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Possible bugg

Started by mats_o, March 24, 2019, 05:46:14 AM

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mats_o

I had the same topic in two windows.
In the first window I deleted the topic.
In the second one i tried to refresh the page. It failed and took me to the page in the attachment.
So far, So good. The problem comes when you click on back. It now tries to go back to the non existing topic. It would be better if it checked if that URL exists and if not takes me to the level above

Illori

that is how SMF works. i am not sure at this time it is worth the effort to code a redirect as we are trying to get closer to a stable release.

Doug Heffernan

Indeed, that is the default behavior and personally I think that no redirection is needed for that.

Aleksi "Lex" Kilpinen

I would say that is expected behavior, and any check/redirect in that particular situation would just be a waste of cycles.
Slava
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mats_o

So that a button placed there to help users shouldn't be expected to work and it shouldn't be fixed either?
Well if that's your attitude against your users, we can only agree to disagree.

For me, it absolutely has to be fixed. Bad enough for 2.1 release - no, but it should be in the next release or so.

My reason for looking on SMF was to do an eval if an open source forum could replace the current Vbulletin and Xenforo installations.

So far the answer is no.
Phpbb fails on edit experiance and warning system
SMF fails on bugs like the one above and the topicsplitter wasn't accepted by our users

Some things that would have been nice for the future is to make the quick editor setting "use full editor" actually give the full editing experience (including attachments)
It should be used for replies and not just for quotes.
It also would be nice to use it for writing reports on posts. There is No need for another editing experience in my eyes


SychO

I cannot reproduce what you describe so it has probably been fixed for the next release

QuoteSome things that would have been nice for the future is to make the quick editor setting "use full editor" actually give the full editing experience
That setting is still being discussed over in github
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SychO

oh and the topic splitter's UI is also a known bug which will be fixed in the next releases, generally speaking there are still bugs here and there, and we are still working on them.
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Aleksi "Lex" Kilpinen

Quote from: mats_o on March 24, 2019, 10:10:43 AM
So that a button placed there to help users shouldn't be expected to work and it shouldn't be fixed either?
No. I simply said it works like I would expect it to. The same way your browser would when pressing the back button. Now, if the page you are headed to suddenly doesn't exist, it is worth letting the user know in the form of the error you attached. I would not expect to be redirected anywhere  and would see that as a flaw in logic.
Slava
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"Before you allow people access to your forum, especially in an administrative position, you must be aware that that person can seriously damage your forum. Therefore, you should only allow people that you trust, implicitly, to have such access." -Douglas

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GigaWatt

Not seeing this as an issue either. The topic doesn't exist, so it redirects you to the page where it says that it doesn't exist. It's completely logical. Redirecting you to a completely different place (like, for example, the index of the board), would be illogical to me. Like Lex said, "huh... I didn't ask for this ???".
"This is really a generic concept about human thinking - when faced with large tasks we're naturally inclined to try to break them down into a bunch of smaller tasks that together make up the whole."

"A 500 error loosely translates to the webserver saying, "WTF?"..."

mats_o

Quote from: GigaWatt on March 24, 2019, 11:43:09 AM
Not seeing this as an issue either. The topic doesn't exist, so it redirects you to the page where it says that it doesn't exist. It's completely logical. Redirecting you to a completely different place (like, for example, the index of the board), would be illogical to me. Like Lex said, "huh... I didn't ask for this ???".

Thats not the issue. The problem comes when you try to leave the page that says that the topic doesn't exist. It tries to send you back to the non-existing topic giving you the same info again and again and again and again and .............

Ie the user experience is that the button doesn't work and results in a helpdesk call (about $40) in wasted money.

Aleksi "Lex" Kilpinen

Well, even in your partial screenshot I can see 4 other options to take me back to the forum.
"Home", "My community", "Unread posts" and "Updated topics" will all get you away from the loop.
The actual error and the "back" -button are used in other scenarios too, scenarios much more likely than the one you described -
and in those cases it should work just fine most of the time.
Slava
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Kindred

???   

You use the back button (on your browser) to go back to a page which does not exist.
You get an error message that the topic does not exist.
You then press back again...   which takes you back to the topic which does not exist.

as annoying as this seems.... this is a browser and user issue, not a forum behavior issue. 

You are using the back button. The browser does exactly what it should -- and the forum responds exactly as it should.
Force checking everything to see "if it exists" then deciding where to redirect you?  That would be a potentially huge drain on server resources -- and is not necessary to address improper user behavior.
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mats_o

Quote from: Kindred on March 25, 2019, 02:23:12 PM
You use the back button (on your browser) to go back to a page which does not exist.
No. The only back button involved is the one you provide in the software.

Quote from: Kindred on March 25, 2019, 02:23:12 PM
this is a browser and user issue, not a forum behavior issue. 
A button generated by your software that doesn't work isn't your Issue?
Sorry but if you put a button there that doesn't do anything good for the users it's 100% a forum software issue and nothing else. 

