In Cache Page Pictures Gone

December 29, 2005

Is it happening to you?

Yes, it is still broken.

December 29, 2005

I have done some tests using ethereal to trace what's going on. The difference between tables shown/not shown seems to be in the cookie send in the http GET request.

The difference between tables shown or not shown is immediately clear in the first http reply (200 OK) from gc.com, Content-Length is much lower if tables are missing, so the difference seems to be caused by the GET request sent.

If cookie is not sent (not logged in), tables are shown correctly

If cookie is sent with userid and ASP.NET_SessionId, tables are shown correctly

If cookie is sent with only userid, tables are not shown.

These results match with the experience the problem only occurs if a cache page is requested through an external link.

I used GCRQZ5 for testing via this link.

Responses are coming from 66.150.167.149, which resolves back to www.geocaching.com, so there is no proof of proxies being used.

I have trace files available if Jeremy cs are interested. My location is Europe, The Netherlands and I am using ADSL for Internet access.

I hope this helps to find the problem.

2.4k · December 29, 2005

albrt's observations would appear to explain why I am always seeing an incorrectly formatted table when I go straight to this page from a link in the browser URL history list, and a correctly-formatted table when I get there from the "geocaches (mine)" page:

when I go there from a link in the URL history, it's always from a new window, when I'm not logged in yet; the table is not displayed correctly when I get to the page. (I have cookies & "remember me" enabled, so by the time I get there I am logged in, but I wasn't to start with.) When I go there from within my account, I am logged in already, and the table is right.

I just tried opening a new window, going to the gc main page to get logged in, and then went to the cache page from the link in the URL history. This time the page was fine. So it does look like not being logged in beforehand is significant.

(This is very repeatable; every time I try these variations they have consistent results. Note: this happens with IE 6.0, but not with Firefox.)

This may explain why NotThePainter was sometimes having the problem and sometimes not, even though he always goes to the cache pages from a bookmark link (assuming it's a browser bookmark, not a GC Bookmark List bookmark) -- it might depend on whether he was already logged on to the gc site before he clicked the bookmark.

Edited December 29, 2005 by the hermit crabs

2.5k · December 29, 2005

I just tried going to this page from my Netscape bookmark and had no images. I was logged in so I logged out and then logged back in and the images were there.

Edit: As I recall when I was working on my cache mentioned in a previous post Safari failed to show the images and that was the only browser for which I did not have to login and I had cookies set for that one. The others I had to log in.

Edited December 29, 2005 by WeightMan

11.3k · December 29, 2005

That is interesting . . . :antenna:

I use the Opera browser and am always logged in because I keep several pages open all the time.

When I clicked that link, I saw no images at all . . .

Maybe that is why I have such a hard time figuring out puzzle caches. :angry:

Guess I'll log out and see what happens then.

2.4k · December 29, 2005

I just tried going to this page from my Netscape bookmark and had no images. I was logged in so I logged out and then logged back in and the images were there.

I tried clicking on that link from the forums. The pictures were visible (this was with Firefox, my default browser). I then copied the URL, opened an IE window, and (without logging in to gc.com first) pasted the link in -- and there were no pictures on the cache page. (I was automatically logged in when the page came up.) Killed that window, opened a new one, went to the gc.com main page and logged in first, and pasted in the URL again. This time the pictures were visible. This echoes the behavior that I saw earlier.

11.3k · December 29, 2005

I just logged out . . . something I haven't done for months . . . and after that, I could see the card pictures on that page.

Then I opened Firefox and when I wasn't logged in, I could see the pictures.

After I logged in, I could still see the pictures. :antenna:

Then I had to get logged back onto the site and the Forums. After completing that unfamiliar task, I can still see the pictures using Opera. :angry:

Very, very strange . . . :wub:

5.6k · December 29, 2005

The last couple of days I've also experinced the problem. Viewing the source I see most HTML stripped out of the Short & Long Descriptions. If I view the page offline with GSAK I have everything, but online nothing. I haven't tested the logging off/on & links mentioned above - yet.

Edit: forgot to mention: IE 6.0.2 on XP Home.

Edited December 29, 2005 by The Jester

2.5k · December 29, 2005

Question: Does this only happen to images in the long description or does it also happen to background images?

2.4k · December 29, 2005

Question: Does this only happen to images in the long description or does it also happen to background images?

For me, the problem is only with images and tables in the long description; backgropund images show up okay. (Here's a cache page that has both a background image and a table, if you want to try it.)

2.5k · December 29, 2005

Well, that answers that question. I don't know if it will help, but I didn't have a cache of my own (or one I could think of) that had both types of images.

Edit to note that I clicked on the link in Netscape 7.2 for Mac and had the background and not the image in the long description. I logged out and then back in and had the blue image.

Edited December 29, 2005 by WeightMan

11.3k · December 29, 2005

Question: Does this only happen to images in the long description or does it also happen to background images?

I clicked on a link to one of my caches that has a background image while logged in, and the image was there.

Same for the link the hermit crabs posted.

