Recent Post Listing Feature "Broken"

Casey · 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:

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I have updated a few "MODS" (extra features) that were out of date and added one extra, which provides the options we now have at the top of the page.

Casey · January 21, 2022, 01:49:50 PM

Please let me know if there are any issues with the temporary "fix".

clive · January 21, 2022, 04:35:44 PM

Many thanks Malcolm

boosted · January 21, 2022, 04:49:28 PM

I cant get in via tapatalk today atall. ( on my laptop atmo). maybe unrelated.

Casey · 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.................

Casey · 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

boosted · January 21, 2022, 07:38:04 PM

Yay Im Back..weldone Casey

Sent from my SM-N950F using Tapatalk

Casey · January 21, 2022, 07:49:51 PM

Yippee!

Sent from my SM-A526B using Tapatalk

Casey · 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.

MattScott · January 21, 2022, 10:12:53 PM

All good! Thanks Malcolm.

Sent from my SM-G973F using Tapatalk

Casey · 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:

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....

boosted · 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

Eccentric shaft · 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.

Casey · 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.

Casey · 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.....