Quote from: Kindred on March 25, 2019, 02:23:12 PM
and is not necessary to address improper user behavior.
Clicking on buttons your software provides is improper user behavior? You might want to think about why you put a button there. Was it to provide value for the users or to annoy them with something that doesn't do anything useful? if it was the later it's working fine - else it needs to be fixed.

Quote from: Aleksi "Lex" Kilpinen on March 25, 2019, 02:19:47 PM
The actual error and the "back" -button are used in other scenarios too, scenarios much more likely than the one you described -
and in those cases it should work just fine most of the time.

Therefore it seems reasonable to split them into two so that they always works fine instead of causing non working scenarios.
Seems like a rather small patch and a quick quality gain.

I started this thread to give feedback on issues found during our eval. This bug, A non reliable post counter and a lack of functionality in the thread/post spiting experience (compared to Mybb or xenforo works). Whether you want to fix them to improve your Quality and feature set so that you can create a better offering able to stand up to the best or not - well that's up to you.

For me it's mission complete and time for the next project. The eval servers will be deleted in a few days.
The production server will remain on Xenforo since no good enough alternative was found














Arantor

The only reason XenForo doesn't have this issue is because it doesn't have that cute little 'back' button in the page. Every other symptom you describe functions identically in XenForo (and yes, I am a licence holder)

Aleksi "Lex" Kilpinen

#14
Quote from: mats_o on March 25, 2019, 07:29:56 PM
Quote from: Aleksi "Lex" Kilpinen on March 25, 2019, 02:19:47 PM
The actual error and the "back" -button are used in other scenarios too, scenarios much more likely than the one you described -
and in those cases it should work just fine most of the time.

Therefore it seems reasonable to split them into two so that they always works fine instead of causing non working scenarios.
Seems like a rather small patch and a quick quality gain.
Like mentioned, it would mean SMF would have to keep a record of where you came, deeper than one or 2 pages, and always check if those addresses are still valid (and if they are, are you still allowed to see them?) when going back, and then figure out where you really want to go. Not a very small thing, and possibly a notable waste of resources.

Quote from: mats_o on March 25, 2019, 07:29:56 PM
I started this thread to give feedback on issues found during our eval. This bug, A non reliable post counter and a lack of functionality in the thread/post spiting experience (compared to Mybb or xenforo works). Whether you want to fix them to improve your Quality and feature set so that you can create a better offering able to stand up to the best or not - well that's up to you.
On this particular issue, we have a difference of opinion on what qualifies as a bug.
The post counter in my experience is anything but unreliable, caching can sometimes delay the stats from updating, but the numbers should be correct.
The topic splitting was already answered above, it is still being worked on. We are discussing an RC version, not a production release.

Quote from: mats_o on March 25, 2019, 07:29:56 PM
For me it's mission complete and time for the next project. The eval servers will be deleted in a few days.
The production server will remain on Xenforo since no good enough alternative was found
This is of course your decision, and you should always go with the software best for you.
If in your opinion that is not SMF, then good luck with what ever software you end up with - and thank you for the feedback.
Slava
Ukraini!
"Before you allow people access to your forum, especially in an administrative position, you must be aware that that person can seriously damage your forum. Therefore, you should only allow people that you trust, implicitly, to have such access." -Douglas

How you can help SMF

mats_o

Oki, one final final post ;)
this is the "Waiting in the airport for a delayed aircraft" patch. All seven mighty lines of it. Is it perfect? Probably not but it fixed our issue.

   if ($context['error_code']="topic_gone")
     {
      global $boardurl;
      echo '       <a class="button" href="',$boardurl,'">', $txt['home'], '</a></div>';
     }
    else
       echo '   <a class="button" href="javascript:document.location=document.referrer">', $txt['back'], '</a>  </div>';

Quote from: SychO on March 24, 2019, 10:35:01 AM
oh and the topic splitter's UI is also a known bug which will be fixed in the next releases

I think we are talking about two different things. I'm talking about not being able to select multiple posts in the "standard post view" and then select what I want to do with them.
IE we miss the checkboxes on the posts and the related functions. Attached a ref pick on how it looks in Xen

Arantor

Those checkboxes are configurable, go to your profile, to look & layout and change the "quick moderation" option to checkboxes.

mats_o

Quote from: Arantor on March 29, 2019, 12:26:45 PM
Those checkboxes are configurable, go to your profile, to look & layout and change the "quick moderation" option to checkboxes.

Well, yes sort of.
You can get the checkboxes but you can't get the functionality.
if you try to split- you still get the split topic screen (which we do not want)
We also miss copy and move (haven't looked to deep at them though)

SychO

except the topic split ui is supposed to let you select which posts go into the new split topic
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Arantor

Quote from: SychO on March 29, 2019, 01:51:32 PM
except the topic split ui is supposed to let you select which posts go into the new split topic

Does the topic not give you the tick boxes and the option st the bottom to split them or was that broken in addition to the select posts UI being broken? Pretty sure this works correctly and does what the OP needs in 2.0.

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