Opera 8.5

Windoze 2000

2.5k · December 31, 2005

I notice this is still happening.

December 31, 2005

This may explain why NotThePainter was sometimes having the problem and sometimes not, even though he always goes to the cache pages from a bookmark link (assuming it's a browser bookmark, not a GC Bookmark List bookmark) -- it might depend on whether he was already logged on to the gc site before he clicked the bookmark.

I'm always logged in. Even if I want to use my sock puppet I fire up Firefox just so I don't get confused...

This may be a red herring but I really don't know.

2.4k · January 1, 2006

This may explain why NotThePainter was sometimes having the problem and sometimes not, even though he always goes to the cache pages from a bookmark link (assuming it's a browser bookmark, not a GC Bookmark List bookmark) -- it might depend on whether he was already logged on to the gc site before he clicked the bookmark.

I'm always logged in. Even if I want to use my sock puppet I fire up Firefox just so I don't get confused...

This may be a red herring but I really don't know.

But do you always have at least one browser window active?

If you were to try this:

don't explicitly log off of gc.com, but close all of your browser windows
open a browser window (assuming that your default home page is not a gc.com page)
use your browser bookmark to go straight to a cache page that has an image or table

then would the images be missing or the table be incorrectly formatted?

And if you did this instead:

don't explicitly log off of gc.com, but close all of your browser windows
open a browser window
go to the gc.com main page, or your "my account page"
now use your browser bookmark to go to a cache page that has an image or table

then would the images and/or tables be displayed correclty?

2.5k · January 1, 2006

In my case situation A gets me no images and situation B gets me the images.

January 3, 2006

FYI:

Same problem here. Same solution, too: logging out and then in again solves the "no pictures" issue.

January 4, 2006

opps!

Edited January 4, 2006 by SockPuppet1006

2.5k · January 4, 2006

Normally I enter gc.com from the main page. I can bring on this problem by entering directly through a cache page as I indicated above. Today I bookmarked My Account Details and later entered the site through that page. When I then called up my Netscape bookmark for a page, the images were there. It would seem, then, that something is not checking the cookies properly from a cache page. The page does show me logged in, but the images are not there.

Having no idea how these things work, I can't offer ideas, I can only describe how the problem works in hopes that TPTB will be able to figure out what is going wrong. I hope this helps TPTB replicate the problem so they can see what is going on here.

January 5, 2006

Sorry for the delay in responding.

Yes, If I go directly to the cache page, I do not see the images.

If I go to my "My Account" page, then via the same bookmark to the cache page, I see the images.

I did this half a dozen time each. Very repeatable.

This is exceptionally odd.

Note, I have NOT logged out of gc.com.

Can we please get this fixed? Puzzle caches that have images as part of the cache are not solvable. Thanks.

Paul

9.4k · January 5, 2006

The code is identical no matter which way you arrive at the page. The issue has yet to be duplicated on our end in order to track it down.

January 5, 2006

I can start a VNC server and let you watch it fail on my machine if you want. Tonight is good for as is Friday morning until about 1pm (East coast time).

Just let me know.

Paul

PS: I just realized something, I'm behind a NAT router so you won't be able to see my IP address. There should be a way around this, let me poke around some but I doubt I could do it tonight.

Edited January 5, 2006 by NotThePainter

January 5, 2006

Ok, I take that back. it isn't 100% repeatable. It happens a lot, but I can't say that the "close windows, go to the 'my' page" method outlined above will fail reliably.

Paul (still working on the VNC server...)

11.3k · January 5, 2006

This issue was discussed for a while over in the San Diego Thread starting with this post.

San Diegan's create some of the most devious puzzles around . . . which are even more devious when the images cannot be seen . . . :rolleyes:

January 5, 2006

I have the VNC server up and running on a machine. Jeremy, if you want to use this, email me and I'll give you my phone number.

Paul

January 5, 2006

It's been happening to me for the last couple days too.....

Mac OS X.something

Bec

January 5, 2006

Today:

1 Go to my account

2 Go to geocaches (Mine)

3 Select my puzzlecache with picture

- No picture

- No img tag in source

- Picture icon present and working thou

4 Click Edit listing button

5 Back 1 page

- Voila picture is there

Does not happen every time. Very intermittent.

Hope it can help to track the problem

January 5, 2006

It looks like the problem is not just image related as this cache, http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_detai...1a-c20ea43b2573 , has missing formatting.

This is an extract from the html when the page is displayed correctly:

<p><h2>Clue 01  N50 48.343 W000 03.438 - A Little Light Reading.</h2>Telephone number ***A* **B***<p><h2>Clue 02  N50 48.40A W000 03.4(B-1)A - A Brush with the Past</h2>Georgina

When the page is displayed incorrectly I get this:

<p>Clue 01  N50 48.343 W000 03.438 - A Little Light Reading.Telephone number ***A* **B***<p>Clue 02  N50 48.40A W000 03.4(B-1)A - A Brush with the PastGeorgina

Using 'the hermit crabs' suggested method I can reproduce this problem for the above cache consistently as follows:

1. Log into my GC.com account ("remember me" cookie enabled)

2. Close all browser windows

3. Open a new browser window with www.google.com as home page

4. Go to http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_detai...1a-c20ea43b2573 directly. All the <h> tags are missing.

