CPU %age over the past 5 days, that CPU usage has settled down to the low level I would expect.
Title: Re: Recent Post Listing Feature "Broken"
Post by: boosted on February 01, 2022, 08:21:15 PM
Post by: boosted on February 01, 2022, 08:21:15 PM
Well done Casey. All gobbledegoop to me but top marks all round 
Sent from my SM-N950F using Tapatalk
Sent from my SM-N950F using Tapatalk
Title: Re: Recent Post Listing Feature "Broken"
Post by: Casey on July 18, 2022, 12:57:01 PM
Post by: Casey on July 18, 2022, 12:57:01 PM
Darn, this feature has broken again!
Investigating.............
Investigating.............
Title: Re: Recent Post Listing Feature "Broken"
Post by: boosted on July 18, 2022, 05:09:58 PM
Post by: boosted on July 18, 2022, 05:09:58 PM
Im getting multiple repeat email notifications of threads Casey.
New reply to topic your following 1s but not the case.
Sent from my SM-G977B using Tapatalk
New reply to topic your following 1s but not the case.
Sent from my SM-G977B using Tapatalk
Title: Re: Recent Post Listing Feature "Broken"
Post by: Casey on July 18, 2022, 08:47:35 PM
Post by: Casey on July 18, 2022, 08:47:35 PM
See related topic: http://mazdarotaryclub.com/forum/index.php?topic=85357.0