The problem is fixed by going to www.geocaching.com (or any sub page other than http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx) and then to http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_detai...1a-c20ea43b2573 . The page is now formatted correctly.

I see this problem with both IE and Firefox.

Gary

9.4k · January 5, 2006

Thanks for the detective work. I tracked down where it is happening but not why. However I was able to make some changes to the code to make it work properly. We have some additional changes to make before we can post a patch but it should be by tomorrow.

Thanks for everyone's help. I was finally able to duplicate it so I could test "fixes." It is still a bit of a mystery but hey, it worked.

2.4k · January 5, 2006

Another (possibly irrelevant) bit of data to add to the puzzle: I only see this problem on cache pages, not on travel bug pages. TB pages with pictures and tables always seem to load correctly, regardless of how I get there.

5.3k · January 5, 2006

Thanks for the detective work. I tracked down where it is happening but not why.

Story of my life with Microsoft stuff! :blink:

A couple of days ago the standard isalnum() function just quit working in GeoCalc for no apparent reason. I had to write my own. Weird.

3.9k · January 5, 2006

...the standard isalnum() function just quit working in GeoCalc for no apparent reason. I had to write my own....

Show off :blink:

January 6, 2006

Thanks for everyone's help. I was finally able to duplicate it so I could test "fixes." It is still a bit of a mystery but hey, it worked.

And thank you for fixing such a difficult problem. I've been a software engineer for, well, awhile now, and I know how hard it is to fix bugs when you can get a repeat-by case. Kudos!

Paul

January 6, 2006

Hello,

the problem exists. Sometime tables and pics are correct, sometimes not. The background images are always correct.

The problem exist since the new stars are shown. Sorry for my bad bad bad english.

9.4k · January 6, 2006

I haven't added the fix yet. We have some other changes we are still testing (but unrelated).

2.5k · January 9, 2006

When might we expect the fix to be posted?

9.4k · January 9, 2006

Hopefully we'll have the new update today. The issue that occurred on Friday with Travel Bug dropoffs is directly related to the new patch. I don't want to add additional issues to the site by releasing it without adequate testing.

January 9, 2006

Just for my input. Images are not the only information that is affected. I have a puzzle cache that has table cells filled with a background color. No images, or external sources in use, but it sometimes does not display it properly. It appears that the cache page is not be built correctly. I have used, firefox, IE, and a couple other browsers that just read the text source. All of them experience the same problem. When you view the source, the code is missing all together.

Just some information from my troubleshouting. It appears to help clicking on decrypt. If it is available. It seems to force a rebuild of the page, then the client magically sees the data. Interesting......

Adelos

January 9, 2006

Thanks for the detective work. I tracked down where it is happening but not why. However I was able to make some changes to the code to make it work properly. We have some additional changes to make before we can post a patch but it should be by tomorrow.

Thanks for everyone's help. I was finally able to duplicate it so I could test "fixes." It is still a bit of a mystery but hey, it worked.

Just read this.. thanks for the efforts!!

Adelos

January 10, 2006

The problem is not fixed. It is just intermittent now.

9.4k · January 10, 2006

I didn't provide a fix yet. When I do I'll submit a message in the announcements forum.

January 11, 2006

I don't even think this is proper HTML, but when I had this problem last week of my images not showing up on my cache pages, I messed around a bit and found a solution. I simply added a </img> tag and voila, all my images showed up fine.

That is, I added <img src="link"></img>.

Hope maybe this can help some a tad,

Mr. Wisearse.

January 17, 2006

Any updates as to when this issue is going to be resolved???

January 17, 2006

I have created two shortcuts to pages, with a picture, in my favorites (IE).

I log in and checks the remember me box.

I then close IE.

I start IE.

Using either of the two shortcuts gives me a page without the picture.

But if I look at any other page at GC, the shortcuts now gives me the pages with the picture.

Close IE and the procedure can be reproduced every time.

If I am not logged in the pictures shows on the pages all the time. :anibad:

January 17, 2006

None of my backgrounds appear anymore with the recent upgrade.

2.5k · January 17, 2006

It looks like the upgrade today fixed the problem. At least I could not duplicate it when I tried. Anyone else try?

2.5k · January 17, 2006

None of my backgrounds appear anymore with the recent upgrade.

A better place for problems with the upgrade would be this very active thread on the new changes that is in this forum.

Edit to add link

Edited January 17, 2006 by WeightMan

9.4k · January 17, 2006

One of the bug fixes was the random removal of images. This should be corrected now.

2.4k · January 18, 2006

And it fixed the related unformatted-tables issue too

January 18, 2006

One of the bug fixes was the random removal of images. This should be corrected now.

So far looks good to me!

Thanks!!!!

In Cache Page Pictures Gone

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